Wiring

[muttley]

No worries. I'll be in a position to strip the guitar and pop the pick guard in the post later in the week.

OK mate, will chat later. I am spending the day cleaning sand out of my car and recovering from a surf battering as well as working off too many pasties on the beach..

[JD01]

No worries. I'll be in a position to strip the guitar and pop the pick guard in the post later in the week.

OK mate, will chat later. I am spending the day cleaning sand out of my car and recovering from a surf battering as well as working off too many pasties on the beach..

Nice. Did you get any waves?
I've just booked a surf trip to Donegal for a Christmas of ice cold crystal barrels.

[muttley]

OK mate, will chat later. I am spending the day cleaning sand out of my car and recovering from a surf battering as well as working off too many pasties on the beach..

Nice. Did you get any waves?
I've just booked a surf trip to Donegal for a Christmas of ice cold crystal barrels.

Yeh, Tides were good down on Godrevy. The boys went short board with their cousins but I just spotted and did a bit of body boarding. The red was flying after that mad rain and full tides. I dont feel safe anymore at my age to go out in the that swell. Too old, I'll stick to spotting.

[muttley]

Hey JD, I know we talked about this on the phone back in the spring but I cant seem to find my nores on it.

Can you run by me again what sort of hotness or not you want on this? From memory I was going to take reading of whats on there and go from that as well as swap out the hardware? Does that mean you will be sending me the control plate as well?

Let me know.

[JD01]

Hey JD, I know we talked about this on the phone back in the spring but I cant seem to find my nores on it.

Can you run by me again what sort of hotness or not you want on this? From memory I was going to take reading of whats on there and go from that as well as swap out the hardware? Does that mean you will be sending me the control plate as well?

Let me know.

I'll give you a buzz at lunchtime - working from home today, but I still have a bunch of progress to make before I get some lunch and start fannying about with personal stuff.

[muttley]

Just got mail.. I will be on it next week mate. I'll post up some pics as I go..

[JD01]

Just got mail.. I will be on it next week mate. I'll post up some pics as I go..

Cool. I'll be interested to see how hot that Mexican bridge pickup is. It pushes the amp pretty hard.

If you can make it all so I have solder free connections that would be great.

[muttley]

One thing that will make those pups sound hot and mushy is that they have ceramic magnets and steel pole pieces. That is a cheap and easy way to build pickups and a lot of the cheaper Fender and Squire stuff has them. A proper Tel pup has alnico pole pieces and either a copper, steel or alloy baseplate. You can affect the output and tone far more with that combo. I'm going to go with a fairly classic vintage set on these if thats OK.

[JD01]

Yeah. Of course. I had no idea what magnets they had.

Did you measure that bridge pup? Seemed to push the amp just as hard as my humbucker.

[muttley]

Yeah. Of course. I had no idea what magnets they had.

Did you measure that bridge pup? Seemed to push the amp just as hard as my humbucker.

I will do it now... but those ceramics will make it very aggressive.

[muttley]

Bridge 10.3k, neck 8.6k... dont put too much store by those numbers though as I said.

[JD01]

Fair enough - it does seem that the bridge pickup is fairly hot.
I'd still like the bridge pickup to have that tele tone that really cuts through but 10.3k does seem excessively hot for a single coil to me.
What do you think is best?

[muttley]

Fair enough - it does seem that the bridge pickup is fairly hot.
I'd still like the bridge pickup to have that tele tone that really cuts through but 10.3k does seem excessively hot for a single coil to me.
What do you think is best?

The Classic tele bridge tones come from the 60's models. The earliest tele's used lap steel pickups and could be pretty random. When the first dedicated Tele bridge pups were made they used a Alnico 3 and a steel plated baseplate which pretty much made them hotter and gave them that classic Tele twang and punch. You can do quite a bit of tone tinkering on a tele pup by changing the baseplate, wire gauge and the potting method.

This is quite a good overview of the history of Tele bridge pickups.

https://guitar.com/guides/essential-gui ... e-pickups/

[JD01]

Fair enough - it does seem that the bridge pickup is fairly hot.
I'd still like the bridge pickup to have that tele tone that really cuts through but 10.3k does seem excessively hot for a single coil to me.
What do you think is best?

The Classic tele bridge tones come from the 60's models. The earliest tele's used lap steel pickups and could be pretty random. When the first dedicated Tele bridge pups were made they used a Alnico 3 and a steel plated baseplate which pretty much made them hotter and gave them that classic Tele twang and punch. You can do quite a bit of tone tinkering on a tele pup by changing the baseplate, wire gauge and the potting method.

This is quite a good overview of the history of Tele bridge pickups.

https://guitar.com/guides/essential-gui ... e-pickups/

Cool - Cheers. I'll have a good read through that either a bit later on in the week... you're not planning on winding these today are you?

Do you see what I mean about the pots feeling a bit cheap?

[muttley]

Some time this week probably. I havent really investigated the pots yet..

[JD01]

OK, so reading that it sounds like I want a potted AlNiCo3, wound to about 8.k - 9k with a steel baseplate. Sound reasonable to you?

[muttley]

I would maybe go a5 for the kind of response you generally like. More immediate and live sounding...

[JD01]

I would maybe go a5 for the kind of response you generally like. More immediate and live sounding...

OK. GReat. sound reasonable though?

[muttley]

A5 will allow me to underwind it a bit compared to the classic spec and it will then allow you to get the classic tele tones and push the amp to drive it a bit harder. If you did that with a vintage a2 or less common a3 which are slightly weaker you would be pushing the amp too hard. If was clean chickin picken tones you were after I would go a3...

[JD01]

Cool. So that's the bridge sorted. Neck? Just as stratty as you can get it.