Tele Bridge Pickups

[JD01]

I'm still missing my tele.

So, I'm finding it hard to believe that much of the tele sound comes from the bridge saddles and stuff like that. Has anyone got any experience of sticking a tele pickup in something else? Did it still sound like a tele?

[muttley]

Yep, lots of experience of that.

The tele pickup sounds like a tele pickup because of the tall coil bobbin and the 44 awg wire used to get enough winds on it and the type of magnets. After that it has a sizable chunk of metal as a base plate wacked on the bottom of it. Then it is sat right in the middle of a hefty steel plate and screwed down to the body. All of that goes to make up the tele sound. Take one of those away and you lose a little bit of the sound. To put a tele bridge pickup in another guitar is also quite a bit of work because the route is unique. If you do it you have to use a plate of some sort to cover the pickup flatwork as it's sort of triangular. My best advice if you want a tele sound is get a telecaster as they are designed around accommodating that pickup. It is possible to get close to a tele sound on a different body but it aint easy.

I've tested a load of tele bridge pickups on my test bed guitar which is that Pelham blue Jnr I built a while back and documented here. I can drop any pickup I like in there mounted on a plastic pickguard. They sound like telecaster pickups in that but not like a telecaster guitar if you get my meaning.

[JD01]

Hmmm, I was thinking of just getting another tele and putting a strat neck pickup in it.
But I was also thinking of getting a strat, scrapping the middle pickup and putting a tele bridge pickup in it. i.e. a two-pickup strat.

But then I was looking at my old Mustang which I sold 'cos I didn't like the sound of it even though it was an exceptionally nice guitar to play. Was thinking of buying it back, putting a strat neck pickup and tele bridge pickup in it.

[muttley]

Just keep in mind that whatever you do the route for a telecaster bridge pickup has to accommodate a 75mm x 40 mm pickup as that is the overall dimensions of the flatwork and bass plate. You need a bit more than for wiggle room. You may getaway with putting a telecaster neck in a Strat but you would need to cut the scratchplate to suit. Strat pickup in a telecaster is not so easy as they are a few mm wider. If you got a tanked body it would help but you's still need to cut a suitable scratchplate and you would have to test the bridge pickup as it needs a lot of depth as well..

[WhiskeyJack]

Hmmm, I was thinking of just getting another tele and putting a strat neck pickup in it.
But I was also thinking of getting a strat, scrapping the middle pickup and putting a tele bridge pickup in it. i.e. a two-pickup strat.

But then I was looking at my old Mustang which I sold 'cos I didn't like the sound of it even though it was an exceptionally nice guitar to play. Was thinking of buying it back, putting a strat neck pickup and tele bridge pickup in it.

I got you JD.

https://reverendguitars.com/guitars/pet ... stsider-s/

[JD01]

Fucking hell, that's ugly.

[WhiskeyJack]

Fucking hell, that's ugly.

I know!! it's fucking awesome.

[muttley]

Fucking hell, that's ugly.

Personally I don't see the point in it other than having a middle pickup which few actually use. All they have done is take a telecaster body and removed the bridge plate which moves it away from the the tele sound and added a middle pickup which moves it towards a strat. You may as well just get a strat or just remove bridge plate on a telecaster. As you say it is also not particularly striking looks wise.

[Greg_L]

They generally call those "nashville teles" - a tele with a strat pickup arrangement. They're like taking two shitty things and combining them into one epic pile of shit.

[WhiskeyJack]

They generally call those "nashville teles" - a tele with a strat pickup arrangement. They're like taking two shitty things and combining them into one epic pile of shit.

I'm just trying to help the guy out and then he just fusses over aesthetics. Pretty rich coming from a guy with PRS.

[Greg_L]

Pretty rich coming from a guy with PRS.

[muttley]

They generally call those "nashville teles" - a tele with a strat pickup arrangement. They're like taking two shitty things and combining them into one epic pile of shit.

True, except Nashville tele's generally have a traditional telecaster bridge and the pickups are typical telecaster design and wind. They do adopt the south up middle position the strat has to achieve some hum cancelling in a few positions though so they do have that in common.