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Okay, this is my first post so I will make it good. I have three tele style guitars that I made. These were some of the first ones I had built and I had little knowledge at the time about choosing the wood and matching the pickups. I just made them and stuck in pickups I thought would sound good. After 9 guitars later I understand the relationship between the two components and need help choosing the right ones. The guitars look too good to sound that bad.

#1 guitar is a Flamed maple top and mahogany body. Maple neck with rosewood board. I installed a set of Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups with a middle quarter pounder pickup. the guitar sounds dead. There is not a good tone possible with this setup. Very muddy and 0 tone. I want to go with the standard Tele 2 pickup config. I just ordered the new pickguard and have not ordered the pickup set yet. What set could give me good clarity and volume like the vintage tele's? Any ideas?

#2 guitar is another flamed maple with mahogany body tele design with maple/rosewood neck. I have a SD Lil 59 in the bridge and a SD Alnico strat pickup in the neck. The 59 is split to make it single coil. The neck pickup sounds great, but the 59 is extremely nasal sounding. Much better when the coils are split. What should I try with that one? Any cap or pot change to help clean up the 59? Volume is good with that pickup.

#3 guitar is a 52 Tele clone, ash body, maple neck. It has an unknown brand of bridge pickup and a unknown SD humbucker in the neck. The bridge sounds fine, but the humbucker is down right in the mud. Even in the middle position, it kills the tone. I screwed down the pole pieces and pickup itself with little change in muddiness. I am considering scrapping the HB in the neck and getting a new pickguard with a new standard Tele neck pickup. I wanted to hear any recs, before I did this. The cap value is .047, 250k pots and has standard tele wiring for a three way switch. Any tricks for this one or should I start from scratch.

Thanks for the info and really appreciate your ideas.
Mike M

Hey Mike, welcome to the forum!! Hopefully you'll find lot's of info. here to augment your guitar building knowledge, and maybe we can teach each other!

For Guitar 1 I'd recommend going with the Tele vintage 54 neck and bridge, or a Broadcaster bridge. In either case the guitar is still going to be darker, however these pups should brighten it up and get you back into tele-esque territory.

For guitar 2 The lil 59 can sound nasally with too little cap. I'd go with a .022, or .033, or .047 if you want more of a LP esque sound. You could go with an A2P for tele in the neck.

For guitar 3 A lot of buckers don't react very well to 250k pots. If you do go with a standard tele neck pup sell the duncan don't trash it, we can help you ID it too. A good neck bucker would be the Jazz, 59, or Alnico 2 pro.

Hope this helps!

Luke

For guitar 3 should I use a 500 K pot or will that be too much? Would I install it in the tone or volume?

The SD humbucker is a 59NJ. What humbucker would be better in this tele?


Originally Posted by Mike MThe SD humbucker is a 59NJ. What humbucker would be better in this tele?I like the Jazz marginally better than the 59. Also, try lowering the pickup and raising the poles, this should give you a bit more air. I would go with a 500k volume pot and a 250k tone.

What bridge do you have on guitar #1. I had bad results on my own tele's with modern style brass 6 saddle units. I changed them out for 3 saddle steel units and got much better results.

How does that guitar sound unplugged? If it's warm and round I would go with the Broadcaster ead. If it's bright and cutting, I would install either a Jerry Donahue lead or STL-2 Hot lead.

I can't comment on the neck, as I haven't found a traditional Tele neck pickup that I've fallen in love with (though the STR-2 comes close ).


Originally Posted by Mike MOkay, this is my first post so I will make it good. I have three tele style guitars that I made. These were some of the first ones I had built and I had little knowledge at the time about choosing the wood and matching the pickups. I just made them and stuck in pickups I thought would sound good. After 9 guitars later I understand the relationship between the two components and need help choosing the right ones. The guitars look too good to sound that bad.

#1 guitar is a Flamed maple top and mahogany body. Maple neck with rosewood board. I installed a set of Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups with a middle quarter pounder pickup. the guitar sounds dead. There is not a good tone possible with this setup. Very muddy and 0 tone. I want to go with the standard Tele 2 pickup config. I just ordered the new pickguard and have not ordered the pickup set yet. What set could give me good clarity and volume like the vintage tele's? Any ideas?

#2 guitar is another flamed maple with mahogany body tele design with maple/rosewood neck. I have a SD Lil 59 in the bridge and a SD Alnico strat pickup in the neck. The 59 is split to make it single coil. The neck pickup sounds great, but the 59 is extremely nasal sounding. Much better when the coils are split. What should I try with that one? Any cap or pot change to help clean up the 59? Volume is good with that pickup.

#3 guitar is a 52 Tele clone, ash body, maple neck. It has an unknown brand of bridge pickup and a unknown SD humbucker in the neck. The bridge sounds fine, but the humbucker is down right in the mud. Even in the middle position, it kills the tone. I screwed down the pole pieces and pickup itself with little change in muddiness. I am considering scrapping the HB in the neck and getting a new pickguard with a new standard Tele neck pickup. I wanted to hear any recs, before I did this. The cap value is .047, 250k pots and has standard tele wiring for a three way switch. Any tricks for this one or should I start from scratch.

Thanks for the info and really appreciate your ideas.
Mike M

1. Antiquity I Tele set.

2. Try a Jerry Donahue or Tele Hot ( i prefer the Tapped Tele Hot with a 5 way selector switch).

3. Try a new pickguard cut for a Strat single coil and try an Antiquity Surfer as the neck pickup.

There's always the risk that when you combine two pickups you'll get a thin nasal tone and the cause is usually that one pickup is out of phase with the other. If you want to reverse the black and white wires of ONE tele pickup you need to get under the pickup and take the bare wire that connects either to the cover of the neck pickup (if that's the one you want to reverse)or bassplate of the bridge pickup (if that's the one you want to reverse) and move it to the other terminal of the pickup and then you can reverse the black and white wires in the control cavity without the pickup buzzing every time you touch it.

Full size humbuckers like the 59N or A2Pro need 500K pots...otherwise they will sound dull and woofy. I like .02 tone caps. And I always connect the tone control to the middle terminal of the volume pot that leads to the output jack (not the terminal the pickup switch is connected to) to retain highs when the volume control is turned down.

Lew

The antiquities are the way to go if you want authentic aged tone.

Luke

Post up some pics of those guitars. Are they parts-o-casters, or completely self? (wood-wise) If they sound good acoustically, then there's no reason for tone-less sound. All other factors sorted out: strings, hardware, setup etc. Also make sure you're using good pots, caps and wire, especially if you're shelling out for good pups.

I took some pics of the bridge pickup. I have no clue to what it is. Somebody let me know.

from : localhost/photobucket.com/albums/v164/m...t=DSCN4954.jpg

from : localhost/photobucket.com/albums/v164/m...t=DSCN4949.jpg from : localhost/photobucket.com/albums/v164/m...t=DSCN4947.jpg

from : localhost/photobucket.com/albums/v164/m...t=DSCN4944.jpg

I do know it's not a Duncan pup, SD's don't have bar mags, and most don't have brass baseplates either. So it could be a one off, but I bet it's an imported tele pup.

Luke

Quarter Pound Tele for every one! It'll give you a nice variation without any EQ changes.

those are good pics! in focus and close