telecaster questions

LadyInTears

LadyInTears

Well-known member
planning on pimping a tele soon, have some questions to ask.
as it comes with a lipstick pickup in the neck, and i would like to change it to a humbucker, do i need additional routing or do i just have to have a custom pickguard?

perhaps im thinking of something like this, but with a humbucker in the neck position.
http://www.tdpri.com/telephoto/data/694/medium/NashGold21.JPG

also as this is my first tele, are there any setbacks and problems playing highgain stuff? is the lipstick pickup and good in high gain stuff as i may have to save up before the upgrades, and any imput regarding the tele, and how to make it sound awesome playing 80's metal and hard rock, please guide me along!


also, as this is a MIM piece, is there anything not satisfactory with the hardware which should be taken care off? eg, nut, bridge and tuners? as i would firstly rectify the hardware problem before continuing with my upgrades.

thanks Soft!
 
Teles don't come with lipsticks, its just a metal cover on a normal single coil pickup.

If you want to change it to a humbucker sized pickup, you will need to route the pickguard and possibly the body as well. You can check if the guitar is routed for a humbucker by removing the pickguard and taking a peek under.

A tele is fine for playing any kind of music, metal included. You might want to review the rest of gear;pedals, amps etc., with respect to whatever genre of music you are inclined to play.

Hardware wise, I think the MIMs are pretty alright. If there isn't a problem, why try to fix something?
 
thanks for the correction
ive always thought lipstick pickups were a different kinda pickup type
that aside gear wise im pretty much equipted well enough
as for hardware im very particular about upgrades because i believe this is a keeper and i wanna upgrade it once and for all
i will check the routing soon enough and thanks alot lightice!
 
lipsticks are different, they were found on old danelectro guitars. The covers were more tubular than the flattish tele pickup covers.

As for the hardware, I'd say leave it as is, when its time to change only invest in better hardware.
 
i see , i guess i was mislead by the specs of the guitar.
thanks lightice for your views,

are there any common mods for teles?
damn im excited when it comes

also, is the tele body compatible with a strat neck?
 
Hm..? What specs are causing you confusion?
Can you give the exact model of the guitar? So I can have a check.

I'm sure there's nothing out of the ordinary for your tele.
AFAIK there are no danelectro lipstick type pickups on any production tele now.

Most teles have a neck pickup covered with a nickel or chrome cover. It does mellow the timbre down a bit.

As for the necks not 100% compatible, there will be gaps.
The tele neck heel is straight, as is the body neck pocket
The strat neck heel is slightly curved, as is the body neck pocket

Have a careful look at the tele and strat necks on USACG web specials here, and you'll understand. The body neck pocket is routed for the specific neck heel; straight or curved.

Well, I left my teles as they are and never modded beyond changing pickups.
But you can get a 3 saddle bridge with compensated brass saddles. This is a popular mod. You can also reverse the control plate so the volume is nearest the bridge instead of the selector switch. Some people like the tone of a mini SD humbucker in the neck position. A recut nut done professionally is another common procedure.

Some like a middle strat pickup to make it a SSS guitar with a 5 way super switch and all that fancy switching options. But i never got around to mod my teles any other way besides pickup changes. It would be interesting to add some sort of bass control; either a bass contour knob or a bass cut switch, maybe even with an internal trimmer on the cut switch. Who knows.
 
one of the most common mod for 2 single coil tele is the 4 way mod, with no alteration to the over look of the instrument

Fender sell a specific 4 way tele switch just for this mod. Basically it added the 4th pickup setting of the brigde and neck in series for a fatter sound.

for mim tele, i cant really remember now whether is it for neck or bridge, but underneath the pickup, the geetar body actually routed for humbucker.

anyway, for my teles, i haave the 4 way mod plus another extra pickup config mod activated via push pull pot for series out of phase sound. So with that, the tele will have 5 pickup configuration to play around with.
 
while we r on the topic, (and im a keyboardist just to clarify) how different can tele n strats get? im looking for either one but cant decide which might be more suitable. again this is for moderate pop/rock stuff.. nothing too metal nothing too anything. maybe more along john mayer , sting, tt kinda music. any suggestions? am popping by tokyo so tot might get something back
 
Hi LadyInTears, such a coincidence that I found this thread of urs as I'm building up a tele of my own too! Got an Allparts neck and a MIM Fender Tele Standard body for a very good price. The MIM body has the neck position already routed for a humbucker. As for the tele neck pup, most players hardly ever used it as they tend to use the mid and the famous bridge position most of the time. The lipstick pups ur talking about might be this one..or..for ur playing style, u might wana put in a rails humbucker at the bridge n add a push pull pot?

http://store.guitarfetish.com/neprotuliteb.html

After I pimped my Strat big time, I figured I wasn't going to pimp my Tele. Was either thinking of making it Esquire style (just one pickup on the guitar and thats at the bridge position) or the usual 2 pickup. The Esquire bridge pup sounds different from a normal Tele bridge pup, from what I heard...due to the lack of neck pup, there will be less magnetic pull n so the bridge pup will tend to sound a bit more biter sounding..might wana try that..anyway, all the best to ur custom tele, can't wait to see urs once its done! :)

Jazzfish: Ur best bet is the Strat, its an all rounder guitar :)
 
I am also looking to pimp my . . . squier vintage modified tele custom . . .

032760200000X.jpg


Some areas I wanna pimp...
1. Change to a maple neck with rosewood/ebony fretboard (get a darker sound?)
2. The p90s cleans up well for lead and rhythm, so I am contemplating if I should swap em' out for higher output humbuckers?
3. Adding straplock *lol*
 
Welcome to the mad Tele world! You will realize that the Tele, being one of the oldest yet still in mass production as well as copied designs in guitardom is also one of the most versatile in terms of modifications and all kinds of little zengness you might want to add. Think of it like a Ford Mustang. Timeless design, millions of things you can do with it.

As with the aforementioned 3-saddle bridge with brass, its a great and very common mod for a bright sound for a already bright sounding guitar design. Its meant more for country and traditional Tele players who want that spank and twang of a Tele. But, it makes the guitar a little harder to play.

If your a metal guy, go with rail pickups like what Ritchie Kotzen does in his tele. Keep the 6-piece tuners, and start hitting crunch sounds that has more of a twang-tele sound in them. Note the best player that ever lived (of course thats my opinion) Danny Gatton also had Barden railed humbuckers in his modded out Teles.

Maple neck? May not sound as dark for metal sounds, especially on a Tele. Rosewood would be better in my opinion.

For the controls there are a entire galaxy of switching and customization you can do in that little cavity space for the electronics. Personally I want to put a 3 way switch Les Paul style over where the current 3way Tele style is, Brad Paisley style capacitor canceling pot and electro-socket for the input jack. My next Tele will be a HSS config with many more switching options and space for switches and more push pulls that I wont get into here. But something like what Brent Mason has on his, but without the middle pickup blend option.

Thought about the Gatton Notch? Hehe.

And I use my neck pickup alot. Their great for blues and jazz. The bridge is just a stonkin' rude thing so well for everything else!
 
Oh and don't put in the neck pickup cover if you want a hard rock sound. It's there because it looks good. It does makes things a little teeny duller sounding for a neck pickup. Besides rails are so much more aggressive looking on its own.

DiMarzio too has great Tele humbuckers for rawk stuff.
 
how bout using a humbucker on a single coil size ??
like seymourduncan has

SJBJ-1.jpg


so u didn't have to do an extra rout
 
I heard humbuckers in single coil size dun have that same sound as tat of a full size humbucker, I rather go for the latter if I were to upgrade my neck position pickup route :)
 
maybe yes, a lil bit difference in sound...
in this type full size humb use an alnico...but the humb on sc size use ceramic magnet ... but u can still hear the full sound of a humbucker from it :)

i havent tested it before ... but i think it should be good
 
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