Telecaster's "Twang"

[MHD]

Hey soft users!

i guess that most of you here knows that Telecasters are "twangy".
i don't like the twang kinda sound. actually, i seriously dislike it. but i plan to get a tele for my next guitar (For the shape and one of my fav guitarist is Jim Root). but is there any solution to stop it "twang"?

i went researching on the internet. but i have nothing. search on Youtube, also nothing. except for one particular video about a review of the Jim Root Telecaster

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INw3tKsYYdA ) <- The vid

In the review, he said "but you will not find any twang in this guitar".
how does fender make it not twangy? is it because of the active pickups? if so, does a normal humbucker does the same thing? stop it from twanging?

high chance i'll get a tele from Squier. becoz i cant afford a Fender. so, if the single coils is the problem why tele is twangy, can i just get a tele and install humbuckers in it? because between the jim root tele and a normal tele, the big difference i see is that the jim root tele has active pickup and the normal squier tele has normal single coils.

I then search for the John 5 tele on youtube, because i know that this guitar has humbucker in it. watch a couple of vid about this guitar, and i find that it is less twangy than normal tele (idk if i hear correctly or nt. because the vid i saw, john always shreds. and has high gain)

so iif i change the pickup in a tele from single coil to humbucker, does it stop it to twang? or is there other stuff. every comment to this post helps me alot. one way or another.

Thanks!

P.S. i have never own a tele before. so i dont know much about it

 

[asdf]

a tele is twangy mostly because of the pickups used [most notably the middle position of bridge + neck]. a humbucker tele... just isn't a normal tele anymore! more like a 'supertele' like how a superstrat is to a strat.

 

[MHD]

a tele is twangy mostly because of the pickups used [most notably the middle position of bridge + neck]. a humbucker tele... just isn't a normal tele anymore! more like a 'supertele' like how a superstrat is to a strat.

so tele are twangy because of their pickup?
so, lets say if i change the pickup of a tele to humbucker (for both neck and bridge). Does it stop the twang?

(i prefer humbucker than single coil. all my other guitars is equip with humbuckers.)

 

[asdf]

without going into body wood, neck wood, fingerboard wood and other more complicated stuff i guess that's true. 'guess' only because i scared later people come to me and say it's the guitar's shape which gives tele the twang. O_O

 

[edgie]

The tele twang, in my experience, is caused by the bridge and pickups. If you can find a bridge like the one in the Jim Root tele e.g. gotoh, allparts, etc. the next thing you have to find are hot overwound pickups. Not necessarily humbuckers as their are also a number of good hot single coil pu's like Bareknuckle's pile drivers and Dimarzio Tone Zone T.

 

[carboxymoron]

Haha I totally understand you man. I love the tele look, but I can't stand the twang.

I'm no expert, but I believe the tele bridge and saddles play a big part. Of course the pickups matter, but all that metal surrounding the bridge pickup must be doing something!

 

[Apot_red]

Twang

Tele twang comes from the pickup construction. In fact, guitars like Gretsch, Gibson BFG also share the same Twangy parentage. Single coiled pickups generally contributes to the charateristic sound of the Twang.

The initial Twang is composed of the high gain initially generated by the distance and the frequency of the strings being plucked. The high gain is obtained by using a single coiled configuration. This configuration allows a high gain. Especially, when plucked/strummed initially. The gain shall be high enough sometimes creating an overdrive sound/twang.

If we compare with a humbucker pickup, the same power generated per strum shall be divided by 2 pickups in an opposite direction. This arrangement naturally shall be more clean and quiet. Because the 50 Hz humm shall be cancelled by the natural arrangement by inverting eachside of the pickup. This action cancelled the effects of eddy currents creating noise if compared to a singlecoil.

This divided power from a humbucker may or may not sound good to some guitarist. This shall be subjective.


I just want to share my knowledge on Twangers...

Hope you all can understand.

 

[foxxylady]

Yeah, the huge bridge plate contributes to the "twang", especially those old fashioned three brass saddle bridges!
A slanted bridge pickup also enhances that "twang"!

 

[kerplunk182]

You should check out the 72' telecaster deluxe. It's quite a popular humbuckered telecaster and it will save you money on changing pickups because there's also the cost of drilling the cavity for the humbucker pickups.

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

i'm not very knowledgeable about teles too because i've never really worked with one for long. but my thoughts is that the signature twang from a tele is when the pickup position is in the middle, ie bridge and neck pickup is activated. one very obvious thing i notice is the distance between these 2 pickups. in a way, it gives a more hollow sound, just like how the middle position works for lespauls and super strats with 2 humbuckers, but the twanging sound is sorta enhanced.

i've tried to achieve this myself with my HSS strat copy (yamaha pacifica 410) by doing a few push pull mods with good results. one was to make the bridge humbucker wired in parallel, and the other was the make the humbucker "always on" so that when my switch is in my neck position, my neck singcoil and parallel bridge humbucker is activated. a very bright twang is achieved which sorta backed my initial guess on how the twang was created

so to reverse this effect, what you need to do is either avoid using the middle position, or a better way would be to get rid of the stock bright sounding pickups. there's no need to actually fit in full sized humbuckers to do the trick actually, you can get some tele pickup replacements that emulate humbucker tones from dimarzio, check them out at http://www.dimarzio.com/site/#/pickups/ under the tele humbucking section. just get a tone zone T or super distortion T for your bridge and you're set to go. not much choice for the neck position there though.. http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/telecaster/cutting-edge/ seymour duncan has a set of hot rails there ready for teles, should get rid of most of the twang!!

 

[faizal_rocks]

Noticed the big metal plate soldered around the Tele bridge single coil pickup? I beleive thats also one of the factors that contributes to the twang that you speak of.

And yes, changing to humbuckers might stop the twang but only partial. Body wood comes into play too. Alder or mahagony is ur best bet for a humbuckered Tele..I believe the JR Tele is made of mahagony. Bridge comes into consideration too, whether its a string thru body or hardtail (strings are anchored thru the bridge).

 

[MHD]

Thanks to those who reply to this thread!

anw,
since some of you here say that the bridge plate contributes to the twang, so, is it possible for me to change it to a hardtail? but i reliase that the hardtail in Jim root tele is close to the bridge pickup. i went to squier website and i see the normal tele's and bridge plate is quite far from the bridge pickup (i look at the saddles). is it possible for me to change it to a hardtail?

knowing this, i see Avril Lavigne sig Telecaster. it has a hardtail.
so, i went research this guitar on Youtube.
I was shock when i saw this video.
this girl is playing trivium with this guitar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XVEmSQBCPs

so if i install a tele with hardtail bridge and humbuckers, will it cut down the twang? but first, is it possible to chane the bridge plate to a hardtail?

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

haha bro, u shocked that it was a girl playing, or u shocked that a person was using a tele to play the song? >.<

forgot, to ask, you are aiming to get rid of the twang, yes. but in what context? what songs do you play? jazz, blues, cleans, metal?

 

[subversion]

so tele are twangy because of their pickup?

yes, it's basically the nature of the single coil pickup, even the average Ibanez RG model, with a single coil pickup in there, would twang your tone. YOUTUBE any Paul Gilbert videos with him messing around with a Hendrix tune, you'd hear this very convincingly.

i have the Duncan Hotrails in my Am Std Tele, here (bridge) & there's no twang to be heard when it's in use. i keep the neck single coil because i prefer the single coil clarity during high distortion solos:

 

[faizal_rocks]

Some things to clear up. I can see some confusion over the bridge part. There are two things going on here that contributes to twang. Firstly, the bridge (where the strings go thru and its surrounding the Tele bridge single coil pickup) and secondly, the bridge pickup itself has a baseplate soldered at the bottom of the Tele pickup. If u were to look at the pickup physically, u would know what I mean...that baseplate adds on more to the twang.

If u want to cut down on twang, best to get rid of the traditional Tele bridge, put on a hardtail bridge and a humbucker at the bridge provided there's a hole big enough to accomodate a full size humbucker, else, get a single coil sized humbucker just like Subversion's one I hope that clears up.

If u ever need a hardtail bridge, don't hesitate to PM me...I have one for sale in chrome, never used

 

[carboxymoron]

People always talk about the hot rails... but anyone know anything about the Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound? http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/telecaster/progressive/quarter_pound_f_1/

Sounds damn fierce... the description I mean... lol

 

[subversion]

i own the Quarter Pound single coil (in an Ibanez)- menacing for high drive/ distortion application but mind the hum... there's also more snap to it due to the larger pole pieces.

 

[morello]

TS,

if you like to know more .... go to TDPRI forum

there's alot of resources you need to capture the sound you need.

 

[MHD]

i went to Swee lee (bras basah) just now but they only had 3 type of tele. and those 3 are the kind that i wasn't looking for. so, me and my best friend went to peninsula. search for teles at a few shops. (searching for squier, not fender) but dont have. untill we went into Music Theme. they have the squier tele, the California series. they had 3 squier tele. a apple white one, a black one, and a sunbusrst one(they didnt hang it up. bt the staff say have) i ask if can test the black one. so, the staff pass me the guitar and plug into a amp. but, i think the guitar is spoiled. change amp and cable, still no sound. so i tested the apple white one. a tele is like a whole new guitar feel to me (Not in a good way) i didnt like the neck profile. and the kind pickup selector. also, the guy said that i cant change it to hardtail. he also said that i cant change it to humbucker. even after i said i would send it for routing. he say cannot. didn't like the tele california series. even my friend said so. is there any other squier tele that anyone here recommend me to test out? (not into the deluxe kind)

btw, is the John 5 squier tele good? (had been eyeing this guitar for quite some time)

 

[MHD]

haha bro, u shocked that it was a girl playing, or u shocked that a person was using a tele to play the song? >.<

forgot, to ask, you are aiming to get rid of the twang, yes. but in what context? what songs do you play? jazz, blues, cleans, metal?

Haha! i was shock that she was playing a tele for that song.

i only play rock and metal.