Darn! Someone gave me an idea for another Tele mod! Opinions please!

[ThreeChordWonder]

My Tele currently has Fender "4th Generation" Noiseless pickups in the neck and bridge, and a 4-way switch mod.

Someone on another forum was asking about coil splitting a humbucker in the neck of their Tele and it got me thinking about putting a Little '59 humbucker in the bridge of mine and using a push-pull or a 5-way as a coil split.

The extension of this is to put a Vintage Stack in the neck as well, and use a second push-pull and / or a 5-way switch to have to coil-split-able humbuckers and possibly a phase inversion as well.

Thoughts anyone?

Half of me says leave the thing alone, but I'm in lockdown and bored, so...

[jeremy]

more options isnt always better. ive gone full jp wiring and ended up not using most of the options after the joyous task of wiring it up

[beaubrummels]

In Teles, I've found tone options to be more valuable than pickup options. Like, positions that remove the tone control, wiring that allow balance/blend of pickups when combined, positions that change the tone cap value or RC network used for the tone, etc.

[SoPhx]

I did all this 'get 17 tones out of a Tele' stuff in the 70s/80s. In the end, you tend to stick with 2 or 3 sounds that work best.

[Mincer]

The Little 59 doesn't have a great split tone to me. I think it actually sounds better in parallel, which is hum-cancelling.

[DavidRavenMoon]

Splitting a stacked pickup doesn’t do the same thing as splitting a regular humbucker, since they already sound like single coils. It might actually get louder too.

Series/parallel for both pickups might be a better option.


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[eclecticsynergy]

I might just go with a push-pull for series/parallel on the Lil 59.
Maybe a mini switch (or another push-pull) for tone bypass.

[JB_From_Hell]

I have a Tele Plus, which adds a Strat pickup in the middle. The mod I’m considering is ditching the middle and just making it a normal Tele.

Seriously, it has 3 sounds, all of which are great with the right pickups.

[idsnowdog]

The little series of pickups don't sound very good split. Parallel is a better option.

[ThreeChordWonder]

Good. All y'all talked me out if it

[Securb]

I have a ton of Swiss Army guitars and find myself using one or two options. They are nice in theory but in practical applications, you really don't want to be fiddling with your guitar all night. If you are a heavy studio guy then that is a different argument.