New project idea: 4 pickups Tele style guitar

[maup]

Hello all,
some time ago I have bought a great Ibanez Tele style guitar (click here for details).

It's a really comfortable guitar but I am not really happy with the tones, the guitar sounds good but is nothing really special, sounds just "ok" to me.

In original I was looking for a Tele sound but with a more comfortable body (see original post for details), but lately I am more intrigued with hotter sounds so I wanted to give it a twist.

I want to change the bridge pickup with a "hot rails" or "little 59" and the neck pickup with a PAF style HB (not sure yet), they I thought why not put the original pickups in the middle for adding more tonal versatility. I have done some searches and seems that someone had good results with this, so why not...


The original guitar is this:




What I want to do is (more or less) this:






This is just a first idea. What I want to do is have the possibility to combine all the pickups in any possibile way, have the HB's split or full (maybe series/parallel too), etc.

The guitar should have a "swimming pool" type of routing (not checked yet) but anyway to remove some wood will not be a problem.

Do you think that this is an interesting idea with good tonal possibilites? Or maybe is just a waste of time.

Also, I am afraid that it will have too much magneting pull because of the 4 pickups?

Would be good to only keep the original bridge pickup in middle position and just forget about the original neck pickup?

All opinions and ideas are very welcome!

[Masta' C]

Interesting idea (and oddly cool looking) if you can fit all of them in that space and figure out the wiring.

If I were you, I would consider swapping the original Tele style neck pickup, which would sound even thinner and weaker than it already does if moved toward the middle, with a Joe Barden (JBE) dual-rail neck model for Tele (the Gatton neck) to keep things balanced.

[beaubrummels]

I think two really stellar replacements would be better than adding two new ones with the originals ones in the middle. If the originals didn't sound great in bridge and neck, they are not likely to prove more useful when moved into the middle area. Plue now you have all those magnet poles pulling on the strings. (The latter a minor issue, but could be noticeable.)

[alex1fly]

If you're removing wood to make room for pickups and controls, it'll change the sound. Ditto for adding more pickups. Not good or bad, just different. I just wouldn't expect anything existing to sound the same as it does now.

[ArtieToo]

I think two really stellar replacements would be better than adding two new ones with the originals ones in the middle.

While I love crazy weird wiring schemes, I agree with this. A Jerry Donahue in the bridge, with a mini-hum in the neck, (SM-1/2/3), would be sweet and simple.

BTW, cool looking guitar.

[Masta' C]

If you're removing wood to make room for pickups and controls, it'll change the sound.

Even if this were the case, which is debatable, is that necessarily a bad thing? And how would he/we even know what that change was, especially if the pickups are getting swapped at the same time? Just sayin'...

[Mincer]

This is a cool idea! Reminds me of Steve Morse's famous Tele.



Choose the Hot Rails in the bridge if you are primarily going to use distortion- this is where that pickup shines. Use the Little 59 if you want a more versatile guitar.

[Clint 55]

I've done this in my strat and was very happy with the results. It sounds really good to get the pickups in different locations and get different sounds. 3 true single coils is the max for string pull. 4 true single coils will start to make it wonky. So your idea with 2 true single coils and 2 humbuckers should work.

[CaptainWhizz]

How about Little 59s in the neck and bridge, the current bridge pickup in the middle, and the current neck pickup mounted together with the neck Little 59 in a humbucker ring?

[alex1fly]

Even if this were the case, which is debatable, is that necessarily a bad thing? And how would he/we even know what that change was, especially if the pickups are getting swapped at the same time? Just sayin'...

Definitely not necessarily bad. If the bridge pup stayed the same while adding the others, the sound would change. How much, and in what ways... I guess we'll find out

[Masta' C]

I really like the OP's original idea/layout aside from reusing the factory neck pickup. I just don't think that's the way to go, but a Barden dual-rail Gatton neck pickup is the same size as a stock Tele neck and would pair well visually with the look of the Hot Rails in the bridge. Plus, it would hold its own in the middle position, whereas the stock Tele-style neck pickup is likely to get lost next to the hotter pickups surrounding it.

[Wound_Up]

I think Josh @ JHS Pedals has a 4 pickup guitar also. I remember seeing it on his live stream.

Edit: yep. It appears to be a Jazzmaster style guitar



Seen in the vid below and explained @ 10:00

[maup]

This is a cool idea! Reminds me of Steve Morse's famous Tele.



Choose the Hot Rails in the bridge if you are primarily going to use distortion- this is where that pickup shines. Use the Little 59 if you want a more versatile guitar.

Mincer, this is exactly where the inspiration for this project come from while guessing about the mods for this guitar Steve Morse's Tele appeared in my mind...

Little '59 is the choice for bridge... I am thinking about a single coil sized HB for neck and possibly use only the original bridge slanted in middle...

[maup]

I want to thank each one who answered with great comments, ideas and opinions.

After reading all of you I think that a better and easier configuration would be:

- Little '59 in the bridge.
- Original bridge slanted as middle pickup.
- Single coil sized PAF HB in the neck, or mini HB, or regular HB.
- 5 way switch.
- Push pull knobs for HB splitting.
- Some sort of switch for bridge+neck combination.

Leaving unused the original neck pickup... even though as Mincer showed in his post, using all 4 pickups was a winning choise for a great guitarist.

Also I don't mind "pawn shop" over-modded looking guitar

[Mincer]

Would love to see this if you go through with it. Let us know how it turns out.