albert collins question

[JohnnyGuitar]

Hi everybody,
This is my first post here...

I love the albert collins tone...
I was thinking about buying a tele thinline or ordering the parts from Warmoth or USA Custom Guitars. I know the chambering makes guitars sound fuller (which is good for that sound) but with my expeince with hollow body guitars (mostly jazz boxes and not semi hollow bodies) they lack the snap (which is bad for the sound). Would I still be able to get enough bite and snap from a chamberd body guitar?
And one more important question- what lead pickup would be the best for the tone I'm going for?
:smokin:

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: albert collins question

Hello and welcome.

If you end up wityh a hollow Tele it's gonna be pretty hard to get a tone anything like Alberts...if you are looking for a tone similar to Albert get a plain old soplid ash tele with a maple neck, vintage stlye single coil in the bridge (I would use one of the Duncan Antiquity's if I were you) and a neck bucker (I woudl use a Duncan Seth Lover) and call it a day. You could always get a Fender Albert Collins model if you really wanted to but just about any good tele with the pickups I mentioned will get the job done.

Good luck!

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: albert collins question

Hello and welcome.

If you end up wityh a hollow Tele it's gonna be pretty hard to get a tone anything like Alberts...if you are looking for a tone similar to Albert get a plain old soplid ash tele with a maple neck, vintage stlye single coil in the bridge (I would use one of the Duncan Antiquity's if I were you) and a neck bucker (I woudl use a Duncan Seth Lover) and call it a day. You could always get a Fender Albert Collins model if you really wanted to but just about any good tele with the pickups I mentioned will get the job done.

Good luck!

Something like this huh?

The bridge is a Hamel STD-B (it used to be a Duncan JD); Fender tx special in the middle and duncan antiquity neck HB.

B

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: albert collins question

Something like this huh?
The bridge is a Hamel STD-B (it used to be a Duncan JD); Fender tx special in the middle and duncan antiquity neck HB.
B

Albert never used a middle pickup so if you could get the neck bucker and bridge single at the same time (can you) I bet it has got a KILLER Iceman tone!

 

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: albert collins question

Actually, as far as I know he used mostly the bridge pup... so I'm not sure the humbucker in the neck is so important for the albert collins tone.

Now, the guy who invented fire (loved your ZZ top pic), could you explain why a swamp ash thinline can't do the job? If I go with the right woods for the neck and body (maple and swamp ash) and have a solid block of swamp ash under the pickups won't it get me pretty close?

 

[ES350]

Re: albert collins question

If you wire up a maple neck Tele with a HB and a raised pole bridge Tele pu, that's the tone in the middle position. I had one set up this way and had to change it---it sounded too much like Albert. Don't forget the dropped D minor tuning with the capo at the 7th fret...

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: albert collins question

A hollow or semi hollow guitar will just have a completely different tone. Also, FWIW, Albert used the middle position (which is the bridge single and the neck bucker) almost all the time.

 

[Kelsey]

Re: albert collins question

The Fender CS Albert Collins model uses a SD 59 neck and Texas Special bridge pickup, maple neck and solid ash body. I think alnico 3 or 5 pickups would work better for AC's tone than alnico 2.

 

[gripweed]

Re: albert collins question

The Fender CS Albert Collins model uses a SD 59 neck and Texas Special bridge pickup, maple neck and solid ash body. I think alnico 3 or 5 pickups would work better for AC's tone than alnico 2.

It is a customized 59. I'm not exactly sure what that means though...

 

[Kelsey]

Re: albert collins question

Most likely just a change in the wiring and magnet polarity configuration to match Fender's SC bridge polarity.
BTW, I had a chance to try out a NAMM 52 Tele with a 59 neck HB and Nocaster lead pickup, and the HB and combined tones were superb. Unfortunately, they overpowered the Nocaster as I had feared. There was room to tweak the pickup heights, but I'm not sure a Nocaster would ever quite match the 59's output.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: albert collins question

I'm pretty sure Albert's Tele had alnico 5 pickups in the neck and bridge position.

The Duncan 59 and Broadcaster would be a good approximation...the Duncan 59 and '55 Tele lead might be even better as the polepieces on Albert's Tele lead pickup were probably raised like the '55 and not flat like the Broadcaster's.

Albert played through a Fender Quad Reverb: A Twin Reverb with four JBL 12's.

He also played in open tuning (maybe open F#minor...I forget!) and played with his thumb and fingers.

There's alot more to Albert's tone than the pickups...it's all in the choice of notes and phrasing.

As Christian noted, he didn't use a hollow body Tele...probably wasn't even super light swamp ash.

Just a 70's Tele with a Gibson humbucker (probably a T-Top) for the neck pickup.

 

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: albert collins question

ok
here's what i know about his tone
it was a 1962 tele.
he used to set his 4 speaker fender reverb amp- on 10 in the treble, 0 on the bass and the middle was also aournd 10...
fenderplayersclub.com and another site i have found claim that he has used mostly the bridge pup... sometimes the middle position and never the humbucker alone.

now guys, i am not kidding in any way when i talk about albert. one of the reasons of picking up a guitar was listenning to his music... getting to other styles was something that happend later.

I use a tube works amp with a 12ax7 tube in the drive channel (not a great amp)... setting the amp with lots of reverb and somewhere around those settings i get some of his tone. the funny thing is that i don't get it with my swamp ash body maple neck ibanez (probably because of the humbucker in the bridge). but i do get something pretty much in the lines of albert with a gibson (!) night-hawk (probably because of the slant bridge humbucker and strings through body- amzing guitar).

now... the reaon i want a thinline is because i do like the way clean chords sound on hollow body guitars... like Lewguitar said- there's more to albert's sound... the amp is important and picking the strings really hard with your fingers... maybe even more then holding the right guitar... but not having a chance to play a tele thinline... i did want to know how much the chambers would hurt the icey tone-because, again, for clean rhythm, i just love a hollow/semi hollow guitar.

came out a little long, didn't it?

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: albert collins question

Here is what Im gonna say about this whole thing...first Alberts number one Tele was a 66 that, other than the neck bucker was dead stock...the bucker in question was a Gibson bucker that was in it when Albert bought the guitar. When the Fender Custom Shop looked at Alberts guitar to do the AC Signature model that remarked about how light weight the guitar was over all. As for doing a Semi hollow Im sure it will sound good, maybe even great but NOT like Albert Collins. Also, FWIW, if you ever play a Tele with a neck bucker you will find out real quick how much Albert used noth pickups together...IMO that IS the AC tone...

 

[Bludave]

Re: albert collins question

Albert never used a middle pickup so if you could get the neck bucker and bridge single at the same time (can you) I bet it has got a KILLER Iceman tone!

The Capo..................... Don't forget the Capo!!!!!:smokin:

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: albert collins question

The Capo..................... Don't forget the Capo!!!!!:smokin:

Very true...a capo and open F#minor tuning!

 

[Boogie Bill]

Re: albert collins question

Personally, I don't think the seimi-hollow will work well for authentic Albert Collins tone. I've owned two SH Teles: A 1969 Tele Thinline, and a G&L ASAT Classic SH. They do sound different than their solid-body brethren.

And Lew touched on the AMP part of the equation--a LOUD Fender Quad Reverb. Albert's tone was known for being a bit, shall we say,....bright? Didn't he do a song called "Ice Pickin'"?

Bill

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: albert collins question

Albert never used a middle pickup so if you could get the neck bucker and bridge single at the same time (can you) I bet it has got a KILLER Iceman tone!

Name any position with these pickups, and my wiring can!

In fact, I have a 500K resistor in the loop that allows me among other things to go from a 500K neck to a 250K bridge. I love the bridge and neck HB tone when the volume pot is at 500K! Extra highs don't hurt.

B

 

[ES350]

Re: albert collins question

In the 60's and early70's, he used a white Bandmaster on the Imperial and Tumbleweed recordings and on a few cuts with Walter Davis ('My Tears'). A much fatter tone on that stuff...

 

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: albert collins question

I read an intreview with Gary Moore and he said that he gave AC a Tube Screamer which AC used for the rest of his career.
I am not sure I have noticed it in his songs...

 

[Bludave]

Re: albert collins question

I read an intreview with Gary Moore and he said that he gave AC a Tube Screamer which AC used for the rest of his career.
I am not sure I have noticed it in his songs...

I saw Albert a about a year before he died and he played his Tele Staright in to a 4 10" Fender Concert. He may have used pedals in the studio, but I don't think he used anything other than his tunings, fingers and amp live!