Bridge pup for a cheap Poplar Tele?

[Brow]

Hey guys.

I have a Seafoam Green toploading Tele which I bought as kind of a beater guitar about 9 months ago.

It's the guitar I leave sitting around incase I quickly want to work out a riff or a phrase etc.

Anyways, I've decided that I want to re-wire this guitar as an Esquire, get rid of the neck pickup and upgrade the bridge pickup.

What pickup would you guys suggest? I want something slightly hotter than vintage, but that still retains as much of that traditional Tele twang as possible.

It's (apparently) made of Poplar and has a maple neck and fingerboard.

I'll be using this guitar in my Indie Rock band and also for my Classic Rock band, so I'd like to be able to cover a fair bit of ground with it

Thanx for any opinions.

Craig

 

[Brow]

Re: Bridge pup for a cheap Poplar Tele?

*bump*

 

[Artie]

Re: Bridge pup for a cheap Poplar Tele?

You really have a lot of good choices. A JD would be outstanding. A Lil59 would be cool too for a warmer tone. You may just want to keep an eye out in the Trading Post for some good Tele bridge deals. They come up all the time.

 

[pinto79]

Re: Bridge pup for a cheap Poplar Tele?

Tele Hotrails wired to the 3 way switch to to split/series/parallel.

It's a much more versatile pup than most would think. With the above config, it'll do spank to crank.

 

[Brow]

Re: Bridge pup for a cheap Poplar Tele?

Thanx for the posts guys

Thanx for the suggestions of the Lil 59 and Hot Rails, but I'm looking for more of a 'traditional' Tele tone, so I'll keep my eyes open for SC bridge pickups.

Anymore suggestions for particular models of pickups I should keep my eyes open for?

Craig

 

[jerry68]

Re: Bridge pup for a cheap Poplar Tele?

I am very happy with the SD Broadcaster in my Esquire.

 

[Zerberus]

Re: Bridge pup for a cheap Poplar Tele?

Quarterpounder... hotter than vintage, but still sounds close enough IMO

 

[gripweed]

Re: Bridge pup for a cheap Poplar Tele?

Hey guys.

I have a Seafoam Green toploading Tele which I bought as kind of a beater guitar about 9 months ago.

It's the guitar I leave sitting around incase I quickly want to work out a riff or a phrase etc.

Anyways, I've decided that I want to re-wire this guitar as an Esquire, get rid of the neck pickup and upgrade the bridge pickup.

What pickup would you guys suggest? I want something slightly hotter than vintage, but that still retains as much of that traditional Tele twang as possible.

It's (apparently) made of Poplar and has a maple neck and fingerboard.

I'll be using this guitar in my Indie Rock band and also for my Classic Rock band, so I'd like to be able to cover a fair bit of ground with it

Thanx for any opinions.

Craig

What about the Tele hot tapped? I haven't tried it, but you could use the switch to give you a couple of different tones...

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Bridge pup for a cheap Poplar Tele?

the hot tapped tele for sure...

 

[Brow]

Re: Bridge pup for a cheap Poplar Tele?

Thanx for the new posts guys

I'll keep my eye open on Ebay and The Trading Room to see if anything crops up

Keep the suggestions coming if anyone has anything different to say

Craig

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Bridge pup for a cheap Poplar Tele?

The Hot tele lead tapped definately rocks and twangs. :burnout:

 

[Brow]

Re: Bridge pup for a cheap Poplar Tele?

After looking at the specs and listening to the sound clips, I like the sounds of the Hot Tele Lead tapped and the Quarter Pound tapped. Both would also give me an extra output level aswell

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Bridge pup for a cheap Poplar Tele?

I would suggest a Tapped Tele Hot because you can use your three way switch to select vintage Broadcaster/Telecaster/Esquire tone or Hot tone.

 

[Brow]

Re: Bridge pup for a cheap Poplar Tele?

Thanx for the post Lew.

Based off a number of opinions in this thread, I'm thinking a Tapped Tele Hot would eb a good choice. I'm gonna keep my eyes open on Ebay and The Trading Post for 1

Thanx for the advice guys.

Craig

 

[Brow]

Re: Bridge pup for a cheap Poplar Tele?

I've listened to the sound samples for all of the Tele single coil pickups and I really like the Broadcaster Lead, Vintage 54 Lead and Alnico II Pro.

I listened to the sound clips of the Quarter Pound and Hot Tele too, and to my ears, they seemed to lose alot of the top end which I usually associate with a Telecaster sound.

So now I'm even more confused :smack: