DesertRat
New member
I did some trading with a friend of mine last week and received a MIM Telecaster loaded with "Callaham Special Wind Fralin Tele Pickups with Hybrid magnets".
Info can be found here (scroll down): http://www.callahamguitars.com/partstel.htm
The first thing that struck me was the sound of the neck p/u. It is incredibly well balanced - one of the most versatile neck p/u's I've played. It's got warm mids, highs that get through without being harsh, and lo's that are easy to dial in or out to taste on your amps tone control. It's a sound I've always wanted to hear from my guitars and amps, but have never quite gotten. Now here it is without any severe monkeying with eq.
The bridge p/u sounded very authentically "Tele-like" for cleans. Again the highs are there, the tele bite is there, but without any gross harshness.
Under some moderate gain, however, the bridge p/u became so microphonic that it howled and was unusable at even moderate "gig" volume levels. When I got home I pulled the baseplate off, dripped some candle wax on it, put it back on and heated it up and got it real snug. Now it's still quite microphonic, but I can crank up some lead gain without the howl. Tele lead p/u's have never been my favorite sound, but I'm very happy with this one.
I'm still tweaking heights to get the perfect middle position sound, but as is, it's quite good too.
This guitar is "full circle" for me as I played a straight up tele for several years (in the 80's, damn i'm getting up there) then took off into humbucker and P90 land for most of the last 20 years. These are some great sounding p/u's for country/blues/funk and lower gain rock. Especially that neck p/u!
Info can be found here (scroll down): http://www.callahamguitars.com/partstel.htm
The first thing that struck me was the sound of the neck p/u. It is incredibly well balanced - one of the most versatile neck p/u's I've played. It's got warm mids, highs that get through without being harsh, and lo's that are easy to dial in or out to taste on your amps tone control. It's a sound I've always wanted to hear from my guitars and amps, but have never quite gotten. Now here it is without any severe monkeying with eq.
The bridge p/u sounded very authentically "Tele-like" for cleans. Again the highs are there, the tele bite is there, but without any gross harshness.
Under some moderate gain, however, the bridge p/u became so microphonic that it howled and was unusable at even moderate "gig" volume levels. When I got home I pulled the baseplate off, dripped some candle wax on it, put it back on and heated it up and got it real snug. Now it's still quite microphonic, but I can crank up some lead gain without the howl. Tele lead p/u's have never been my favorite sound, but I'm very happy with this one.
I'm still tweaking heights to get the perfect middle position sound, but as is, it's quite good too.
This guitar is "full circle" for me as I played a straight up tele for several years (in the 80's, damn i'm getting up there) then took off into humbucker and P90 land for most of the last 20 years. These are some great sounding p/u's for country/blues/funk and lower gain rock. Especially that neck p/u!
