Esquire Build - recommendations?

[jimijames]

Hey guys - it's been a while. Hope everyone here has been well.

I bought an esquire body from someone on the forum like 10 years ago and now I'm finally going to build it. I had previously tried to install a bigsby and got the post spacing wrong, then had one of the posts break when I tried to take both of them out. Well I kind of shelved the project but ended up buying a warmoth 10-16" compound radius maple tele neck in the meantime. Just need tuners, hardware, bridge etc. Ditching the bigsby for a traditional tele ashtray bridge as my current #1 is a sky blue partscaster '72 deluxe with an ashtray bridge and I'm in love with the sound and feel of it.

Here's where I'm caught up though. I've still got the Jerry Donahue in the bridge of my Deluxe and it's probably my favorite pickup ever. All the great upper midrange of the PGB distorted, but cleans up beautifully. Absolutely beautiful chime even to the point where you could live without the neck pickup. Really not much that it can't do. But I know if I put another JD in the bridge of the Esquire it won't be different enough from my #1 to warrant any real playing time. However it might make sense to swap the JD to the Esquire and put something a little less versatile in the bridge of the deluxe.

Would you all:
1.) Swap the JD to the esquire and put something like a barden gatton/modern or wilde l48tl in the Deluxe (been listening to a lot of danny gatton recently)
2.) Keep the deluxe as-is and put something with more attitude in the Esquire like a rio grande dirty harry
3.) Something I'm not thinking of?

Any suggestions welcome. Just thought I'd ask the SDUGF brain trust before pulling the trigger on something.

 

[jeremy]

the custom shop tapped '53 esquire pup is what i have in my esquire. 6.5k tap, 9.5k full output, a2 rods. i have my switch wired

1-tap with treble roll off cap (sounds kinda like a cocked wah) .01 cap i think
2-tap with tone control, .022 cap
3-full output without tone control

 

[Chistopher]

Controversial opinion on the tapped '53 tele, no one is stopping you from using the 3k coil. That way you have 9.5k,6.5k and 3k settings. On its own the 3k sound isn't the ​​​​​​most useful sound, but none of the other esquire presets really do it for me.

 

[Mincer]

Do you want another powerful Tele pickup or something more traditional?

 

[Butch Snyder]

My Esquire is a "repurposed" Baja Tele. Swamp ash body, maple fretboard. I have a JD in it. Sounds incredible. Having no other pickups in the guitar really helps that pickup to shine. I don't have the traditional Esquire wiring though. Mine is just like a tradition Telecaster with no neck pickup. So, positions 1 and 2 on the switch are the bridge pickup normal and position 3 acts as a kill switch. It all works for me.

 

[jeremy]

Controversial opinion on the tapped '53 tele, no one is stopping you from using the 3k coil. That way you have 9.5k,6.5k and 3k settings. On its own the 3k sound isn't the ​​​​​​most useful sound, but none of the other esquire presets really do it for me.

i havent tried the 3k coil on its own, but im guessing it would be pretty wimpy and thin, but who knows. its the outside wraps so maybe it wouldnt be as bad as i think.

i really like how much i can get out of my current wiring. stock esquire wiring doesnt do much for me. i pretty much live on the tapped output with tone control for most things, but also have a higher output fatter tone available which i use a fair amount, and the tap with treble roll off is cool for somethings too though gets used much less than the other two

 

[jimijames]

So given the responses and the additional reading I've done, I'm kind of leaning towards #1, although I'm hesitating for two reasons. (1) I like the idea of two output levels in an esquire, and (2) the bardens are apparently super high output which would overpower my 6.75k neck humbucker.

I guess the only difference between #1 and #2 is which guitar the bridge pickup goes in. I actually think I've got a zhangbucker tapped tele bridge so I'll throw that in the esquire with jeremy's wiring setup, and if I don't like it I can just buy a barden or something. (edit: I do it's the paul bunyan with 9.5k full / 6.2k tapped)

Thanks for the replies and help!

 

[Artie]

I love the idea of the new-ish Secret Agent pup. But using it would depend on if the Esquire was routed for a pup under the pickguard.

 

[jeremy]

So given the responses and the additional reading I've done, I'm kind of leaning towards #1, although I'm hesitating for two reasons. (1) I like the idea of two output levels in an esquire, and (2) the bardens are apparently super high output which would overpower my 6.75k neck humbucker.

I guess the only difference between #1 and #2 is which guitar the bridge pickup goes in. I actually think I've got a zhangbucker tapped tele bridge so I'll throw that in the esquire with jeremy's wiring setup, and if I don't like it I can just buy a barden or something. (edit: I do it's the paul bunyan with 9.5k full / 6.2k tapped)

Thanks for the replies and help!

yeah, pop that zhang in a guitar with similar wiring to what i have and i think youll like it. youll need to find the cap value that works best for you on the treble roll off position. and you might also want the tone control active on both tapped and full output positions. for me, in my guitar, i like tapped with tone control and full without, and again i think i have a .01 cap dumping treble, but its been so long and i used a handful of caps in there so cant be 100% on that value.

bardens are high output for a tele pup but they arent distortion level output. a buddy has a set and they sound good, very kinda hifi frequency response which can be cool, but works best if you are used to riding your volume and tone controls

 

[Butch Snyder]

I'll be honest. The pic I posted of my Esquire, didn't stay an Esquire. It never does. I always re-install a neck pickup. Currently, it is an HSS pickup config. Alnico 2 Pro humbucker in the neck, Alnico 2 Pro Strat pickup in the middle, and JD in the bridge.

Not to hijack this thread, but I'm going to remove the JD and install it in my Daphne Blue Tele and make that one an Esquire. I'll replace the JD with the Alnico 2 Pro Tele bridge pickup that is currently in my Daphne blue Tele. as for the wiring, I'll just remove the neck pickup and keep the three-way switch as it is. Pos 1 and 2 will be the same, just the bridge pickup. Pos 3 will act as a kill switch.

 

[Artie]

I'll be honest. The pic I posted of my Esquire, didn't stay an Esquire. It never does. I always re-install a neck pickup.

Then that would be perfect for a "Secret Agent." And, it doesn't necessarily have to be a CS SA per se. I imagine any high output single-sized pup would work.

 

[Mincer]

Then that would be perfect for a "Secret Agent." And, it doesn't necessarily have to be a CS SA per se. I imagine any high output single-sized pup would work.

I wonder if you could get them to build a 'Secret Agent'-style pickup to sound like anything you want it to. You could completely re-design a lot of guitars that way.

 

[Butch Snyder]

I wonder if you could get them to build a 'Secret Agent'-style pickup to sound like anything you want it to. You could completely re-design a lot of guitars that way.

I would think that the secret agent pickup would need to be a higher-output pickup to be able to rest beneath the pickguard and have decent enough output to be usable. I'm thinking that if you wanted a humbucker neck pickup tone, you could use a Slug, El Diablo, Dimebucker, DiMarzio X2N, or D ACTIVATOR-X. The DiMarzios are blade pickups and have blades that are flat. I think that's what you would need.

 

[jimijames]

yeah, pop that zhang in a guitar with similar wiring to what i have and i think youll like it. youll need to find the cap value that works best for you on the treble roll off position. and you might also want the tone control active on both tapped and full output positions. for me, in my guitar, i like tapped with tone control and full without, and again i think i have a .01 cap dumping treble, but its been so long and i used a handful of caps in there so cant be 100% on that value.

bardens are high output for a tele pup but they arent distortion level output. a buddy has a set and they sound good, very kinda hifi frequency response which can be cool, but works best if you are used to riding your volume and tone controls

Yeah I'll play around a little bit with it. Particularly like the idea of the lower output setting with the tone control and the full output without it.

And that's why I like the idea of the bardens. Playing a tele has forced me to clean up my technique and as a result I sound better on all of my guitars. So I kind of like the idea of having a dual blade pickup that's super clear and you can run it in series or parallel for similar tonal variation to the tapped pickup, but without the noise. Plus the dual rail looks cool IMO. Only reason I'm not going that route is that I have the Zhang lying around and bardens are $140 a pop.

Regarding other comments about the secret agent. Unfortunately this guitar was built as an esquire (believe the body is warmoth but no labels anywhere so can't say for sure) so no neck route. But sounds interesting nonetheless.

 

[Mincer]

I would think that the secret agent pickup would need to be a higher-output pickup to be able to rest beneath the pickguard and have decent enough output to be usable. I'm thinking that if you wanted a humbucker neck pickup tone, you could use a Slug, El Diablo, Dimebucker, DiMarzio X2N, or D ACTIVATOR-X. The DiMarzios are blade pickups and have blades that are flat. I think that's what you would need.

The Secret Agent states that it is medium output, so it is certainly possible to design them.

 

[Butch Snyder]

The Secret Agent states that it is medium output, so it is certainly possible to design them.

And the paisley pickguard on the Brad Paisley Esquire is pretty thick. I think it might even be acrylic.

 

[Butch Snyder]

I'm going to remove the JD and install it in my Daphne Blue Tele and make that one an Esquire.

That didn't last long. I can't do without a neck pickup. I kept the JD in the bridge and installed an APS-1 in the neck position.

 

[alex1fly]

Hey guys - it's been a while. Hope everyone here has been well.

I bought an esquire body from someone on the forum like 10 years ago and now I'm finally going to build it. I had previously tried to install a bigsby and got the post spacing wrong, then had one of the posts break when I tried to take both of them out. Well I kind of shelved the project but ended up buying a warmoth 10-16" compound radius maple tele neck in the meantime. Just need tuners, hardware, bridge etc. Ditching the bigsby for a traditional tele ashtray bridge as my current #1 is a sky blue partscaster '72 deluxe with an ashtray bridge and I'm in love with the sound and feel of it.

Here's where I'm caught up though. I've still got the Jerry Donahue in the bridge of my Deluxe and it's probably my favorite pickup ever. All the great upper midrange of the PGB distorted, but cleans up beautifully. Absolutely beautiful chime even to the point where you could live without the neck pickup. Really not much that it can't do. But I know if I put another JD in the bridge of the Esquire it won't be different enough from my #1 to warrant any real playing time. However it might make sense to swap the JD to the Esquire and put something a little less versatile in the bridge of the deluxe.

Would you all:
1.) Swap the JD to the esquire and put something like a barden gatton/modern or wilde l48tl in the Deluxe (been listening to a lot of danny gatton recently)
2.) Keep the deluxe as-is and put something with more attitude in the Esquire like a rio grande dirty harry
3.) Something I'm not thinking of?

Any suggestions welcome. Just thought I'd ask the SDUGF brain trust before pulling the trigger on something.

I'm not a fan of dismantling something I love (JD in the Deluxe) just to try it something unknown (Esquire). Done it a bunch and its mental gymnastics every time. I'd keep the JD where it is since you love it and it matches your Deluxe well, then hunt separately for something that makes your Esquire sing. That's just me though!