Esquire "stealth" neck pickup anyone?

[ratkent]

I have a friend who is determined to put a "stealth" neck pickup on his Warmoth Esquire type guitar. Has anyone else done this and what were the results? He has a Duncan Quarter Pounder in the bridge so it's going to need to be something with quite a bit of beef. I suggested a JB or even a Full Shred since it's so far from the strings and under the pickguard.

 

[MikeRocker]

Re: Esquire "stealth" neck pickup anyone?

I can't imagine this working...anything powerful enough to pickup the strings from that distance would probably be really noisy and sound terrible. Why do this? There's no shame in Telecasters! If you want an Esquire, play an Esquire...if you want two pickups, play a Telecaster!

 

[loudriver23]

Re: Esquire "stealth" neck pickup anyone?

Maybe a piezo type of pup might work, I dunno. The distance from the strings magnetic pull yadda yadda. But yeah I would think you would need about the beefiest pickup there is to pickup any string vibrations from under the guard.
This is the first time I've hears of such a trick, who knows maybe someone has actually done this and can post their findings. I for one can not.

 

[NoOnesFang13]

Re: Esquire "stealth" neck pickup anyone?

harmonic design makes neck pickups the same colour as pickguards, so from a distance no one could tell

 

[ratkent]

Re: Esquire "stealth" neck pickup anyone?

I just found several guys who have done this with varying degrees of success over on the Tele Forum - http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaster-discussion-forum/

Very cool forum, BTW.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Esquire "stealth" neck pickup anyone?

Maybe a Dimebucker?

It's bright and very powerful, and at that distance, it should stay pretty clean and tight.

 

[sosomething]

Re: Esquire "stealth" neck pickup anyone?

Didn't Fender actually DO this on a model or two back in the 50s??

 

[Guest]

Re: Esquire "stealth" neck pickup anyone?

I've seen something similar but it's a blade pickup that is installed under the guard and the blade is the only thing visible. The blade will be huge as it's at more or less the same distance to the strings.

Sounds awful when I put it like this but doesn't really look that bad. Have no idea how it sounds.

 

[Guest]

Re: Esquire "stealth" neck pickup anyone?

I just found several guys who have done this with varying degrees of success over on the Tele Forum - http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaster-discussion-forum/

Very cool forum, BTW.

Any link in specific?

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Esquire "stealth" neck pickup anyone?

Fender Marauder.

It was kind of like a Jag with the hidden pickups.

 

[shawnr]

Re: Esquire "stealth" neck pickup anyone?

I saw a guy who drilled holes for the polepieces in the pickguard, so the poles were at least reasonably close to the strings, don't know what pup he was using, though.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Esquire "stealth" neck pickup anyone?

ive done this for two guys, kinda irked me but whatever. one wanted his favorite strat pup hidden and it worked but was weak.

the other one worked out much better, i made an a5 0.25" flat pole single coil with the poles flush with the top of the flatwork like on a quarter pound flat, recessed the pickguard a little on the underside to get the pup a touch closer to the strings, did a really heavy scatter with 42 single formvar i think it was around 7k after it settled in. it worked pretty well, the large magnets helped im sure.

 

[sosomething]

Re: Esquire "stealth" neck pickup anyone?

The real question here is... why use a hidden pickup? If you want the sound, what's so wrong with having a visible pickup?

A big part of what makes Esquires special is the tone they get from NOT HAVING a neck pickup exerting it's magnetic pull on the strings. Putting a "hidden" neck pickup in there pretty much defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

 

[jmh151]

Re: Esquire "stealth" neck pickup anyone?

I'd just put an EMG style pickup in there that would blend in with the black pickguard

 

[ratkent]

Re: Esquire "stealth" neck pickup anyone?

Any link in specific?

If you go to the site and put "stealth" in the search engine you get all kinds of threads about it. Some are dead ends but there a few guys who did thier homework and seemed to make this thing work.

Here's another cool link:

http://www.myoldguitars.com/wordpress/guitars/the-fender-stealth-esquire-built-by-john-english/

 

[loudriver23]

Re: Esquire "stealth" neck pickup anyone?

The real question here is... why use a hidden pickup? If you want the sound, what's so wrong with having a visible pickup?

A big part of what makes Esquires special is the tone they get from NOT HAVING a neck pickup exerting it's magnetic pull on the strings. Putting a "hidden" neck pickup in there pretty much defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

This feature certainly doesn't speak to me, but perhaps it's similar to the sleeper car in theory.
You have something that appears tame, but under the hood you have a 450bhp supercharged beast.
Just a thought...

 

[ratkent]

Re: Esquire "stealth" neck pickup anyone?

The real question here is... why use a hidden pickup? If you want the sound, what's so wrong with having a visible pickup?

A big part of what makes Esquires special is the tone they get from NOT HAVING a neck pickup exerting it's magnetic pull on the strings. Putting a "hidden" neck pickup in there pretty much defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

I hear you. I'm pretty sure it's a visual thing for some people. In this age of someone paying extra to have their guitar look like its been beaten up for 20 years I guess a hidden pickup just for aesthetics is not really that radical of an idea.

 

[Guest]

Re: Esquire "stealth" neck pickup anyone?

Noyce