esquire

[mrfjones]

okay so here is the thing, i broke my texas special neck pickup, not a big loss for me because i wanted to replace it later anyway, along with the bridge. but since i know i broke it, and it can be fixed, i ripped it out of the neck slot. I left the bridge pickup connected to the switch and then through the volume and tone pots. i didn't wire up any of the resistors or caps that usually go with an esquire, i really don't want to run it completely wide open and i don't want to muffle it either with an added cap and resistor, so i have a three position switch that has two settings for the pickup and then a kill where the neck should be.

it sounds better than it did before, but i need something different in the bridge. I was thinking that i should get something real hot, like 10 k or more and maybe have it tapped. any ideas? i would also like to have alnico 2 magnets if at all possible and i would not like a qp, feel free to suggest something other than duncan also. I like their pickups but i don't know if they have what i am looking for unless i go to the customshop. thanks guys

 

[Kelsey]

Re: esquire

Sounds like a custom shop hot tele tapped. If you don't mind alnico 5, then the standard STL-2 hot tele in a tapped version would sound good. My Antiquity I Tele neck pickup died, so I've been running esquire with the Antiquity I flatpole lead for a couple of weeks. It sounds awesome, but I miss the neck and middle tones too much to leave it.

I think one of the Tele lead HBs (BG1400, lil 59) would be cool in an esquire format, as you could wire it for SC, parallel HB, and series HB -- but that's a whole 'nother ballgame.

 

[mrfjones]

Re: esquire

i have been thinking about having one of seymours own tele pickups from the custom shop. lew, curly, is that a pickup i should be looking at?

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: esquire

Sure! I've learned to really appreciate Duncan's alnico 2 Tele bridge pickups. The Antiquity I, Jerry Donahue and CS Tapped Tele Hot have become three of my very favorite Tele bridge pickups.

The CS Tapped Tele Hot would be about 10K at full output or 6.5K tapped, so you can get chimey ryhthm tones with the 6.5K output combined with the neck pickup or hot soloing tones that start to rival the outout of a P 90 with the 10K output.

I have only used the a2 custom shop version and I really like it.

Lew

 

[Curly]

Re: esquire

Scott,
FWIW, I think the CS Tapped Hot Tele has been called Seymour's favorite pickup. For sure, I know that's what he likes - that's why I got one. I just haven't used it yet.

 

[mrfjones]

Re: esquire

well maybe i should get one too and put it in as an esquire as full, tapped and kill on the three way. it has been interesting to hear the difference in the bridge pickup after removing the neck pickup. it really came to life, problem is i don't really like the pickup, oh well just another reason for me to get something better. thanks guys.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: esquire

well maybe i should get one too and put it in as an esquire as full, tapped and kill on the three way. it has been interesting to hear the difference in the bridge pickup after removing the neck pickup. it really came to life, problem is i don't really like the pickup, oh well just another reason for me to get something better. thanks guys.

I keep telling people that: the neck pickup on a Tele chokes the tone and without it, the bridge pickup really comes to life. But I like having a neck pickup for chords and for combining with the bridge pickup for chimey rythym parts....so I don't own any Esquires.

Still: single pickup Esquires get a better more sustainful tone from the bridge pickup than that same pickup would get in a Tele with a neck pickup.

The neck pickup's magnetic field pulls the strings out of tune and messes with them. :saeek:

 

[mrfjones]

Re: esquire

that i agree with

 

[Luke Duke]

Re: esquire

I had been thinking of turning my tele into an esquire, but right now I'm too poor. I, for one, do like my QP bridge. I just wonder what it would sound like by itself? What I've really been thinking about is an A2 version of the QP.

Luke

 

[Falstaff]

Re: esquire

well maybe i should get one too and put it in as an esquire as full, tapped and kill on the three way. it has been interesting to hear the difference in the bridge pickup after removing the neck pickup. it really came to life, problem is i don't really like the pickup, oh well just another reason for me to get something better. thanks guys.

I had something similar to that, using a lone BG1400. It smoked. At the time, I only had one Tele, so I sold the pickup and put a more traditional one in there. Now the guitar is an Esquire again, with a nice traditional-sounding pickup. That being said, at some point I'll do the BG1400 thing again, 'cause it was amazing. I don't know how different the BG sounds from the other one, but if you are looking for something really different it's a great option. It's a very harmonically rich pickup anyway, but without a neck pickup it is even more complex. Wattage and Stevo have them and they might be able to give you some info.

 

[Kelsey]

Re: esquire

Since the issue seems to be the magnetic pull exerted by the neck pickup, I've been wondering if simply lowering the Tele neck pickup will yield a decent compromise, or if a neck HB or Phat Cat with bottom-loaded magnet helps remove some of the constraint on the Tele lead pickup. Any comments based on experience/experiments along these lines?

Also, Falstaff and others who've used the BG1400, is it hot enough to keep up with a full-size neck HB (PAF or slightly hotter)?

 

[mrfjones]

Re: esquire

I had been thinking of turning my tele into an esquire, but right now I'm too poor. I, for one, do like my QP bridge. I just wonder what it would sound like by itself? What I've really been thinking about is an A2 version of the QP.

Luke

an a2 version of the qp would be pretty cool, i just didn't like all the hum i got when i played a friends tele with one in the bridge, so the rio grand muy grande was out too.

 

[Falstaff]

Re: esquire

Since the issue seems to be the magnetic pull exerted by the neck pickup, I've been wondering if simply lowering the Tele neck pickup will yield a decent compromise, or if a neck HB or Phat Cat with bottom-loaded magnet helps remove some of the constraint on the Tele lead pickup. Any comments based on experience/experiments along these lines?

Also, Falstaff and others who've used the BG1400, is it hot enough to keep up with a full-size neck HB (PAF or slightly hotter)?

I never tried it, but I think yes. More than enough. Maybe either Wattage or Stevo has.

 

[mrfjones]

Re: esquire

i think the humbucker would cut down on the string pull but it will still have some cause the string is still in a magnetic field, same goes for a neck pickup that is lowered but you will start to see the difference. the sounds are just more full, sustain is longer and the harmonics just jump. it is really something, i think everyone should try and see if they like it. i had wanted to have an esquire for a long time but came about it accidentally. now i will be keeping it, at least for a while

 

[Kelsey]

Re: esquire

I've tried it twice now -- once with a Nocaster and now with an Antiquity I flatpole (still waiting on that replacement Antiquity rhythm pickup). I noticed a subtle difference in both cases, and it was nice, but I really end up missing the neck and combined tones. But this esquire thing also raises a question about whether the same issues hold for the neck pickup. For example, would a single neck pickup on a Strat sound different than the usual arrangement? I know SRV had at least one "esquirized" Strat, and a lot of archtops come loaded with a single neck pickup. Has anyone tried something like this?

 

[mrfjones]

Re: esquire

i would love to have a neck pickup only jazz box. i was seriously looking at a guild x150 for just that reason. a p90 would sound great in the neck alone too