Introducing the new Brad Paisley Secret Agent Esquire Neck Pickup!

Hey Lew; I'm not following you here. On my (Fender) Tele, the strings run parallel to the pickguard. Why would this pup be any different under the middle position than the neck position? Maybe I'm misunderstanding you. (That neck pup looks bad because I haven't removed the plastic yet.)


Looks like I exaggerated a little. But your guitar seemingly doesn't have much of a neck angle Artie.

The low E string definitely get further from the pickguard near the bridge of my Strats and Teles, compared to the distance from the underside of the string at the neck position.

I just took a second look and measured to be certain.

If I were to put the middle pickup of my Strats under the pickguard, the open strings would be 1/2" away from the pickup at the middle position and 7/16" away at the neck.
 
That's interesting. My Strat's and Tele's necks tend to run fairly parallel with the body.

However, on a different note, I'm embarrassed to say that I just now listened to that video. That pup is pretty subtle. It may not be keeping within the spirit of the 3-pup BM Tele. I may go back to my original idea of an STK-4 in there. ;)
 
Thanks. This is Johnson's take on Epiphones SST. It's not bad now, but it needed a total setup and redo by my luthier friend, (Buddy Scott), before it was playable. (Including replacing the UST.)



This is almost exactly what I want to do now with my Brent Mason Tele. I already have the single/mini-hum pickguard, so I'll need to find a straight mini-hum pickguard. Then hide the BPSA underneath. I'd use a 3-way for the N/B because the BM Tele control plate has a separate push-pull volume for the center pup. I think that could be the bee's knee's.

I'd love to see/hear that! This is my Tele currently, I'd love to add that additional flexibility, but maintain the look.

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I guess it would only be the price of a pickguard to set it up both ways. Well, and the price of the Secret Agent pup.
 
The problem will be getting enough volume and a good tone out of the hidden pickup. Used in the neck position, the Brad Paisley hidden pickup will sit 3/8 - 1/2" away from the strings. Used in the middle position it'll be even further from the strings. You'll need a very high output pickup. Even so, getting a great tone from such a pickup in the middle position and now 1/2" or more away from the strings seems like it will be a challenge.

Yeah, that is the issue. I don't know if it could be done...so it is just speculation on my part. Hidden pickups have been tried a few times over the years.
 
It does make you wonder . . . would it be different if you just hid something like a QP under there?
 
The Fender Marauder had 4 hidden pickups.

Fender used both the Stratocaster and the Jaguar body for the prototypes.

They didn't sell many, but it did make it into the Fender catalog.

This would have been one of things dreamed up during the CBS era.

Not Fender's finest hour.

The black and white photo showing the four pickups was the prototype and they used a Stratocaster for the body.

The final design looked more like a Jaguar.

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I had heard of the Marauder, but I am not sure how many made it into the wild. I've never known anyone who played one, so I don't know how well it worked.
 
What? Yup, you guessed right- a neck pickup for an Esquire...that's hidden:

Read about it here.


I'll tell ya...when I watch this video it still makes me want to order one because the neck pickup in my Esquire doesn't sound as good as this one.

Of course, I'm not Brad Paisley. But still....
 
The problem with a standard Tele neck pickup, I think, is two fold: a small coil and the polepieces are covered by the metal cover.
 
A pickguard shouldn't interfere with a pup signal, right? So, theoretically, one could take a standard Tele, with a Strat neck route, and lower the pup down to where the top was even with where the bottom of the pickguard would be, for testing purposes?
 
A pickguard shouldn't interfere with a pup signal, right? So, theoretically, one could take a standard Tele, with a Strat neck route, and lower the pup down to where the top was even with where the bottom of the pickguard would be, for testing purposes?

I've done that with a Strat middle pickup. Sounds like crap. A pretty useless sound.
 
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