Looking to upgrade from Duncan Designed

[wwit]

Hey all, thanks in advance for any input. I tryed search, didnt realy see anything that applied.

I just picked up a cheap Squire VM Tele Special. Realy nice playing guitar for $300 bucks. It has Duncan Designed TE-101B Bridge Pickup and a JM-101N Single-Coil Jazzmaster Pickup with AlNiCo 5 Magnets. These are okay for what they are in an inexpensive guitar. But they just dont scream "Im A TELE" to me. Well they sound Tele-ish in a weak and noisey sort of way. Im finding that I realy have to dig in way harder than normal with the volume dimed.

So Im looking for improvement.

Things to concider.
Basswood Body, Maple 1 peice neck.
I dont play CW or chicken picken, so I dont need country Twang.
I play heavy rock, fat blues and barely scratch metal.
Instead of the Jazzmaster pup in the neck, Im considering something else. Possibly P90. i have no problems replacing pickguard or modifing body to accept other pickups.

My main concern is in keeping with the Tele tone. Most of my guitars have HB's in them. What I dont want to do , is end up with a Tele that sounds like a Les Paul. I already have a Les Paul that sounds like a Les Paul. Does that make sence?

The pots/caps etc will get upgraded to US made parts along with the pickup changes.

Thanks again.

Non glam truck bed pic just out of the box.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Looking to upgrade from Duncan Designed

Welcome aboard!

I'm not a Tele player, but I know from experience that Seymour Duncans cost more than Duncan-Designed for a reason, and that reason is tone quality. It's always paid off for me to upgrade PU's. Duncan makes some of the best.

Hang on, the Tele boys will be here soon.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Looking to upgrade from Duncan Designed

What is it, specifically, about your neck Pup that you don't like? A P-90 is always an excellent choice.

What about the bridge pup? There are several good choices here...1/4 pounder, Jerry Donahue

 

[wwit]

Re: Looking to upgrade from Duncan Designed

Welcome aboard!

I'm not a Tele player, but I know from experience that Seymour Duncans cost more than Duncan-Designed for a reason, and that reason is tone quality. It's always paid off for me to upgrade PU's. Duncan makes some of the best.

Hang on, the Tele boys will be here soon.

Thanks for the Welcome.

Ive have lots of experience with the regular quality SD humbuckers over the years and liked every one Ive tryed. And Yeah for a $300 guitar, I knew going in that as long as it was a decent foundation , then modding was the plan.

 

[wwit]

Re: Looking to upgrade from Duncan Designed

What is it, specifically, about your neck Pup that you don't like? A P-90 is always an excellent choice.

What about the bridge pup? There are several good choices here...1/4 pounder, Jerry Donahue

Actually both pickups. Both just dont have any volume. I have my amps set up so that I can play my LP at 5 on the volume and still have plenty for a built in boost. Plugging the Tele into it and rolling off the volume to 5ish and they got nothing. Dimed on my cleans they sound okay, but lack UMPH. On my dirty channels is when the 60 cycle noise gets realy nasty. And Im looking for a nice FAT bluesy sound.

I know part of the noise is coming from the factory wiring. I popped the cover and its typical micro small pots and chicklet cap and what appear to be cold solder joints. I think adding some copper shilding will help too.

My Strats have all had single coils in them, but were alot quieter. My Warmoth makes almost no noise at all. I would like to stick with traditional sounding pickups. Do the stacked or HB Tele pickups sound just tonally like single coils?