Making Les Paul sounding like Telecaster

sc4070

New member
I like the Look of my Les Paul, but I always loved the sound of Telecaster more than anything, and hated the way it looks.

So what kind fo pick-up should I install to achive the sound of Telecaster?

Preferably, I would like to retain the humbucker appearance, and the functionality of Les Paul with 2 volume and 2 tone controls.

Should I use like really bright tone pot?

Any suggestion appreciated.

Thank you
 
Re: Making Les Paul sounding like Telecaster

do some research on a pickup by rio grande. i think it is caled the twang bucker. i don't know anything about it but the name of it sounds like it may help. or you could call mj in the custom shop
 
Re: Making Les Paul sounding like Telecaster

'59s have a bright sound that can get quite twangy in the bridge position of a Les Paul with the right amp settings. Not EXACTLY like a Telecaster, but it's in that twangy ballpark, especially if you pick near the bridge.

Splitting your pickups to get single coil sounds would probably help too - haven't tried that.
 
Re: Making Les Paul sounding like Telecaster

A coil tapped Duncan Custom tended to sound a lot like a Tele Bridge pup in a Korina-bodied Strat, if that helps any. In a Les Paul parallel wiring might be better because of the meat a Les Paul has.
 
Re: Making Les Paul sounding like Telecaster

korinastratkyle said:
... In a Les Paul, parallel wiring might be better because of the meat a Les Paul has.

yeah, this is what i was thinking .. maybe find a way to either use push/pull pots, or a 5 way rotary switch to get the 'prs style' options .. positions 2 and 4 really add some nice variety to the tonal pallette of a H-H guitar

cheers and good luck,
t4d
 
Re: Making Les Paul sounding like Telecaster

I think a nice splitting option would work better than anything else. And maybe a new pickup to split... the JB is supposed to sound strat-like... but that's not exactly Telecaster area.
 
Re: Making Les Paul sounding like Telecaster

The Phat Cats in my Epi Sheraton can do twang for days. That might be an option.
 
Re: Making Les Paul sounding like Telecaster

I tap the Demon pup in my SG X to get real vintage twangy clean tones. And pushed it gets real dirty. Its close to a strat, but unique in its own way.
 
Re: Making Les Paul sounding like Telecaster

Going out on a limb here... how about a P-90 with 1 meg volume and tone pots? Maybe add a resister and capacitor across the hot and output lugs of the volume to reduce loss of high as you roll off the volume for a brighter sound.
 
Re: Making Les Paul sounding like Telecaster

I'd install a JB bridge pickup and a push/pull tone pot for splitting or using the bridge pickup in parallel. You can use the switch for: series/single or series/parallel...but not both. I think the tone of a JB humbucker in parallel sounds alot like a bridge Tele pickup.

Lew
 
Re: Making Les Paul sounding like Telecaster

The problem with Teles is that they are vastly different than Les Pauls. Different bridges, different materials and different scale lengths. I have a Tele here at the house as well as a couple of modded LPs and the LPs don't sound like the Tele, but it is possible to get into the ballpark.

The first thing to do is verify what kind of guitar you have. Production LPs have a steel plate in the control cavity and this will limit your wiring options. The steel plate LPs will not accept dpdt pots without some fairly serious modification to the control cavity. If you have one of these guitars you will be limited to splitting the humbuckers because you need dpdt switches to series/parallel wire a humbucker. If you have a historic reissue, Epiphone or any other type of LP copy you can most likely use a sort shaft dpdt pot and then parallel wiring will be an option unless the cavity is very shallow.

Splitting will probably be your best way to go though so don't worry too much about it. I'd suggest splitting the pickups (both neck and bridge) for best results. What I have found it that while the neck or bridge split does sound somewhat more like a Tele in that the guitars tone becomes brighter, the combined neck and bridge split will get you that mid cancelled Tele tone that you hear on a lot of Rolling Stones clean guitar work.

As far as pickups are concerned I've found that 59s work well for this just because they are bright and spanky already and splitting them in pairs does sound fairly believable for the Tele thing but you can use any splittable humbuckers.

If you need long shaft pots the allparts part number is EP 4486. I just found a pair of those new in the packaging in my parts bin the other day while looking for a Strat 5 way switch.

My last suggestion would be to wire to opposite coils so both pickups split will be hum cancelling. I'd suggest wiring the bridge humbucker to split to the south coil (closest to bridge) as the tone will be a little tighter and brighter and split the neck humbucker to the north coil. That part is easily done by connecting the bridge red/white wires to hot instead of ground. Just run a jumper wire from the bridge pickup black wire connection at the volume pot to one of the spst switch terminals, the other terminal will be the SD bridge pickups red/white wires.

The neck pickup will split to ground as is normally done to split a humbucker.
 
Re: Making Les Paul sounding like Telecaster

my guess would be a Phat Cat bridge pickup set kind of low.......so youd get more of a beefy aggresive single coil sound
 
Re: Making Les Paul sounding like Telecaster

Like I said: The JB in particular, sounds alot like a nice Tele bridge pickup when used in the parallel mode. Robert's right about the struggle getting a DP/DT push/pull switch in one of those 70's Les Paul with the controls mounted to the steel plate. If you don't have that plate in your control cavity: NO PROBLEMO! If you do, it's a problem.

If you don't have that steel plate in the control cavity, install apair of DP/DT push/pull tone pots. Split the neck 59N and parallel the bridge JB. Lew
 
Re: Making Les Paul sounding like Telecaster

I've just fitted a Stag mag with coil tap in my SG and that sounds very Tele like to my ears. I do have a tele and it ain't quite the same but not too far off considerng the differences in build.

Mick
 
Re: Making Les Paul sounding like Telecaster

I'm siding with LewGuitar on this one. Install a JB and a DPDT pot to either split the coils or put them in parallel. That should give you enough top end and twang to sound Teleish.
 
Re: Making Les Paul sounding like Telecaster

To get this single coil feeling one great way to go it is ussing a Stag Mag split. I have made myself two hybrid humbuckers with an Stag Mag and a cheese humbucker (without the bar magnet, I don't want it to interfere with the rod mag of the StagMag). I only use them split because I didn't care to use the bad quality coil (but it helps to keep the views :) ). I have this pickups intaled in the neck and bridge position of a Guild S-100 (SG type of guitar) and I absolutely love the tone of this pickups.

The SM split are very fenderish with picking responsiviness, twang and quack. But the 24'75 scale character and the mahogany comes throught too so it is very hard to get the edgy tone of a strat or a tele, in trade you get the warm fattter tone sometimes the strat and tele miss.

To avoid some of the noise you get from the single coils I have put a nickel cover on the pickups with the rod magnets coming out throught the holes of the cover. This helps a lot to keep the views and provides a good shielding. As a plus the middle position it is humcancelling. I haven't tried the bridge and middle in series but surely they have to rock: high output, humcanceling... mmh :rolleyes:

If you want a exact tele replica from your LesPaul I should say that you'll never get it. The differences in desing and materials are a huge gap that a pickup change won't solve. But If you want the character and the feeling I think you'll be very satisfied with the Stag Mags.
 
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