My First Tele!

jonnymangia

jonnymangia

New member
Went to GC's Memorial Day sale and walked out with a tobacco burst (or whatever you call it in Fender land) MIM tele. She's a player. I actually liked the way it sounded better than some of the MIA Tele's they had on the floor.

Now, what to do about my pups...I will be using this guitar for dirty blues and funk/soul mostly. Here are some of the Tele tones I dig - Izzy Stradlin, Steve Cropper, Prince, Bloomfield, Muddy, and alot of the early r-n-r guys.

I was thinking of putting a P-90 in the neck. What do you guys think? As for the bridge, my bro has a 1/4 pounder in his MIJ tele bridge and I think it's too HEAVY sounding for a tele - I have Gibson's for that sound.

OK Christian, I'm waiting!:fingersx:

THANKS!
 
Re: My First Tele!

If it sounds great, why change the pickups?

The stock MiM pickups are excellent for the tone they're intended for.
 
Last edited:
Re: My First Tele!

jonnymangia said:
OK Christian, I'm waiting!:fingersx:

THANKS!
Click to expand...


Im not a fan of P-90's or buckers in Tele necks to be honest but if you got a farily low output P-90/bucker it could be cool.

If you are looking for a old school sound stay away form QP's, rails and lil buckers...try a JD or a Broadcaster in the bridge and a vintage rhythm in the neck, or if you go P90 I'd try a vintage neck or if you go bucker try either a Seth or Ant neck, but if it were me I'd go with a Tele single coil set.

If you do want something a little hotter try a Quater Pounder BUT get the tapped version, or for that matter try a Hot Tapped Tele...both of those can cover a lot of ground between vintage Tele tones AND hotter more modern sounds, of the 2 the Hot Tapped Tele is my fav...plus a Hot Tapped Tele woudl be much better at keeping up with a bucker or a P-90.

Nice score, enjoy it and keep us posted!
 
Re: My First Tele!

the guy who invented fire said:
Im not a fan of P-90's or buckers in Tele necks to be honest but if you got a farily low output P-90/bucker it could be cool.

If you are looking for a old school sound stay away form QP's, rails and lil buckers...try a JD or a Broadcaster in the bridge and a vintage rhythm in the neck, or if you go P90 I'd try a vintage neck or if you go bucker try either a Seth or Ant neck, but if it were me I'd go with a Tele single coil set.

If you do want something a little hotter try a Quater Pounder BUT get the tapped version, or for that matter try a Hot Tapped Tele...both of those can cover a lot of ground between vintage Tele tones AND hotter more modern sounds, of the 2 the Hot Tapped Tele is my fav...plus a Hot Tapped Tele woudl be much better at keeping up with a bucker or a P-90.

Nice score, enjoy it and keep us posted!
Click to expand...


+1, except I've never tried the bucker or P90 thang.

Luke
 
Re: My First Tele!

Remove the neck pickup for hours of fun.

PS: those guys you mentioned generally have stock setups (ie no P90). Especially necessary for Cropper and Bloomfield. Just play the thing for a few months. Fender makes good pickups.
 
Re: My First Tele!

I'm kinda intriqued about a Firebird type pickup in the neck of a Tele though..Like Seymour put into the new Hot Rod Tele...Or whatever that pickup is? That smaller Firebird sized pickup.I Know it's not the Firebird pickup.
 
Re: My First Tele!

Thanks for all the info fellas.
I've found that aftermarket pups are much better than the stockers in most lower-mid priced guitars out there, and I've been itching to try some SD pups styled for Fenders, so this is my opportunity.

I'm definitely staying away from modern-voiced pups and I don't want the high gain models either. The set that Christian voulunteered sounds great...off to the clips page!

J
 
Re: My First Tele!

Frankly said:
Remove the neck pickup for hours of fun.

PS: those guys you mentioned generally have stock setups (ie no P90). Especially necessary for Cropper and Bloomfield. Just play the thing for a few months. Fender makes good pickups.
Click to expand...

+1. If you're satisfied with the sound why change the pups?

HOWEVER, if you DO want to change the pups I'd suggest:

Bridge pups
SD Broadcaster
SD Vintage '54
SD JD
Fender '51 Nocaster

Neck pups
SD Alnico Pro II tele neck (s/c)
SD Jazz bridge (bucker)
SD Phat Cat neck (P-90)
SD Brobucker (bucker)

I have the same Tele as you, except it's an '04. The pups are stock and I've removed the original tone pot and dropped in a TBX. When I get around to it I'm going to install a second volume pot in the pickguard (so each pup has an individual volume control) with a push/pull for series/parallel wiring in the middle position. I'm fairly happy with the pups but when I get another Tele I'm putting a phat cat in my current one.
 
Re: My First Tele!

jonnymangia said:
Thanks for all the info fellas.
I've found that aftermarket pups are much better than the stockers in most lower-mid priced guitars out there, and I've been itching to try some SD pups styled for Fenders, so this is my opportunity.

I'm definitely staying away from modern-voiced pups and I don't want the high gain models either. The set that Christian voulunteered sounds great...off to the clips page!

J
Click to expand...

Go against the whole "Seymour Duncan only" idea and check out GFS pickups. They've got some killer offerings for cheap. I can't vouch for them enough. :D

Of course, I've never played SDs before. (why am I here)
 
Re: My First Tele!

Fender_Punk said:
+1. If you're satisfied with the sound why change the pups?

HOWEVER, if you DO want to change the pups I'd suggest:

Bridge pups
SD Broadcaster
SD Vintage '54
SD JD
Fender '51 Nocaster

Neck pups
SD Alnico Pro II tele neck (s/c)
SD Jazz bridge (bucker)
SD Phat Cat neck (P-90)
SD Brobucker (bucker)

I have the same Tele as you, except it's an '04. The pups are stock and I've removed the original tone pot and dropped in a TBX. When I get around to it I'm going to install a second volume pot in the pickguard (so each pup has an individual volume control) with a push/pull for series/parallel wiring in the middle position. I'm fairly happy with the pups but when I get another Tele I'm putting a phat cat in my current one.
Click to expand...


Great info...thanks! BTW, what gauge strings do you guys use on your Teles? I use 11's on my Gibson's but I figured that might take the "spank" out of the Tele so I went with a pair of 10's that can be bent, pulled, and plucked (I'm a very percussive player!) easier in standard tuning.
 
Re: My First Tele!

I use .10-.46 D'Addario or EBs. I want to start getting D'Addario XLS (stainless steels) of the same gauge on ymguitars, to make things come to life even more!!
 
Re: My First Tele!

Fender just did your work for you by upgrading the pickups on the 2006 MIM teles. If you just want to replace the pickups for the sake of replacing pickups, there is nothing wrong with that...we've all done it. However, you may find that you like the way it sounded before better. Don't stress on that, you can always go back to the originals and put your experiments up on ebay. However, if you are looking for great pickups for dirty blues, funk and soul, the ones you have are fine.

If this is your first tele, you will soon find that the gutiar responds to the volume and tone knobs like no other. You really can get a wide range of tones with some minor adjustments.

With that being said, I've heard great things about the Jerry Donahue for the bridge and a lot of folks like the Jazz HB for the neck.

As far as strings, I just switched from D'addario XL 10s to 11s and I love it. Bends are a bit more difficult, but your fingers will adapt if you work at it. I actually think my tele has more twang with the 11s and they really bring out the "growl" when palying an overdriven amp.

Good Luck!
 
Re: My First Tele!

I would leave it unmolested for a month or so before making changes........... You ears just might get attached to it the way it is now......
 
Re: My First Tele!

I'd suggest working with the stock pickups for a time. Figure out how what it is that you feel they are missing and go from there. Then write up a post and ask away at that time. But, before you get back to playing it and getting a feel for the controls and pick ups, post some pics already! ;)
 
Re: My First Tele!

I dunno, I've got a Hotrail in a light ash Tele and it SINGS blues licks and still maintains it's twang.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top