New guitar build: Tele pickup decisions

R

robo

New member
HELP WANTED

I'm building a new parts caster.
  • Tele thinline
  • Warmoth roasted adler body
  • Warmoth birdseye maple neck with rosewood board
I'm after an open and woody tone, but without the over-twangy part of the tele sound. Vintage warm sort of thing. Mostly for playing with little or no overdrive. Jazzy stuff.

I have a solid body swamp ash tele with a Duncan Jerry Donahue lead pickup paired with a Vintage for tele neck. That guitar really stings – I love it. But this new guitar is for mellower stuff.

I was thinking of the Duncan Antiquities, but I'm no fan of the "fake old" look.

So what to buy?
Vintage tele pickup, with controlled highs and open midier sound. Working in that kind of guitar described above.
Preferably Duncans. Preferably not reliced.
 
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You can order Antiquities without the aged look, but those are going to give you a traditional Tele sound, with lots of twang. I'd look at the Alnico II set, or if you want to completely get away from a Tele sound, the Little 59.
 
So...warm...
You can approach warm from a few different angles.
You can go for more winds. more output, polepiece magnet choice (as stated above)...to an extent.
You can go for a larger pickup window aperture (in the neck), which means a P-90, Mini-hum, a CC of some description, or HB.
The larger string sensing field usually gives a bigger, warmer sound.
Out of those three, for warm jazzy smoke in a Tele, I would recommend a mini-hum or a CC (Charlie Christian).

Mini-hums work really well in Tele necks to pair with a Tele bridge in my experience.
P-90's and HB's tend to overpower a Tele bridge (I know, I know, both have countless adoring fans)
But in my experience both P-90's and HB's tend to overpower a Tele bridge, then you have to begin adapting and neutering something to get them to match.
With a Mini, you don't have to neuter anything or adapt, they play well together.
The Mini-hum, while giving a warmer sound, still retains the clarity that Tele players usually want.
Its like the perfect middle-ground, one foot in warm, one foot in clarity, w/o going overboard in either direction.
A HB or P-90 can become too loud, woofy, and overpowering, lacking the detail and clarity a Mini retains.

So I would suggest a vintage wind mini-hum w/ cover in the neck or a CC, then choose the bridge to match.
That will give you some smokey warm Tele jazz while still sounding like a Tele.
I've tried all options personally, and the Mini has paired with the Tele bridge the best out of the bunch.

Of course, one could give examples of countless players who play jazz with a straight-up Tele, I know that.
But a Mini-hum does make it much easier and matches really well with countless Tele bridge choices.
 
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Mincer said:
You can order Antiquities without the aged look, but those are going to give you a traditional Tele sound, with lots of twang. I'd look at the Alnico II set, or if you want to completely get away from a Tele sound, the Little 59.
Click to expand...

Huh, did not know you could order the Antiquities un-aged (is that even a word?). I'll have to look into that. But the Alnico II set you're talking about sound pretty much spot on, to me. I've seen them but somehow missed them anyway. Maybe that's the winner right there? Thank you!
 
Drak said:
So...warm...
You can approach warm from a few different angles.
You can go for more winds. more output, polepiece magnet choice (as stated above)...to an extent.
You can go for a larger pickup window aperture (in the neck), which means a P-90, Mini-hum, a CC of some description, or HB.
The larger string sensing field usually gives a bigger, warmer sound.
Out of those three, for warm jazzy smoke in a Tele, I would recommend a mini-hum or a CC (Charlie Christian).

Mini-hums work really well in Tele necks to pair with a Tele bridge in my experience.
P-90's and HB's tend to overpower a Tele bridge (I know, I know, both have countless adoring fans)
But in my experience both P-90's and HB's tend to overpower a Tele bridge, then you have to begin adapting and neutering something to get them to match.
With a Mini, you don't have to neuter anything or adapt, they play well together.
The Mini-hum, while giving a warmer sound, still retains the clarity that Tele players usually want.
Its like the perfect middle-ground, one foot in warm, one foot in clarity, w/o going overboard in either direction.
A HB or P-90 can become too loud, woofy, and overpowering, lacking the detail and clarity a Mini retains.

So I would suggest a vintage wind mini-hum w/ cover in the neck or a CC, then choose the bridge to match.
That will give you some smokey warm Tele jazz while still sounding like a Tele.
I've tried all options personally, and the Mini has paired with the Tele bridge the best out of the bunch.

Of course, one could give examples of countless players who play jazz with a straight-up Tele, I know that.
But a Mini-hum does make it much easier and matches really well with countless Tele bridge choices.
Click to expand...

Wow, what a reply! Thank you! I've been avoiding humbuckers in teles. I know many like them, but I think the difference in sound between neck and bridge gets too big with a humbucker neck. It's like a whole other ball park, sound wise.

And I know of course that many play jazz on regular old teles, or brand new ones too for that matter. And play way better than me, so it's not so much in the pickups as it is the fingers. But I have two regular teles. And the no live gigs for a year covid situation is really killing me – we're all in the same boat of course. So I decided to start a new build to inspire me to play more at home. I have two regular teles already. My main guitar being an swap ash twangster. So the whole idea with this build is to go away from that. So that's why I'm after a warmer guitar. My other tele has all the bite I need.

Charlie Christian pickups, well that's a great idea. Thank you. I'll look further into it. I know Tim Lerch has a sweet sounding tele with CC pickups. But then again any guitar he picks up sounds sweet – so maybe it's not the Christinans after all. I've never tried those kind of pickups though, so maybe this will be the right time. But you have to rout out a bit more to get those in right?

Kind regards and thanks for your kind help!
 
robo said:
Huh, did not know you could order the Antiquities un-aged (is that even a word?). I'll have to look into that. But the Alnico II set you're talking about sound pretty much spot on, to me. I've seen them but somehow missed them anyway. Maybe that's the winner right there? Thank you!
Click to expand...

Yeah, from your description, that seems to be the ticket. There is a set for Strats, too, which accomplish the same goal.
 
Mincer said:
Yeah, from your description, that seems to be the ticket. There is a set for Strats, too, which accomplish the same goal.
Click to expand...

Actually, you convinced me. I checked them out and pulled the trigger on a set today! Can’t wait to put them in my new build. But then again Warmoth custom builds takes a while. I’m glad to have the guitar up and running in late June or something.

Thank you again, this forum is the best!
 
As stated above, Warmoth builds takes a while. But it's all for good quality's sake. The body and neck arrived today finally – I ordered them in the beginning of March. Now it's time for paint and soldering shenanigans! I bought a Alnico II Pro™ Tele set as user "Mincer" recommended above. It's gonna be really fun to hear how it sounds up and running.

warmoth.jpg
 
Those look great! I am building a Warmoth, too, so I know how fun it is to see those parts arrive. Take some pics during the build process, and let us know how this project turns out!
 
I know I'm too late to help since you already bought the Alnico 2 set, but if the bridge doesn't work out the way you hope you might consider the 10k. The 1/4" dia poles pick up a lot more string vibration and give a really good fuller tone...more mids and more power.
 
GuitarDoc said:
I know I'm too late to help since you already bought the Alnico 2 set, but if the bridge doesn't work out the way you hope you might consider the 10k. The 1/4" dia poles pick up a lot more string vibration and give a really good fuller tone...more mids and more power.
Click to expand...

Thank you GuitarDoc I will keep it in mind… I'm still in painting mode here. Soon though there will be time to put it all together!


gurka.jpg
 
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