New project idea: 4 pickups Tele style guitar

[Teleplayer]

If it was me, I'd make it a HSH config, and probably choose a hum cancelling strat pickup for the middle, such as Duncan STK-S4m (middle version). Combining with the PAF-style neck humbucker in position 4, its make a less bassy tone with a subtle quack. In position 2, I like to split the pickups so it gives good brightness and maximum quack. Obviously there are endless options depending on your objectives.

 

[orpheo]

https://www.sawtoothworld.com/electric-et-hybrid-series

something like this?

 

[jeremy]

the two three ways that close would mess me up but that looks badass!

 

[maup]

Again, thanks a lot to each one of you for your great ideas!

Reading about all, two other versions came to my mind. One with 4 pickups and one with 3, because if I can put a single sized HB in the neck, and split it, maybe it is useless to have the original tele single coil? Or maybe I can use it to combine with other... too many options!

What do you think about these two below?

 

[Mincer]

I don't know if I'd bother splitting the little humbuckers, but putting them in parallel would be a more useful sound.

 

[jeremy]

i dont mind the neck and middle split but almost always prefer the bridge in parallel over split

 

[orpheo]

the two three ways that close would mess me up but that looks badass!

Yes agreed. It's a stupid way of going about it too. You can easily get this done with a 4 pole 2 way toggle (selects hums or singles) and then the 3 way to select bridge or neck. This just goes the other way around.

In fact, there even are 4 pole 3 way blade switches by Oak Grigsby so this is totally redundant.

 

[Clint 55]

Do the 4 pickup one. I have a bunch of pickguards I made with 2 neck pickups and it's awesome.

 

[jeremy]

Yes agreed. It's a stupid way of going about it too. You can easily get this done with a 4 pole 2 way toggle (selects hums or singles) and then the 3 way to select bridge or neck. This just goes the other way around.

In fact, there even are 4 pole 3 way blade switches by Oak Grigsby so this is totally redundant.

this works much better for me. having the switches so close would mess me up on stage all the time

 

[CaptainWhizz]

Again, thanks a lot to each one of you for your great ideas!

Reading about all, two other versions came to my mind. One with 4 pickups and one with 3, because if I can put a single sized HB in the neck, and split it, maybe it is useless to have the original tele single coil? Or maybe I can use it to combine with other... too many options!

What do you think about these two below?

If you’re putting the plate in with the small switches to turn the pickups on and off, why not make them 3-way switches with series/ off / parallel options? Rather than also having push-pulls on the volume and tone pots?

 

[Teleplayer]

this works much better for me. having the switches so close would mess me up on stage all the time

Jeremy's guitar looks like a much better idea. The thing I dislike about the Sawtooth guitar is the odd positioning of the bridge Humbucker, as it does not sound like a bridge humbucker is supposed to sound. Duplication of both single coil and humbucker middle pickups seems unnecessary, so I would rather choose a pickup configuration like Jeremy's. The only change I would consider is putting a Coolrails in the neck as it will have more balanced output level, and work well with 50ok controls.

I'm curious to know if Jeremy's guitar has effective 250k loading of the neck single coil, or if its using the same controls as the humbucker.

 

[jeremy]

thats an antiquity II jaguar bridge pup in the neck (a5 flat pole), a paf type a2 bucker i wound, and a hot rails neck pup in the bridge. 250k volume and tone for the neck and bridge pups, tele style three way and push pull to put the hot rails in parallel. 500k volume for the bucker. the lp style toggle allows "singles"/both/humbucker.

 

[Teleplayer]

thats an antiquity II jaguar bridge pup in the neck (a5 flat pole), a paf type a2 bucker i wound, and a hot rails neck pup in the bridge. 250k volume and tone for the neck and bridge pups, tele style three way and push pull to put the hot rails in parallel. 500k volume for the bucker. the lp style toggle allows "singles"/both/humbucker.

Thanks for the info. I've been considering a strat style guitar with a middle humbucker.

When you split the humbucker, is it possible to get a Strat-like quack when combining middle and neck pickups?

 

[Bowtomecha]

Everybody thinks of EVH when it comes to chopping up a guitar but Steve Morse needs credit for making many a guitarist mangle their guitars as well lol.

 

[Mincer]

Everybody thinks of EVH when it comes to chopping up a guitar but Steve Morse needs credit for making many a guitarist mangle their guitars as well lol.

Indeed...and he gets a lot out of his 4 pickup model, too. He constantly switches between settings, to where it sounds like a completely different guitar. His Tele above also, at times, held a synth pickup, too, so that's 5 pickups.

 

[jeremy]

Thanks for the info. I've been considering a strat style guitar with a middle humbucker.

When you split the humbucker, is it possible to get a Strat-like quack when combining middle and neck pickups?

sorta, its a usable sound but doesnt sound like a good strat. with the placement of the middle bucker on mine, i split to the black stud coil. it quacks but it sounds different than a strat for sure. partially because of placement, partially construction. if it was an a5 magnet and closer towards the normal strat placement, it might be better but its still a split bucker.

 

[maup]

Interesting video about swapping bridge-neck telecaster pickups:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6n0XOlJ8uk

I think putting both in the middle would retain most of their sound and charateristics, adding more tonal versatility, plus two new pickups in regular neck and bridge position, with parallel-series switch, and all the possible combination between the 4, would turn out a great fun guitar to play with.

Now my next problem is to make a custom pickguard, since I don't think I will find anything, also I don't want to destroy the original one, because as far as I know there is very little or almost no aftermarket parts for these particular guitars. I'm thinking to take a cheap sheet of black plastic and use the original pickguard as template, then cut it by hand at the best I can with a precision hand arch saw (not sure about the proper term).

 

[Teleplayer]

I think putting both in the middle would retain most of their sound and charateristics, adding more tonal versatility, plus two new pickups in regular neck and bridge position, with parallel-series switch, and all the possible combination between the 4, would turn out a great fun guitar to play with.

I have to add my comment about the effect of moving pickups between the neck, bridge and middle positions. Having the pickup in the middle makes it sound thinner, as its less bassy than in the neck position, but less highs than in the bridge position. So its tends to be a broad-mid sound. Anyway it is not the same sound as the same pickup in the bridge or neck positions. That is easily proven by the tone of the Stratocaster middle pickup. The pickup position is a large part of the sound.

There is a theoretical simulation of the effect of pickup position on the following link.
http://www.till.com/articles/PickupResponseDemo/

 

[maup]

I have to add my comment about the effect of moving pickups between the neck, bridge and middle positions. Having the pickup in the middle makes it sound thinner, as its less bassy than in the neck position, but less highs than in the bridge position. So its tends to be a broad-mid sound. Anyway it is not the same sound as the same pickup in the bridge or neck positions. That is easily proven by the tone of the Stratocaster middle pickup. The pickup position is a large part of the sound.

There is a theoretical simulation of the effect of pickup position on the following link.
http://www.till.com/articles/PickupResponseDemo/

Thanks for the web page, very interesting.

I agree with you and I know that same pickup in different positions give different tone.

Let me clear my own sentence from previous message.

Before I had the idea that swapping bridge-neck pickups would turn out to be a unusable guitar because of output difference and other reasons (I don't know why I had this idea). But I was wrong. Seems that, even with different tone due to the position, they will anyway produce interesting sounds.

So putting both in the middle would of course be different from original position but could give more options for using them alone or in combination with the others.