Hello to you fellow guitarfellows and greetings from cold northern Europe!
I've been having my two main guitars (check profile if interested) for years now, and some other brief sidekicks now and then along them. I've managed ok, thanks to the invincible (spelled it right?) Powerhouse Strat that seems to handle anything. From Finnish traditional dance music (nothing to do with the dance music you know) to hard'n'heavy stuff, via blues, classic rock etc. So I'm pretty pleased and able to do the things making me alive, with full intensity.
BUT. Then I visited Warmoth.com. A dream (of a semi-self-built completely custom guitar) I once buried came back to life like a mad zombie. I was first very sure it'll be a hollow Strat (alder w/ walnut top) with a classic S-S-S pickup conf, maybe a bridge humbucker in single coil size or a Tele-sounding sc. But now I'm bouncing there and Beck (ha ha) between that idea and a crossbreed of Strat, Tele and Jazzmaster. Jazzmaster body with Strat type vintage tremolo and Strat+Tele type pickups. Why? Well, I already have a Strat, I don't have a Tele, and I like Jazzmaster's looks but don't have much use to it's sounds.
Then to the question itself. It's about the Jazzmaster option, in case I choose to go with it, like it seems.
Though I'm looking for a "Stratty" feeling and touch to it (just to feel like home) spiced with a couple of Tele sounds, I've got no idea how to do it. Well of course some guidelines, but there seem to be problems ahead. I want a tremolo (no exceptions), so is there a bridge s.c. pickup that could do some magic and bring some thing (punch? growl? don't know a word for it in my own language even...) of Telecaster's sound I think is there because of the Hardtail, or even close? The main thing would be digging up the clean Tele bridge pickup sound for clean fast solo things, country picking and such, and the combination of bridge and neck single coils as it sounds on a Tele, but still maintaining the Strat's neck & middle pickup sounds (alone and combined). Wouldn't be too bad to get the Strat's bridge & middle sound too...
So the diagram is not a problem, I've sorted it out to suit me, I think. The problem are the pickups. My general preference as this guitar's sound and feel is not all vintage, but something in between of that and the hottest single coil pickups (definite and infinite NO for active pickups!). Fender Texas Specials have been on my mind few years back, maybe they're not so off the idea of beefed up vintages? But guess I can't get the Tele sounds even close right with them... Ideas for pickups?
Just to mention again, this guitar does not exist, and it may well go as far as the end of summer 'til I've got it in my hands... I'm just that sort of guy who has to have everything planned and objectives set for the moneysaving process to succeed... And it's always nice to play mind-games, isn't it?
P.S. My posts tend to go long, because I want to be specific... Hope you read it and got some sense to it!
EDIT: And the title is misleading, I'm only newbie to this forum, not to guitars or guitar playing!
I've been having my two main guitars (check profile if interested) for years now, and some other brief sidekicks now and then along them. I've managed ok, thanks to the invincible (spelled it right?) Powerhouse Strat that seems to handle anything. From Finnish traditional dance music (nothing to do with the dance music you know) to hard'n'heavy stuff, via blues, classic rock etc. So I'm pretty pleased and able to do the things making me alive, with full intensity.
BUT. Then I visited Warmoth.com. A dream (of a semi-self-built completely custom guitar) I once buried came back to life like a mad zombie. I was first very sure it'll be a hollow Strat (alder w/ walnut top) with a classic S-S-S pickup conf, maybe a bridge humbucker in single coil size or a Tele-sounding sc. But now I'm bouncing there and Beck (ha ha) between that idea and a crossbreed of Strat, Tele and Jazzmaster. Jazzmaster body with Strat type vintage tremolo and Strat+Tele type pickups. Why? Well, I already have a Strat, I don't have a Tele, and I like Jazzmaster's looks but don't have much use to it's sounds.
Then to the question itself. It's about the Jazzmaster option, in case I choose to go with it, like it seems.
Though I'm looking for a "Stratty" feeling and touch to it (just to feel like home) spiced with a couple of Tele sounds, I've got no idea how to do it. Well of course some guidelines, but there seem to be problems ahead. I want a tremolo (no exceptions), so is there a bridge s.c. pickup that could do some magic and bring some thing (punch? growl? don't know a word for it in my own language even...) of Telecaster's sound I think is there because of the Hardtail, or even close? The main thing would be digging up the clean Tele bridge pickup sound for clean fast solo things, country picking and such, and the combination of bridge and neck single coils as it sounds on a Tele, but still maintaining the Strat's neck & middle pickup sounds (alone and combined). Wouldn't be too bad to get the Strat's bridge & middle sound too...
So the diagram is not a problem, I've sorted it out to suit me, I think. The problem are the pickups. My general preference as this guitar's sound and feel is not all vintage, but something in between of that and the hottest single coil pickups (definite and infinite NO for active pickups!). Fender Texas Specials have been on my mind few years back, maybe they're not so off the idea of beefed up vintages? But guess I can't get the Tele sounds even close right with them... Ideas for pickups?
Just to mention again, this guitar does not exist, and it may well go as far as the end of summer 'til I've got it in my hands... I'm just that sort of guy who has to have everything planned and objectives set for the moneysaving process to succeed... And it's always nice to play mind-games, isn't it?
P.S. My posts tend to go long, because I want to be specific... Hope you read it and got some sense to it!
EDIT: And the title is misleading, I'm only newbie to this forum, not to guitars or guitar playing!
Last edited:
