Pickups for mahogany Tele???

[papersoul]

Gents,

Any good suggestions for a ballsy, rock Telecaster made of mahogany? I am buying a used Fender Jim Root Telecaster from a local guy. I like the EMG 60 in the neck, but not the EMG 81 in the bridge. I am 100% a passive pickup guy. I was considering a Duncan Antiquity JB/Jazz set with nickel covers and the Seymour Duncan Triple Shot System.

The guitar is a typical Tele, except it has a mahogany body, ebony 12" radius fretboard and locking tuners. It is one of my dream telecasters.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Pickups for mahogany Tele???

When you collect that guitar, before you change anything, play it for about a week unamplified. A/B it against any American made Telecasters in the vicinity. Listen to how they compare.

 

[papersoul]

Re: Pickups for mahogany Tele???

Thanks. My only telecaster right now is a 2012 American Standard.

 

[Arius]

Re: Pickups for mahogany Tele???

Don't worry about the wood. It makes no difference in a solid-body electric unless you intend to play it acoustically and not through an amplifier. The important things are the pickups and other electronics used, so don't limit yourself based on insignificant worries about what pickup matches well with what "tonewood." Liberate yourself from traditionalism and lore and embrace science.

 

[Kam]

Pickups for mahogany Tele???

^ lol

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Pickups for mahogany Tele???

P94-style pickups of some sort.

 

[NewWave]

Re: Pickups for mahogany Tele???

@Arius : It's there but slight, but even a very slight difference change how sound act. But if you're in your 60s I'm not blaming you lol. to OP get 59s :firedevil

 

[Arius]

Re: Pickups for mahogany Tele???

@Arius : It's there but slight, but even a very slight difference change how sound act. But if you're in your 60s I'm not blaming you lol. to OP get 59s :firedevil

I'm not in my 60s. Such myths are perpetuated largely by people who are, though. They didn't know any better when they were taught the mythology of "tonewoods," but younger guitarists have no excuse with the wealth of technical resources available on the internet.

 

[VHTJay]

Re: Pickups for mahogany Tele???

Jim Root tele and you want it to rock? My vote is for the distortion in the bridge!

As for the idea that tonewoods are irrelevant in the electric guitar? I don't buy that. I will agree that they don't play as much of a role in comparison to an acoustic, and that pickups and the amplifier being used play a huge role in tonality. But tonewoods still matter, not only in regards to tone but feel! All I have is anecdotal evidence for support....but I am trusting my ears on this one.

 

[NewWave]

Re: Pickups for mahogany Tele???

The density of the wood change how the strings vibrate, Pickups magnify strings vibration.

 

[LesStrat]

Re: Pickups for mahogany Tele???

"Embrace science?"

:lmao:

I have 3 electric guitars with 3 distinctly different tone woods. One, it doesn't matter what pickups are in it...it WILL be bright. My mahogany guitar sounds remarkably different that the other two.

No difference? :chairfall

OP: if Teles are so bad that you MUST modify them without even playing them, maybe you should buy a different model guitar.

 

[Dr. Vegetable]

Re: Pickups for mahogany Tele???

Science!!!"

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Pickups for mahogany Tele???

Science!!!"

Mediæval costumery!!!

 

[gman128]

Re: Pickups for mahogany Tele???

No difference? :chairfall

OP: if Teles are so bad that you MUST modify them without even playing them, maybe you should buy a different model guitar.

by the same breath - i have 4 ibanez RGs - all japanese - using the exact same wood combos (basswood, maple +rosewood), with the same duncan ahb-1 balckout sets in them and they sound different from guitar to guitar. Would it not be reasonable to think that something other than the wood combinations are causing the difference?

I'm not claiming to know the definitive answer but here are some potential variables: string brand, string age, the relative resonant peaks between the body and the neck, the type of finish used on the guitar's body, and as far as the wood goes, surely density of the species of basswood used might fluctuate, so surely that, more than "mahogany v alder v basswood v ash" etc is the key

Whoever mentioned density of the woods used rather than just the wood type, is on the right path of thinking....

 

[Kam]

Pickups for mahogany Tele???

I've had the exact same pickup in five different guitars. If the wood didn't matter, then all five of those guitars should have sounded exactly the same. In practice, they all sounded remarkably different from each other.

I'd love to know what's causing that difference in sound if it wasn't the wood.

This thread's going to make a great read in two years, when Papersoul inevitably bumps it to tell us all that EMGs are the best pickups ever made.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Pickups for mahogany Tele???

Don't worry about the wood. It makes no difference in a solid-body electric unless you intend to play it acoustically and not through an amplifier. The important things are the pickups and other electronics used, so don't limit yourself based on insignificant worries about what pickup matches well with what "tonewood." Liberate yourself from traditionalism and lore and embrace science.

Nice introduction to the forum.

The downside is that you'll be spending your entire time here from now on trying to regain any credibility

 

[jumble jumble]

Pickups for mahogany Tele???

I agree with him to an extent. The wood doesn't make anything like the difference you'd get from the consensus of this forum.

I wish I'd bookmarked it but I saw a great study comparing woods. Same guitar, two bodies. They measured frequency response, first by mic'ing up the unplugged guitar. This was shown as a graph. The woods were clearly very different. Then they used the output from a magnetic pickup to do the same thing. Same pickup, same guitar, just with the bodies swapped. In the second graph, there were still differences but they were absolutely tiny. The defining shapes of the curves from when the guitar was mic'd had completely vanished.


Sent from one of my four iPads

 

[gman128]

Re: Pickups for mahogany Tele???

I agree with him to an extent. The wood doesn't make anything like the difference you'd get from the consensus of this forum.

I wish I'd bookmarked it but I saw a great study comparing woods. Same guitar, two bodies. They measured frequency response, first by mic'ing up the unplugged guitar. This was shown as a graph. The woods were clearly very different. Then they used the output from a magnetic pickup to do the same thing. Same pickup, same guitar, just with the bodies swapped. In the second graph, there were still differences but they were absolutely tiny. The defining shapes of the curves from when the guitar was mic'd had completely vanished.


Sent from one of my four iPads

I hope you do find that study again. I'm not one to claim to know the absolute facts behind this "woods making a difference to the amplified sound of an electric guitar" but it seems to me that all the things that directly affect how the string resonates (scale length, the person playing the string), what picks up the vibrations (the pickups) and finally what amplifies the sound (whichever amp, modeller, speakers/cab etc..) will have a greater impact over the tone of an electric guitar than which woods it is constructed from.

I'm not trying to discredit the effect wood choices have on tone, I just think a lot of older guitarists (especially in the SD Forum) put far too much emphasis on it than they should.

 

[Frogman]

Re: Pickups for mahogany Tele???

Don't worry about the wood. It makes no difference in a solid-body electric unless you intend to play it acoustically and not through an amplifier. The important things are the pickups and other electronics used, so don't limit yourself based on insignificant worries about what pickup matches well with what "tonewood." Liberate yourself from traditionalism and lore and embrace science.

:lol::lmao::laugh2::beerchug:

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: Pickups for mahogany Tele???

I wish I'd known this information about woods meaning nothing before I spent eight months of my life building a Les Paul from a solid block of Honduran mahogany that i'd been lovingly caring for for over 15 years. I could, and apparently should, have used that block of wood for firewood, and saved a lot of time and money by buying a ready-made plywood guitar. Actually, i already had guitars and didn't need another one, I just thought i should use that block to make an instrument because i thought it would sound good.

But just when you think you know something, an expert turns up to set you straight with the facts. In my case, the expert didn't arrive with the science until after i'd wasted all that time and money. Of course i now feel completely stupid, and i will face the barrage of disdain that i deserve for my stupidity.

Maybe now, in light of this new knowledge, we should contact all instrument makers and let them know that plywood will be just fine for all future instruments, thanks.