putting a tele single coil bridge pickup on a humbucker bridge slot on a telecaster ?

bovelrick

New member
Hi GUYS,

I own a telecaster copy guitar, which I designed to have humbucker bridge pickup

is it possible to install a single coil bridge pickup on it (I will change the bridge plate as well to a single coil fitted one)

Im just curious, since I think the single coil pups will have larger footprint than the humbucker

what do you guys think ? please let me know !
THANKS :bandit:
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Re: putting a tele single coil bridge pickup on a humbucker bridge slot on a telecast

If the pickup cavity is cut as a rectangle, it will need extending to accept the height adjustment screw that sits between the B and E strings. It may also be necessary to extend the cavity towards the neck to accommodate the E/A end of the slanted single coil pickup.

If the height adjustment lug part of your humbucker rout is on the generous side, the traditional vintage stamped steel Telecaster bridge will fail to cover the ends of the original rout.

The mounting screws and string holes on a new bridge may not align well with the holes already drilled into the guitar. One solution might be to purchase a "hardtail" Stratocaster version of your existing bridge, then obtain an adapter plate to suspend the pickup.
 
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Re: putting a tele single coil bridge pickup on a humbucker bridge slot on a telecast

If the pickup cavity is cut as a rectangle, it will need extending to accept to height adjustment screw that sits between the B and E strings. It may also be necessary to extend the cavity towards the neck to accommodate the E/A end of the slanted single coil pickup.

If the height adjustment lug part of your humbucker rout is on the generous side, the traditional vintage stamped steel Telecaster bridge will fail to cover the ends of the original rout.

The mounting screws and string holes on a new bridge may not align well with the holes already drilled into the guitar. One solution might be to purchase a "hardtail" Stratocaster version of your existing bridge, then obtain an adapter plate to suspend the pickup.

Pretty much this ^^^^, you might have to remove a small amount of wood from the cavity if it was routed with only a Humbucker in mind but even so the new bridge should cover everything that you expose? I personally like the hard tail idea myself, I think that's going to be the easiest way to accomplish what you're trying to do & the whole string through thing doesn't amount to much in a Telecaster anyway. My G&L's have horseshoe bridges and they sustain just as well as my Fenders do....
 
Re: putting a tele single coil bridge pickup on a humbucker bridge slot on a telecast

Which model SD humbucker do you currently have installed?

You might be able to achieve your desired sound(s) by simply changing to a different humbucker and altering the control wiring to select all of the worthwhile coil permutations.
 
Re: putting a tele single coil bridge pickup on a humbucker bridge slot on a telecast


is this direct replacement to my current bridge ?

If the pickup cavity is cut as a rectangle, it will need extending to accept the height adjustment screw that sits between the B and E strings. It may also be necessary to extend the cavity towards the neck to accommodate the E/A end of the slanted single coil pickup.

If the height adjustment lug part of your humbucker rout is on the generous side, the traditional vintage stamped steel Telecaster bridge will fail to cover the ends of the original rout.

The mounting screws and string holes on a new bridge may not align well with the holes already drilled into the guitar. One solution might be to purchase a "hardtail" Stratocaster version of your existing bridge, then obtain an adapter plate to suspend the pickup.

I see, even though I have the perfrect replacement bridge, I still need to accomodate the new single coil dimensions. I will try to talk to luthier here.

Pretty much this ^^^^, you might have to remove a small amount of wood from the cavity if it was routed with only a Humbucker in mind but even so the new bridge should cover everything that you expose? I personally like the hard tail idea myself, I think that's going to be the easiest way to accomplish what you're trying to do & the whole string through thing doesn't amount to much in a Telecaster anyway. My G&L's have horseshoe bridges and they sustain just as well as my Fenders do....

I'm not sure man, I think that hardtail wont be the perfect tele sound since there is no brass plate covering the pickup (?)

Which model SD humbucker do you currently have installed?

You might be able to achieve your desired sound(s) by simply changing to a different humbucker and altering the control wiring to select all of the worthwhile coil permutations.

its currently JB model, but I really want to change it to traditional style, to achieve that real twang :))
 
Re: putting a tele single coil bridge pickup on a humbucker bridge slot on a telecast

Not even that modern-style Stew-Mac bridge linked above will cover the humbucker route. The only way to do this is a hardtail bridge and separate adapter plate, but it's going to look terrible. If I were you, I'd start over with a second guitar, or at least a different body. Trust me, I learned this the hard way many years ago.

Now I keep two Teles, a MIM with a tradition single-coil route, and a partscaster with a Schecter double-humbucker body.
 
Re: putting a tele single coil bridge pickup on a humbucker bridge slot on a telecast

+1
 

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Re: putting a tele single coil bridge pickup on a humbucker bridge slot on a telecast

Given the OP guitar as the starting point, I'd go with one of the following;
1) SD P-Rails pickup governed by two push-pull pots
2) TV Jones regular humbucker-sized TV Classic Plus
3) TV Jones regular humbucker-sized T-Armond
 
Re: putting a tele single coil bridge pickup on a humbucker bridge slot on a telecast

Only other option would be to have someone custom make a bridge plate that's the same dimensions as your current plate but cut a standard bridge pickup hole in it.
 
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