Strat-o-Tele is almost completed...so much to UNLEARN!

[Lewguitar]

This 1980's MIJ Fender Strat has been a favorite for a long time. Bought it in a pawn shop in Boulder about 20 years ago and it had a Dimarzio Super Distortion pickup mounted in it...which I quickly removed. Not my style, so I put a set of Antiquity Surfers in it.

A few years ago I installed a pair of Antiquity Surfers (neck and RW/RP middle) and an Alnico 2 Duncan '53 Style Tapped JB bridge pickup that MJ wound for me. Used a push/pull tone pot to go from Hot to Vintage on the bridge pickup.

Sounded good but didn't sound like a Tele to me and I wondered why. Thought it must be because the bridge pickup was mounted in the pickguard instead of in a Tele bridge plate.

Wrong!

A few weeks ago I took it all apart and carved a new bone nut for it.

I removed the RW/RP middle pickup and left it out.

And rewired it so the five position switch gives me: Vintage Output Bridge...VO Bridge & Neck...Neck...Neck & Hot Output Bridge...Hot Output Bridge.

Without the middle pickup it now sounds much more like a Tele.

I'm learning that for an authentic 50's or 60's Strat tone all three pickups must match. No more RW/RP middle pickup and no Hot bridge pickup.

But I've also learned that the presence of a middle pickup and the effect of the magnets in all three pickups pulling on the steel strings is a big reason a Strat sounds like a Strat.

So by removing the middle pickup entirely and by having both pickups have the same polarity this guitar now sounds much more like a Tele.

I have a new pickguard on order from WD. It'll be cut for a Strat neck pickup and Tele bridge pickup and drilled for a master volume and master tone. And then this guitar will be completed.

BTW, since the alnico 2 53 Style Tapped JB bridge pickup has the north poles on top, I used a middle pickup for the neck pickup. And I also had to reverse the black and wire wires on this particular pickup (a Fralin Vintage Hot) to get it in phase.

I like the tone of the Antiquity Surfer better - it's throatier and ballsier. But the Fralin Vintage Hot had long enough black and white wires to do the job and the middle Antiquity didn't. And I was curious about how it would sound.







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After:

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Strat-o-Tele is almost completed...so much to UNLEARN!

All right! Just spoke to WD and the new pickguard should be here next week. Just like the one in the photo - minus a middle pickup cutout. WD is great source for custom Strat pickguards.

 

[wolf5150]

Re: Strat-o-Tele is almost completed...so much to UNLEARN!

I'm really curious how this works out.
I'd love to try a tele pickup in a full Strat configuration.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Strat-o-Tele is almost completed...so much to UNLEARN!

I'm really curious how this works out.
I'd love to try a tele pickup in a full Strat configuration.

Well that's how I've been using this guitar up until now. It's great and of course you have your neck & middle and bridge & middle tones combined tones to work with - two of my favorite sounds on a Strat.

I'd recommend a Jerry Donahue Tele bridge pickup.

If the JD is north polarity up, I'd use it with a pair of Antiquity middle pickups - I think they're north pole up pickups.

I pulled the middle pickup out in this guitar to make it closer in sound to a Tele.

 

[Artie]

Re: Strat-o-Tele is almost completed...so much to UNLEARN!

Looks like a cool project Lew, but I gotta ask . . . why go to this much trouble to make a Strat sound like a Tele, instead of just getting a Tele?
Did I miss something?

 

[jimijames]

Re: Strat-o-Tele is almost completed...so much to UNLEARN!

A quick note - because the bridge plate is grounded (I think this is why at least) I wasn't able to flip the lead and ground wires of the Jerry Donahue - it just resulted in no sound coming out.

Which was a pain because the neck pickup was a 4-conductor humbucker wired for series/parallel and a spin-a-split, but I finally got everything figured out and wired up to where it's in phase with the JD.

Just FYI for anybody considering the JD. I loved the surfers when I had them in my strat.

I feel like that guitar would be a "best of all worlds" kind of machine. Strat neck > everything else (IMO), and Tele Bridge > everything else as well (again IMO). And, 6-point tremolo > everything else too haha. I bet it sounds killer.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Strat-o-Tele is almost completed...so much to UNLEARN!

Looks like a cool project Lew, but I gotta ask . . . why go to this much trouble to make a Strat sound like a Tele, instead of just getting a Tele?
Did I miss something?

Artie, I wanted to see how the sound of the guitar would change if I removed the middle pickup.

I wanted to see if the classic Strat sound is at least partially created by the pull of three pickups and three sets of magnets on the strings.

And I think it is.

The strings seem to resonate differently and produce a deeper tone without the magnets of the middle pickup pulling on the strings.

That, and I've already got a couple of Teles and a couple Strats, and I wanted something different out of this guitar.

 

[skyydogg01]

Re: Strat-o-Tele is almost completed...so much to UNLEARN!

So, now that you have a full blown tele bridge pickup in a strat, how does that tele pickup compare to a Twangbanger? You are one of the few that can give such a review. Sorry to hijack

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Strat-o-Tele is almost completed...so much to UNLEARN!

So, now that you have a full blown tele bridge pickup in a strat, how does that tele pickup compare to a Twangbanger? You are one of the few that can give such a review. Sorry to hijack

I actually have had a Twangbanger in this same guitar. It's a great playing, great sounding guitar but because it's never been mint and the bridge pickup rout was hacked up by a previous owner for a humbucker, it's also the guitar I do experiments with.

The Twangbanger sounds more like a hot Strat bridge pickup to me than a real Tele bridge pickup.

The Twangbanger is a nice option if you don't want to rout a bigger hole for a full size Tele bridge pickup, but a Tele bridge pickup has more bite and a bigger sound.

I've also had a Jerry Donahue Tele bridge pickup in this same guitar, BTW.