strat pup in a tele?

miles9

New member
Does anyone have any experience with installing a strat neck pup in the neck of a american tele? My american tele is about 5 years old and I do not want to hack it up and do any additional routing.
 
Re: strat pup in a tele?

All you need is a pickguard that's made for a strat pickup. I do believe you have a humbucker rout at the neck.
 
Re: strat pup in a tele?

I use an Antiquity Surfer for the neck pickup in my Tele. Remove your pickguard and see what you have room for. Jeremy recomended using a Strat neck pickup to me several years ago so I tried it and love it! I use a Jerry Donahue for the bridge pickup. To me the Ant Surfer Strat neck pickup sounds better than any Tele size neck pickup I've ever used.

In terms of the best Tele neck pickups I've ever used, these are my faves:

Strat sized:

Ant Surfer

Tele sized:

Duncan Custom Shop Tele ala Strat
Duncan Antiquity I
Fralin Blues Special
Fralin Tele Stock
Joe Barden (although I have limited experience with it)
 
Last edited:
Re: strat pup in a tele?

Thanks, everyone. I opened up the pickguard and I do not have a humbucker cavity. Will I have to route out the cavity a little to get a strat pup to fit?
 
Re: strat pup in a tele?

There is a Dimarzio Twang King tele neck pup for sale in the Trading Post. Not a strat pup, but imo, one of the best sounding tele neck pups around. Does a great job of melding tele, strat and min hum tones in a tele sized pup. As an added bonus, it already has a separate ground attached for 4 way wiring.

No affiliation with the seller, just another suggestion with no routing involved.

I've used TK's in several teles and they are very underated pickups. Also, Harmonic Design offers a mini strat pup that drops right in a tele neck slot with no routing.

It depends on the route size, but in years past, I had to do some routing on my teles ( and p/g's ) to get a strat neck pup to fit. One more suggestion, then I'll quit! The Duncan 1/4 lb tele neck pup is also a very underated gem. Again, a bit different tone than maybe what you're looking for, but it's a good tone nonetheless. good luck!
 
Back
Top