Tele Bridge Tone Tips

alex1fly

alex1fly

Well-known member
TLDR: Have any of you all dealt with anemic Telecaster bridge tones? If so, how did you address the issue and get results you were pleased with?

Long version: I have two Teles. One is a fat necked, 50s style replica with single coils and 3 saddle ashtray bridge. Tons of mojo. Neck pickup is smoky and dark, bridge is bright and gutsy. The whole thing sounds and feels like it's about to go off the rails, in a good way. It's a blast to play with the exception of the fat neck, which limits my mobility somewhat. No problem, for now I'm just treating it as a period piece to explore and have written riffs on it that range from indie rock to blues to progressive metal.

The second Tele is a modern Fender MIM. S/S, 3-way, 250k pots, 6 saddle bridge. Neck is super comfortable and I can do everything from shred around to bluesy doublestops to funky strums to whatever else I feel like. Neck pickup is very hot-Stratty, P90ish, bluesy, Hendrixey, Morello-ey, responsive to different attacks, very musical. The bridge pickup, however, is incredibly boring. Flat. Lifeless. It's bright but brittle. Articulate, but sterile. No chunk, no guts, doesn't sing, doesn't scream. It either pierces, or it's flat. Hard picking makes it "clang" in an unmusical way, and soft picking is just lifeless. It almost sounds like a piezo pickup - like simply the sound of the string, but no character. I mean, yeah it makes a tone and the tone is useable, but I just can't find anything to like about it. It's frustrating, because the 1st Tele sounds so dang killer in all positions and through several amps, but this second one is way more playable so I want to love all the positions on it as well.

It's entirely possible that I just haven't found the sweet spots yet but still I'm daydreaming options. Keep at it and play with signal chain settings, picks, strings, amps etc... Try adding the series setting... Larger value volume pot... Explore replacement pickup options... anyone address a similar conundrum?
 
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I addressed this issue by using a Les Paul with a Custom in the bridge. And extreme solution perhaps, but is soooooo worked!
 
Really, that's just the way many Teles sound. I usuallu go for thicker pickups in the bridge, like a Quarter Pound or a Jerry Donahue. The neck pickup is something I never liked at all- it always got swapped for a vintage-output humbucker.
 
I enjoyed a buddy's MIA Tele with the Twisted Tele set. That bridge pup had a thicker sound as well. It's not that the thin bridge sound is bad, it just doesn't seem to want to be rocked upon. And again this is in contrast to the 50s style Tele I've got that has a bridge pickup full of guts and glory. I'm getting some slightly more dynamic response by playing with the tilt screw of the bridge pup, which is nice.
 
The 50's Tele's were often pretty punchy. As in the early 50's. The 'broadcaster' pickup that many make a clone of is a fat toned punchy wind. The later 50's into 60's marked a reduction in the turn count and the typical 'twang' that Tele's got their country music cred from.

If you're after something a bit more than what you have, the Jerry Donahue is a well regarded model that gives a bit of both.....twang and punch.
 
AlexR said:
The 50's Tele's were often pretty punchy. As in the early 50's. The 'broadcaster' pickup that many make a clone of is a fat toned punchy wind. The later 50's into 60's marked a reduction in the turn count and the typical 'twang' that Tele's got their country music cred from.

If you're after something a bit more than what you have, the Jerry Donahue is a well regarded model that gives a bit of both.....twang and punch.
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Thanks for the context. Seems to line up with what I'm experiencing with the different Teles. The JD does get recommended on here quite a bit. I wonder what would be like one step punchier than the JD... minimal twang, but not so far as like a Tone Zone.
 
alex1fly said:
Thanks for the context. Seems to line up with what I'm experiencing with the different Teles. The JD does get recommended on here quite a bit. I wonder what would be like one step punchier than the JD... minimal twang, but not so far as like a Tone Zone.
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Mu guess would be the Quarter Pound, or the BG1400.
 
Paul Bunyan from Zhangbucker is in that middle ground between vintage output and the fatness of a QP.
A wonderful pickup, beefy yet still distinctively Tele.

QP is great too, but it's on the edge of sounding un-Tele-ish, almost like a P90.
 
eclecticsynergy said:
Paul Bunyan from Zhangbucker is in that middle ground between vintage output and the fatness of a QP.
A wonderful pickup, beefy yet still distinctively Tele.

QP is great too, but it's on the edge of sounding un-Tele-ish, almost like a P90.
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i 2nd this one!
JD is great but might be not enough.
the step to the quarter pound is HUGE!!!.
the paul bunyan is middle ground without being a super midheavy PU like the duncan hot for tele and not as compressed as the QP. for an extra 10$ bugs you can get a tap, which i find very useful and not pricy at all…
 
ToneFiddler said:
i 2nd this one!
JD is great but might be not enough.
the step to the quarter pound is HUGE!!!.
the paul bunyan is middle ground without being a super midheavy PU like the duncan hot for tele and not as compressed as the QP. for an extra 10$ bugs you can get a tap, which i find very useful and not pricy at all…
Click to expand...

Thanks all. I'll look into all these pickups. I'm wondering now if adding in series wiring would be a good first step to see if that scratches the itch. After all, it's a simple mod and you don't have to use that 4th option, right? I can't see myself being one of those purist guys that gets worked up over having the switch operate differently than Leo intended.
 
Series is worth trying. It seems to work better with lower output, brighter pickups. I have a Strat with a few series positions- it sounds thick without a tremendous boost in output and compression.
 
i think the switching on that might be very cool, the price seems like a lot though. two pots, a switch, cap, and resistor. seems like you could wire it up yourself a lot cheaper
 
jeremy said:
i think the switching on that might be very cool, the price seems like a lot though. two pots, a switch, cap, and resistor. seems like you could wire it up yourself a lot cheaper
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You can use your existing pots & cap. All you really need is the switch.
Adding a 4-way isn't complicated - just the pickup wires plus three short jumpers.
If you can solder, you can do it yourself without any problem.

EDIT: I still favor a beefier-than-vintage bridge pickup myself.
I have a Paul Bunyan in one Tele and a Muy Grande from RioGrande in another.
My other two use a QP and a ToneZoneT respectively, but they're pretty much outside Tele territory, tonewise.
 
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they use a 5 way in that system. it adds series, but also series with a resistor to shunt some of the neck pup to ground so its not as fat as normal series which i bet would be a great sound. full series can be tubby and weird
 
I had a similar struggle with an anemic tele bridge pickup; I went with a Cavalier Pickups Fat Lion and couldn't be happier. I'm sure the other options mentioned here a good too.
 
Thanks for the thoughts all. I think I'm going to get the series wiring in there first and see if that scratches the itch. The bridge tones aren't bad as is, and I can see how they're useful. But this guitar begs for rocking and I just want some more beef for that to happen. Next step will be replacing the bridge pickup with a Broadcaster type wind or maybe one of the suggestions here. Will report back with results when I get around to doing the wiring.
 
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