Tele considerations from and old 'bucker user

[MVI]

Hello,

After years on Gibson Les Pauls, I may need to trade in the last of them for financial reasons, and also because I always wanted a Tele', which is much cheaper even new, compared to a used LP. So what's the state of the art with all that "hum" I've been hearing about? I was trying to figure out a "tapping" post, but I still don't get it. Can I get a decent sound out of a Tele' without turning forks away due to hum ? What do I need to think about if I'm looking at Tele's wrt humming pups ? I hope you're not going to tell me I need to route for humbuckers ? Any advice would be welcome. Thanks,

Mike

 

[Butch Snyder]

Re: Tele considerations from and old 'bucker user

If you have a good Tele that's wired well and with decent shielding, the hum will be a non issue; especially when you hear the tone that will come from the guitar...

 

[Breogan]

Re: Tele considerations from and old 'bucker user

Once I played a american standard tele under a neon light and the brige hummed quite a lot. The neck however was allmost quiet.

Seymour duncan (other brands too) sells a variety of humcancelling pickups. Some are supposd to mimic a single coil tone and some others to give you a humbucker tone from a single coil shape. What people ussually says it's that the only way to get that good old tone it's with a single coil. I don't mean thoose pickups sound bad, it's just they are missing something.

 

[Breogan]

Re: Tele considerations from and old 'bucker user

I forgot!! :smack:

I have a vintage 54 set in a strat shaped Ibanez. The guitar it's quite bad but the pickups sound amazing on it. I agree with Buch Snyther about sielding. This guitar (althoug it isn't a good axe) has the best on it. The cavity has being painted with conductive paint and the pickguard has being recovered with aluminium foil for shielding purpouses. The noise went almost to zero. But I should said that I never had played it live.

 

[Luke Duke]

Re: Tele considerations from and old 'bucker user

Hello,

After years on Gibson Les Pauls, I may need to trade in the last of them for financial reasons, and also because I always wanted a Tele', which is much cheaper even new, compared to a used LP. So what's the state of the art with all that "hum" I've been hearing about? I was trying to figure out a "tapping" post, but I still don't get it. Can I get a decent sound out of a Tele' without turning forks away due to hum ? What do I need to think about if I'm looking at Tele's wrt humming pups ? I hope you're not going to tell me I need to route for humbuckers ? Any advice would be welcome. Thanks,

Mike

Hey MVI, with a well grounded tele hum is not much of an issue. I have a Set of QP's in my tele (not exactly stock sounding I know) and they are fairly quiet. My tele is a MIA series and I have been told they use conductive paint to buck some of the hum.

As far as hum cancelling pups go.

Classic Tele Stack---This is a non humming version of classic tele bridge pickup. They are wound to sound like an early tele pup with spank and slap, but all without the hum.

Hot Stack---A hotter version of the stack bridge pup design. Wound to give slightly more mids and bass with less treble.

Rythym Stack---The neck pup to match the bridge. It is designed to buck the hum but still give you that great transparent tele neck pup tone.

If you really want to keep your bucker sound you can go with the Lil 59 or Hotrails for tele

Lil 59---This is a smaller version of the classic SD 59. It is wound to give you full sized humbucking tone and power, but it's coils are strong enough to sound very tele-like when split.

Hot Rails---The Hot Rails for tele is going to sound like a hot humbucker. It has good bass and mids and lots of grind like a hot bucker should.

If you wanted to order a Custom Shop model you could get the JBjr for tle for a pup between the 59 and hot rails.

Hope that helps man!

Luke