tele just isn't sounding how i want

[drew_half_empty]

well, after getting over the giddyness of a new guitar, i noticed a couple shortcommings - too much mids, not enough bass, not enough highs, and it sounds real...honkey. It's a nashville with a rosewood fretboard, but I'm thinkin i only wanna run 2 pickups

my first instinct is to say it's the hot rail, which accounts for the EQ problem, but the honk - i dunno, i've never heard of a hot rail having that characteristic

my other tele, the set neck asain basswood hh '59 loaded one, sounds real...solid, real open, great sustain, no midrange honk, just a great soundin guitar, and i wanna get this one sounding that solid, but twangier. The '59 is real bright, and i can get it to twang a bit, but, here's what i want

bridge position - twangy as hell, atleast the output of a '59, good rockabilly tone & lead tone, reminiscent of like a dynasonic

middle position - good southern rock tone, good humbucking sound, a little twang but not much, much more bass & highs than mids, real solid

neck position - i don't really care, usable, but i don't really care

 

[Mephis]

Re: tele just isn't sounding how i want

I was wanting to replace the Qp in my tele with a hotrails, because of all the noise the Qp makes under gain, but if its going to make my guitar sound stupid... Man....

I just want to play judas priest on a telecaster!

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: tele just isn't sounding how i want

Sounds like you want some regular Tele pickups and like a li'l 59 in the middle? I dunno I'm no expert, call this post a bump hahaha

-X

 

[JeffB]

Re: tele just isn't sounding how i want

Hot rails DO sound honky. Def have some mids.

Barring that...you've got a bolt on neck tele vs a set neck w/ two different wood types...that right there is a huge difference.

Bolt on neck guitars IME have more mids...and I don't mean like the difference in just wood or pups, I mean the way they sit in a mix..the entire tonal spectrum.

Basswood also tends to have a more even tonal repsonse...flat, if you will compared to alder and Ash.

PUPS may get what you need tone-wise, but don't be too surprised if they do not.

 

[Xeromus]

Re: tele just isn't sounding how i want

You're never going to be happy with anything, face it.

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: tele just isn't sounding how i want

This is what you want, you'll thank me later:
http://www.12fret.com/new/fenderTeleSonicPage.html

 

[flank]

Re: tele just isn't sounding how i want

You're never going to be happy with anything, face it.

hahah +1

 

[drew_half_empty]

Re: tele just isn't sounding how i want

I'm happy with my other tele, I'm happy with my XTL, I'm happy with my bassman 100


screw it, i'm done with this forum, all you guys do is take shots at me, when i'm pretty sure i've helped just about everyone on here

 

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

Re: tele just isn't sounding how i want

Haven't helped me, thus voiding the above statement.

 

[Xeromus]

Re: tele just isn't sounding how i want

Haven't helped me, thus voiding the above statement.

+1

No one's taking shots at you. You just complain about every piece of gear you ever own. You've been playing electric for about 8 months give or take right? Instead of splitting hairs over your gear, you should just sit down and play it. For the first few years I played guitar I had to deal with a cheap ass classical acoustic strung up with steel strings with the action a mile high, and after that a for a few years a cheap ass Ibanez electric guitar.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: tele just isn't sounding how i want

You're never going to be happy with anything, face it.

hmm i thought this forum was here so that people who weren't happy with their gear could ask for suggestions on how to change it and improve their sound. I mean Seymour wouldn't've started rewinding pickups if he was happy with how they sounded...but whatever.

i'm starting to notice a clique-y-ness around here too but i mean that's expected.

-X

 

[Quencho092]

Re: tele just isn't sounding how i want

+1

No one's taking shots at you. You just complain about every piece of gear you ever own. You've been playing electric for about 8 months give or take right? Instead of splitting hairs over your gear, you should just sit down and play it. For the first few years I played guitar I had to deal with a cheap ass classical acoustic strung up with steel strings with the action a mile high, and after that a for a few years a cheap ass Ibanez electric guitar.

+2

I also learned how to play on a 100 dollar yamaha acoustic, and only after two years could I afford a GAX70 Ibanez (170 bucks)and my signature crate 20 watt turd bucket. Only a year ago could I finally get a 'real' guitar, and my amp-my strat and DRRI and I haven't complained about my tone all that often. We're here to help you out, but just like a group of guys, we'll throw around comments every once in a while-being a girl about it and just ditching the forum because of a few sarcastic remarks ain't gonna help ya!


I'll try to help you out, I was able to get a great tele twang out of my strat by rewiring the switch and it made a world of difference. Can you tell me what pickups you got in there, and the wiring scheme? I'm guessing you have a 3 way switch and 3 pickups-not very great for getting THAT tele twang tone that we most often associate with a smooth sounding neck pickup+a tele single coil in the bridge (position 2 on a tele 3 way switch). :smack:

My advice-you might have a serious lack of balance between the pickups. Hot rails, like the name suggests, is a very high output pickup and is prone to drowning out the other pickups tone wise. If you get a 5 way switch and wire it so that the order of positive leads on the lugs are middle, neck, bridge instead of neck, middle bridge, you can get a MUCH more useable Tele tone when using both neck and bridge pickups, and tune the level of twang you want by adjusting the pickup heights comparatively.

And never underestimate the SERIOUS TONE that comes from a great neck pickup sound-I play a bit of rockabilly, classic rock, and blues, and you can bet that my neck pickup has more than a bit of mileage on it. Perhaps if you can fit a strat pickup into the neck position like an SSL-1, or an A2 magnet duncan pickup. :smoker:

 

[Xeromus]

Re: tele just isn't sounding how i want

+2

I also learned how to play on a 100 dollar yamaha acoustic, and only after two years could I afford a GAX70 Ibanez (170 bucks)and my signature crate 20 watt turd bucket. Only a year ago could I finally get a 'real' guitar, and my amp-my strat and DRRI and I haven't complained about my tone all that often. We're here to help you out, but just like a group of guys, we'll throw around comments every once in a while-being a girl about it and just ditching the forum because of a few sarcastic remarks ain't gonna help ya!

ha! My Ibanez was a GAX70 too! And it was a 50 watt crate SS amp.

 

[flank]

Re: tele just isn't sounding how i want

ha! My Ibanez was a GAX70 too! And it was a 50 watt crate SS amp.

my Ibanez was a GRX-20 or something like that.......but i started out on a Twin Reverb

but back to the other point, we are just joking around with you dude...it just seems that you have an odd tone in your head or something, cause its hard for us to give you advice when you need to make your bassman 170 watts to appease you, i can't help you out there, cause it seems like your shooting for a tone that nobody else can advise you on....on top of that, it seems that you are buying things with the mindset that you can mold them to sound however you want......and when that doesnt happen, you come to us wanting a different sound than what you have...

and in this situation, you have this loud high output bassy middy pickup......and your completely going for the opposite sound.....somewhat bright twangy etc.... its confusing to me

again, no big deal dude, were just poking fun with ya.....but you have to see that it seems like you can't settle on one thing, and you aren't buying the right things in the first place......so, for us, its hard to really guage what you want, or have any notion as to what tone you have right now

 

[danglybanger]

Re: tele just isn't sounding how i want

i'm starting to notice a clique-y-ness around here too but i mean that's expected.

-X

+1

but Drew, we all take friendly ribbing here If you take it in stride, it becomes positive. If you take it negatively, that's the kind of vibe the forum gets.

Actually someone start up a new thread about this in off topic. Sorry. I Don't know sh!t about teles

slade

 

[Xeromus]

Re: tele just isn't sounding how i want

my Ibanez was a GRX-20 or something like that.......but i started out on a Twin Reverb

but back to the other point, we are just joking around with you dude...it just seems that you have an odd tone in your head or something, cause its hard for us to give you advice when you need to make your bassman 170 watts to appease you, i can't help you out there, cause it seems like your shooting for a tone that nobody else can advise you on....on top of that, it seems that you are buying things with the mindset that you can mold them to sound however you want......and when that doesnt happen, you come to us wanting a different sound than what you have...

and in this situation, you have this loud high output bassy middy pickup......and your completely going for the opposite sound.....somewhat bright twangy etc.... its confusing to me

again, no big deal dude, were just poking fun with ya.....but you have to see that it seems like you can't settle on one thing, and you aren't buying the right things in the first place......so, for us, its hard to really guage what you want, or have any notion as to what tone you have right now

That's really pretty much it. It seems to me at least, that you have a near impossible goal and I have no idea what you're hearing in your head. Especially the atrocious bassman mods. We can't really advise you because we never have any idea what direction you're going in.

 

[Forbes]

Re: tele just isn't sounding how i want

Drew, ive never had a go at you, and i respect what you have given to this forum, but you must see that you buy alot of gear and then try and turn it into the opposite of what it is. You search for this totally different tone, and when you finally seem happy, you then come back with another complaint. It wasn't even really taking shots, two guys agreed that you won't ever be happy with what you've got, and for us thats how it seems.

Sorry to go off-topic, consider this a bump, but like i say you've got alot of knowledge Drew, to leave over pretty much nothing would be a waste

 

[Mephis]

Re: tele just isn't sounding how i want

Dew, Don't act like a girl.

Overly sensitive, act like a man, men don't just throw their hands up and throw a hissy when someone disagrees with them.

if you've only been playing for 8 months and you have all this stuff and still aren't satisifyed, you might as well quit, you are playing for the gear, not because you like to play.

I haven't had a descent setup until just a few weeks ago, I finaly have everything to get a descent tone and get loud enough for people to hear it.


With all you have, you should be the happiest man on earth, but point aside, you should buy a Qp.

 

[beandip]

Re: tele just isn't sounding how i want

Like I just told B, I'd kill someone with my bare hands for the Nashville setup you have.

Tweak your amp, try all settings on it, since different guitars require different settings. And remember, you gain alot of high end when you turn your amp up. Not when it's at bedroom level.

 

[B2D]

Re: tele just isn't sounding how i want

Drew -

I dont need to tell you how much time we've spent on AIM discussing gear. I'm just going to leave you with these three points.

1. Listen with your ears, not your eyes. I noticed occasionally you have a tendency to dimiss or judge a certain peice of gear based on how it looks, what it is made of, who makes it, or what kind of a reputation it has. IMO this is a bad way to go about doing things because it closes doors of opportunity and helps encourage a stereotyping behavior that will prevent you from discovering and trying new things that you might like. I've found very cool and useful tools over the years simply by trying it out and ignoring what it looks like, or who makes it, wether its digital or not, or whatever. I listen to what it actually sounds like. Sometimes I'm disgusted by what I hear and never return to that peice. Most of the time I'm indifferent but every now and then I'll find a diamond in the rough that I never would have found otherwise. For instance, I REALLY like EMG85s even though I normally do not care for EMGs or active pickups in general. I discovered it when i tried out a very rare guitar called an American Showster A57, and it had one in the bridge. Google one and you'll see why i wanted to try it. But if the guitar hadn't had one in it i likely would still be shying away from EMGs as a possibility. Listen to things. Try new things. At the very worst you'll be amazed that something so bad-sounding could be put into production and you'll have a funny story to tell.

2) Dont bite into an apple and wonder why it doesn't taste like an orange. I've kinda given up on keeping track of what you like and want, but on thing does jump out at me. You have a sound in your head, and then you go after a peice of gear that you think SHOULD produce the sound you want. When you find that it's not quite up to par, you try to modify and alter the peice to the point where it's original form and function can be referred to in name only. It's much more economical to (see above) try lots of different things out and buy what fits your needs best in its original form, and then change it only slightly to fit your needs. There are some cases where you WILL need to really bastardize a peice in order to make it conform to your will, but until you have a very clear and consistent idea of what you want your sound to be, its best just to experiment with stock stuff. Also.... digital emulations of amps and cabs - while still sounding good - do NOT sound just like the real thing! I love the Soldano setting on my Line 6 Flextone but I really don't like REAL Soldanos. Don't focus on what you aren't getting, listen and focus on the sound you ARE getting. If its not what you want, try to make it work for you. If it still isnt working for you, then time for a different peice. I really liked my Boogie when i first got it, and after 16 months of playing it every day, I've come to realize over the past few months that my Boogie, while sounding great, is not producing the sound I'm after. I just completed shopping trips and test drives that were the culmination of a lot of research and careful listening. I think people will be surprised to find out what I finally picked... but my point is you need to experience different sounds AND you need to realize what sources and combinations will and will not produce them.

(cont)