Tele pickups on a cheap Tele copy

[es336td]

I have a Johnson Tele... not a monster guitar, but nice enough. I had wanted to put Bardens in a Tele, but don't see the sense in putting $500. worth of pickups in a $150. guitar. Since I know string spacings don't always line up with replacement pickups on these cheaper guitars, I was looking for something with a blade/rail configuration... dual if possible... the "poor man's" Bardens if you will. I've seen some great ideas in various postings... but don't know if the poles will line up correctly with the strings. I want a classic Tele (country) tone and a usable neck pickup. I would rather not carve the guitar up, but have toyed with the idea of an SM-2 or the like in the neck position and a Hot Rails or similar in the bridge. Any suggestions? Thanx!

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Tele pickups on a cheap Tele copy

Nothing sounds like Bardens except Bardens. Dig up my Ultimate Tele Tone thread...it's not to far down the page. Good luck! Lew

 

[mrfjones]

Re: Tele pickups on a cheap Tele copy

if you want to use rails then you could try a hot rails in the bridge with a stack in the neck and you will have a dual humbucker tele that can still do some country stuff.

 

[Artie]

Re: Tele pickups on a cheap Tele copy

Hi es336td; Welcome to the forum.

So, how do you like your Johnson Tele? What are your impressions of its quality? One of the reasons I ask is, I have an equally inexpensive Johnson Strat, (which, BTW, looks exactly the one in your avatar). It looks great and plays fine, but it does have a couple quality issues.

It has the worlds cheapest plastic nut, one of those ones that goes "ping" as you tune the guitar. I'll be replacing it with a bone one soon. The tuners are terrible, but I'm not sure they're worth replacing. Also, I had some problems with it staying in tune, 'til I blocked the tremolo.

Those issues not withstanding, I still consider it to be a decent value. It still has that nice "jangly" Strat tone, even with the cheap Johnson p'ups.

So, how do you like yours?

Artie

 

[es336td]

Re: Tele pickups on a cheap Tele copy

The body and neck are nice... as nice as any Squier, Yamaha, et. al. out there. I hated the pickguard and ordered a tortoise shell one. I also didn't like the tuners and replaced them with Sperzel locking tuners I had from an old Strat. The fretwork on the neck was a little sloppy, but livable. I hate the headstock and the logo (Old English). The pickups are good but a little weak... however, for the money, I'm happy with my selection. I have a HipShot b/g bender unit on it... the top mount bridge is giving me a fit with that, but I have overcome the problem. All in all, not that bad. I just wanted a little more beef, while preserving the Tele tone.

BTW... the Avatar is my 1959 Fender Strat that was stolen in 1998, and recovered in 2001 on eBay!

http://home.earthlink.net/~es336td/stolen.html

 

[jimo]

Re: Tele pickups on a cheap Tele copy

Howdy!---I got a Johnson Tele to experiment on as well---The body and neck are great----I was thinking of putting on some antiquities, some of those compensated tusq saddles, and a new nut and it should be ready, I think---Would I need to change the wiring, pots, capacitors etc? What would you change? :dance:

 

[es336td]

Re: Tele pickups on a cheap Tele copy

The pots and switch and wire are rather cheap, but on par with the pickups. If you were going to replace the whole harness, that would be a good thing, but until you replace the pickups, I wouldn't worry with it.