Telecaster Conversion to Humbuckers

[ibanezrocks]

Anyways I've decided the telecaster pickups just aren't for me and I want to change it over to a humbucker in the bridge and either a p90 or a p-rails in the neck (but thats another discussion entirely). The purpose of this thread is to decide if I should get a humbucker style tele bridge where the pickup still attaches to the bridge, or chop the existing bridge and mount it to a pickup ring. A third option would also be to sell the current bridge and by a strat hardtail bridge.

I'm thinking the humbucker style tele bridge would probably look the best, however would be the most expensive option and I'm not having any luck finding a site that sells them other than Warmoth (probably over priced there). Getting a strat hardtail bridge would require redrilling the mounting holes, which may be too close to the existing holes for comfort. Finally, chopping the current bridge would require that I carefully plan exactly where to chop it, but I'm thinking I could shave down the sides of the bridge to gradually slope to the height of the pickup ring and have it going right against that...

Suggestions?

 

[Fender_Punk]

Re: Telecaster Conversion to Humbuckers

I'd go with buying a bucker sized bridgeplate. Guitar Fetish sells them pretty reasonably priced IMO. A black one may look cooler, and go with your pickguard, knobs, pickups and switch tip. Either way, I think this would look the best and be the most painless route of action, as well as retains the Tele look.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Telecaster Conversion to Humbuckers

The most important thing to remember is THERE IS NO GOING BACK. A standard Tele bridge will not cover a humbucker route, so it's going to have a humbucker (or a Phat Cat) forever. Trust me, I learned the hard way, many years ago.

+1 on the Guitar Fetish bridge. I have one on my Schecter PT, and it's just fine. No problems at all.

If you're looking for a black one, PM me. The PT originally had a black bridge. I swapped it for chrome and I'll sell you the black one if you want it.

 

[Dirt123]

Re: Telecaster Conversion to Humbuckers

Stupid question:
Have you tried a Lil'59 or a Hot Rails?

 

[mrturtle_91]

Re: Telecaster Conversion to Humbuckers

I'm putting GFS L'il puncher single coil sized humbuckers in mine...could be a good solution for you...single coil sized bucker.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Telecaster Conversion to Humbuckers

The Tele humbucker bridge is also sold by AllParts and Best Guitar Parts, but at a higher price than Warmoth. If you want the Gotoh Tele Humbucker bridge, go with Warmoth for the best price. If you want to spend less, get the one from Rich if black is OK or GuitarFetish for the chrome one.

IMO, if all your hardware is chrome, go with chrome. It'll cost more to swap all the hardware over to black than you probably care to spend anyway. And that's for GOOD hardware.

Just FYI, getting a good Strat hardtail and a pickup ring would cost close to the same as getting the Gotoh Tele Humbucker bridge. That is assuming you go with a Gotoh or Hipshot hardtail. I got a Gotoh hardtail for my project and that thing has some mass to it. It's a very nice looking bridge.

 

[MikeS]

Re: Telecaster Conversion to Humbuckers

I'd personally try some humbuckers designed to fit in the tele lead slot... Duncan has a couple, Dimarzio seems to have a better selection. Maybe you can be the guy to call up the Duncan CS and ask for a Cool Rails for tele lead. I would have done it long ago if I had $$ and a spare tele.

Anyway, I'd try that before routing the tele for a bridge humbucker. As mentioned, there's no going back.

 

[marvar]

Re: Telecaster Conversion to Humbuckers

the lil 59 for tele rocks! It sounds like a regular humbucker to me. (well it is a humbucker) but sounds about as good as my LP.
save the surgery and just pop some in.

 

[DazH]

Re: Telecaster Conversion to Humbuckers

if you can wait, get some lil humbucker for tele second hand on ebay or something & if you dont like them, sell them for what you paid for them. Buying second hand is handy that way.

I would at least try it before routing, if you can wait mate.

 

[Pete Galati]

Re: Telecaster Conversion to Humbuckers

I really like full size humbuckers in Telecasters a lot. One of my favorite ones has a couple Duncan '59s, one from the '80s (I think) and one very recent, and the bridge HB is mounted in one of those Gotoh humbucker Tele bridges, which is a nice solid bridge, with good mass. I have a couple humbucker Telecasters with that bridge. From Stewmac.

But what I got a couple days ago from the Duncan Custom Shop is this Pearly Gates Esquire stack pickup. The original idea was to do a Fat Tele type of thing, with a full size humbucker neck pickup. But I'm not feeling well enough to do the neck pickup route right now, so I might just throw this together as an Esquire.

I still haven't gotten around to checking this with a meter, but I assume that everything's aok. If I end up liking this one, it'll be the 1st noise cancelling Tele pickup I've liked. Usually, I'd rather just have a regular humbucker.

 

[guitfiddle]

Re: Telecaster Conversion to Humbuckers

There's tele style guits on eeek-bay with p90s in them...that or get a TC-90 from Fender, and have both.

 

[Artie]

Re: Telecaster Conversion to Humbuckers

Stew-Mac used to have a pretty decent selection of Tele humbucker bridges, but I see they're all gone. One of my all-time favorite guitar sounds is a Custom 5 in a tele bridge. Nice Tele-twang, but with added girth.

 

[Captain Tightpants]

Re: Telecaster Conversion to Humbuckers

It depends on what you want. If you want more of a modern Tele- Strat feel, go with the humbucker Tele bridge. If you like the current bridge, just chop it, it's not that hard.

If you've got your heart set on a full-sized humbucker, chopping it would be the easiest, especially if you like the Tele 3 saddle ( I'm assuming that's what you have). In my case, I just picked a spot behind the pickup hole and hacksawed it off. I also set the bridge back a little further than a normal tele, so where I cut it wasn't a huge deal. I was going for more of a Les Paul string angle, and I string it with the top-mount holes on the bridge, ala Jimmy Page's Tele. Also, mine had P-90 routs already for the pickups, so I didn't have to rout it, I just trimmed back the baseplate of the 'bucker.

However, like others have said, if you route it, there's no going back. You may be better served going with the Tele-sized bucker if you've got the scratch.

 

[ibanezrocks]

Re: Telecaster Conversion to Humbuckers

I would definitely like to know more about the Esquire Pearly Gates Stack. I guess routing it is a lot of work when I do already have other guitars with humbuckers in them. Perhaps I'll go with something different then... As long as it sounds thicker than the JD in there now I'd go for it. Maybe a Quarter Pound or Lil 59 in the bridge... I'll see what I can find on eBay for a good deal.

 

[Pete Galati]

Re: Telecaster Conversion to Humbuckers

I would definitely like to know more about the Esquire Pearly Gates Stack. I guess routing it is a lot of work when I do already have other guitars with humbuckers in them. Perhaps I'll go with something different then... As long as it sounds thicker than the JD in there now I'd go for it. Maybe a Quarter Pound or Lil 59 in the bridge... I'll see what I can find on eBay for a good deal.

I meant to paste this url into my earlier post, but it slipped my mind.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/custom-shop/telecaster/bg14002930k_for/

Someone mentioned this pickup. It might have been in this pickup forum. I wish I could report on what I think of it's sound, but I won't get to try it for a while.

I've made some rather disastrous humbucker routes by thinking I didn't have to be very careful. The stuff under the pickguard all gets covered up, but it's the sloppy bridge routes that'll kill your cosmetics!

One thing a lot of guys do though is build Fat Tele's, with just a humbucker neck pickup. I always hear enthusiastic things about those. I guess they get the Tele bite from the normal bridge humbucker, and the meaty neck humbucker sound.

That's what I had in mind with this Pearly Gates Esquire pickup, but I was thinking of a fatter all around sound.

I've showed this trial fitting before. This is before the Custom Shop pickup showed up.

Fender had something (probably where the Fat Tele term came from) something like that, and I think they were MIM, but I don't see anything listed today. There's this Squier:

http://www.squierguitars.com/products/search.php?partno=0301235506

I want to try one, but I'd probably spend more than it cost on upgrades.

 

[J Moose]

Re: Telecaster Conversion to Humbuckers

The most important thing to remember is THERE IS NO GOING BACK. A standard Tele bridge will not cover a humbucker route, so it's going to have a humbucker (or a Phat Cat) forever. Trust me, I learned the hard way, many years ago.

Indeed.

Personally I think a Tele with a bridge bucker is ENTIRELY missing the point of a Telecaster... it's cool & all, but it's not really a Tele. The acoustic tone is also going to take a dramatic turn when going from the stamped steel bridge w/brass saddles to any of the 6-saddle bridges... usually loses too much of the snap & growl that makes a Tele a Tele.

Neck humbuckers in a Tele are great, especially with all the splits wired up... so are P-90s. My Bigsby Tele has a regular Duncan "vintage" P90 in the neck. Lovely pickup. My favorite old Tele had a '59 in the neck and at one point I also owned a Tele with an SSL-1 in the middle and a mini-bucker in the neck. All of 'em had 'regular' Tele bridge pickups...

Personally, I wouldn't do it. At least not the bridge routing. If something like a little '59 ain't gonna cut it for you, I'd sell the guitar & get something that DOES make you happy. Tele's aren't for everyone...

Honestly I'd just enjoy for what it is. The JD is a great pickup... one of my favs in a Tele.

 

[pinto79]

Re: Telecaster Conversion to Humbuckers

I'd be happy to price you out a Tele bridge that fits a humbucker or hook you up with a Duncan or DiMarzio that fits your current bridge.

PM me if you're interested.

Trevor