Telecaster Vs Strat Single coils

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Telecaster Vs Strat Single coils

Is the Twang Banger a hotter wound APS-1 with the metal plate added? Or is there more to the TB than that?

 

[BlueGuitar]

Re: Telecaster Vs Strat Single coils

GT...I know this sounds crazy but I glued a piece of a hack saw blade under a set of Strat pups one time, and it had a pretty big impact on the tone...

So where were you serving time? (You know, hacksaw blades and prison escapes... :smack: )

Like when someone asks me if I want their cell number "I didn't even know that you were in jail!"

I've used a few of the Fralin baseplates and a quality hack saw blade might work just as well...

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Telecaster Vs Strat Single coils

Do the HH Tele's, still have that metal bridge pup baseplate?

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Telecaster Vs Strat Single coils

The bassplate seems to increase the bass and maybe the mids by 5 - 10%. It's a diff I can hear. I like it! Lew

Are these bassplates typically steel?

I think I might like a Tele more than my strat.

You guys are making the Twang Banger and this Tele mod sound better all the time.

 

[Kelsey]

Re: Telecaster Vs Strat Single coils

I think the bases have been covered above, but from my pickup swapping experience so far, I would say the rigid bridge mounting and bobbin size and style are the most important elements. The baseplate certainly adds something, but good Tele pickups like the SD STL-2 Hot Tele lead sound like a Tele even without the plate. And lots of well-known Tele players use(d) various six saddle bridges (Albert Collins, Keith Richards, Brent Mason, etc.). Even the string-thru Tele design may be secondary, given that the top-loader design of the late 50's still sounds like a Tele AFAIK.

I like the Twangbanger Strat pickup, but even with the baseplate it still sounds more Strat than Tele to me.

 

[Guitar Toad]

Re: Telecaster Vs Strat Single coils

In the Tele, flat pole pieces were used until about mid '54, then Fender went to thinner polepieces that were raised and staggered and the tone changed to the bright twang we associate with country Tele players. The polepieces in all of the 50's and 60's Strats are raised and staggered...never flat.

According to Duchossoir, the 50's and early 60's Fender Strat pickups were wound with 8350 turns compared to 9200 for the Tele, and then later as little as 7800 turns. Then to 7600 turns in the late 60's and early 70's...Fender's worst and weakest Strat pickups IMO.

Seymour has found that the 50's Strat pickups were wound with fewer turns than the early 60's version. I believe this is true because the pickups in my '63 Strat sure seem a little hotter than the pickups that were in my '54 and '57 Strats.

These weakest of Fender strat pups would have the been in the strats that Jimi played, right? Apparently he simply had the chops to make them work anyway.

 

[jimo]

Re: Telecaster Vs Strat Single coils

Also the Strat pickups are riding on a plastic pickguard-----with less connections to the wood---------hmnnn----JIMO