Telecaster with a Strat Neck pickup

Andrew Lamprecht

Minion of One
Never really liked the tele neck pup and have always liked the neck pickup on the strat. Could I get some stratty sounds in the neck with an Ash or Alder tele?
 
Re: Telecaster with a Strat Neck pickup

Never really liked the tele neck pup and have always liked the neck pickup on the strat. Could I get some stratty sounds in the neck with an Ash or Alder tele?

Hi. Ive been stalking you. :9:..anyway..youll get more of a Tele sound with a Tele pickup in Strat then you will a Strat sound with a Strat pickup in a Tele if I am not mistaken. Thats cause a lot of the Telecaster sound is cause of the Tele bridge / saddles on the Tele , and also the string through .
Doesn't Fender make a Nashville Tele though with a Strat middle pickup?
Thats probably where it might do the most good, with a 5 way switch for some more Strat like 3-4 sounds?
 
Re: Telecaster with a Strat Neck pickup

Yes. You can also get some pretty good 'strat in tele clothing' pickups to avoid sawing wood. IFLHO, the middle sounds better, too.

Thank you.
 
Re: Telecaster with a Strat Neck pickup

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Ths is a California Telecaster. It was my first one. I really wanted to buy an American Standard, but there something about this guitar that kept calling me back to it. The AS Tele was like $250.00 more and really didn't like the way it played or sounded so I bought this on. It has a Tex Mex Strat pickup in the neck and a Tex Mex Tele picup in the bridge. I can get some very good Strat tones out of it, but it is much more of a Tele then a Strat I like to play slide on this.... its clear clean and crisp, but I can also do a pretty good version of the Wind Cries Mary on this!
 
Re: Telecaster with a Strat Neck pickup

I recently put a Fralin Blues Special Strat neck pickup in my blue MIM Tele. It's an easy swap with a MIM, since it's routed for an HB neck. Just add a pickguard from GF, and you're done. To me, the strat neck pickup in a Tele sound quite stratty.

There are pickups designed to sound stratty in the form factor of a normal Tele neck. THe CS Duncan linked above is one. Rio Grande makes their "Tallboy" line to do the same thing. Also, Fender makes a Twisted Tele neck pickup that supposed to sound Stratty. The non-CS Twisted Tele is perhaps the only non-boutique, least expensive version of this idea.

The problem with Tele neck pickups is they are so small. They require thin (43 gauge, IIRC) wire which raises their resistance and makes them muddy. The little bobbin simply doesn't have room for enough 42 gauge wire. Also, it only has space for little, skinny magnets, making the pickup that much weaker.

Strat pickups obviously are larger, and have room for bigger magnets and larger wire. So, they don't mud out when you wind them to a useable strength.

Rio Grande's name is the giveaway as to how you get stratty (i.e. "not muddy") tone out of a Tele neck - you make the pickup taller rather than bigger around. Some people use a taller bobbin. I believe Fender just uses taller magnets, but lets them stick out the bottom of the bobbin so that the cover will fit.

If you have an HB route, try any Strat pickup of your choice. If your guitar is routed for a normal Tele neck, try a Twisted Tele pickup as a first, economical experiement.
 
Re: Telecaster with a Strat Neck pickup

i have been playing my tele with a strat pup alot lately and i love it. it sounded down right AWESOME last night! ive never been a big fan of tele neck pups but tele bridge pups are the mutts nuts so putting a good strat neck pup in as a replacement makes alot of sense to me. a gibson style mini-hum is another great option to get some good tones but that may require routing where a strat will usually only require the pickguard to be modified
 
Re: Telecaster with a Strat Neck pickup

Far out. My favorite thing about Teles is the neck pickup.
 
Re: Telecaster with a Strat Neck pickup

so how are the middle position sounds on strat-neck-pickup'd tele?
I like that mellow, deep, but still bouncy middle position that I get. I dunno if I would wanna change that.
Crap now I need another telecaster so I can find out.
 
Re: Telecaster with a Strat Neck pickup

so how are the middle position sounds on strat-neck-pickup'd tele?
I like that mellow, deep, but still bouncy middle position that I get. I dunno if I would wanna change that.
Crap now I need another telecaster so I can find out.

I was wondering this too last night. I'm sure the middle position would change but what would be the differences?
 
Re: Telecaster with a Strat Neck pickup

I was wondering this too last night. I'm sure the middle position would change but what would be the differences?

It would probably be brighter and louder, but still a little more hollow than the 2 and 4 on a strat, because the pickup spacing is greater.

Try to look up a vid of any of those teles that have the CS twisted tele neck pickup. Come to think of it, I think I remember hearing those guitars sounding distinctly AWESOME. Certainly no loss of twang, but it's just like dialing the "attitude" up a notch.
 
Re: Telecaster with a Strat Neck pickup

the middle setting is a little different but still similar. much more tele like than strat like.

the custom shop strat/tele neck pup is awesome. evan has a guitar with one and i had a lot of fun playing it
 
Re: Telecaster with a Strat Neck pickup

the middle setting is a little different but still similar. much more tele like than strat like.

the custom shop strat/tele neck pup is awesome. evan has a guitar with one and i had a lot of fun playing it

Do you think a Donahue would sound good with it?

EDIT: Also, does anyone know if the custom shop makes scatterwound jerry donahue pickups?? :naughty:
 
Re: Telecaster with a Strat Neck pickup

Far out. My favorite thing about Teles is the neck pickup.

Haha.. I love Tele neck pups too.. you can get some some pretty awesome cleans for that jazz/blues, funk stuff.. very full sounding

That being said, if you're looking for more of that gritty strat attack with less boomy bottom end out of your Tele neck, I was pretty blown away by the Fralin Blues Special Tele Neck.. it doesn't have a cover.. and does a very convincing "Wind Cries Mary" tone..

7.5k, 5% overwound, described as "bright and strong"
 
Re: Telecaster with a Strat Neck pickup

im sure the jd would sound fine with it.

the custom shop will do just about anything you want but if you change the wind on the jd then it wont be the jd anymore. if you want an a2 8k scatter wound pup with #43 pe they will be more than happy to do it for you.
 
Re: Telecaster with a Strat Neck pickup

im sure the jd would sound fine with it.

the custom shop will do just about anything you want but if you change the wind on the jd then it wont be the jd anymore. if you want an a2 8k scatter wound pup with #43 pe they will be more than happy to do it for you.

Sweet, thanks Jeremy.
 
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