Telecaster without neck pickup. Only bridge.

M

Mick Corona

New member
So here is another question which could become guitar project. Everything is on the title. What if I 'd like a telecaster with only bridge pickup installed. Probably under an ash tray cover, so to be cooool, smoooth looking. I know , the body will not be routed for neck pickupCould I get useable tones?
Which pickup would be appropriate, or what type?
Humebucker, tele bridge single size humbucker, with split coil or not, or .....what?
 
Re: Telecaster without neck pickup. Only bridge.

yep, tele with just a bridge pup is an esquire. i have one with the custom shop tapped '53 jb and its fantastic! i have the switch wired 1-tapped output, no tone control, .01 cap hard wired for a darker tone 2-tapped output, normal tone control with .02 cap 3- full output, no tone control
 
Re: Telecaster without neck pickup. Only bridge.

There are several pups that would be cool in this project. The Jerry Donahue would be my first choice, but a Broadcaster would also be sweet. Others will chime in. ;)
 
Re: Telecaster without neck pickup. Only bridge.

I'd go a BG1400 or a dimarzio tone zone T and wire a 4 way switch for different options like series/parallel/split/out of phase you could have twang to balls.
 
Re: Telecaster without neck pickup. Only bridge.

I could do a Tele with just a neck humbucker but I would find it hard with just a bridge pickup. Kudos to you.
 
Re: Telecaster without neck pickup. Only bridge.

Mick Corona said:
Everything is on the title
Click to expand...

Well, not quite!

Mick Corona said:
Could I get useable tones?
Click to expand...

Usable tones? Only YOU can decide if the tones are usable. You might like the tone of an Invader, or a P-90, or a Strat single coil, or a single sized bucker, or a Tele Broadcaster, or a gold foil, or a cheap Asian paperweight.


Mick Corona said:
Which pickup would be appropriate, or what type?
Click to expand...

The pup that gives you the tone that you want is the "appropriate" one for you. But you could put in anything from a Strat neck pup to a full sized bucker to a regular Tele bridge pup (anything other than a Tele bridge pup will require some re-routing and/or hardware replacement however).

If it were me, I'd put in a tapped Jerry Donahue. It would drop right in and give me plenty of "usable tones" that would be quite "appropriate" for me.

But since this is for you, what do you want?
 
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Re: Telecaster without neck pickup. Only bridge.

Couldn't you just put an uncut pickguard over the neck pickup route?
 
Re: Telecaster without neck pickup. Only bridge.

I used one of my teles for many years as an Esquire. I had (and still have) a STL-2T. Between the full output and the tapped output, there's plenty of sounds available.
 
Re: Telecaster without neck pickup. Only bridge.

Mick is new to all of this. He said in the Britny Fox thread that he is 19. Some slack shall be cut.
 
Re: Telecaster without neck pickup. Only bridge.

Dave Locher said:
Mick is new to all of this. He said in the Britny Fox thread that he is 19. Some slack shall be cut.
Click to expand...

I wish I was 19, I'm 40something. You probably mistook me. My name is Michael (Mick Corona nickname here in the forum) and I've never wrote in that thread you mentioned. Have a good day.
 
Re: Telecaster without neck pickup. Only bridge.

I wish I knew what I want.
I was asking about a twangy but a little bit all-around guitar. Thanks anyway. You are all very helpful.
 
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Re: Telecaster without neck pickup. Only bridge.

The basic question is, are you looking for fundamentally Tele character with some variations, or do you want more-than-Tele with a broader range of output capability?

For the first option you probably want a good strong classic bridge pickup like the Broadcaster or the Jerry Donahue as suggested already. Esquire wiring would be great for this.

For the second option, you might do better with a hot humbucking pickup like the Tone Zone T mentioned above, with four-way switching for series/parallel/split/out-of-phase.

EDIT: It sounds as if the first option will suit you well. Would this be your main guitar, or would you be switching back and forth with another? If the other guitar has humbuckers, you might want more output from this one so they both work well using the same amp settings. But if you can dial in your amp for this guitar alone, the Esquire setup is probably what you need.
 
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Re: Telecaster without neck pickup. Only bridge.

If you want good solid Tele tones, I'd recommend the Jerry Donahue pup.
If you want Tele-ish tones but with more mids and umph you could go with the Quarter Pound.
If your guitar is routed for humbucker, I'd recommend the StagMag with a p/p pot to split it. It gets Tele-ish tones and output when split and it gets really great (still slightly Tele-ish) overwound tones in full humbucker mode.
 
Re: Telecaster without neck pickup. Only bridge.

The good news is that research is free. There is no rush to go out and buy something. Watch videos, listen to soundclips, and in the end all we can all do is make an educated choice.
 
Re: Telecaster without neck pickup. Only bridge.

Stag Mag is a great suggestion; never would've occurred to me.

So is the Quarter Pound, I have that in one of my Teles and it rocks. No options for variety though, unless it were the tapped Custom Shop version - which could be a good choice.

The Lil59 for Tele is another possibility. Kind of walks the line between singlecoil and humbucker tone. Plus it can also run parallel or split, and it has better hum rejection than the QP.

Both the QP and the Lil59 will fit a standard Tele bridge plate/rout, if that's a concern.
 
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