Ultimate Blues Tele on a Budget

ZoSo0789

ZoSo0789

New member
Ok, I'm wanting to buy a decently cheap Tele and turn it into a nice growlin vintage blues monster with my tax returns here soon haha. For the actual guitar itself, I'll probably get a good playing and good sounding Squier Tele, or try to find a nice decent Fender MIM Tele used (probably what I'll shoot for). Preferably, I'm gonna try to find an ash bodied one. I've look and searched for threads, but cant quite find what I'm looking for. I'm thinking towards replacing the pickups with an Alnico II Pro in the neck and either a Jerry Donahue or a Vintage '54 in the bridge (but preferably the Jerry Donahue). Really, I could even do without changing the neck, I mainly want the bridge (like most people). Electronics wise, I have no clue because I've seen and heard the standard is both 250K, 500K, and even heard 1 meg quite a bit; and for cap values I dont have any sort of idea. I want the neck to be nice a smooth bright sound, and the bridge to have a good midrange growl. I was possibly thinking about using a concentric pot for the tone and installing the "Black Ice Overdrive" from stew mac, but I"m afraid that even when it's not "overdriving" anything, it'll still affect the tone which I dont want. Thats just a thought out of my ass and it's probably not realistic, but it seems it would be nice to have. Are there any wiring gimmicks to include that would come useful for bluesy stuff (using a 4-way tele switch only)? I'd really like to do all this under about $400 haha but realistically I really dont want to go over about $450 (thats before the Bigsby i'd LOVE to put on it). Let's put it this way, if you found a good condition Tele for a cheap price and had only around 400 bucks to spend (including the guitar itself), what would you do to it to make it a blues machine?
 
Re: Ultimate Blues Tele on a Budget

A neck pup for the Tele that I like is the DMZ Virtual Vintage T neck. Sounds somewhat like a minibucker, is hum canceling, and drops right in the small neck hole.
 
Re: Ultimate Blues Tele on a Budget

an an additional note: has anyone ever tried out the Wilkinson Tele pickups available at Stew-Mac? you can get a pair for about 80 all together... good deal and I've never read a bad review about any of the "cheap" pickups that Stew-Mac sells.... on a student budget they might be alright.... just for kicks
 
Re: Ultimate Blues Tele on a Budget

I hate to say it, but get a used MIM, and then give those Tex Mex pickups a chance to grow on you, they're really quite good.

Down the road, change 'em to Duncans. My MIM has the Vintage 54 bridge, SSL-1 middle, and a SM-1 mini bucker neck, but it's not a blues machine.
 
Re: Ultimate Blues Tele on a Budget

Rich_S said:
I hate to say it, but get a used MIM, and then give those Tex Mex pickups a chance to grow on you, they're really quite good.

Down the road, change 'em to Duncans. My MIM has the Vintage 54 bridge, SSL-1 middle, and a SM-1 mini bucker neck, but it's not a blues machine.
Click to expand...

actually I wouldnt have a single problem with Tex Mex's...
 
Re: Ultimate Blues Tele on a Budget

now that I'm looking for cheaper alternatives (i dont have outstanding gear, and I'm in college anyways, I cant tell each small nuance some people here can anyways), does anyone have any other brand recomendations? I cant honestly tell if companies like Tonerider, Wilkinson, etc are really that great sounding.... I really would rather have Duncans or Fenders, but cheaper is nicer too.. just to throw all the possibilites out there

Oh, and can anyone tell me what a good vintage growlin Tele pickup's for neck and bridge's resistance and inductance specs be? maybe thatll point me a slightly better direction if I need to go with a different pickup manufacturer
 
Re: Ultimate Blues Tele on a Budget

your first instincts were probably best ... JD & A2pro (actually, I like the Vintage Rhythm)

replace 'em one at a time if you're on a budget, but don't put "cheaper alternatives" ahead of real value and great tone

use 250K solid shaft CTS pots and a .047 Orange Drop cap ... check Acme Guitar Works or a good supplier of your choice
 
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Re: Ultimate Blues Tele on a Budget

I'd just look for a used MIM Nashville, get new strings and a set up, and rock it stock. It comes with CTS pots and Texas Specials already built in.
 
Re: Ultimate Blues Tele on a Budget

Personally, I would get a used MIM Standard and I prefer alder instead of ash. It's a little warmer but I still get twang galore. I would caution you against an A2Pro Tele neck pickup. To me, it was too soft and mellow. The JB, yes - wonderful bridge pickup for what you need. Here are the three pickups I would use in the neck position.

1. DiMarzio Twang King
2. Duncan APH-1
3. Duncan APS-1/2 (depending on the neck radius)

That said, if you're not really attached to the Tele's bridge pickup and bridge assembly, you could install a hardtail bridge and install a couple of full-size humbuckers and have a Tele-Gib. a JB/Jazz combo with 250k pots would just scream in that Tele. And if you want to go the extra mile, replace the AlNiCo 5 magnets with AlNiCo 2 in the JB/Jazz...
 
Re: Ultimate Blues Tele on a Budget

I wouldn't do the Tele-Gib thing if you've got a decent Epiphone you like...personally, i buy new guitars to open new tonal possibilities, not to have two $600 investments that do the same thing.

honestly, i probably couldn't tell one set of Tele pups from another...probably mostly due to my inexperience with them. But when I play a Mexican Tele and then switch to an American one, the sound is basically the same to me...really mellow neck pickup, really twangy bridge pickup. I'd just get a Tacocaster and wait until you actually develop a disdain for those pickups before worrying about changing 'em.

In my opinion good blues tone is more about the low-watt tube amp being cranked to provide that light crunch, than it is about which guitar you're using for it. i actually think this for any rig...a Floyd Rose'd Jackson with EMGs into a Blues Jr. is gonna give you more of a chillin blues tone, but a Danelectro with lipstick tubes would still sound heavy as hell through a 5150.

Oh and don't waste your time with that Black Ice Overdrive thing. It's just two resistors that make a really bad-sounding 'clipping' when they're installed...I was gonna try it 'cuz i heard Rivers Cuomo from Weezer had it in one of his Strats but this whole forum jumped down my throat about what a bad idea it was...OD should come from tubes getting angry, not two little solidstate resistors.

you're not living in the dorms are you? man i would hate to try and be a guitarist living in a bedroom with 4 other dudes...i'd have to sleep on my half-stack every nite.
 
Re: Ultimate Blues Tele on a Budget

The Vintage 54N & The JD is a great combo. I have this in a 52 RI Tele and it smokes. I also have a mini Hum in another Tele and have plans to put the JD in this also. haven't received the Pickup yet. Another alternative is to put a Strat pickup in the neck. I have a California Tele that I use mostly for slide (tuned to open E) and this has a Tex Mex Strat neck & a Tex Mex Tele Bridge. They work well together.
 
Re: Ultimate Blues Tele on a Budget

i would say get a used mim tele, dont mess around just get a jd for the bridge. it kicks ass and you want it, you know you do. :)

i dont really like tele neck pups so i usually use a strat pup or mini humbucker or almost anything besides a traditional tele neck pup. a strat pup will fit in the rout fine usually so all you have to modify is the pick guard. even a cheap alnico strat pup usually sounds better to my ears than a good tele neck pup
 
Re: Ultimate Blues Tele on a Budget

So buy a used MIM Tele, and switch out the bridge for a JB and then the neck for Vintage Rhythm (seems to be most popular around here). Well, at least do the bridge anyways. What size pots and caps do yall use to get a good grinding blues, but still keep that nice bright twang? What about wierd electronic gizmos like both in series, or coil taps (Or cuts, whatever you call them), are any of those worth fooling around with?
Then if the money is still a little left over..... Bigsby all the way
 
Re: Ultimate Blues Tele on a Budget

250k cts brand pots are the standard for quality pots

curly suggested .047 orange drop caps and i agree that that is a great option. personally i prefer a .022 orange drop but that is a matter of taste. the higher the value the more bassy the sound will be with the tone control at 0, at 10 there wont be any difference in sound. the orange drop is a good quality cap that wont cost an arm and a leg.

the pups you are talking about arent humbuckers so you cant split (or coil cut, same thing) them and dont have multiple hot leads so there isnt a tapped option.

the series wiring is kinda cool and might be worth considering. it only effects the sound when both pups are on and gives a fatter higher output version of the traditional two pup sound. you can use a mini switch or push/pull pot to select parallel (standard wiring) or series. there is also a 4 way tele switch that gives you both series and parallel options as well as each pup individually and is probably the way to go if you want the series option.
 
Re: Ultimate Blues Tele on a Budget

There's been a lot of mention of "JB" in this thread. We're not talking about a JB humbucker here, guys. The original post mentioned the Jerry Donohue (that's JD) Tele bridge pickup.
 
Re: Ultimate Blues Tele on a Budget

A Mexico Telecaster in stock form can handle blues just fine. The pickups are a little hot, but they sound great, especially with a Tube Screamer.
 
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