L
Lewguitar
Guest
Re: Ultimate Tele tone!
I spent some more time auditioning the Jerry Donahue lead pickup in the MIM Burton Tele through the Marshall/Tweed tone channel in my old blackface Deluxe Reverb with the Celestion G12H-30 speaker.
This channel has been modded with smaller input resistors and uses two .02 capacitors and a 250 pf silver mica treble cap for alot more mids and bass and glassy sizzle: more like a '59 Bassman or Plexi tonality. The negative feedbark circuit has been adjusted for less feedback too.
I can crank this modded channel up to about 3 and most guitars starts to sing. If I turn it up to 5 or 6 it starts to sing like a cranked tweed Bassman or Marshall and get that tone Eric Clapton had with Cream or Jeff Beck got on Truth.
It won't crunch exactly like a Marshall but it gets alot of that kind of tone.
I've been looking for a Tele with the tone of the '51 Tele I had around 1970. That guitar had a stock '51 bridge pickup that could push a tweed Fender Champ or Princeton or Bassman into overdrive and sound almost like a Les Paul.
It had alot of that nasal honk a bridge paf humbucker has and alot of that squishy mallable quality that let me shape the tone with my picking hand and squeeze the notes out. I could actually play alot of Clapton's Cream licks that he originally played on a Les Paul or SG with this Tele and get enough of that squawk and sustain needed to pull that kind of tone off.
Now that I've adjusted close to the strings, this Jerry Donahue Lead pickup has that tone. I am so glad I tried it.
If it is patterned after the lead pickup in JD's '52 Tele, then that '52 Tele has the same pickup that was in my '51 because this is the tone I have been looking for.
It's brighter than the Fralin Blues Specials I've been using in my '54 and also has more mids and a squawkier, more paf or P90 like tone. The JD gets that sweet, slightly compressed sustain and tone, but still has the voice of a vintage '51 Tele.
It has alot more mids than the NoCaster lead pickup and is a lot smoother and less shrill.
So far, it is my favorite pickup in this Burton Tele, which has had: Fender Tex Mex, Fralin Blues Specials, Fender NoCasters and now the APS2 & Jerry Donahue set.
As for the neck APS2: I like a neck pickup with a touch more highs and a little more output. It does not push my amp into overdrive easily, but it does have a nice warm bluesy, jazzy clean tone.
When I solo with the Jerry Donahue and then switch to the APS 2 to play some chords and rythym, I don't have to turn the volume control down as much as I'm used to with the Fralin Blues Special neck pickup or the brighter Nocaster neck pickup because the APS2 has lower output.
That's kind of handy and probably helps retain highs.
Another upside of the lower output and warmer tone of the APS2 this is that when the selector switch is set in the middle, the guitar has a chimier tone than my other Teles, that's useful for other kinds of pop rythym tones...like arpegeated Andy Summers/Police type chord things.
Lew
I spent some more time auditioning the Jerry Donahue lead pickup in the MIM Burton Tele through the Marshall/Tweed tone channel in my old blackface Deluxe Reverb with the Celestion G12H-30 speaker.
This channel has been modded with smaller input resistors and uses two .02 capacitors and a 250 pf silver mica treble cap for alot more mids and bass and glassy sizzle: more like a '59 Bassman or Plexi tonality. The negative feedbark circuit has been adjusted for less feedback too.
I can crank this modded channel up to about 3 and most guitars starts to sing. If I turn it up to 5 or 6 it starts to sing like a cranked tweed Bassman or Marshall and get that tone Eric Clapton had with Cream or Jeff Beck got on Truth.
It won't crunch exactly like a Marshall but it gets alot of that kind of tone.
I've been looking for a Tele with the tone of the '51 Tele I had around 1970. That guitar had a stock '51 bridge pickup that could push a tweed Fender Champ or Princeton or Bassman into overdrive and sound almost like a Les Paul.
It had alot of that nasal honk a bridge paf humbucker has and alot of that squishy mallable quality that let me shape the tone with my picking hand and squeeze the notes out. I could actually play alot of Clapton's Cream licks that he originally played on a Les Paul or SG with this Tele and get enough of that squawk and sustain needed to pull that kind of tone off.
Now that I've adjusted close to the strings, this Jerry Donahue Lead pickup has that tone. I am so glad I tried it.
If it is patterned after the lead pickup in JD's '52 Tele, then that '52 Tele has the same pickup that was in my '51 because this is the tone I have been looking for.
It's brighter than the Fralin Blues Specials I've been using in my '54 and also has more mids and a squawkier, more paf or P90 like tone. The JD gets that sweet, slightly compressed sustain and tone, but still has the voice of a vintage '51 Tele.
It has alot more mids than the NoCaster lead pickup and is a lot smoother and less shrill.
So far, it is my favorite pickup in this Burton Tele, which has had: Fender Tex Mex, Fralin Blues Specials, Fender NoCasters and now the APS2 & Jerry Donahue set.
As for the neck APS2: I like a neck pickup with a touch more highs and a little more output. It does not push my amp into overdrive easily, but it does have a nice warm bluesy, jazzy clean tone.
When I solo with the Jerry Donahue and then switch to the APS 2 to play some chords and rythym, I don't have to turn the volume control down as much as I'm used to with the Fralin Blues Special neck pickup or the brighter Nocaster neck pickup because the APS2 has lower output.
That's kind of handy and probably helps retain highs.
Another upside of the lower output and warmer tone of the APS2 this is that when the selector switch is set in the middle, the guitar has a chimier tone than my other Teles, that's useful for other kinds of pop rythym tones...like arpegeated Andy Summers/Police type chord things.
Lew
Last edited:
