Vintage tele lovers...Humbucker in the bridge

MikeA

MikeA

New member
I've wanted to do this for about 3 years finally got some time and cash and hit it. Took 2 hrs to route out. Which was the scariest thing ever. It was like doing open-heart surgury on a my child that i don't have. The PG needed re-fitting and a bunch of other things needed modification but nothing too bad.Thats a SD custom humbucker (thanks to jguttello for the used PU). I ordered better saddles for the bridge because they appeared pretty crappy, but alas they haven't came in yet.

Anyone looking to put a humbucker in a tele, expect about 4 hrs of work if you are slow like myself. You'll need something to route with. I used a dremel. It isn't hard; it just takes patience and expect about $110 price to this. That would be a used duncan, a good deal on the bridge off e-bay, and new saddles.

She should rock pretty hard...I'm excited!:dance:

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Re: Vintage tele lovers...Humbucker in the bridge

BTW this isn't vintage at all...:laugh2:
 
Re: Vintage tele lovers...Humbucker in the bridge

being a huge fan of Pete Townshend i have to love teles with Humbuckers!!! Those early 80's custom Shecters were nice axes!!!

Good job getting this one together.... i've been debating doing the same to my tele... but i also like it stock so i'm torn between.....
 
Re: Vintage tele lovers...Humbucker in the bridge

You are aware of course that there's no going back. The standard Tele bridge won't cover the "ears" on the HB route. Trust me... I learned the hard way on this here geetar:
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Hope you like it.

BTW - nice job, nice guitar.
 
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Re: Vintage tele lovers...Humbucker in the bridge

looks damn nice michael, sure was fun cutting into her though. Now you just have to wait until gordy orders the saddles for you. Hopefully he already did. I think it will look killer with the graphtechs on it. But yet, i gotta sleep, 2 mid terms tomorrow.
Later Michael
 
Re: Vintage tele lovers...Humbucker in the bridge

looks good bro...i love humbuckers in the bridge of teles...and i love teles! i've never really honestly cared for any single coil tele bridge, of course i've never heard them all...i do like single coil necks in teles but a hum in the neck split will cover that pretty well too...:27:

i L-O-V-E my 80's PT...of all the electrics i've ever owned it's the hands down best...i don't know, it just feels right ya know?!

i'd like to get a more "traditional" tele to try out some single coil bridge pups in...like a JD or maybe some voodoos...just to see if i could like the single coil pup in them?! i mean i do like the sound some players get from them, it's just that when i play them it doesn't sound right...weird...i know :smack:
 
Re: Vintage tele lovers...Humbucker in the bridge

Nice work !

Rich_S said:
You are aware of course that there's no going back. The standard Tele bridge won't cover the "ears" on the HB route.
Click to expand...

Maybe there is : I recently filed down an old tele pickup to make it fit diagonally into a humbucker cover, then attached the humbucker baseplate behind it to give me appropriate mounting points. It sounded pretty convincing, if a little microphonic, but I'm working on that.
 
Re: Vintage tele lovers...Humbucker in the bridge

Rich_S said:
You are aware of course that there's no going back. The standard Tele bridge won't cover the "ears" on the HB route. Trust me... I learned the hard way on this here geetar:
etc_5.jpg


Hope you like it.

BTW - nice job, nice guitar.
Click to expand...

Hey Rich.... if you use a modern Gotoh tele bridge for a humbucker and then use a Gotoh modern tele for single coil it should cover the hole... They have the same base plate size......? I guess you mean using a vintage tele bridge after using humbuckers?
 
Re: Vintage tele lovers...Humbucker in the bridge

Now that's a good looking tele. You use a template for the rout or did you eyeball it?
 
Re: Vintage tele lovers...Humbucker in the bridge

Nice!

I like humbuckers in the bridge position of a Strat...never tried one in a Tele, but I'm sure the right pickup would sound great.

I have 59B, Custom, Custom Custom and EVH/78 bridge humbuckers in four my Strats right now. Never tried a PGb in one but I do like the PGn in one of my Strats.

Anyways, your guitar looks great!
 
Re: Vintage tele lovers...Humbucker in the bridge

Blasphemy!!!!!!


No tele should lose the original style lead pickup!


J/K. It should rock harder than hell bro. Good work. :burnout:
 
Re: Vintage tele lovers...Humbucker in the bridge

I'm personally a HUGE fan of the telecaster bridge position but I love the tone of old school honky tonk country players. To me, taking that bridge pickup away from the tele, is taking the tele tone away. But having said that it's also a complete matter of opinion, and in my opinion that's a sweet lookin guitar and MikeA did a killer job and if it's the tone he wants, more power to him! :)
 
Re: Vintage tele lovers...Humbucker in the bridge

Nice work. I just got my Tele and she's staying as-is for quite a while. Love the tone from the stock bridge pickup.

The rest of my guitars have buckers with one (my Strat) being swappable from singles to buckers with a pickguard change (both fully loaded).

*If* I ever go the route of putting a bucker in there, it'll be a Tele-sized bucker. Not gonna route. But as of right now, it works just fine the way it is.
 
Re: Vintage tele lovers...Humbucker in the bridge

MikeS said:
Now that's a good looking tele. You use a template for the rout or did you eyeball it?
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Took a magic marker and blacked out what was getting routed. nothing too scientific. I also made sure to used masking tape on the top to prevent paint chipping.

BTW- these american finishes are seriously like the width of a dime.


ErikH said:
*If* I ever go the route of putting a bucker in there, it'll be a Tele-sized bucker. Not gonna route. But as of right now, it works just fine the way it is.
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The mini hums never quite sounded right to me...I tried a few then said it's time for the real deal. And yes I was all for the tele tone and twang at one time...but most of the time i just wanna rock the hell out.
 
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Re: Vintage tele lovers...Humbucker in the bridge

What year is your Tele? That color is cool. I don't remember seeing that one on recent models.
 
Re: Vintage tele lovers...Humbucker in the bridge

ErikH said:
What year is your Tele? That color is cool. I don't remember seeing that one on recent models.
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It's parts were made in the end of 2000 and put together in Jan. of 2001.

Thad be Ocean Turquoise...I think they still have it availible on the jaguars but no longer the teles and strats. And of course that isn't the stock gaurd. Fender has been moving to darker colors lately...browns and ambers. Kinda dissappointing if you ask me. I like there bright and vibrant colors.
 
Re: Vintage tele lovers...Humbucker in the bridge

MikeA said:
It's parts were made in the end of 2000 and put together in Jan. of 2001.

Thad be Ocean Turquoise...I think they still have it availible on the jaguars but no longer the teles and strats. And of course that isn't the stock gaurd. Fender has been moving to darker colors lately...browns and ambers. Kinda dissappointing if you ask me. I like there bright and vibrant colors.
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That's around the time when I wasn't paying much attention to what was out there. There's a couple of colors from the last few years that I like but my favs are Black (of course) and Midnight Wine. I wish they still had Midnight Wine on the MIA guitars. That's what my Strat is and I love it. When it comes to Sunburst, it has to be 3-color for me, but it looks better on a Strat IMO. They had a Gun Metal Blue in the mid-90's that looked great on Tele's.

MikeA said:
The mini hums never quite sounded right to me...I tried a few then said it's time for the real deal. And yes I was all for the tele tone and twang at one time...but most of the time i just wanna rock the hell out.
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I'm not talkin' mini hums, I'm talking the little hums, like the Little '59 and such. Mini hums are still, well, min-hums....lol, like what MikeS has in the neck of his black Tele with the red pearloid guard.

I really like the Little '59 for Strat so that would be my first choice for the Tele. After that, who knows. I'm really wanting to keep singles in it though. When I get to changing them out, it'll be a Hot Rhythm in the neck and Fralin Blues Special in the bridge.
 
Re: Vintage tele lovers...Humbucker in the bridge

ErikH said:
I'm not talkin' mini hums, I'm talking the little hums, like the Little '59 and such. Mini hums are still, well, min-hums....lol, like what MikeS has in the neck of his black Tele with the red pearloid guard.

I really like the Little '59 for Strat so that would be my first choice for the Tele. After that, who knows. I'm really wanting to keep singles in it though. When I get to changing them out, it'll be a Hot Rhythm in the neck and Fralin Blues Special in the bridge.
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Sorry man I ment those tele hums not the minis....I tried the Hot Rail...No clairity and the lil' 59'...I dunno just didn't cut it.

And oh yeah I'd love to see a modern return of those old Dupont paint jobs:27:
 
Re: Vintage tele lovers...Humbucker in the bridge

MikeA said:
Sorry man I ment those tele hums not the minis....I tried the Hot Rail...No clairity and the lil' 59'...I dunno just didn't cut it.

And oh yeah I'd love to see a modern return of those old Dupont paint jobs:27:
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I guess it's OK that a couple of those old colors went to the MIM series, like Midnight Wine did. I wanted a MW Tele so bad but I was pursuaded to get a Black one instead since my Strat is MW. It's something different.

Man, all the Tele stuff lately, including my own threads, makes me want to go home early and play until I have to pick up my daughter....lol.
 
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