Seymour Duncan Twang Banger.

[surfergirl]

Should I replace my bridge pick up with the Twang Banger for a more Telecaster sound or is the difference between the Strat and the Twang Banger enough to justify the $89?

 

https://youtu.be/WWLeVJRs5v0

[KuruPrionz]

I gave the video a spin through a studio monitor (Mackie MR5 and yes, I only have one).

I don't think you need the pickup. If your amp has Bass, Middle, Treble controls it should be pretty easy to get close. Lots of other tones on tap with 3 band EQ too. 

 

Sometimes all you need to get different tones is a different pick or a different picking position. There is quite a difference between picking near the bridge and picking near the neck. There is a big difference between using a thin, medium and heavy pick as well. 

 

Whole lot of tones for almost nothing but a bit of effort and maybe changing a habit or two. 😇

 

 

[desertbluesman]

I agree with Kuru surfergirl.

[Sharkman]

I might as well share my opinion, for whatever it's worth.  I like the sound of the Twang Banger the best, the Ssl3 second best, and the original Fender is third choice.  The Twang Banger has a richer, fuller sound, at least listening to the video on my laptop computer with whatever small speaker  HP computers use.

[Larryz]

I liked all 3 but favored the original...I think having a stock Strat and a stock Tele on the stand will do the trick!  Good excuse to have two guitars LoL! 😎

 

+1 on different pick thickness and playing positions getting more or less twang on either model...

[Caevan O’Shite]

I want to tell you pretty much what Kuru and others have said above; that you can get a lot of that by varying picking technique and picks, adjusting your amp's controls (and cranking the amp up a bit more, and using your guitar's volume-control to vary from cleaner to meaner)... And also adjusting the height of your pickups, maybe even adding a "blower" switch that switches to just the bridge-pickup going straight to the output-jack with no volume or tone controls in between, stuff like that... Kick-in that 2B Boost and leave some rooster-tails behind you...

And I really do think that a set of DR Pure Blues 10's or 11's will help you get in that direction- more mid and upper-mid emphasis, less "mid-scooped" than most other strings... (If you're one of the people here that already use DR Pure Blues, forgive my forgetfulness!)

But, damn if that Twang Banger pickup didn't sound great in those example clips! Often the best, or at least as good as the "original Fender" but different in a very good way (and personally, I did NOT care for any of the Ssl3 examples). If you've really got to change something and spend a little cash to do it, if you've got to scratch that itch, this does seem like a cool pickup, in concept and in these and other examples I've heard.
        
 
 

[KuruPrionz]

Chasing tone by switching pickups can become an infinite quest.

I've been a guitar tech for many years and I've swapped pickups out for lots of guitarists who wanted to try something different. 

 

Most of the time, they still sounded just like themselves after the pickup change. Nothing wrong with that but personally if I were to recommend chasing tone by swapping components I would say "Change the speaker". You will still sound like you but so many amps come with pretty OK speakers and putting a good one in can work wonders. 

 

I put a Peavey Scorpion 10" into a Peavey Vypyr VIP 1 that came with a feeble 8" speaker and it truly transformed that amp. I would never have considered gigging with it with the 8, with the 10 it sounds so much better it's ridiculous. Changing a pickup would not have gotten the same results, not even close. 

[surfergirl]

Thanx everyone for you feedback. I will take time to process and experiment. Economics prevent me from any major purchases at the present time. I'm sure most are in the same situation. I need to replace the brakes on My Subaru, so we have to drive Michaels CJ5. $20. to go to the grocery store. 

Kuru, my VT 40 has a 10 inch speaker, I may try a different one in the future.

Larry, I would love have a Tele, but a will be awhile. I don't want to buy a cheap one just to have one. G&L is at the top of my list.

Caevan, is this what you are referring to when you say blow switch, I can afford it.

https://www.mojotone.com/Mojotone-CTS-250K-Blender-Guitar-Potentiometer

I tried again, still page not found, maybe can figure it out by it's name.

[p90jr]

A Strat is "close" to a Tele... the things that make a Tele sound the way they do are:

- that big metal bridge that the pickup is mounted onto
- the strings passing through that big metal bridge and then through the body
- that big solid chunk of wood that is the body

The Strat sounds different because of the cavity for the tremolo, which is almost like a soundhole, and the strings resting in the metal tremolo block (which metal the block is made of can change the tone and sustain considerably... I bought a strat with a lousy zinc trem block that drove me nuts with its banjo-like effect on the tone) and the pickups being mounted in the plastic pickguard, and then whether your Strat has a "swimming pool" rout or a thinner rout that just gives space for the pickups. All of that contributes to how things vibrate and how they get picked up and sent to an amp.

I have a fleet of guitars these days and a dumb Variax that sounds like all of them through modeling, but back when all I had was a Yamaha Strat type guitar (even though it is Gibsons scale-length, set-neck, pickups mounted into the body, and the pickups were overwound so that in the single pickup settings they could sound like humbuckers) I used a Boss EQ pedal to get it to sound this way or that and covered the gamut.

I still have that EQ pedal, and still use it... though these days I have others that serve the same function, like the Voodoo Labs Giggity, or the THD Quintet... 

My advice is to look for a cheap used Boss EQ pedal, or an MXR or something decent and spend some time with that and your Strat... I have a STrat with the same pickups as your Classic Player, if I remember correctly, and goosing the midrange a bit on those Noiseless pickups gets them into humbucker territory... adding some treble and upper mids can get you that Tele bite.

I've recommended EQ pedals to people for years (for years it was my "clean boost" for solos onstage before I got the Lizard Leg Flying Dragons), and then I come a vid where Tim Pierce shares it as the number one secret weapon
 

 

[KuruPrionz]

^^^ And, speaking of guitar EQ systems - I can highly recommend adding the EMG SPC to any Strat or Tele style guitar. 

I've been using them for years, current have both a Strat and a Tele with an SPC on board. 

 

One knob, it boosts the midrange and softens the highs. How much is up to you. Since I was playing for the last 6 years with an acoustic guitarist who had already taken care of the bright guitar, I usually had mine cranked and more "Gibson-ish".

 

I know Caevan likes the SPC too. It will work fine with passive pickups, they don't need to be EMG pickups to use the SPC. 

[p90jr]

Whoa... so posting this reminded me that I always meant to watch out for one of the Source Audio Programmable EQ pedals to turn up gently used and cheap, because it always seemed really useful for switching guitars onstage but keeping them consistent as far as output or being able to preset the things I discussed to make guitars sound different...

and while looking for that I stumbled upon this, which has been around for a few years yet flew under my radar. What Kemper is to sampling amps, this is to sampling guitars! Not "exact" but close enough for horseshoes, hand grenades and rock and roll... and being a Mooer product it's affordable (cheaper than a pickup).

I'm too curious not to order one of them.

I'll crosspost in the Cool New Pedal thread.
 

 

[Winston Psmith]

I didn't watch the whole #1 Tone video - sorry - so I may be repeating something they discussed, but one very cool, very simple trick with the Boss EQ pedal is to place it at the front of your signal chain, where it will act as a Buffer Pedal, then set all the Frequency Sliders at center (Flat), and use the main Level slider to act as a Clean Boost.

[p90jr]

1 hour ago, Winston Psmith said:

I didn't watch the whole #1 Tone video - sorry - so I may be repeating something they discussed, but one very cool, very simple trick with the Boss EQ pedal is to place it at the front of your signal chain, where it will act as a Buffer Pedal, then set all the Frequency Sliders at center (Flat), and use the main Level slider to act as a Clean Boost.

Yes, I used it this way for years as a clean boost for solos onstage. I also has a trip of masking tape with different color markings so I could quickly change it for certain songs. All Boss pedals were $10-40 used in pawnshops and classified ads back in the day, here, so a guy I knew saw my trick and just used 3 of them set different ways,

[surfergirl]

I never thought about an EQ before. The Boss and MXR, even used, are expensive especially when you add shipping. Joyo $38. and Bheringer  $25. could be an option. I have a Joyo actone which I like. I'm not using it now because I'm  using my VT40+, and don't need it.  

[Caevan O’Shite]

I must confess, Jenny/surfergirl, that part of me wants to read your posting that you got and installed that Twangbanger bridge-pickup and are loving it and all about how it sounds! Kinda like briefly living vicariously through your purchase... 😁