Anyone use a three pickup Tele?

[Teahead]

I got to thinking, as a result of the "Which Position?" thread, about the neck/middle combination on a Strat. I have a current US Standard Tele, which is routed for a middle p'up, and am now considering installing one in pursuit of this "Out of phase?" sound.

Has anyone played such a beast? What was your experience like? How does it compare to the benchmark Strat sound I'm remembering?

Any pickup suggestions to fill the vacancy?

Thanks in advance for any assistance, Tea...

[fantasticsound]

I love the Nashville Deluxe Tele. 3 pickups, stock from the factory. It covers a lot of ground for me. I used to absolutely hate the squared off design of Tele's... Not even sure when that changed, but I really like playing the Nashville Tele when I worked at MARS. It's not expensive, either.

[Caevan O’Shite]

For one thing, get it wired in parallel to the others, with a separate in/out switch so that you won't lose what you already love about your Tele. Plus, you'll be able to get all three pickups on together, as well, which sounds euphoric. Fender has a new "knob" out that looks like a stock one, but the top pushes in to switch. Very slick! "Stealth" in action, "Vintage" in appearance! Also, a mimi-toggle or a more common push-pull type pot will do.

 

May I recommend a Seymour Duncan "SSL52-1 RP RW", which is a Strat-style, single-coil middle pickup with different types of alnico magnet polepieces under the low- and high-strings to give you twangier basses and rounder trebles. It is also reverse polarity/reverse wound, to cancel out some of the noise and hum when used with the other pickups. Read more at:

 

http://www.SeymourDuncan.com/website/products/stratsdescr.shtml#Five-Two

 

I'm sure you'll get some input here from happy owners of Fender "Nashville"-model Telecasters, which add a middle pickup. They have a great rep for versatility.

 

***************************************************************

 

Ah't! When I started typing this post, no one had replied yet. I see that Neil beat me to it, and, lauds that "Nashville Deluxe". I knew it!

[Blue Strat]

Slightly OT, but I've always wondered what a Gibson mini-bucker (like in the Firebird) would sound like in a Tele. GP had an issue with some of G. E. Smith's guitars in it and he had a Tele with an added mini-bucker in the middle position. Cool!

 

I don't know of any place that sells a Tele pickguard cut for a Gibson mini-bucker. I also don't think it would fit in my Tele without modification because of the rout for the neck pickup.

 

One of these days....

[Caevan O’Shite]

blue-

 

I bet that you could order such a pickguard from Warmoth, or get the needed routing templates for the 'guard and body routes from Stewart-MacDonald. (Stew-Mac would at least be a great source of info and advice.) If you want, I'll give ya links to both.

[Blue Strat]

Originally posted by Caevan O'Shite, who 8 the Pilgrims.:

blue-

 

I bet that you could order such a pickguard from Warmoth, or get the needed routing templates for the 'guard and body routes from Stewart-MacDonald. (Stew-Mac would at least be a great source of info and advice.) If you want, I'll give ya links to both.

I'm just not sure I want to rout the body on my Tele without knowing what it's going to sound like. Besides, I'm financially challenged at the moment! I need to get a cheap Strat or Tele just to tinker with! I'd probably go all out on a guitar if I wasn't worried about messing with a good thing. A Strat with a swimming pool rout would be great for experimenting! I could try out lots of different pickup configurations with that guitar.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Originally posted by bluestrat:

"Besides, I'm financially challenged at the moment!"

Join the club! (I hate to admit that!)

 

"I'm just not sure I want to rout the body on my Tele without knowing what it's going to sound like."

Maybe a spare body, like a "Strat with a swimming pool route", would allow you to experiment; as long as you're comfortable enough putting the neck and hardware on it to try things out. That way, you could always go back to what you had, and it would be relatively economical, too. Just time consuming!

 

Just an idea, probably not what you wanna do, but I just thought I'd throw that out there...

[Tedster]

Originally posted by fantasticsound:

I love the Nashville Deluxe Tele. 3 pickups, stock from the factory. It covers a lot of ground for me. I used to absolutely hate the squared off design of Tele's... Not even sure when that changed, but I really like playing the Nashville Tele when I worked at MARS. It's not expensive, either.

Yeah, I want one of those. A local guy, Bob Harvey, plays the first three pickup Tele I saw. It's not the Nashville Tele, either, it's old. He plays the livin' snot out of it, too. Looks like Warren Haynes, plays like him, too. Sings like a cross between Joe Cocker, Bob Seger, and Gregg Allman. I hate him. You can check him out here...

 

http://www.bobharvey.com

[Dave da Dude]

I've been considering (way in the future, maybe two or three weeks ) a Nashville Deluxe Tele. I got interested in it when someone on this fourm was touting it about six months or so ago.

 

In the meantime, I played a Samick knockoff of it, and I loved it!

 

Dave

[Blue Strat]

Just got a Strat off of e-bay..... for $37!!

 

It's a Rougue Strat, made by Squier, but that's still cool with me!

 

....and it's in NC! I can probably swing by the guy's place and pick it up. Awesome!! Now, new tuners, pickups, pickguard, String Saver saddles, and maybe one or two other touches might be needed to make it really cook....

[strat0124]

That would be me. I have the Nashville Tele. I love the guitar, however I swapped the bridge pickup out for something with more cajones.

[Teahead]

Thanks for all the info guys...

Can anyone compare the out of phase sound on my proposed "Nasvillized" Tele to that on a Strat? I'm guessing it would be pretty close, it's only affected by the bridge and hardware differences right?

As for the squared off look? That's one of the reasons why I love Teles! I have a black US Standard, and I swapped the white pick guard for a near black/brown Bakelite type. It makes the guitar look even more functional than it already did. I wanted it kind of like a stripped down '72 Custom, but now it's going to be Nasvillized!

Any info you can give on the second and fourth positions would be gratefully digested, thanks, T.

[Bobbo]

I have a 1998 Tele B-Bender that I routed and installed a middle pickup. The 2nd and 4th positions do sound very Strat like.

 

I measured the distance between the bridge pickup and neck pickup on a Nashville Tele to get the exact position for routing the pickup cavity.I had to do it this way because I couldnt find a pickguard for the Nashville Tele and had to make my own pickguard also.

 

My b-bender had the stock Delta Tone pickup system and I installed an American Standard middle, reverse wound Strat pickup. I put an on-off mini toggle switch between the volume and tone control for the middle pup, so I can just turn the middle pickup on or off and didn't have to change out the 3 way switch. This way I can use it like a Strat or Tele. Or all three pickups.

 

I Would post a picture, but I don't know how yet.

I could email a picture if anyone wants to see it. bobbo71075@yahoo.com

[69tele]

my sister has a James Burton Tele with 3 pups very cool guitar.

 

You get the tele twang and the Strat quack all in one axe !

 

http://www.eazi-k.com/guitar/jb/jbtele_2.jpg

[Blue Strat]

Originally posted by Dave th Dude:

I've been considering (way in the future, maybe two or three weeks ) a Nashville Deluxe Tele. I got interested in it when someone on this fourm was touting it about six months or so ago.

 

In the meantime, I played a Samick knockoff of it, and I loved it!

 

Dave

If I had another white Tele, I'd get it painted Red, White, and Blue; Buck Owens style!!

[Guitar Geezer]

Look what I just found:

tele knockoff

 

I may try for this un (won't be as cheap as blues $37...but what the heck)

[Caevan O’Shite]

bluestrat- That's too cool, congratulations! "Cheepnis" floats! And lands on a deserving soul, now and then...

 

69tele- You must have one cool sister. How come she's not a Forummite here?!? Does she let you play that paisley Stealth-toboggan?

 

Teahead- Man, with a name like that, you must drink a lot of tea!

 

I assume that your Telecaster has a pretty standard bridge- and neck-pickup compliment, that is, the three-screw, Tele-style br. and metal-covered n. units. When a Strat-style middle-pickup is added, the differences between the sound and that of a Strat's will be subtle, and essentially nil. At least in the "quacking" ballpark, and then some.

 

I know that I've played a few three-ring-binderific Broadcaster bastardizations here and there over the years, but I didn't take notes, sorry! But the testimonies of the above should convince you. Go on, do it! Jump! JUMP! I need to live vicariously through your hardware acquisitions for a while! Just think, they can hold the glass box and river Thames suspension for that one!

[roy d]

I played a 3 pickup tele for years... it was a '68 that began life with a bigsby and had been really brutalized... when I got it, it had the bigsby tremelo removed, a strat pickup in the neck, a dimarzio in the bridge, holes drilled to mount strings, the bridge portion of the bidgsby still there, and a mini toggle to by-pass the tone control. I added a strat style pickup in the middle, a standard tele bridge, swapped the bridge pickup for a duncan alnico, and added a 5 way switch.

It was the best sounding electric I've ever played. I sold it like a fool to a country player in upstate NY who almost tripped over his tongue when he played it.

It had everything a strat has plus tele twang... I've always prefered the sound of a tele bridge pickup.

go for it.

roy

[Blue Strat]

Originally posted by lynng - guitar geezer:

Look what I just found:

tele knockoff

 

I may try for this un (won't be as cheap as blues $37...but what the heck)

Good luck dude! You might get yours as cheap as I got mine, if there's justice in the world. You haven't squashed any bugs lately have you? Wouldn't want bad karma causing problems!

 

I'm thinking that I'm just going to leave the pickups in my black Strat stock, change the pickguard, and then change the tuners and saddles if they need it. If the tuners aren't any good I'm getting a set of Grover mini's like I have on my blue Strat.

 

Actually, depending on which guitar has better sounding pickups, I might change the JB jr. bridge pickup from the blue Strat to the black Strat and have the blue one setup with the stock pickups again. I'll still have that killer blue moto pickguard on it though!