Telecaster Country Style Pickups?

[PAF-Boy]

Customer wants me to build a Country style Telecaster pickup set.
Can you guys tell me wich specs will fit the bill?
tx
P.B.

[J S Moore]

Country equals clean so I would keep it low output.

I love requests like this from customers. I never know whether to humour them or not as it's my opinion that the country sound comes more from picking style and scale/note choice than anything else. I've seen amazing country playing on Les Pauls and Jazz boxes.

[mac1amps]

As the owner of 6 Teles, I must agree that the "country" sound (or twang, if you prefer), is more the result of the player's technique and the amp's appropriate settings.

[David Schwab]

As the owner of 6 Teles, I must agree that the "country" sound (or twang, if you prefer), is more the result of the player's technique and the amp's appropriate settings.

Very true! I have a guitar I designed roughly based on a tele, and even though it's as thick as a Les Paul and has a carved maple top, set neck, etc., it still sounds like a Tele when played that way.

But then listen to Jimmy Page on Communication Breakdown, Whole Lotta Love, or the solo to Stairway... that's a Tele but doesn't sound like one.

Then check out a band like Mother Truckers. He's playing a Strat with a JB Jr. at the bridge, and it still sounds like a Tele! That's because of the way he's playing and the tone he's using.

[soundmasterg]

Very true! I have a guitar I designed roughly based on a tele, and even though it's as thick as a Les Paul and has a carved maple top, set neck, etc., it still sounds like a Tele when played that way.

But then listen to Jimmy Page on Communication Breakdown, Whole Lotta Love, or the solo to Stairway... that's a Tele but doesn't sound like one.

Then check out a band like Mother Truckers. He's playing a Strat with a JB Jr. at the bridge, and it still sounds like a Tele! That's because of the way he's playing and the tone he's using.

Isn't Jimmy Page's a broadcaster or esquire? It has that raw tone that comes from those pickups rather than the later Tele pickups.....

Greg

[David Schwab]

Isn't Jimmy Page's a broadcaster or esquire? It has that raw tone that comes from those pickups rather than the later Tele pickups.....

Greg

I'm not sure. Could be. I think he had a few, unless it's the same guitar refinished. After a while he had that brown Tele with a B-Bender.

Every play a rosewood Tele? Boy they have a meaty tone.

[RedHouse]

Not the Esquire, Page's had a neck pickup and Rosewood boarded neck:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-svS...eature=related



Jeff Beck's Esquire had only the bridge pickup and a maple neck:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBhqcI1EFu8


BTW, what the bloody hell does the selector switch to on an esquire?

[Possum]

....

Well, man, there's alot of tele variations on bridge pickups. I think I've come up with five or six radically different versions. You probably want to use the skinny magnets, StewMac has sizes listed that are typical. The older pre-CBS were a bit meatier sounding, fatter magnets. Some use 42 gauge some use 43, alnico 3 was used early on, then alnico 5. Lots of ways to go here.

[spud1950]

BTW, what the bloody hell does the selector switch to on an esquire?

"The three Esquire switch positions are:

1) Standard wiring - The usual volume/tone control configuration.
2) Control bypass - This gives you a slightly brighter and louder output.
3) Bass - The signal is run across a relatively high-gauge capacitor to give more bass tone."

[mac1amps]

With respect to Pagey's sound on the Zep tracks.......it's also a well known fact that he used some great sounding Supro amps along with his "meaty" Tele. Those gorgeous sounding amps would make most anything sound "meaty", including an otherwise twangey Tele/ B-caster/ Esquire.

[J S Moore]

I'm not sure. Could be. I think he had a few, unless it's the same guitar refinished. After a while he had that brown Tele with a B-Bender.

Page had at least two. The original one with the Dragon graphic and then the later brown Tele.

Page did the Dragon by hand and was really pleased with it. He left that Tele with a friend when he went on tour and his friend re-finished the guitar thinking he was giving Jimmy a gift. Page wasn't very happy and hasn't played the guitar since. The rosewood neck ended up on the brown Tele. Not that this info is really relevant to the forum.

[soundmasterg]

I'm not sure. Could be. I think he had a few, unless it's the same guitar refinished. After a while he had that brown Tele with a B-Bender.

Every play a rosewood Tele? Boy they have a meaty tone.

Yah I have played one, but they're too freakin heavy for me. I just put together a Tele from parts and stuck in some Tele pickups that Wolfe did for me about 6 years ago.....they kick ass. Getting that old Tele Twang but still able to blues it up. I've got a set of Possum's Broadcasters to stick in another Tele I plan to build later.....a lighter one, though this one is about 6 pounds. I want to get under 5 pounds like my friend's real '51 Nocaster. Only the best for Possum's pickups...haha.

Greg

[MKB]

Another part of the twang is a maple fingerboard and neck. I had a Highway 1 Tele with a rosewood fingerboard, no matter what pickups I put in it and what I did to the bridge, it wouldn't twang. It was a very good guitar though. I just finished an ash bodied partscaster with a one piece maple neck, even with crappy pickups it twangs for days. Tele's don't quite sound like Tele's if they have rosewood fingerboards IMO.

[David Schwab]

Maple boards are brighter and had a nice snap, but my rosewood neck Telething is very twangy. I can only attribute this to the bridge, as nothing else on the guitar has anything to do with a tele! And even then, the bridge is made from brass, which is not the twangy-ist material.

[roundmidnight]

I do think those brass saddle bridges are part of the Tele sound.

How did Danny Gatton get his tones? Imagine part of it was the amp but that guy had tone to die for.

RM