Tele pickup in a humbucker hole?

TigerG · 03-02-2008, 04:54 AM

Hello,
My Jay Turser archtop is begging for a Tele bridge pickup. Any good suggestions for mounting one in a humbucker slot?
Thanks!
Tiger
www.tigergagan.com

Sweetfinger · 03-02-2008, 03:47 PM

It won't sound like a tele.... just as putting humbuckers in a Strat doesn't make it sound like a Les Paul, but if you're set on changing stuff...doing a little (Frankenstein) lab work....puttin' on the Ritz, so to speak, here's some thoughts:

A Tele bridge pickup will be a VERY TIGHT fit but would be possible. You'd have to fabricate some kind of ferrous plate for the pickup to mount in and figure some way of mounting that to the guitar, Tricky if you don't want to enlarge any routs or drill new holes. The easiest way to get there that I can think of is to use a more common "hum to single coil" adaptor ring and mount a Seymour Duncan 'Twangbanger' in it. The Twangbanger is designed to fit in a Strat single coil space and sound like a Tele...which it does well enough.

The secret to a fair amount of the Tele's sorta metallic clang is the ferrous(magnet will stick to it) bridge plate and pickup baseplate. The closer you can get to a vintage style tele pickup mounted in a ferrous plate, angled and in the same relative distance from the bridge as a real tele, the closer it will sound to a tele.

Any competent guitar repair/mod shop should be able to fabricate a good looking, workable mounting ring for that. I can.

TigerG · 03-03-2008, 12:48 AM

Thanks for the suggestions Sweetfinger. I figured I'd probably have to fabricate something, but was hoping to hear that there was some kind of adapter ring out there. I've tried to find that sort of thing online without any luck so far.
By the way, it's not my intention in the least to make the archtop sound like a Tele. I want to go single coil for that guitar, and happen to have a Tele pickup on hand.

Sweetfinger · 03-06-2008, 05:16 AM

There IS a way to try a bit of the single coil tone real easy...unscrew and remove the adjustable polepieces from the pickup. Viola! single coil-ness.
If the gaping holes bother you, you can go to the hardware store and get some brass or aluminum screws with the same thread. Any material that isn't magnetic. Wanna go back to humbucking? Just replace the old screws.

TigerG · 03-06-2008, 10:48 PM

Now that's a cool idea. I'll have to try it sometime--a little late for the JT, cuz the Tele pickups just went in, but I got a thing or two around here that qualify...

03-02-2008, 04:54 AM	#1
TigerG Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Nashville, TN Posts: 29	Tele pickup in a humbucker hole? Hello, My Jay Turser archtop is begging for a Tele bridge pickup. Any good suggestions for mounting one in a humbucker slot? Thanks! Tiger www.tigergagan.com

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03-02-2008, 03:47 PM	#2
Sweetfinger Senior Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Phoenix Posts: 408	It won't sound like a tele.... just as putting humbuckers in a Strat doesn't make it sound like a Les Paul, but if you're set on changing stuff...doing a little (Frankenstein) lab work....puttin' on the Ritz, so to speak, here's some thoughts: A Tele bridge pickup will be a VERY TIGHT fit but would be possible. You'd have to fabricate some kind of ferrous plate for the pickup to mount in and figure some way of mounting that to the guitar, Tricky if you don't want to enlarge any routs or drill new holes. The easiest way to get there that I can think of is to use a more common "hum to single coil" adaptor ring and mount a Seymour Duncan 'Twangbanger' in it. The Twangbanger is designed to fit in a Strat single coil space and sound like a Tele...which it does well enough. The secret to a fair amount of the Tele's sorta metallic clang is the ferrous(magnet will stick to it) bridge plate and pickup baseplate. The closer you can get to a vintage style tele pickup mounted in a ferrous plate, angled and in the same relative distance from the bridge as a real tele, the closer it will sound to a tele. Any competent guitar repair/mod shop should be able to fabricate a good looking, workable mounting ring for that. I can.

03-03-2008, 12:48 AM	#3
TigerG Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Nashville, TN Posts: 29	Thanks for the suggestions Sweetfinger. I figured I'd probably have to fabricate something, but was hoping to hear that there was some kind of adapter ring out there. I've tried to find that sort of thing online without any luck so far. By the way, it's not my intention in the least to make the archtop sound like a Tele. I want to go single coil for that guitar, and happen to have a Tele pickup on hand.

03-06-2008, 05:16 AM	#4
Sweetfinger Senior Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Phoenix Posts: 408	There IS a way to try a bit of the single coil tone real easy...unscrew and remove the adjustable polepieces from the pickup. Viola! single coil-ness. If the gaping holes bother you, you can go to the hardware store and get some brass or aluminum screws with the same thread. Any material that isn't magnetic. Wanna go back to humbucking? Just replace the old screws.

03-06-2008, 10:48 PM	#5
TigerG Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Nashville, TN Posts: 29	Now that's a cool idea. I'll have to try it sometime--a little late for the JT, cuz the Tele pickups just went in, but I got a thing or two around here that qualify...

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