Tele Neck Style Pickup in Bridge Position.

[bea]

Hi there, maybe my issue is a bit exotic. It is about a guitar i build when i was 16 with very limited ressources. In the past decades i have improved it a lot, and below's the present state. Nice warm sound, well worth the expensive humbucker (Gibson).
I would like to install a bridge humbucker. Just from the optics, a tele style neck pickup with gold cover is a must - i would like to avoid anything larger. The electrics (500k Volume Push-Pull-switching a capacitive load) would be extended by a simple On/On/On toggle switch.

String spacing is 52 mm in the target position - considering the narrow amplitude of string excursion the 50 mm of the tele pu might be sufficient, especially if i use a pu with fat magnets or blades. Which immediately brings up two problems:

a) the tele neck pu usually has much lower output than the humbucker
b) those of the tele neck pickups that seem best suited for my intended use, notably the blade humbuckers, are not available with cold covers. At least did i not find any.

Any idea/suggestion?

Thanks

BTW: the guitar has plenty of space in it to add a dummy coil for hum compensation, so a humbucker is not really necessary. But output is.

[big_teee]

Very nice looking guitar.
You have already mentioned most of the Short falls to trying to use a Tele Neck Pickup as a Bridge.
How about a Gold Mini Humbucker.
That would be a nice looking option.
How would this look?
Mini Birds- Classic Covered Humbucker- Gold Case- Bridge Position
Terry

[bea]

That will be my last resort if the Tele neck pickup turns out to be not viable, even not if i add active electronics to the instrument. It requires to remove more of that nice maple - and that is something i'd like to avoid.

Actually, i would even have preferred a pair of minihumbuckers (gibsons) if i had managed to find access them on the market when i made the maple plate. But at that time there were much less good 3rd party offerings, especially here in Germany.

[bea]

Continuing my idea: modifying an existing (low cost) pickup or making one from scratch.

Basic idea: adding a steel bar on top of the magnets would solve the problem with the string spacing.
If i decide to build from scratch, there will also be the option to use stronger magnets and maybe that of making a stacked humbucker.

[David Schwab]

I think you would be MUCH happier with some kind of mini humbucker than a Tele neck pickup. They don't always sound so good on a Tele, I can't imagine them as a bridge pickup.

Or maybe you can get a Chrome Dome

Lace Music Products | Since 1979 | Electric Pickups



I installed one of those at the neck position of a tele, and it sounded very nice. It's a Strat size pickup, so it would work with your string spacing plus, it uses a blade.

I don't know if they make them in gold though.

I'd just get a gold Tele bridge, and use that with a Tele bridge pickup, and it wouldn't look bad with the bridge going into the maple pick guard.

Looks nice on the figured maple top on my guitar:

[bea]

David, Your absolutely right with Your ideas on the voicing. Actually i am really more interested on a bright humbucker sound like that of the '72 Gibsons i recently put into the Samick Royale.

Not mentioned, my plan was therefore to tune the voicing to my needs by an external RC-Element anyway.

The more i am thinking about that project, the more i come toward building my own pickup (moderately Low-Z, but not as radical as in the alumintones) and using either an output transformer or (probably) an OP-Amp-stage to adapt the signal. Such a thing should be possible with the form factor of a pickup as small as the tele neck or smaller, and it will permit me using bar magnets of better fitting with.

[big_teee]

How about a Gold Lipstick Pickup?
They make some for the Danelectro, strats, and Teles.
Terry

[Mark Hammer]

It might sound nice but I suspect the difference in level between a lipstick in that position, and a humbucker in the neck position would be problematic. Not only is the lipstick a much lower output anyway, but placing it in the bridge position puts it at an even greater disadvantage. I'm no expert on them but I imagine the level difference would not be so easily compensated for by some modest height adjustments to each.

[bea]

Maybe it will be the best to use an active pickup.
Idea: modify a 52 mm strat bobbin to fit into a tele neck cover - this will leave at least enough space for a low impedance winding. And then use active electronics to match the output levels of the two PUs.

[big_teee]

Maybe it will be the best to use an active pickup.
Idea: modify a 52 mm strat bobbin to fit into a tele neck cover - this will leave at least enough space for a low impedance winding. And then use active electronics to match the output levels of the two PUs.

Good idea, but I don't think the bobbin flatwork will fit in the Tele cover.
At least not without some heavy modifying!
G-L,
B_T

[bea]

Of course it would not fit without heavy modification. Thats why nothing more than a low impedance winding will fit onto the bobbin.

[big_teee]

Of course it would not fit without heavy modification. Thats why nothing more than a low impedance winding will fit onto the bobbin.

Gotcha!
That's what we do, Right!
Good Luck with your quest.
T

[isaac]

Try winding a tele neck pickup with 42guage wire as strong as YOu can, put a baseplate on the bottom, kinda like the standard bridge pickup, and charge the magnets as strong as possible. I heard that a tele neck pickup (sensibly) sounds just like a strat pickup with 42AWG vs 43AWG, and that makes sense. And, I just realized that this is an older post, but maybe it'll help a little anyway. And to achieve this all, you basically glue a tele baseplate to the bottom with clearance enough for the wires, and then you use that for your mount also, as it takes some work, to mount a strat or tele_neck pickup into that place, since you either have to adjust it by taking the bridge of everytime you want to adjust it, or some other crazy way, but with teh tele baseplate, it works out.