Early Tele pickup wind direction

[mkat]

I'm assembling a Tele and am about to wind the pickups for it. The polarity on the neck pickup is south up and the bridge north up. Were the early Tele's wound for humbucking effect?

[mkat]

Looks like they weren't. Same polarity, same wind direction(?). Did the neck and bridge pickups have opposing polarity from the late 60's onwards?

[David Schwab]

You might as well make them RWRP. It doesn't alter the tone, and you get the benefit of hum cancelation when they are both on.

[mkat]

Thanks for that, it's exactly what I did. The Tele is now assembled and I'm getting used to the sound. When I play guitar (writing and recording only), I usually use a FrankenStrat that I assembled from various parts with pickups I made which has a very different sound to the Tele. The bridge pickup is kind of shrill, first one I've wound, so need to work on that.

[Zhangliqun]

RWRP is standard for me on my Tele and P90 sets. Folks appreciate being able to at least switch to the middle to get a little relief from the buzz between songs at the gig.

[David Schwab]

Thanks for that, it's exactly what I did. The Tele is now assembled and I'm getting used to the sound. When I play guitar (writing and recording only), I usually use a FrankenStrat that I assembled from various parts with pickups I made which has a very different sound to the Tele. The bridge pickup is kind of shrill, first one I've wound, so need to work on that.

I often play a Tele type guitar I made. It features a 1.75" thick swamp ash boy with a .5" carved maple top, maple/purpleheart set neck, and three pickups. So it's kind of a Tele/LP/Strat hybrid. I use it when I want bright tones, but turning the tone control down slightly (it has a .02 uF cap) works well when you want to take some shrillness off the top. The bridge pickup is also wound on the midrangy side. When I want a humbucker tone I use my Charvel FrankenStrat or First Act GarageMaster.

The Tele has old Bill Lawrence L-250's in it, and (more recently) a stacked bridge pickup I made.

I like Teles .... they have a nice snarl.

[mkat]

Nice work there David. I may be wrong, but I think I may have heard your Tele in one of your recordings. Turning down the tone control takes away that shrill, but I'm going to try for a slightly hotter bridge this time and maybe even a stack (thanks for the idea).

My Tele is a two piece swamp ash body, one piece maple neck, with '67 wiring (I'll be trying different wiring schemes too once I wind the next bridge pickup). It is bright sounding compared to my FrankenStrat (alder body). I made the white pickguard, but I'm going to replace that with a black one once I get the pickguard material (tried a few pickguards and none line up right to the control plate, so decided to make one). Still waiting on the string tree. Here it is with the pickups I wound:

[David Schwab]

Nice looking Tele! My guitar has a back story; I was going to make a standard Tele with the transparent white finish and ash tray bridge... just as I remembered the first one I ever saw. Then my partner said "why not ust buy some parts then?" and that made me think I needed to do something more custom, so the maple top came to mind, and then the set neck.
Then I decided to alter the body shape, so I threw in the Jazzmaster style slope, and a Gibson style lower body horn. The swamp ash body blank was thick enough for a normal guitar, and my planer wasn't wide enough, and I didn't feel like ripping and re-gluing it, so I chambered it and left it thick. So it evolved as I went along, which seems to be true of everything I make.

Nice work there David. I may be wrong, but I think I may have heard your Tele in one of your recordings.

Actually you haven't. If you are talking about the stuff on MySpace... the bright guitar in Buzz Worthy and Do What Makes Your Heart Sing.." are actually a lucite Longhorn style guitar I made with a 50's Dan-O neck... that's actually a single humbucker. On Buzz Worthy I think it was an odd Bill Lawrence pickup I got when I worked at American Showster. That was recorded in about 1988. I think it was a sample for a pickup they never put into production. It looked like an EMG, and was super glassy sounding. Now it has a Dimarzio Super II clone in it. Still very bright sounding.

The other guitars are a Charvel Strat that had 2 covered DirtyFingers (on "I Close My Eyes") and a Strat type guitar I made for someone on "Bass Head".

Here's the Tele. This is about the only thing I have with it recorded... not sure why that is! This was from about 1998, so it has the original lead pickup.

Song2

Turning down the tone control takes away that shrill, but I'm going to try for a slightly hotter bridge this time and maybe even a stack (thanks for the idea).

My first stack wasn't as hot as this one, and sounded like a stock tele pickup... I wanted something hotter, so the new one is wound with as much 43 as I could fit on the bobbin. Now I have some 44 so I'll probably wind a new one. But this one sounds a lot fatter.

[Possum]

....

There is a disadvantage sometimes to RWRP in that you often get a volume drop if the pickups are too well matched. In strats this is probably more apparent, personally I don't like RWRP in strats, you get a richer tone in the 2 and 4 positions and no volume drop...

[mkat]

There is a disadvantage sometimes to RWRP in that you often get a volume drop if the pickups are too well matched. In strats this is probably more apparent, personally I don't like RWRP in strats, you get a richer tone in the 2 and 4 positions and no volume drop...

Yeah, I can hear the drop in the Tele. I don't mind so much as long as RWRP
doesn't affect the neck and bridge on their own. I only like RWRP for rhythm
on certain style of music only, prefer the neck or bridge individually for
rhythm and lead. Keep in mind that I'm a bass player, well, my main instrument is bass that is .

In strats this is probably more apparent, personally I don't like RWRP in strats, you get a richer tone in the 2 and 4 positions and no volume drop...

Do you mean you get a richer tone without RWRP in positions 2 and 4? Would that be out of phase though?

[David Schwab]

Would that be out of phase though?

You can have the pickups in phase and non hum canceling, or in phase and hum canceling. The difference is the reverse polarity of the magnets. Since that puts the pickups out of phase, reversing the electrical polarity (or reverse winding) puts them back in phase.

[mkat]

I wound the bridge pickup hotter tonight, possibly too hot, and the shrill has just about gone. Much beefier.

[Dave Kerr]

The shrill is gone? Baby, it's gone away for good?

[mkat]

Oh, the thrill is gone baby. Baby its gone away for good...well, for now anyway...Although I'll still live on but so lonely I'll be...I may want some back...

[mkat]

Here's the Tele. This is about the only thing I have with it recorded... not sure why that is! This was from about 1998, so it has the original lead pickup.

Song2

Thanks for the audio, nice track there. Good to see you're making use of stray necks too (Longhorn style guitar). Some people just throw them out, can't believe it. A friend of mine picked up a Yamaha steel string acoustic dumped in the street with a broken neck. Someone tried to fix it with nails LOL. I repaired it and used it on a few tracks, sounds great. I picked up another steel string on a garage clean up that had the headstock missing, haven't fixed that yet though as I'm busy making a fretless 5 string bass and another 4 string bass.

My first stack wasn't as hot as this one, and sounded like a stock tele pickup... I wanted something hotter, so the new one is wound with as much 43 as I could fit on the bobbin. Now I have some 44 so I'll probably wind a new one. But this one sounds a lot fatter.

Yeah, I'm also going to try 43. I'm comparing stock Tele and Broadcaster type sounds with the various wiring changes during the 50s and 60s. I have around 2.4 kg of 44 too, but haven't used it yet.