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I have a Telecaster copy that's pretty awesome overall, but I'm getting tired of the stock bridge pickup. Interestingly, the neck pickup is better than the neck pickups of my previous Fender Telecasters (an early 90's MIJ '52RI, and an MIJ 50th Anniversary Telecaster Custom), so I'm not in a particular rush to change that out.
I didn't play guitar for about four years and I'm just getting back into it; my chops are decent, but I have no clue what's out there in terms of pickups these days.
I want something that has the Telecaster twang, but can have a bit more bite to it for hard rock. I play a lot of twangy, blues/country-style solos... but... I also play a lot of metal/hardcore-style stuff as well. So something that can handle some gain without getting muddy or sounding like an icepick in your ear would be awesome.
I'm totally fine with getting a Telecaster-chassis humbucker and wiring a coil tap or something. I updated the pots to 1meg to get a bit more bite out of them when run wide open, but the bridge just isn't cutting it.
Kind of a tall order, but, I'm looking for something that could do this:
unless you are drastically changing your tone in the course of a single song or solo, I would concur getting another guitar. One thing that might be cheaper is get a pick up that has a lot of out put across the frequency range, run your guitar (while switched to the bridge pickup) through an amp modeling pedal and dial in the sound you want when you switch to that pick up.
Last edited by thriftylefty; 06-29-2012 at 09:39 AM..
You say that you have a Tele copy, get real Tele pickups and electronics. I had a Mexican Strat a while ago and replaced all of the pickups and electronics with American Strat components and it sounded a lot better.
In the last two years, I've started playing a lot more, have started recording some stuff with my friends, and I have picked up a couple more guitars... among them:
LP Goldtop with DiMarzio's (Air Zone in the neck, and a custom-wound, fatter Tone Zone in the bridge)
and
Agile 7-string baritone LP copy, with a DiMarzio Tone Zone 7 in the bridge (stock neck pickup is alright for now)
and
Frankenstrat with a DiMarzio Fast Track 1 in the bridge, Fender Tex Mex mid and neck, 2 meg vol/tone, and a midrange boost/cut switch.
The Strat, with all of its overboard wiring, is probably the closest thing to a "universal" guitar that you can get to without going digital (it's my lead singer's "favorite guitar ever"), so it sees a lot of use. I use the Goldtop more than anything else, mainly just because we lay down a lot of stuff that needs a really growling, heavy sort of tone that's harder to get out of the Strat.
I still do have the Tele copy, but I ended up getting a GFS '63 pickup for the bridge to give it a full-on, old-timey Tele sound since I have the other axes for more aggressive stuff. Pretty happy with my current rig
You know, everyone first thinks of changing out pickups when they think of modifying a guitar. That should actually be one of you're last choices. You can drastically change the tone in fact by raising up and down your pickups - or playing with the tone on the guitar itself. It's amazing how many accomplished guitarist don't know about the variability of tone they can get with a guitar by just using the tools that are available already on the guitar, and they think a $150 pup will cure all their ills.
I am assuming your guitar is setup properly as well. I set up my own guitars, but for some people, they play an improperly set up guitar for years and don't even realize it - bad intonation, string buzz, the whole bit.
But also consider these cheap modifications:
1.) Changing out the guitar nut or bridge. i.e. - different material will get a different tone.
2.) Caps - change out capacitors. Stock capacitors on even very expensive guitars are very cheap, a good cap can fill out your sound.
3.) Pots - change out potentiometers. Can also bring out the tone.
Remember also, the location of your pickup does not change, unless you plan to do drilling and filling in of the guitar. So that magnetic vibration cycle on the location, which is so essential in the tone differences, will not change. A bridge location, neck location - the pickup will still be picking up the same signal regardless of what pickup you choose. That bridge pickup will likely stay muddy regardless of what pickup you use, because that is the signal it is picking up from that location.
Edit - ahh, I read you updated the pots. Great you may then be ahead of the game.
I have a Telecaster copy that's pretty awesome overall, but I'm getting tired of the stock bridge pickup. Interestingly, the neck pickup is better than the neck pickups of my previous Fender Telecasters (an early 90's MIJ '52RI, and an MIJ 50th Anniversary Telecaster Custom), so I'm not in a particular rush to change that out.
I didn't play guitar for about four years and I'm just getting back into it; my chops are decent, but I have no clue what's out there in terms of pickups these days.
I want something that has the Telecaster twang, but can have a bit more bite to it for hard rock. I play a lot of twangy, blues/country-style solos... but... I also play a lot of metal/hardcore-style stuff as well. So something that can handle some gain without getting muddy or sounding like an icepick in your ear would be awesome.
I'm totally fine with getting a Telecaster-chassis humbucker and wiring a coil tap or something. I updated the pots to 1meg to get a bit more bite out of them when run wide open, but the bridge just isn't cutting it.
You say that you have a Tele copy, get real Tele pickups and electronics. I had a Mexican Strat a while ago and replaced all of the pickups and electronics with American Strat components and it sounded a lot better.
I'll second this. US (or high-quality Japanese) electronics make all the difference in the world compared to Chinese or Korean electronics.
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