A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

I still have this:


My usual target for tone and riff-laden awesomeness is this:


and I wanna try this wiring scheme:


https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/ ... ter-wiring


I need some pickups, and I'd love to hear your suggestions. I don't need this guitar to sound exactly like Mick's, that's just to give you a well-known example of what style I like to play. I don't mind different (in fact I really like different), but I don't want super high gain or drudge.

If I were to give you a key word here, it might be "greasebucket." Just a dirty, raunchy, barely containable panty-dropping sound, if possible. Slash pulls this tone off rather well, for another example.

I don't mind carving for a humbucker, but I can't have anything but a single coil shape in the neck. Too many bottlecaps molded in there. I've been on a real single coil kick lately. I'm leaning that direction here, but who knows?

Please note: This guitar has a resin top, slightly thicker than the bottlecaps you can see. This causes it to be a bit brighter than a normal tele.

And... just to give this a little tinge of difficulty, let's see some suggestions $100 or under for the set. Because I already know I can just score a set of Texas Specials or Bare Knuckles or some such, don't I?

TIA, and I'm looking forward to the answers!

Looks very interesting, please keep us updated on your build! I may have to try the direct thru mod. I have done the 4 way switch numerous times & like it.

Regarding the pickups, I have grown to love a p90 in the neck. I have also seen single coil sized p90s, although I have never tried them. I know Rose makes them in strat size (Morticia S-90), could you squeeze that in?

ILuvTeles wrote: ↑Sat Sep 26, 2020 10:27 pm Looks very interesting, please keep us updated on your build! I may have to try the direct thru mod. I have done the 4 way switch numerous times & like it.

Regarding the pickups, I have grown to love a p90 in the neck. I have also seen single coil sized p90s, although I have never tried them. I know Rose makes them in strat size (Morticia S-90), could you squeeze that in?

Well, that sounds interesting... I could squeeze that into the guitar. However, at $240... I don't think I could squeeze it into my budget. I paid less than half of that for the guitar. No doubt it sounds amazing, but I'm small time - I like well-made cheap stuff.

Now, why did I have to click on this thread, ah? I wanted to just mod my tele to be basic "classic" telecaster and be done with it, ugh

I am also shopping for a tele switch and eventually pickups and I even happen to have a push-pull 250k pot. The bad news: the pot is linear, so that may keep me from going for this. Before I knew better I somehow ended up with a few linear pots (the geniuses at GFS use a linear pot in their tone control on pre-wired harnesses and I know I also got these from them). Hey, maybe I could put a light or a motor on my guitar?

Gear_Junky wrote: ↑Sun Sep 27, 2020 12:13 am Now, why did I have to click on this thread, ah? I wanted to just mod my tele to be basic "classic" telecaster and be done with it, ugh

I am also shopping for a tele switch and eventually pickups and I even happen to have a push-pull 250k pot. The bad news: the pot is linear, so that may keep me from going for this. Before I knew better I somehow ended up with a few linear pots (the geniuses at GFS use a linear pot in their tone control on pre-wired harnesses and I know I also got these from them). Hey, maybe I could put a light or a motor on my guitar?

Ya could indeed. I'd settle for a bottle opener.

So far, I'm likin' the SD Little '59 set... but I was hoping not to get so spendy. That is pretty close to the sound I'm lookin' for, tho.

Is this price better for P90 neck pup?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/G-M-S-90s-Sing ... SwPsBeONHq

You could ask Buddha to wind a hot humbucker sized p90 with brass baseplate. That might compliment the brighter epoxy top

ILuvTeles wrote: ↑Sun Sep 27, 2020 10:00 am Is this price better for P90 neck pup?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/G-M-S-90s-Sing ... SwPsBeONHq

Oh yes, that's far better.

But I don't need a whole set. Sorry, I know you're trying to help!

Guitar Madness seems to move and change inventory constantly. I'm having a difficult time finding review/test videos with pickups I like and that he still carries. I'll keep an eye on his store now, though. This isn't the only project I'll be shopping for.

I've been happy with the Buddha pickups I have as well as the Cavalier from FretTech
$60 a piece, hand made. Rob is a super nice guy.

http://www.frettech.com/

The gnarliest, raunchiest pickups I've ever put in a Tele were the Custom Shop '51 Nocasters. They have A3 magnets and they're not wax potted. They sound very raw.

Well, if you like the Slash tone, and you want to do it on the cheap, the Iron Gear Tesla Shark (teSLASHark) is supposed to be pretty good. They also have their Dirty Torque and Hot Slag humbuckers.

Mick apparently favours Gibson T-Tops and some 16 K pickups made by J. R. Rolph (IIRC).

Basically, though, it sounds like you want a hot-but-not-too-hot PAF type.

Are you looking to keep traditional size & shape Tele pickups, or are you up for routing and new hardware?

BTW: I've tried to PM you about a body, but it never shows as sent. Probably user error on my part.

I really don't want to rout it out since the bridge plate is not to a standard spec. Routing would require a new bridge, and filling holes, and re-drilling new holes. It's a nice guitar for being one of my first efforts, but I didn't want to go far beyond getting it into playing shape. Maybe I'll look into it, seeing as I don't have much use for tele pickups these days.

I'm currently looking into more Dragonfires or trying Toneriders. There are some interesting options for me there, but I keep gravitating to their copies of pickups I already have genuine versions of!

I'm not convinced that every pickup set will sound good in series. I'd be tempted to go with Bill Lawrence Microcoils although that'd put you just barely overbudget.