Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Twinfan on March 31, 2009, 08:18:37 PM
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As mentioned in Ian Price's "Tele Love" thread, I've Esquire'd my Squier Classic Vibe Tele. The new scratchplate arrived today, so here's the required pic ( or else it didn't happen, right? ;) )
This thing sounds great! I think the neck 'bucker I had in it was stifling the strings a bit - it screams now :D
(http://www.doppelganger-rock.com/Twinfan/CV_Esquire.JPG)
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Good stuff Dave - I like the look of that. I'm getting to love Esquire's now!
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So am I - never really saw the point of them before, but I 'get' the whole vibe now!
I'm still lusting after the black one in Sounds Great.....
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So am I - never really saw the point of them before, but I 'get' the whole vibe now!
I'm still lusting after the black one in Sounds Great.....
I never got it until I tried one. Are you going to ask Sounds Great if they'll match the price I paid for mine? I think you should! It's for the new band isn't it?
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Damn you Twinfan! >,,<
You've just awakened in me the most overwhelming GAS for that EXACT guitar.
CLIPS!
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Looking great Dave ! ( and ready just in time for all those righteous Billy Gibbons tones ) .
I am going to do the same with a much loved, but unused 86 Squier Tele I have - "just because "...
If you did the whole 'Esquire' capacitors on the 3 way switch mods as well - could you please tell me what they need to be , before I have to go trawling the net ?
Brilliant guitar though, ; as much as your PRS collection is top notch gear, there is something about the sheer simplicity and POWER of an Esquire that makes it very special in my books.
This is going to be one hell of a Blues band ... 8)
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So you also have this switching with different tone settings on the switch positions? How exactly does that one work?
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Ha ha - thanks Derek! You're right about the Billy Gibbons thing, that's what I was after ;)
Derek/Hunter - the wiring I've gone with is:
Position 1 ('bridge') = Stock Telecaster wiring with both vol and tone controls active
Position 2 ('middle') = Just the volume pot active, brighter tone than above with tone on full
Position 3 ('neck') = As position 2, but with a capacitor to ground giving a 'c--ked wah' tone
I based my wiring on this, swapping the 0.05uf on the left for a 0.015uf....
(http://www.tdpri.com/gifs/esquire_jotka_simple.gif)
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I think the neck 'bucker I had in it was stifling the strings a bit - it screams now :D
I found exactly the same thing with my Esquire'd 72 Tele Custom reissue - more resonance now (not that it was lacking in the first place, was always a lively guitar).
I'm 50/50 on whether to put a single coil neck pickup in it now.
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Ha ha - thanks Derek! You're right about the Billy Gibbons thing, that's what I was after ;)
Derek/Hunter - the wiring I've gone with is:
Position 1 ('bridge') = Stock Telecaster wiring with both vol and tone controls active
Position 2 ('middle') = Just the volume pot active, brighter tone than above with tone on full
Position 3 ('neck') = As position 2, but with a capacitor to ground giving a 'c--ked wah' tone
I based my wiring on this, swapping the 0.05uf on the left for a 0.015uf....
(http://www.tdpri.com/gifs/esquire_jotka_simple.gif)
Thanks for the info Dave . :)
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No problem!
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Hmmm, the simplicity is tempting.... but not sure I want to lose my neck pickups.
I think the changed cap is a good idea - otherwise presumably the "neck" position would just sound like the "bridge" position with the tone on 0 ?
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Damn you Twinfan! >,,<
You've just awakened in me the most overwhelming GAS for that EXACT guitar.
CLIPS!
;) Apologies for the quick and dirtiness of the playing :oops:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rX9v1cxNGQ
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I think the changed cap is a good idea - otherwise presumably the "neck" position would just sound like the "bridge" position with the tone on 0 ?
Yep, exactly that Phil. It's way too dark, the smaller cap gives a different sound. The cleaner you play, the smaller the cap you need for it to sound good...
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sweet. :) EDIT: nice clip :)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rX9v1cxNGQ
Good stuff Dave - is that standard tuning you are playing in or just a diferent key? I was strumming along and noticed Under the Bridge sounds different.
My Esquire is wired slightly differently - bridge isn't connected to tone, middle is and neck is c--ked wah sort of sound but not as pronounced as yours. Would playing through an OCD affect the c--kyness of the 'neck' position?
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Nice guitar and clip!!
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I was playing in standard tuning, but I've been tuning the guitar to itself for a week or so (not a tuner). Probably safe to say I'm not at 440hz then! :lol:
My Esquire is wired slightly differently - bridge isn't connected to tone, middle is and neck is c--ked wah sort of sound but not as pronounced as yours. Would playing through an OCD affect the c--kyness of the 'neck' position?
I swapped the neck/middle controls over compared to yours Ian. With just a volume pot connected, a vintage single coil is even thinner sounding so I only use it for clean parts with the volume rolled back a bit. It makes sense to have it in the middle and flick to the bridge (with the tone pot connected so I can roll it back a bit) for lead parts.
I believe the Eldred Esquire wiring (which yours is) uses a smaller cap. I have a 0.015uf but yours is, I believe, a 0.0033uf. This will affect the c--ked wah tone. Yours will be a bit brighter and not quite as bassy?
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That's a great mod. I've seen it before on the Tele Discussion Page.
Mine is still stock except for the switch. I was thinking of putting a Filtertron in the neck position and adding a Bigsby but this Esquire idea is getting more and more appealing.
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I too love Esquires, and the process of "Esquiring" a Tele is yet another of those nouns that have become verbs in modern lexiconography!
I had an old BSB Squier, which played nicely, but the neck pickup was awful, whereas the bridge one was suprisingly bright and loud. Mine is wired so that the swich does the following. Front;- Tone and volume, Middle;- Volume only, Back;- Stright to jack socket. Very versatile IMO.
(http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k7/andys_01/ButterscotchEsqAmpandCab.jpg)
I also until recently had a really stripped down Esquire with no pickguard and no controls, which was fun for a while. Homemade pine body, cheap copy neck.
(http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k7/andys_01/BacktobasicspineEsquire.jpg)
I rebuilt it to look more like this, then sold it
(http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k7/andys_01/PinePrototypestylefront.jpg)
I have another Esquire type, with a Hohner neck and a beech body, which my daughter plays a lot
Esquires are fun guitars!
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D'you reckon this would work best with a regular-output pickup or something hot? Maybe it's time for me to get that BKP Boss....
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Nah, you want a Piledriver Philly...
(Fernando has finally converted me :lol:)
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While I don't really love single humbucker guitars, Esquires are growing on me. (actually, maybe it's the pickguard, I don't mind a single humbucker strat either). That wiring mod is seriously useful.
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I would like to try a Piledriver, but not sure I'd want it as the only pickup on the guitar - maybe a bit too powerful to be really versatile?
I might get rid of the Joe Barden on my black Tele and replace it with a single-coil (it has a neck minibucker). But the PD might be too powerful for that too....
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Nah, you want a Piledriver Philly...
(Fernando has finally converted me :lol:)
:lol:
Wait 'till you play the Nonsense Tele :twisted:
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I swapped the neck/middle controls over compared to yours Ian. With just a volume pot connected, a vintage single coil is even thinner sounding so I only use it for clean parts with the volume rolled back a bit. It makes sense to have it in the middle and flick to the bridge (with the tone pot connected so I can roll it back a bit) for lead parts.
I believe the Eldred Esquire wiring (which yours is) uses a smaller cap. I have a 0.015uf but yours is, I believe, a 0.0033uf. This will affect the c--ked wah tone. Yours will be a bit brighter and not quite as bassy?
There is an additional cap in the case that the guitar came with - not sure what it is though, maybe 0.0022uf if there is such a thing (it definitely has .22 in it somewhere). I don't understand all of this stuff so will probably leave the guitar as is!
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Guitar looks great, very nice looking neck for an instrument in that price range.
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There is an additional cap in the case that the guitar came with - not sure what it is though, maybe 0.0022uf if there is such a thing (it definitely has .22 in it somewhere). I don't understand all of this stuff so will probably leave the guitar as is!
It's probably just an alternate cap to use on the switch if you find the existing one doesn't have a sufficiently dramatic effect! I've seen diagrams using everything from 0.047 to 0.001, the 0.047 would give more of a bassy sound, lower values should give a brighter, more "nasal" sound.
I think the original Esquire wiring used a third cap and a resistor too, and was actually intended to give a pseudo-bass tone in the "neck" position.
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Yep, you're right Phil. The original Esquire has a 0.047uf cap and a 3.3k resistor in series.
Ian - I think yours has a 0.0033uf cap as standard, but there's a 'brighter' 0.0022 in the case. Interesting, as I didn't know you got an extra cap :)
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Guitar looks great, very nice looking neck for an instrument in that price range.
Thanks Ken. It's flamed maple ( :o ) and I believe the factory gives them a Plek setup.....
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There's plenty of options for wiring an Esquire.
See here: http://www.tdpri.com/wiringESQUIRE.htm (http://www.tdpri.com/wiringESQUIRE.htm)
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Great plan for the Tele Dave!
I did a similar thing with a cheapie £80 Tele myself
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y158/Browsif/Guitars/DSC02682.jpg)
The scratchplate is a custom 1 from Jonathan at Feline as I couldn't get any other to fit, no matter how much I tried to sand it or shape it etc, and the pickup is a Piledriver with the cheapie 500K pots (Tims suggestion) and switch that were on the guitar when I got it originally.
I keep tinkering with the idea of getting some decent 500k pots and wiring it more traditionally like yours or Ians, but just haven't gotten around to it yet! :lol:
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Nice work Craig :)
I see someone has given me 4 stars for my YouTube clip :lol: I thought it was only worth about 2!!!!
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Philly - on the Piledriver "being too powerful to be versatile"...
That's what I was thinking as well, originally...
but I was reading some stuff a little while back that suggests:
- still sounds like a tele
- very responsive to volume control use: turning down gives a more vintage tone, but still with "tone", turning up gives, er, the power... :lol:
I use volume controls a huge amount. I like to be able to get it down to 4 or so and still have a usable tone and enough volume (although the second doesn't really matter to me anymore if I'm not playing live). The bridge MQ in my explorer is the one that does the best job at this so far... the others are "fine", but the MQ excells at it.
So for my purposes, the Piledriver sounds as versatile as this - and for me, if I do ever get round to "rebuilding" my old Korean Squier as an Esquire, I'd be plumping for the Piledriver because it sounds like it would give me the versatility I'd want on a single-pup guitar. I'd be looking at setting it up so that I run on about 7 on the guitar's volume most of the time, turn it up for more beef, down for more clean/jazzy...
That's what I think a Piledriver will do! :lol:
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You could be right, Andy. I'm in a bit of a quandary about my Teles.... I'm thinking of taking apart my two self-assembled ones, picking one neck and body and selling the other bits. That'll leave my Thinline plus two others. The Thinline has conventional Tele wiring and is staying that way, but I'd like to try:
1. Tele bridge plus neck minibucker
2. Tele bridge plus two Strat pickups
3. Conventional wiring with hotter pickups, and maybe a 4-way switch
3. Esquire
So the numbers don't add up. I "need" :roll: about 5 Teles but I only want to keep 3. :(
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If you look on the TDPRI there are a few guys who have built "stealth" Esquires, where you hide a high output pickup in the neck position, under the pickguard. Not sure how effective they are, but some folks on there love 'em.
I have the Esquired guitar which I love, but I also have another Tele with a four-way switch. That mod, is pretty simple and cheap to do, but is a great one to do. Gives you another great useable tone on a Tele.
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I've been doing some reading about the Esquire.
I read that Bruce Springsteen plays an Esquire with a neck pickup installed later.
Would that mean a BKP Boss would be the 'right' period correct pickup for a 50's Esquire?
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I've been doing some reading about the Esquire.
I read that Bruce Springsteen plays an Esquire with a neck pickup installed later.
Would that mean a BKP Boss would be the 'right' period correct pickup for a 50's Esquire?
Noooooooo! This gives me thoughts of modding my Esquire to have a neck pickup! Very bad, very bad indeed.
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I've been doing some reading about the Esquire.
I read that Bruce Springsteen plays an Esquire with a neck pickup installed later.
Would that mean a BKP Boss would be the 'right' period correct pickup for a 50's Esquire?
I don't know if his modified Esquire necessarily has the original bridge pickup, though?
In any case, I think the guitars he uses on stage nowadays have Joe Bardens.
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Noooooooo! This gives me thoughts of modding my Esquire to have a neck pickup! Very bad, very bad indeed.
Don't do it, Ian! That would turn your relatively-rare Esquire into just another nice Tele.
(But out of interest, does the body already have routing for a neck pickup?)
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But out of interest, does the body already have routing for a neck pickup?
I've not checked and don't intend to! I suspect not as it's a 50s model. I can't see any mention of routing on the product spec either.
I won't be doing it, I think any modding like that will be saved for standard guitars rather than limited runs.
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It will be routed for a neck pickup. All except the very, very early 50s Esquires were routed too I believe...
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Noooooooo! This gives me thoughts of modding my Esquire to have a neck pickup! Very bad, very bad indeed.
And this give me bad thoughts: :rock:
:P
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It will be routed for a neck pickup. All except the very, very early 50s Esquires were routed too I believe...
Okey dokey. I'm gonna take a peek tonight just to make sure :)
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Damn you Twin! Now i really wanna to that to my Classic Vibe Tele!!
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It will be routed for a neck pickup. All except the very, very early 50s Esquires were routed too I believe...
My friend has a 1950 and it is routed for the neck pickup. I'm not sure that there are any without the routing. On my 59 I have an old Silvertone mini-HB (looks like a small version of the Wide Range - 3&3 screws in a Deluxe Size Mini-HB made by Gibson!). I did think about putting it back to original (I do have an original black bakalite esquire scratchplate around in my various parts bins, which is wrong for it's age, but they look cool).
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Cheers Phil, I thought I might be wrong about the "no neck route" thing. Couldn't remember if I'd made it up or not!! :lol:
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Damn you Twin! Now i really wanna to that to my Classic Vibe Tele!!
Working on mine at the moment. Wiring is all done, I'm waiting on my pickguard to arrive.
Currently thinking about swapping the pickup for a Blackguard. Need to sell some other stuff first.
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Damn you Twin! Now i really wanna to that to my Classic Vibe Tele!!
Working on mine at the moment. Wiring is all done, I'm waiting on my pickguard to arrive.
Currently thinking about swapping the pickup for a Blackguard. Need to sell some other stuff first.
Well, it is pay day next week! And one pickup would cost less than two! I'm not sure though, i might miss the neck pickup...
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i might miss the neck pickup...
I've not missed it so far. In fact I haven't played any of my other guitars since getting the Esquire.
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Every Esquire I have ever seen was routed for a neck pickup, and I study these things. Admittedly, I haven't much knowledge of very early Fenders.
Anyway, here is an 1967 Esquire that I recently built, although it does not have BKPs. n.b. I am not the girl in the photo, nor am I a girl.
It does have a "correct" veneer rosewood board, mother of toilet seat fret markers, with narrow 12th fret spacing. Also a correct trussrod, which is hard to find. The neck profile is what Fender called a "D" neck, and very thick, not typical for late 1960's guitars but even back then available by special order. The tuners are old Schallers from the 1970's, but you can see the holes and indents in the nitro where the "original" Klusons were once installed.
Neckplate is a correct F-plate with serial.
The body is heavy furniture-grade ash, bridge is from a late 1960's Tele, but the saddles are NOS Ernie Ball from the 1970's that I scrounged up. The control plate is from that time but has some extra holes, probably for extra pickups or switches which is why the pickguard is not the original white 3-ply.
The electronics are also somewhat original, except the volume pot is an old diMarzio from the 1970's, and the tone pot is a CRL from a 1976 Fender. It sucks mightily. I am waiting for an original 1967 Fender solid shaft Tele pot to arrive. Hopefully that will make the tone control more useful, or at least less useless.
I have not gotten around to aging this guitar but in the meantime I am trying to play it and let it age somewhat naturally. It has a huge sustain and a nice ballsy tone but not as many harmonics as I would like.
Cats like early CBS guitars.
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That picture is huge Prawnik! You might want to reduce it's size a little so it can be viewed better!
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sorry 'bout that.
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n.b. I am still not the girl in the picture.
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That picture is huge Prawnik! You might want to reduce it's size a little so it can be viewed better!
Yeah, all I could see at first was a wall and a hand (your friend has nice nails, obviously not a guitar player - unless she does the Dolly Parton tune-it-to-an-open-chord thing! :wink: )
That control plate is bizarre, I've never seen anything like it! Is it actually a Fender?
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The control plate is a Fender from around 1972.
Someone cut holes in it at some point for some nefarious reason, probably to accomodate switches for a neck 'bucker and maybe a coil tap or middle pickup.
The holes were not there from the factory, but I kept the plate. Lots of things on that guitar reflect modifications from back when a 1967 Esquire wasn't a rare repository of irreplaceable vintage mojo, but just some old guitar you only played because you couldn't afford a shiny new Fender.
Besides, the plate gives the guitar character.
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My Classic Vibe Esquire is done. (for now)
(http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/2303/dscf1070.jpg)
Will be getting a Blackguard '50 in the hopefully near future.
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That is the perfect look for a tele I think! Looks awesome