Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: juansolo on January 08, 2012, 09:44:14 AM
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As you may remember from a NAD before christmas, I came to an arrangement with Andrew W to get his Telemaster from him. It seemed like it'd make an interesting project, which we finally got finished yesterday with some awesome results and some not quite as awesome results.
(http://www.juansolo.demon.co.uk/misc/Guitars/TVMaster.jpg)
What we've done is rout rout a nice hole where there once was a tele pup and have dropped in a TV Jones Powertron Plus and Tele Sevalas (really) bridge. Which I can only discribe as bloody awesome. It's BFG in a pup. Brilliant!
What didn't work quite so well was that, because it had a pup selector, I didn't want to screw around with caps to get different tones. I really wanted a real front pup. So underneath the pickguard is hidden a SD mini humbucker from a Firebird. Two reasons for this. One the pickguard Andrew made is bakelite and cutting it for the pup would have been a complete mare. The second is that I really like it's esquire vibe.
Which brings the problem, how to do adjust the output of the front pup to balance them? Answer, there's a teeny tiny SHO stuck in there and a 9v battery. Which has worked, but it's created a bit of a hiss and an odd result when the pair of them are selected together. I suspect it's mixing essentially what is an active neck pup now with a passive bridge. Maybe a buffer would sort it out on the front pup? Dunno, probably not. It works, sorta, as it sounds like a really beefy single coil, and has some interesting tones. But it's not quite perfect. Still, I prefer it to the different caps on the switch to mess with the tone of a single pup so it'll stay.
Finally, for Ian P, domed knobbage!
(http://www.juansolo.demon.co.uk/misc/Guitars/Badger3.jpg)
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That looks great, the TV Jones really suits the look of the guitar, very hot-rod to my eyes. Hope you get the balance issues with the hidden pickup sorted, it would be an amazing combination if you can get it to work. Have you anyway of finding out what Fender did with their hidden pickups in their Telemaster guitars?
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That looks great, the TV Jones really suits the look of the guitar, very hot-rod to my eyes. Hope you get the balance issues with the hidden pickup sorted, it would be an amazing combination if you can get it to work. Have you anyway of finding out what Fender did with their hidden pickups in their Telemaster guitars?
I'll have to read up. They're reasonably mismatched output-wise which doesn't help. I suspect Fender just use stronger magnets and an overwind on the neck pup and adjust the bridge to compensate. I could probably fit a really hot single coil under there, that might work... Would like to get it right really so the experimentation isn't over!
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Love the tvjones, odd look but kinda like it
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Wonder what the original tele bridge pickup would sound like in the neck?
That was pretty high output.
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Looks very cool indeed!
I suppose part of the problem is that the Powertron Plus is pretty hot for a TV Jones - you could try a TV Classic or something, but I guess you don't want to mess with something that already sounds good.
I have a TV Jones set I intend to put in a Tele Thinline, but unlike you I never get round to carrying out my projects.... :|
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Looks very cool indeed!
I suppose part of the problem is that the Powertron Plus is pretty hot for a TV Jones - you could try a TV Classic or something, but I guess you don't want to mess with something that already sounds good.
I have a TV Jones set I intend to put in a Tele Thinline, but unlike you I never get round to carrying out my projects.... :|
I'll not mess with the bridge pup, it's brilliant. The front however, I think I'm going to have to do something with. As Marauder says, potentially I could butcher the GFS bridge pup to go in there. Otherwise I reckon it's going to be another single coil with big slug magnets in it that I can jam right up against the pick guard.
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Duncan Quarter Pounder maybe?
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Yeah, something like that.
I've had a look at the fender site and the hidden pups are custom made single coils. So it certainly looks like the way to go.
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Duncan Quarter Pounder maybe?
Tried that. Worthless. It didn't even come close to the output of a BG52 4mm away from the strings.
The output of a Powertron Plus can be compared to the output of a 12K or more humbucker.
I've read on a Tele forum some guy put in a ceramic overwound P90 in an Esquire as a ghost pickup.
I'm done with the whole ghost pickup thing. I don't think it will ever work as good as a regular setup.
For the swtching on that Telemaster I would do this: pos.1: tone pot bypass, pos.2: normal, pos.3: split.
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i know brian eastwood used more powerful magnets on his weird custom guitars with hidden pickups - but apparently the sound was not too nice because of it
i think the ghost pickup idea is only ever going to work for a few people
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I quite like the looks, but a ghostpickup can be a hassle.
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Fair enough, that makes it nice and simple. Front pup will come out and I'll do something with the switch. Only 3 wires on the TVJ, so it'll likey go squirey...
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What about using a P-90 and drilling the pole piece holes through the scratchplate? That would give you some adjustment, and a Nantucket would give some serious umph.
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Certainly could work, though I'm being tarty and want to keep the look. I think if I was going to go to the trouble of drilling holes, I'd just make a pup hole and be done with it.
Nah, I think my mind is now set on the single pup approach.
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I'd go single pup and Esquire wiring too - bet it sounds great!
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Forget the neck pickup and just keep the TV in the bridge. You ca always use your tone control to add more flavours.
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Those domed knobs look great! Can you get that style and still have an S1 switch? I'm being lazy, I could look with a few clicks on google.
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Those domed knobs look great! Can you get that style and still have an S1 switch?
Not that I'm aware of - but I haven't Googled it either!
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Just seen the black one on Facebook
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Just seen the black one on Facebook
Yup, that's the fella I got the bridge and TVJ pup from. Top lad! He asked if he could post it up there.
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Yes met the guy, mate got a tele put together by him weirdly with TV jones, loved a 3 p90 guitar he made