Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: elu on March 28, 2013, 09:12:45 AM

Title: Which PUs for Wenge/Ash Teles fretted/fretless?
Post by: elu on March 28, 2013, 09:12:45 AM
Hi folks,
I'm building two telecasters at the moment.
The base of the project are two necks that I have.
Both made from wenge with an ebony fingerboard.
One  is fretted - one is fretless.

Now i want to turn these necks into nice sibling guitars and I am asking myself? Which BN pick ups would be the best?

Can anyone help me with this decision?

I've already ordered two semi hollow tele bodies made from Ash.

Generally I think that the woods will lead to a good balanced warm tone.
Wenge/Ebony will be quite bright while the bodies will give warmth and depth to the sound.

Fretted version:
For this guitar i would think that YARDBIRDs would be a good choice


Fretless version:
this is going to be a challenge. fretless means
- less sustain
- quite little output (which is, why usually humbuckers come at hand)
- only few heights
I'd say that PILEDRIVER TELEŽ SINGLE COILS could be a good choice.

What do you think?

Happy for any thoughts here...

TIA
Elu
Title: Re: Which PUs for Wenge/Ash Teles fretted/fretless?
Post by: Telerocker on March 28, 2013, 09:52:04 AM
What music/styles do you play? And what's your amp?
Title: Re: Which PUs for Wenge/Ash Teles fretted/fretless?
Post by: elu on March 28, 2013, 05:59:12 PM
musically I'm going into the blues direction...
I would love to find something that'd be Mayer-style


I use a vox AC30 at the moment but I'm hardly playing live. So most of the time I play through logic pro where I've got me a setup of three amps (two AC30s for the spectrum and a modern drive for the center - a bit May-style).

But - as stupid as it sounds - I have those necks. And by their material (Wenge) they pretty much define the possible directions, don't they?
Title: Re: Which PUs for Wenge/Ash Teles fretted/fretless?
Post by: Telerocker on March 28, 2013, 10:01:43 PM
Mayer-styles means vintagetone and not too much output. I think the neck/fretboard timbers requires pickups with not too much highs. A Blackguard 52-set would do for the fretted tele. The neck is quite stratty and hot enough for blues. The bridge can sound full and warm, when you turn the toneknob a bit down. That's how I steer tele's.

For the fretless one is more complicated, but I check out the BG50 (more output, more mids then the BG52) or the Boss. Yardbirds could work too. They are all a bit warmer sounding telebrigdepickups.
Title: Re: Which PUs for Wenge/Ash Teles fretted/fretless?
Post by: elu on March 31, 2013, 03:00:52 PM
Thanks Telerocker!

I'll give it a try and post sounds/pics, when I'm done!

Title: Re: Which PUs for Wenge/Ash Teles fretted/fretless?
Post by: Telerocker on March 31, 2013, 04:41:13 PM
Quote from: elu on March 31, 2013, 03:00:52 PM
Thanks Telerocker!

I'll give it a try and post sounds/pics, when I'm done!

I would send BKP and email or call the team for a recommendation, especially for the fretless. Would do no harm, wouldn't it?
Title: Re: Which PUs for Wenge/Ash Teles fretted/fretless?
Post by: elu on April 01, 2013, 11:53:03 AM
good point - I'll do that.