Need pickup advice! (Warmoth Tele project)

[Cholo]

Hello everybody, I'm glad to be here!

Straight to the topic: I'm about to build a Warmoth Tele, and as I've always played with humbucker-equipped guitars I could use some advice from the the Tele veterans... :headphones5:

I'm looking for a BKP set with all the typical Tele qualities. Wouldn't like anything too compressed or too hot in terms of output. Yet it's quite likely that my Tele will have to do the Tom Morello thing often. So, I intend to use it more with thick overdrive rather than "metal" distortion... :drums:

One final note, neck pickup will probably be the one to be used mainly. Please consider that if you intend to shed some light to the uncharted territory of single coils... :lol: 8)

Thanks in advance... :crazy2:

[38thBeatle]

Welcome to the forum. If you are looking for classic Tele then I would think your best option would be either Country Boys or a set of the Blackguards. I haven't used the latter but can vouch for the Country Boys- they are superb. If you intend using the neck pickup then you are slightly unusual- most Tele players use the bridge but don't let convention dictate. I am sure that Blackguard users will be along to advise but I will tell yu that the Country Boys are fairly low output and give you that classic Tele tone. The two pickups together have that lovely rich sound. I am going to suggest that you also consider getting a 4 way switch rather than the standard 3 position. It'll give you an extra tone-the 2 pickups in series. If you don't like it you don't have to use it-if you don't get it you will never know.

[Cholo]

Thanks for the quick reply. :P

Yardbirds seem like they'll do the trick...Browns Sugars seem quite fitting as well.

Any tips regarding overdriven sounds? I'll be using overdrives a lot, and the last thing I want is extended humming...

[FernandoDuarte]

Not sure as I'm not that experienced player, but asked Tim about pickups to my Warmoth Tele on the way and he suggested Piledrivers and I said I'm going to blues-rock and 70's rock... so I believe you should go this way too


EDIT: Welcome to the forum!

[TwilightOdyssey]

Welcome to the forum.

Question: why not put a humbucker in the tele? This guitar has a Warmoth neck which I had a Jackson headstock put on it, but a tele heal:

[Cholo]

Welcome to the forum.

Question: why not put a humbucker in the tele?

No way, I'll go by the (vintage) book. For fatter tones, my SG will suffice.

[38thBeatle]

I regret that I have no experience of the Piledrivers. The spec (vintage hot) looks good and BKP quality is top notch. I took your request for something not too hot to be vintage  low output.As far as I recall the Brown Sugars have a bit more midrange( I haven't tried them so cannot comment from personal experience). Another forum member( Phil King) can probably give you an educated answer.

[AndyR]

I'm happily using Blackguards (Flat 50 Bridge) in my Baja Tele (maple board). The other option was going to be Country Boys, and I've got a hankering for Yardbirds in a rosewood board 62 style tele (not got the guitar yet though!).

The Blackguard bridge is slightly "fatter" than the stock Baja bridge was. It really cuts it for me now - it rocks, twangs, stings, bites, cleans up... all this just from varying pick attack and the vol/tone controls on the guitar itself. I can now see how some folks favour the Esquire with a bridge pickup only.

The Blackguard neck is a LOT warmer sounding compared to the what stock pickup was. It is a lot nearer to what I imagine a "vintage" tele's neck pup to sound like - at first it seemed a little muffled, but it's not, it has a nice top-end. Like 38th says, a lot of tele players tend not to use the neck on it's own, but I want to... Once I got the pickup heights organised, I use it regularly. By comparison, the original Baja neck pup was a very very sweet sounding tele neck pup, and I've heard (no personal experience, though) that the Yardbird neck is very sweet as well.

I can also second what 38th says about the 4-way switch. The Baja comes with it as stock, and with the stock pups I wasn't too fussed about the fourth position - but with the BKP Blackguards, I'm using it as a tonal variation far more often.

Welcome to the forum :D

[PhilKing]

I would recommend the black guard flat poles.  They really give the tele sounds that you want - from Led Zeppelin through to the Stranglers.  My Brown Sugars really can nail Keith Richards sound but the black guards get very close to it too.  The piledriver is interesting, I have mine with a Slow Hand (Strat) neck, and they make a nice pair.  The Yardbird set sounds just like my real 62 tele pickups - I guess that must be the ultimate compliment since Jeff Beck was playing an early 60's tele.  The Boss set is like a great late 50's Tele, and can get the Roy Buchanan tone (not just Brucie boy's).  I think that just leaves the Country Boy's and Mr 38th gave you a glowing testimonial on those.   Just one other thing, there is also a Black Guard Stagger Pole set, which is the mid-50's Tele sound.  They have the same neck pickup as the flat pole, but slightly thinner sound (though still very dynamic).  They are more like some of the real 50's tele's that I've played.  The flat poles have a zinc bottom plate where the staggers have copper, I don't know how this really affects the tone, Tim's your man for that - I think there is a bit more bottom end with zinc, but that might also be the wind of the pickup!

Which neck and body will you be getting, as they will make a difference to your tone.  I have a Warmoth with a swamp ash body and a goncalo alves neck with a kingwood fingerboard.  I also had one with a swamp ash/maple neck.  The neck shapes and thicknesses affect the sustain a bit too.  I have the Clapton V shape on my goncalo neck because I really like the older V shapes.   If you have any questions on the Warmoth bodies and necks just ask me, I have built about 15 guitars using their parts and lots of different woods and neck shapes.

[AndyR]

Thanks for that Phil - because I've only played the Blackguard Flat 50s, I didn't really feel I could go out-and-out on a "that's what you want" recommendation to Cholo (it's what I suspected though :) )

Also thanks on the Yardbirds info there - it does sound like that's what I'm going to want next if I'm going for a 62 type. I wasn't going the "Jeff Beck" route, but I was thinking "Jimmy Page". I'm also thinking "Mr Steve Cropper" from the same guitar now. I'd always assumed Steve Cropper was playing some 50s beast, but with some recent surfing it seems like a rosewood boarded 62 type was what he used most...

[Cholo]

All this info is much appreciated guys...although the feel I get is more like "ah-pick-up-any-set-you-can't-go-wrong"! :lol:

[PhilKing]

I know it comes out a bit like that, but really most Bare Knuckle pickups are good for a wide range of sounds.  From your original email, I would use the flat pole black guards.  They are a really versatile set and cover a lot of 'Tele' ground.  If you have some specific songs that you like the sounds of, then we could probably narrow down the choices, but all the BK Tele pickups have classic Tele sounds in spades!

[AndyR]

I hear your pain Cholo :lol:
When I bought my first set of BKPs, I didn't ask any advice, I'd been reading on here for several months, I just went with my gut feeling and it came out fine. When I did ask advice about another guitar later - I got loads, and was none the wiser! I ended up going by my gut again- and I still seem to be ok.

I endorse what PhilKing's saying though - my Blackguarded tele gets me wherever I want to go. I use it mainly for blues & blues/rock noodling. I chose the Blackguards for that reason, they seemed the best suited, and I wanted "the vintage early tele sound" - whatever that might be.

However, this guitar also does stuff it's "not supposed to do" - I get Roy Buchanan tones out of it reasonably well, and it does the early Led Zeppelin and Steve Cropper stuff I was talking about earlier (I just want another guitar to do it "more accurately" as it were - mainly I want a rosewood board tele as well, and I might as well put different BKPs in when I do...).

I also recommend what PK says because he's helped me get my mind straight a few times already (usually on someone else's thread - like this, sorry! :roll:)

[Cholo]

The truth is, I'm not looking for a very "focused" set...

As it turns out with most of us, any guitar/pickup/amp combination tends to sound more like..."us" with time. At least this is the case with me. :violin1:

There are two things I mainly aim for:

I) I don't want a feedback-prone set, and
II) I think I wouldn't like something too trebly, strong bass and accented midrange would be certainly welcome.



A very useful conversation, I must admit. :D

[HTH AMPS]

I think the Boss set would be what you're after, 8.2k is hot enough to shave some ice-picky top end off and give extra midrange grind. 

I'd imagine the Boss to be in a similar ballpark to the Fender CS Nocaster (8.3k) pickup I have in my Tele.  I just turn the tone down to 7 to get rid of the excess treble and it's PHAT as hell with plenty of grind.  Turn the tone up full and you still get that trademark Tele twang.