Tele love

[Ian Price]

Meanwhile I am sure that guitar sounds great through just about anything !   :D

I'm sure it does although sadly as long as it's me playing it won't sound that great  :x. Will bring it along to whatever meet happens next so I can hear what it sounds like with a proper player.

[Ian Price]

Apologies for resurrecting an 'old' thread. Just took the pickguard off of the esquire and found that it is routed for a neck single coil.

I'm not going to say I am going to do it but, if I did, what impact would putting a neck pup have on the tone of the guitar. I've read somewhere that a neck pup would make it sound less airy. Is this true or a load of bs?

[Philly Q]

The magnetic pull of the neck pickup will have a slight damping effect on the strings' vibration, so I guess in theory it may make the guitar sound marginally less "airy".

But it's not going to suddenly turn a great sounding guitar into a bad one.

[Ian Price]

Cheers Philly. That might make me think twice! Actually, it has. A few weeks ago I said that I wasn't getting on with my strat and was considering a new neck for it. I think it's more than just the neck now and that the overall sound of the guitar is not what I'm looking for.

This then made me think of getting a neck pup for the esquire so I could get some warm jazzy-ish type tones and some nice big chords from it. The next question is if I did this is there a way of retaining the esquire circuit but also wiring the neck and bridge together for a mixed tone?

Finally, about the strat. It may well be appearing in seconds out in the next few days. I've persevered long enough and have been exclusively playing the esquire for the last few weeks.

[Twinfan]

You could get a 4-way switch and have:

Bridge pickup as it is now
Bridge and middle
Esquire wah tone
Neck pickup only

or a five way with:

Bridge pickup as it is now
Bridge and middle
Esquire wah tone
Neck pickup only
Bridge and neck in series

If you go for a neck pickup, remember to buy a new scratchplate and not chop a hole in the one you've already got  ;)

[Ian Price]

Bridge pickup as it is now
Bridge and middle
Esquire wah tone
Neck pickup only
Bridge and neck in series

That sounds good.

If you go for a neck pickup, remember to buy a new scratchplate and not chop a hole in the one you've already got  ;)

 :lol: :lol:

[_tom_]

Just saw that pic of your esquire again, Ian. I still really like it :) Gonna have to play a few before I decide on my next guitar! Its either this or an SG, big difference between them though.

[Ian Price]

It's a great guitar Tom. I've never played a SG before so couldn't comment on differences although I'm sure there are many!

[badgermark]

Just saw that pic of your esquire again, Ian. I still really like it :) Gonna have to play a few before I decide on my next guitar! Its either this or an SG, big difference between them though.

My two main guitars are a tele and a sg, i love them both. Such a different feel between them though, but it's never a struggle going from one to the other. Tis a hard choice between the two though!

[HTH AMPS]

I noticed that my Tele was punchier with more resonance with the neck pickup removed - as such, I've got no plans to put one back in right now as the guitar absolutely screams right now.

[_tom_]

My two main guitars are a tele and a sg, i love them both. Such a different feel between them though, but it's never a struggle going from one to the other. Tis a hard choice between the two though!

Yeah I really dont know what to do haha. The main thing putting me off teles is that I always see them as cheap guitars for some reason. I've always preferred Gibson style but I allready have 2 Les Pauls.. Will have to play a few I suppose and compare them to SGs in the same price range..

Seeing that single bridge pickup esquire type thing in Twinfans thread has definitely rekindled my interest in a tele though :)

[AndyR]

Go for a custom Tom - they're double edge bound bodies with rosewood board. Before I got one I wasn't at all convinced by the look, but it's one of my favourite guitars now - looks anything but "cheap" (I know what you mean though). Mine's black, sits very nicely next to my black Les Paul type thing :D (except the off-white bindings/scatchplates clash! :lol:)

Can't really comment on the "esquire" bit - never tried it - I do have an old squier I'm going to do it to one day probably with a Piledriver, but I like the neck pickup on my teles too much (the Yardbird neck is especially nice)...

I know people swear that taking the neck pickup out makes a difference, but I wonder if it's more of a "focussing the mind" kind of thing because you've only got one pickup? Seeing as I've not tried it though :roll:... (and bear in mind that I can't hear a difference in tone between a strat trem bridge screwed down or floating... :lol:)

[WezV]

Go for a custom Tom - they're double edge bound bodies with rosewood board.

i think the double binding looks cool,  but personally i prefer the approach i am taking on twinfans.  Single binding on the front with some great wood on the back. 

This allows for some modern home comforts which really help raise the tele above a 'cheap slab' guitar and add a custom feel.

My personal preference is to go for a larger roundover on the back with a deep, quite organically shaped belly cut and a reshaped/contoured heel section - i like them comfy!

on TF's we are keeping it simpler than that to retain more of a traditional tele feel - but its still getting a warmoth/suhr style contoured heel (still uses a neckplate but the heel gets thinner and blends into the cutaway a little more)

[Twinfan]

^ what Wez said  :lol:

A good Tele is a VERY good guitar indeed.

[_tom_]

I wish I could afford a custom guitar - was going to go that route with a WezV SG but I cant even afford the deposit at the minute :(

Or do you mean a tele custom model thing? :oops:

I love bound teles, especially black ones with white binding or creamy white blonde type ones with black binding. Natural wood back would look very nice though :)