For the Esquire fans...

[Ratrod]

There's plenty of options for wiring an Esquire.

See here: http://www.tdpri.com/wiringESQUIRE.htm

[Brow]

Great plan for the Tele Dave!

I did a similar thing with a cheapie £80 Tele myself



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:

[Twinfan]

Nice work Craig  :)

I see someone has given me 4 stars for my YouTube clip  :lol:  I thought it was only worth about 2!!!!

[AndyR]

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:

[Philly Q]

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.  :( 

[Sollophonic]

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.

[Ratrod]

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?

[Ian Price]

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.

[Philly Q]

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.

[Philly Q]

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?)

[Ian Price]

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.

[Twinfan]

It will be routed for a neck pickup.  All except the very, very early 50s Esquires were routed too I believe...

[FernandoDuarte]

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

[Ian Price]

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  :)

[Ted 'N' Leo]

Damn you Twin! Now i really wanna to that to my Classic Vibe Tele!!