'96 Mexican Tele Loaded with a Mississippi Queen and a Piledriver

[Andrew W]

This is the first clip recorded with my '96 Mexican Tele fitted with a bridge Piledriver and a Mississippi Queen in the neck.  I recorded it with an SM57 in front of my Cornell Romany Plus.  I also switched the EQ on the amp out so it was basically functioning like an extra low wattage Champ.  The main rhythm part is the Piledriver and all the lead and fill parts are the MQ.  I added no effects before recording aside from the amp's reverb but I did add some chorus and compression to the lead parts in Garage Band to add to the "sorta kinda '80s ZZ Top" sound I was after.  I went for that style as I only have canned drums so it tends to force me into a playing along with a drum machine type mentality and that, in a rock context, makes me think "Eliminator". :)  The clip suffers from Garage Band's not-so-good mix-down quality (note to self: Buy Logic and have done with it).  The guitar sounds have a lot more punch than you can hear in the mix here.  If I can fix that I'll repost the clip because it put a big smile on my face how hard these pickups hit.

I really love these pickups.  When I got the guitar and fixed it up, the idea I had in mind was something halfway between a Tele's spank and a Les Paul's grunt.  I think that these pickups really hit that sound for me.  It probably helps that the guitar is a bridge loader, is pretty hefty for a Tele (over 8lbs), and has a solid steel bridge.  Anyway I'm extremely pleased how the guitar ended up and once again BKP have the perfect pickups to fit the bill.

Click for the link.

[FernandoDuarte]

Sounds very nice! love the punch!

[Twinfan]

That sounds nothing like a tele!

Beefy as.

[Plexi Ken]

Nice clip, the PD make the tele sound a little LP-ish to me, interesting :)

[Andrew W]

That sounds nothing like a tele!

Beefy as.

It certainly is beefy but it can do more Tele-ish tones if the volume is rolled right off.  To be honest though I don't think this particular guitar was that quintessentially Tele like even in stock condition - it's too heavy to do spanky Tele and the top loading bridge will upset purists also.  That said, the pickups really help push it into LP territory whilst retaining some of the bite of the Tele sound.

Nice clip, the PD make the tele sound a little LP-ish to me, interesting :)

Thanks, it does doesn't it?  I'd be interested to know what the Piledriver sounds like in a through-body strung, lighter weight Tele.  I would guess you'd get a lot more of the Telecaster character than in my guitar.  I should do another clip with less overdrive and see what comes out.  I don't think you'd ever play country on it, but it might do more early Led Zep type Tele tones.

[Plexi Ken]

I'd be interested to know what the Piledriver sounds like in a through-body strung, lighter weight Tele.

IMO, thro-body VS. top-loader doesn't make any difference to the tone. Modern 6 saddles VS. vintage 3 saddles does make a difference as does saddle material (brass, steel, aluminium and titanium).

I don't think you'd ever play country on it, but it might do more early Led Zep type Tele tones.

I'm sure as a Tele fan you already know this, but apparently the pickup in Page's Tele was low DC approx. 5.7k   After recording Led Zep I, it was rewound to 6.6k for a more beefy live tone.

[MrBump]

Big, fat sound!

That's tempting...

[AndyR]

Nice :D

Good crunchy sound from that Piledriver, and I'm liking those fluid tones from the MQ.

[Andrew W]

Nice :D

Good crunchy sound from that Piledriver, and I'm liking those fluid tones from the MQ.

I think those are the two things I'm liking best about it. They almost seem like two instruments. I have yet to experiment with the in between position much yet but for now I'm just enjoying the two main types of tones I've found so far. The neck MQ is so thick and yet glassy that it sounds part LP and part Strat neck sound whilst the bridge heads off into almost humbucking bridge type territory.

It's a wide tonal spectrum so there should be many more tones lurking in there in between.

[JJretroTONEGOD]

it sounds a lot like a LP! how strange, very big sounding for a tele, I like the sound of the reverb a lot too!

[Fourth Feline]

As always, I'm a bit slow on the uptake, but I just listened to the soundclip - and it certainly is one Meaty beast ; but still with that characteristic 'Tele' bite and crunch when needed. A true weapon of mass distraction .  8)

Nice one !  :)