Thinking of trying Bareknuckles for my Tele...

[lttoler]

I am thinking about putting a set of Bareknuckles in one of my Tele's but I'm not sure which set to get. They all seem appealing. I play in a cover band doing all styles from country hits to modern rock hits, so I need something that is versatile. Which set should I try first and why? I am leaning towards the Country Boy set or the Piledriver set but am open to ideas.  The Tele is alder with a rosewood board.  Thanks in advance :)

[FernandoDuarte]

Seems like the most adviced pickup for Telecaster and (ever more) to play many musical styles is the Flat '50 Blackguard!

[lttoler]

Would they sound good with the rosewood board though?

[FernandoDuarte]

Would they sound good with the rosewood board though?

I guess yes! But perhaps you should ask Tim, he will know better, most guys I've heard here played it thru an all maple neck... But I don't think that the rosewood fingerboard will take out the shine from this pickup... all guys that bought this pickup loved it and adviced it a lot, I put a label of "can't go wrong with them" since :lol:

I forgot to say: Welcome to the forum! :D

[FELINEGUITARS]

Welcome to the forum

Wow - country boy and Piledriver are kind of poles apart

Alder with a rosewood board is the smoothest tonalily so your choice is wide open
You could use
Country Boy
Yardbird
Blackguard
Brown Sugar (Stones)
The Boss (Bruce Springsteen)
Piledriver (Quo)

I would still tend to favour Yardbirds myself as they cover a wide remit and have a smoothness that works great with overdrive - they are certainly my first choice when needing to tame a maple board or ash body , but they will work great with alder/rosewood

The blackguards will be more aggressive output wise , the brown sugars will have something of a midrange growl

I personally love the Boss as it is a hard hitting  pickup - still vintage voiced but firm and knows how to rock out
Probably my favourite for blues rock and it still cleans up enough for pop and country
It is a bit like The Yardbird on steroids IMO

[BigB]

Would they sound good with the rosewood board though?

Well, that's what Tim recommanded for my alder/rosewood '62 RI - still waiting for them so I can't comment yet, but I don't think Tim could be wrong on this kind of issues  8)

[AndyR]

I'm with Jonathan (FelineGuitars) over the ones I have (Yardbirds and Blackguards).

And I also agree that Yardbirds would be the best bet as they cover a wide range - and they really do work extremely well with overdrive. I've also found recently that they respond well to compression to get that country-type "hot tele" clean-lead sort of sound - better than the BGs do in my rig. My Yardbirds are in alder/rosewood.

I love the raunchy blues/rock tele tones I get out of BG Flat 50s. But if I had only had one tele that had to cover as many bases as possible... it would be Yardbirds based on my current experience... :D

But!... from your description Jonathan - suddenly the Boss set sounds interesting. I've never heard it described in a way that makes it sound like something I'd want... the Springsteen reference kind of puts me off... but "Yardbirds on steriods" is possibly something that could improve my life! :lol:

[gwEm]

But!... from your description Jonathan - suddenly the Boss set sounds interesting. I've never heard it described in a way that makes it sound like something I'd want... the Springsteen reference kind of puts me off... but "Yardbirds on steriods" is possibly something that could improve my life! :lol:

might sell my 'Boss' actually and go for something more traditional like the Brown Sugar or BG50.. let me know if you're interested.

[Philly Q]

You had the Boss in a Strat, didn't you gwEm?  I can't remember if it was just the bridge or a full set.  I was wondering how it would match with a neck humbucker.

[gwEm]

You had the Boss in a Strat, didn't you gwEm?  I can't remember if it was just the bridge or a full set.  I was wondering how it would match with a neck humbucker.

Its still in there and rocking hard Philly. It was just the bridge. Would keep up with a neck humbucker with ease.

[BigB]

You had the Boss in a Strat, didn't you gwEm?  I can't remember if it was just the bridge or a full set.  I was wondering how it would match with a neck humbucker.

Its still in there and rocking hard Philly. It was just the bridge. Would keep up with a neck humbucker with ease.

(Thread hijack, sorry...)

Mmm... Was actually thinking of putting a Tele bridge on my Vox Standard 25 (all-maple strat-like). So how do a Tele bridge work on a strat ? How different is it from a strat bridge (with eventual baseplate), and how different is it from the same pup on a Tele ?

Oh and yes - IIRC, you need some rerouting to retrofit a tele bridge in a strat, don't you ?
TIA

[CaptainDesslock]

i have some general advice for anyone who wants pickups in a telecaster...........


 :twisted: PILEDRIVERS :twisted:!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

they are the essence of ROCK compressed into tele format, you will have no regrets, and teh rock gods will bless you!!!

 :band1:

seriously, I had a pair once, I switch the bridge pickup and its "CHUGGA-CHUGGA-BOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  :band5:

switch to the neck its classic tele-Jeff Buckley esque sparkle-lets all-singalong-to-hallelujah  :harp:

as you can tell, I really like piledrivers!

[gwEm]

(Thread hijack, sorry...)

Mmm... Was actually thinking of putting a Tele bridge on my Vox Standard 25 (all-maple strat-like). So how do a Tele bridge work on a strat ? How different is it from a strat bridge (with eventual baseplate), and how different is it from the same pup on a Tele ?

Oh and yes - IIRC, you need some rerouting to retrofit a tele bridge in a strat, don't you ?
TIA

It sounds a bit like a mix between a humbucker equipped superstrat and a tele. Very different from a strat bridge with baseplate. Hard to say how it compares to the same pickup on a real Tele.

You need to mod the scratchplate. The depending on the routing you might not need to mod the body - if its SSS you definitely will... HSS - maybe, maybe not

[gwEm]

:twisted: PILEDRIVERS :twisted:!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i love your piledriver enthusiasm ;) (actually I think a good Tele is always really hard rocking)

[BigB]

i have some general advice for anyone who wants pickups in a telecaster...........


 :twisted: PILEDRIVERS :twisted:!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

they are the essence of ROCK compressed into tele format, you will have no regrets, and teh rock gods will bless you!!!


seriously, I had a pair once, I switch the bridge pickup and its "CHUGGA-CHUGGA-BOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

switch to the neck its classic tele-Jeff Buckley esque sparkle-lets all-singalong-to-hallelujah

as you can tell, I really like piledrivers!

Argh, shut up, after mucho hesitations I just ordered a set of BGF50s while my initial plan was to go for piledrivers, please don't make me regret my choice