New Blackguard Pickup Day

[Andrew W]

As some of you know I acquired a Philippe Dubreuille Telecaster a little while ago which may be the best guitar I've owned. It's incredibly light, the neck is really comfortable and the whole thing is very acoustically resonant. The only thing that I wasn't a 100% on were the pickups. As it's a guitar built by an independent luthier I didn't know what brand, if any, had been chosen but whatever they were, they seemed a little muffled almost, especially when the instrument obviously had so much life in it. So after a trip down to Feline Guitars today (Hello Feline, hello gwEm) I came away with a Blackguard Flat 50 neck pickup. I already had the companion bridge pickup from a previous Telemaster project.

This afternoon I performed a double pickup transplant, first to take the bridge Flat 50 out of the Telemaster (it now has a Fender cast off in it until I feel like getting something better), and then to swap out the pick ups from the Dubreuille. Upon extracting the pickups I found that they were Fender Custom Shop pickups. Well, the bridge one is as it has the sticker on the base, there were no identifying marks on the neck one. Anyway I've now installed the BKPs and the difference is like night and day.

The guitar has so much more sparkle and life to it now. I'd heard that the neck is very Strat like and so it's proved, there's plenty of SRV and Robin Trower in there to be mined. The bridge has more grunt and attitude than the one it replaces. It can do Albert Collins type icepick and with some slapback echo there's a lot of rockabilly goodness there too. With an 808 Tubescreamer pushing the amp there are also some great rock tones to be had. I think I probably need to play with the heights a little more to really fine tune things but so far it's proved a really great upgrade to enable an instrument that clearly had so much potential to really shine.

Now I just need to practice more to make myself worthy of it. :)

[FernandoDuarte]

Great! I love this tele! :D

[Philly Q]

Golly gosh that looks fine (and doubtless sounds it too)

[AndyR]

I remember that one from when you got it... it's a stunner.

The BGs is what I'd stick in it too.

Sounds like you might be about to fall into the "trap" that I did initially with these pickups. I don't know whether you found this with the telemaster, but you might find the pickup height adjustment just a little "frustrating". Nearly all of the possible heights sound good but quite different - and you can't figure out which one you want to settle on :lol:.

I guess it also depends on how keen you are on the "middle" sound on a tele - I'm very keen on it, so it seems to take me a lot of balancing bridge and neck to get all three just right.

Years ago I used to play teles exclusively on the middle position only, so that would have been easier. But the BG Flat 50 bridge sounds so good on its own that I don't want to compromise that tone in order to get the middle right... :roll:

If you find yourself getting as anal about it as I did, I can give you the benefit of what I finally realised after a few weeks/months of weekly fiddling... up... down... back up again, angle the bridge a bit, etc... - at least a blackguard pick-guard only has 5 screws!... but still...

Anyhoo, the wisdom is thus:

"oh f**k it, it all sounds good anyway, put the screw drivers away, just play it for a bit..."

:lol:

[Telerocker]

Are we talking here about the Flat 50 10k-bridge? Or the former Flat 50 with 7k?

[Andrew W]

Are we talking here about the Flat 50 10k-bridge? Or the former Flat 50 with 7k?

Former, back when all this used to be fields, before everything got confusing and modern.

[Keven]

i request first refusal if you ever sell that tele! gorgeous!

[Andrew W]

i request first refusal if you ever sell that tele! gorgeous!

Haha, OK though I really wouldn't hold your breath, I'm very fond of it!

There are more photos here.

[Andrew W]

Sounds like you might be about to fall into the "trap" that I did initially with these pickups. I don't know whether you found this with the telemaster, but you might find the pickup height adjustment just a little "frustrating". Nearly all of the possible heights sound good but quite different - and you can't figure out which one you want to settle on :lol:.

I had a bit of tinker with the heights yesterday and have come up with some sounds that really appeal to me. For now. Trouble is, I suspect that in a couple of weeks time I'll have convinced myself that I want something different tone-wise and the screwdrivers will come out again.

I did a little recording last night which I'll post once I get a chance to check it doesn't sound too bad and can get it all processed.

[Andrew W]

I did a little recording last night which I'll post once I get a chance to check it doesn't sound too bad and can get it all processed.

Now added the clip in the Player's section.

[gwEm]

nice to meet you  :D

[Telerocker]

Well, beautiful sounds from this tele. From biting to smooth and sweet.

[FELINEGUITARS]

My workshop really does seem to be one of those places where Forum members tend to run into each other it keeps happening.

Is it getting to the time of year where we start thinking about another Forum meet up?

[Philly Q]

Is it getting to the time of year where we start thinking about another Forum meet up?

It's certainly that time of year!  Got to be good an' sweaty in those studios!

[Elliot]

I'm for it, if only to get another look at Johnny Mac's huge Koch  :D