Got a Piledriver, what should I expect?

[stratguy23]

I scored a used Piledriver for cheap. I don’t currently have a Tele in need of a pickup swap, so I likely will be building one for the Piledriver. From what I’ve read, it sounds like it’s fatter like a P90 with the volume all the way up, but it can twang when the volume is turned down. I think I’m going to wire in a TBX tone control to be able to shave off some bass to help with twang if I want it, should make a versatile Tele. I have a Miracle Man neck sitting in my parts drawer as well, thinking of pairing that with the Piledriver. Any recommendations on body wood? I’m think ash to give maximum top end with a maple neck.

[Telerocker]

Alder or (swamp)ash. If ash look for a not too heavy body. Remember those topheavy Fenders from the seventies? I like swampash more bec in general they're lightweight and more resonant than ash bodies.
You won't get classic tele-tones with the Piledriver but it can produce twangy tones with the volume rolled down. Tones are just more modern (well you know). Maybe not, but the Miracle Man-neckpickup might overpower the Piledriver. I would just give it a go and see what happens. You can always replace it.

[stratguy23]

Alder or (swamp)ash. If ash look for a not too heavy body. Remember those topheavy Fenders from the seventies? I like swampash more bec in general they're lightweight and more resonant than ash bodies.
You won't get classic tele-tones with the Piledriver but it can produce twangy tones with the volume rolled down. Tones are just more modern (well you know). Maybe not, but the Miracle Man-neckpickup might overpower the Piledriver. I would just give it a go and see what happens. You can always replace it.

Thanks that’s what I was figuring on voicing. I think it should do exactly what I want tonally. I agree on the weight with ash. When I say ash I do mean swamp ash. I have another Tele that’s swamp ash, and it sounds killer, better than my alder Tele. I read a review somewhere online where the guy paired a Piledriver with a Warpig neck, and he said it balanced well, so that’s what made me think it would work okay, but I do worry a little it’ll overpower the Piledriver. If it does, what are some other neck humbuckers to try?

[Telerocker]

Alder or (swamp)ash. If ash look for a not too heavy body. Remember those topheavy Fenders from the seventies? I like swampash more bec in general they're lightweight and more resonant than ash bodies.
You won't get classic tele-tones with the Piledriver but it can produce twangy tones with the volume rolled down. Tones are just more modern (well you know). Maybe not, but the Miracle Man-neckpickup might overpower the Piledriver. I would just give it a go and see what happens. You can always replace it.

Thanks that’s what I was figuring on voicing. I think it should do exactly what I want tonally. I agree on the weight with ash. When I say ash I do mean swamp ash. I have another Tele that’s swamp ash, and it sounds killer, better than my alder Tele. I read a review somewhere online where the guy paired a Piledriver with a Warpig neck, and he said it balanced well, so that’s what made me think it would work okay, but I do worry a little it’ll overpower the Piledriver. If it does, what are some other neck humbuckers to try?

What you want from the neckpickup? Personally I would pair the Piledriver with a HB-sized Nantucket. I love P90's neckpickups in tele's. Perhaps you're after modern tones. In that case try the MM and otherwise I would look at a Rebel Yell-neck, to match the character of the Piledriver.

[stratguy23]

Alder or (swamp)ash. If ash look for a not too heavy body. Remember those topheavy Fenders from the seventies? I like swampash more bec in general they're lightweight and more resonant than ash bodies.
You won't get classic tele-tones with the Piledriver but it can produce twangy tones with the volume rolled down. Tones are just more modern (well you know). Maybe not, but the Miracle Man-neckpickup might overpower the Piledriver. I would just give it a go and see what happens. You can always replace it.

Thanks that’s what I was figuring on voicing. I think it should do exactly what I want tonally. I agree on the weight with ash. When I say ash I do mean swamp ash. I have another Tele that’s swamp ash, and it sounds killer, better than my alder Tele. I read a review somewhere online where the guy paired a Piledriver with a Warpig neck, and he said it balanced well, so that’s what made me think it would work okay, but I do worry a little it’ll overpower the Piledriver. If it does, what are some other neck humbuckers to try?

What you want from the neckpickup? Personally I would pair the Piledriver with a HB-sized Nantucket. I love P90's neckpickups in tele's. Perhaps you're after modern tones. In that case try the MM and otherwise I would look at a Rebel Yell-neck, to match the character of the Piledriver.

Ya I think I want modern tones with this guitar. Basically, I like having two different guitars if I play a gig, usually one with a humbucker in the bridge and one with a singlecoil. So I think this Tele could serve this role well for hard rock but still get some good clean tones.

[Muffler]

I had a Piledriver set on a American Series tele, ash body and maple fretboard, that I eventually sold. I liked it, but the bridge pickup had almost no twang at all. It's very bassy and hot for a tele bridge pickup, sounds good with gainy sounds but I missed a bit of this punching tele highs. The guitar was quite bassy too, so maybe it wasn't the perfect match.
The neck pickup sounded great to me, it keeped more the real telecaster sound than bridge, but could sound really agressive too. Something like Tom Morello's riffing sound.

I sold the guitar because it was too heavy (I didn't weight it, but I'm pretty sure it was around 4-5kg), but if I had keeped it a bit more, probably I had tried with a BG 52 set. I would recommend a Piledriver for a thin and harsh sounding tele, so you would want to give more body and polish a bit those screaming highs. You would also get a fairly high output guitar.

[Telerocker]

The Piledriver is indeed not your typical twangy telecaster pickup. It's not designed for that. If you want modern searing rocktones, this one will deliver.

[FernandoDuarte]

I got better results using 500k pots on them, like a P90...