Author Topic: Tele pickups comparisons? (Read 3000 times)

tav · « **on:** July 08, 2005, 01:23:22 PM »

Hi all,

Unless someone can post some tele pickup clips, can anyone give a clearer comparison of the different types of tele pickups please? All the descriptions on the BKP product pages sound great, and I can't really decide between them. I suppose what I want is a good all round setup - from the bridge I want a pickup that can pretty much do it all - nice clean, indie, blues, rock etc. From the neck pickup I'm not sure what I want - I'm not even sure if I want a neck pickup on the guitar yet, but I guess it would be good to get some variety of tones on the guitar.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance for any advice you can give!

Joe Dorcia · « **Reply #1 on:** July 08, 2005, 03:19:20 PM »

Although I only have teles with Piledrivers in the bridge, I can tell you that they sound much fuller and bigger than stock pickups. They really give a great lead tone with nice mids and just the right amount of cutting highs. If you dont want a neck pickup, you could add the tone circuit from the Fender Telecaster Esquires. This gives 3 very different tones from only the bridge pickup. You can find the schematics on the web, i think the seymour duncan (boooo seymour duncan booooo) website has them. If you e-mail or PM one of the BKP team, then they could easily do you a prewired scratch plate with only a bridge pickup and the special esquire tone circuit. If you give BKP a call, they will talk pickup tones till the cows come home, just tell them what you want and they will help. :D

Hope it helps,

Joe

tav · « **Reply #2 on:** July 08, 2005, 04:13:50 PM »

Cheers Joe. I was thinking of going Esquire, the lack of a neck pickup is supposed to add to the harmonics and dynamics because the neck pickup magnet doesn't drag on the strings, something like that. Sounds interesting, as does the setting which bypasses the tone control.

That would have to be a mother of a scratchplate though, what with the pickup sitting in the bridge assembly and all ;-) I think you meant control plate? Good idea though, there are a few capacitors in the esquire circuit I think, best if I stick to soldering the pickup for my first mod project and let someone else do the trickier work!

Joe Dorcia · « **Reply #3 on:** July 08, 2005, 04:55:42 PM »

yer, course. I did mean plate yer. I want to buy the new 50's Classic Tele Esquire in Transparent White. Its beautiful, so simple, and just ace. I would love to get on and put a nice bkp in there. I really like the 1-ply, old-style scratch plate. I would also take off the volume and tone pots, and move the switch the the back of the plate. Hopefully this would work unless the tone pot is needed for the esquire circuitory. I dont like knobs, lol, they hurt my hands

tav · « **Reply #4 on:** July 08, 2005, 05:16:17 PM »

There was one on stringsdirect, fender 'B' stock, for £299. There were a couple of superficial knocks which had peeled an inch or so of paint off, it looked really nice other than that.

You'd need the tone knob for the middle switch setting I think, not sure about the bassy setting though.

Joe Dorcia · « **Reply #5 on:** July 08, 2005, 05:22:27 PM »

I could take the tone knob off and just leave it under the plate. That would be fun. I wish i had the money for that b-stock. Maybe it will stay on there till i have £299 - ace!