Which tele bridge & pickup?

_tom_

_tom_

Baimunized
I'm doing a telemaster build soon (just waiting on confirmation from the luthier to make the body) and I'm getting ready to start ordering parts now :) I can't afford the likes of hipshot so what bridge do you guys recommend? I'm looking at this offering from Gotoh - http://www.axesrus.co.uk/Gotoh-BS-TC1S-Low-Profile-Bridge-Chrome-p/bs-tc1scs.htm

Not sure about having the 3 brass saddles though, or does the compensation generally work ok for intonation? I wanted one with 6 saddles but have heard you lose some of the tele tone? Given that I'm not exactly going for a typical tele build since I'm having a jazzmaster body, is this going to be as much of an issue? I'd rather be intonated and tuned properly than have a fully authentic tone.

There's also this that has brass plated saddles but has 6 of em - http://www.axesrus.co.uk/Gotoh-GTC201-Modern-Conversion-Bridge-p/gtc201x.htm

Now onto the pickup. I don't really know what I need here. I want to keep it singlecoil for now as my other 2 guitars are humbuckers. I play rock music so it needs to have enough power and balls for this. The humbuckers I like to use tend to be between 9-12k so something similar would be nice so I don't have to adjust gains too much between guitars. Dont necessarily want heaps of twang, but enough to make it sound different to my other guitars.
 
That one bridge that H.I.A.R. pointed out from the one shop a while back looked nice.

I'll have to see if I could find the link.

Edit: Here, this place looks like it has some solid stuff. The plate without saddles is $40.00 compensated saddles somewhere else about 20.
 
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I would say the SD quarter pounder or the Hot for Tele I would go for. The quarter pounder is made precisely for what you mention but supposedly sounds like aP90 a bit. I think Baimun has experience with these.
 
I got a set of Dawgtown Tele pickups for my build. I wasn't really looking for a particular sound and I wanted to try something different. The guy who builds them raises his own bees to get the wax to pot the pickups. I am not saying that improves the tone or anything but that takes dedication, so I gave them a try and I really like them.

Also, I know they cost a little more, but I will never use anything but a Mastery anymore. Maybe I drank the kool aid, but I really like them.
 
I decided to update my tele last year and bought a Gotoh Modern bridge for $40 from Warmoth. My bridge pickup is a Seymour Duncan Jerry Donahue. If the tone changed, it's imperceptible to me. I'm not really sold on compensated saddles. But I will say that the Callaham set is much better than the licensed GFS/Wilkinson set I had.

As for the pickup, I really like the Jerry Donahue. It sounds like a tele pickup should, responds well to volume and tone knobs, and takes distortion really well. As for output, it matches the Dimarzio PAFs in my PRS. If you wanted something hotter, @smurfco has a set of Lollars in his Flower Tele. I think they're the Special T set. While the DC resistance is about the same as the Duncans I have, they're much louder.
 
_tom_ said:
Now onto the pickup. I don't really know what I need here. I want to keep it singlecoil for now as my other 2 guitars are humbuckers. I play rock music so it needs to have enough power and balls for this. The humbuckers I like to use tend to be between 9-12k so something similar would be nice so I don't have to adjust gains too much between guitars. Dont necessarily want heaps of twang, but enough to make it sound different to my other guitars.
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Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Lead.

It's tapped so you can go from a Hot P90-esque pickup to tapping it to a chime and twang-ier tele pickup.

sd1120214t-xl.jpg
 
That sounds like what I'm after, I love p90s :thu: I was planning on doing 4 way esquire wiring, wondering if I could wire up one of the positions to be the tap rather than one of the options on the 4 way (bridge pickup with no tone or volume in the chain doesn't sound that useful to me)?

I think I might just go for the gotoh 6 saddle bridge then, it comes in either steel or brass saddles, not sure if I'll hear much difference tbh, what would you guys do ?idn_smilie
 
_tom_ said:
I'm doing a telemaster build soon (just waiting on confirmation from the luthier to make the body) and I'm getting ready to start ordering parts now :) I can't afford the likes of hipshot so what bridge do you guys recommend? I'm looking at this offering from Gotoh - http://www.axesrus.co.uk/Gotoh-BS-TC1S-Low-Profile-Bridge-Chrome-p/bs-tc1scs.htm

Not sure about having the 3 brass saddles though, or does the compensation generally work ok for intonation? I wanted one with 6 saddles but have heard you lose some of the tele tone? Given that I'm not exactly going for a typical tele build since I'm having a jazzmaster body, is this going to be as much of an issue? I'd rather be intonated and tuned properly than have a fully authentic tone.

There's also this that has brass plated saddles but has 6 of em - http://www.axesrus.co.uk/Gotoh-GTC201-Modern-Conversion-Bridge-p/gtc201x.htm

Now onto the pickup. I don't really know what I need here. I want to keep it singlecoil for now as my other 2 guitars are humbuckers. I play rock music so it needs to have enough power and balls for this. The humbuckers I like to use tend to be between 9-12k so something similar would be nice so I don't have to adjust gains too much between guitars. Dont necessarily want heaps of twang, but enough to make it sound different to my other guitars.
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I am going to throw in my vote for a Bryan Gunsher wound "rockwind" bridge pup, and for the neck, I really like his P90 he wound for me to match the bridge.

http://bg-pups.com/teles/telecaster-bridge-a3/

http://bg-pups.com/p90s/vintage-p90/

Mine came out with this sound, but think much more of a hack player! :wink:

 
_tom_ said:
That sounds like what I'm after, I love p90s :thu: I was planning on doing 4 way esquire wiring, wondering if I could wire up one of the positions to be the tap rather than one of the options on the 4 way (bridge pickup with no tone or volume in the chain doesn't sound that useful to me)?idn_smilie
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It's cool to use it with 4 or 5 way super switch.

1) full wind bridge
2) tapped bridge
3) full + neck
4) tapped + neck
5) neck
 
Help!I'maRock! said:
too bad an Esquire doesn't have a neck pickup. :tongue:
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I didn't read esquire... I read "twangmaster".

If I remember correctly, my esquire with the Quarter Pound was:

1) Full Wind - Tone Bypass
2) Full Wind + Tone control
3) Tapped coil + Tone Control
4) Tapped Coil - Tone Bypass

something like that. I remember I could turn my tone knob part way and get 4 distinct sounds with the switch.
 
Help!I'maRock! said:
Well, it's not a strat, nor does it have a middle pickup. :embarrassed:
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Exactly my point. And depending on the switch, you could have quite a versatile guitar. I like the 5 way switch and wiring that comes on my strat. Mixes the humbuckers as you would expect, and gives some coil splitting options. But there has to be some kind of cool tele switch that would work well in that application depending on what you wanted.
 
sunvalleylaw said:
Exactly my point. And depending on the switch, you could have quite a versatile guitar. I like the 5 way switch and wiring that comes on my strat. Mixes the humbuckers as you would expect, and gives some coil splitting options. But there has to be some kind of cool tele switch that would work well in that application depending on what you wanted.
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Had I done it, I would have gotten a 3 knob control plate for volume, bass, and treble controls, with just a regular 3 way switch. I don't care for split tones, though I do like a pickup in parallel from time to time.
 
Yeah its basically a more comfortable tele. I love the offset fenders, my Jag bass is so comfy. At the minute I'm gonna stick with one bridge pickup like an esquire but I'm getting it routed for a neck humbucker as well so I have the option there.

This is the rough inspiration, though I'm doing a wudtone satin black finish and bwb pickguard (and probably a 6 saddle bridge now) -

Fender_Custom_Jazzmaster_60Relic-R47469-CFM-FrontBody.jpg
 
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