Tele pickups? Pots? Caps?

[Motorpud]

I'm putting together a project tele and since I've never owned a tele before I'm looking for some suggestions on which pickups to buy. I'm not really going to be using this guitar for metal or anything like that, mostly just for tonal variation and to add some twang to the mix which none of my guitars can do right now. I would also like to be able to get a nice thick lead tone out of it if possible. I'm going to stick with a single in the bridge and the regular covered neck pup that you see in them normally. Bring it

 

[troublehead]

Dimarzio Chopper T in bridge and Twang King in neck would be my recommendation. Chopper adds beef and muscle, but still sounds like a Tele. The Twang King provides the traditional "awesome" tele neck tones.

 

[Motorpud]

Cool, I've never heard of the twang king I'll have to check that out. I love Dimarzios in general though I should probably add too that I'm going to pick up some new electronics for it as well. What are the guys here using for pot values and caps? 250k? .022 uf?

 

[glassjaw7]

http://www.fralinpickups.com/telestyle.asp

Supposedly they're the bee's knees.

 

[JakeAC5253]

Tele's sound good with 1M pots if you want lots of brightness and spank. You could go a little warmer with 500k or 250k though, I probably would. Put a 500-1000 pF ceramic cap between the input/output lugs on the volume pot for some extra spank with the volume rolled down

 

[Motorpud]

http://www.fralinpickups.com/telestyle.asp

Supposedly they're the bee's knees.

I've heard good things about these too If I were going to spend that much though I would probably go with Anderson single coils. Those are without a doubt the BEST single coils I've ever heard. Definitely something to think about though, I'm not sure what the final budget is for this tele but right now I'm approaching $500. Not too bad....yet

EDIT: I just looked at the link you provided and they're cheaper than the ones I saw earlier $90 isn't too bad, the ones I checked out earlier were like $150+ each.....

 

[luxxtone]

If you like DiMarzios, I've had great luck with the Area T Tele pickups. The Hot T is great in the bridge, still retains the classic tele twang but has some extra heat for extra punch and nice fluid leads. And the neck has the classic cover and sounds great. and best of all, they look like the original pickups but are hum cancelling. Another great choice is the Duncan STL-2T for the bridge, which is a really hot Tele pickup that sounds huge....but it's also tapped at around 9k. So you can have both the hot sounds and classic sound in one pickup.

I'd use 500k pots with any of these pickups for a little extra brightness, even though 250k is usually standard with regular tele pickups.

 

[Motorpud]

Tele's sound good with 1M pots if you want lots of brightness and spank. You could go a little warmer with 500k or 250k though, I probably would. Put a 500-1000 pF ceramic cap between the input/output lugs on the volume pot for some extra spank with the volume rolled down

Interesting. Right now I think I'm leaning toward the 250k-500k, I don't want anything too bright. Once I get it all together and start using it I am going to experiment though, might have to pick your brain a little for some cap/pot values and wiring tricks

 

[Motorpud]

Bump for the day crew

 

[JakeAC5253]

Tele's sound good with 1M pots if you want lots of brightness and spank. You could go a little warmer with 500k or 250k though, I probably would. Put a 500-1000 pF ceramic cap between the input/output lugs on the volume pot for some extra spank with the volume rolled down

Interesting. Right now I think I'm leaning toward the 250k-500k, I don't want anything too bright. Once I get it all together and start using it I am going to experiment though, might have to pick your brain a little for some cap/pot values and wiring tricks

Yeah dude, feel free to PM me

 

[RockStarNick]

1Meg pots in a tele = icepick city.

I've tried a LOT of Tele Neck pickups. Both cheap and expensive. Most have that traditional Tele neck syndrome - thin, yet still dull and muted on the high end. Overall, very bland and boring sounding, no bite. The Dimarzio TWANG KING is, by far, the best Tele neck pickup out there for tone and clarity. To boot, you can score them for about $50 new. Unbeatable for that price.

I think the Dimarzio Chopper is what is in the Kotzen tele. Definitely getting pretty far from the traditional twangy tele tone with that pickup - since it's a rockin' monster.

Duncan STL1B Broadcaster matches up very well with the Twang King. Still on the vintage side, though.

 

[Motorpud]

Well, seems like I might be heading toward the twang king for the neck and the chopper in the bridge. I like the idea of the bridge pup being higher output, and keeping the neck more on the twangy side. Now it's off to find a white pearloid pick guard, I'll probably get it online since GC is a steaming POS