Making Strat bridge pickup sound like a Tele...

DaveT

Junior Member
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115
I know I know it can't be done.
I have an exceedingly beautiful Warmoth Thinline body routed for a Strat bridge and pickup with a humbucker neck.
If it was routed for a Tele bridge and pickup I would use a DiMarzio Area T noiseless bridge pickup.
Did I mention it must be noiseless?

If I have to I will cover up some of that beautiful body with a Tele bridge and cut a hole for the Tele pickup.

Currently there is a Lace Sensor Gold in there. It's alright but lacks that 'wow' factor.
 
To be more precise about Lace pickups: in the right guitar they sound really really good. That's why Lace Gold was my first choice but now I need a second and better choice.
 
Put a Callaham steel baseplate on that strat pickup and it will become more Tele like.

A fellow guitarist I play with has a CS Strat. He asked me my Strat always sounds “bigger” on the bridge pup that his. “It sounds closer to my Tele”.
Like I told him, just some vintage blues Fralins with a steel baseplate on the bridge pup.
 
Have a look into a Seymour Duncan Twang Banger, which is a strat size pickup designed to give you that flavour you are looking for. Downside as asked about it is not noiseless and neither is a Fralin with a baseplate.

I am not aware of a noiseless Tele sounding bridge pickup in a Strat format. Alternatively for noiseless in a Strat format to get a P90 or PAF type of sound to balance with the humbucker in the neck you could take a look at Kinman Big Nine O or Kick in the Arse.

Also there are a number of strat size Seymour Duncan humbuckers, such as the Little 59, Red Devil etc.
 
To me the dimarzio tele pups sounds excellent, but it's more like it's teleish.  For tele sound you need a tele, like a Bill Lawrence, which are pretty quiet.  Strat form factor, I know of none that are noiseless.

You might be in boutique territory, which is not a bad place.  I know seymour duncan and rio grande will do special orders.  And of course, I don't know every source of pups in the world so there may be something off the shelf.  Probably need to look  a little more.  You might need to call a couple of places to see what they can do.

Actually, I'm intreguied by the red devil, but I haven't gotten to play one yet.
 
rick2 said:
Actually, I'm intreguied by the red devil, but I haven't gotten to play one yet.

I have a Red devil neck...which reminds me I have a project to finish and then I can try it.
 
I'd like to make a random unproven suggestion.  Consider a Duncan STK-S4b.  Its classic stack plus, so its hum-cancelling and has Alnico 5 pole pieces.  I believe it has a flux plate in between the two coils.  It is designed for 250k pots, so you will need to wire a parallel load resistor if you want to match it with 500k controls and a the humbucker in the neck position. 

My own experience is the STK-S7 vintage hot stack plus.  Its a hotter version.  To me it sounds more like a low-wind humbucker.

Note:  The Duncan stack plus pickups require a deeper mounting depth which often causes issues for mounting in bodies with rear control route.
 
I ordered a DiMarzio Area 67 noiseless pickup being the trebliest 'known quality' pickup I could find, we'll see how that works out!
 
I hope it does what you want.  I don’t view a Tele pup as more treble, but more bark/bite than a strat pup.  That’s due to 2 items:
A ferrous baseplate
Fixed to a ferrous bridge.
 
Tele bridge pickups are wound hotter than Strat pickups.  Typically 7.6k of 42 gauge wire, the baseplate also makes them slightly warmer.

No first hand experience with Lace sensor golds, so I don't have a reference point for your project.
 
To get a Tele pickup in there you need a bridge plate or a pickguard. Bridge plate covers less  it has been done

ZION.JPG


I think the teles fatness comes from the bridge plate and the lack of the tremolo route. With one of those off the table, I'd certainly want to try get get a bridge plate in there somehow even if hidden.
 
Also you might want to consider splitting the humbucker to the outer coil, and then match it up with the strat pup.  You're only going to get tele-like tones, not tele tones.  If you want strat-like tones with quack then try the strat with the inner coil.  No guarantees.  If it doesn't work, at least it's something different.
 
swarfrat said:
To get a Tele pickup in there you need a bridge plate or a pickguard. Bridge plate covers less  it has been done

ZION.JPG


I think the teles fatness comes from the bridge plate and the lack of the tremolo route. With one of those off the table, I'd certainly want to try get get a bridge plate in there somehow even if hidden.
I find if there is a trem or not to not be material. Mount a Tele pup in a Tele bridge and put a Bigsby behind it, it still sounds Tele 

In the most tender gentle manner, I will again note:
A ferrous pup plate
A ferrous bridge

 
https://youtu.be/qB3dLKVSs6s

When I think of Tele bridge pup. I think two things, country or rock. Country most do. Rock not so much and that’s the bigger difference between strat and Tele.
Here’s a rock sound of a Tele that all Strats want to be able to do on the bridge pup.

And yes, that was an Esquire. And converted with a neck pup and Tele wiring.

Go fwd to about 3:49
 
And while I post this.
Fact: PF is my fav band
This song sucked! The album it was released on only sucked a little less.

When David did this version of it I was YES!!!!!!
 
The DiMarzio Area 67 Strat pickup is about as close I am going to get to the sound I want from the bridge pickup.
The only way it is going to get better is an Alder body with proper Tele bridge and pickup routs.
But the Mahogany Thinline body is soooo pretty!

The interweb thinks you can persuade a Tele bridge pickup into a Strat bridge pickup rout by turning it round - you can't.
DiMarzio pickups are out of phase to Lace Sensors so the soldering iron came out again.
 
22nd of June 2022.
So, after trying various pickups I have this to say:-
YOU CAN'T!
If you want that Tele bridge sound you fit a Tele bridge and a Tele pickup.
It took some soul searching to attack that beautiful body, but as the main purpose is to sound good not look good... I did it!
Babicz top-loader Tele Bridge and Seymour Duncan hum-bucking Vintage Stack Tele pickup = job done with the minimum of wood-working mayhem.
I am VERY happy with the result!
 
DaveT said:
To be more precise about Lace pickups: in the right guitar they sound really really good. That's why Lace Gold was my first choice but now I need a second and better choice.

I have a set of Lace Golds that I have tried in a few different guitars and they always sound a bit odd to me. But maybe I am odd! :laughing7:
 
stratamania said:
rick2 said:
Actually, I'm intreguied by the red devil, but I haven't gotten to play one yet.

I have a Red devil neck...which reminds me I have a project to finish and then I can try it.

Single coil sized humbuckers can sound great and very convincing with a bit of overdrive, but fall well short compared to their full sized counterparts when playing clean.
 
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