Need to warm up my tele's sound

[dNA]

So I've had some time to get used to my new thinline

My first impression was that it was way too thin and bright. After playing it a bit i feel like everything settled in. It got a little fuller sounding - setting the action higher also helped.
Still, it's got a way snappier attack and far less body to it than any of my other electrics and it's too much for me. I hear this both acoustically and amplified. Particularly, plugged in the pick attack is just harsh.
Distortion totally compresses that initial pick attack and makes it sound a lot more even, but I still feel like it could be a warmer.


The pickups are excellent - a Roadhouse custom in the neck, DiMarzio PAF in the bridge. They sound super clear (I've played with both in other guitars.) I'm going to invest in a new neck when I get the chance. Wondering what you guys would recommend.  I want to add low mids and soften the pick attack, but I still want the wound strings to sound clear, so not as thick as say a Les Paul.

I thought of maybe:0
-all goncalo alves
-goncalo/pau ferro
-canary/rosewood

I just don't know what's too far. This guitar is like a 180 from all my other electrics. I wanted something brighter and clearer than anything I have (mainly an archtop and a LP copy). I found that i went too far in the other direction and now I want to find some healthy middle ground. thoughts?

 

[jackthehack]

The whole point of Teles/Thinlines is that they're SUPPOSED to sound real bright?

If you want to warm that up a bit, better choices would be a mahogany neck with whatever fretboard would complement that body or an all rosewood neck.

 

[Paul-less]

rosewood neck would complement that beautiful walnut body visually, and sound-wise.

DO IT

 

[dNA]

all rosewood eh? That sounds like a possibility for sure.
and yeah, i guess tele's are supposed to be bright. I can definitely say that being a thinline did nothing to warm up the sound at all.

 

[lidesnowi]

Is it a Total Vintage/Vintage Modern or an Warmoth "Pro" Construction neck you have on it?
The  Warmoth "Pro" Construction is A LOT brighter sounding than a Total Vintage /Vintage Modern generally speaking!
In my opinion a high mass neck like the Warmoth "Pro" Construction  on a thin line or chambered/hollow body can sound very cold and harsh :redflag:

 

[dNA]

It is a vintage modern actually - Don't ask why, but I'm definitely put off by the whole double truss rod stuff. Not that I don't think it's good. I just know I've never had any issues with the vintage way of doing things, so I don't want to add metal and mass to my neck.

I worry that an all rosewood neck might lose clarity though. On 25 1/2" scale you think it'll stay clear sounding enough? Would love to hear a tele w/ a rosewood neck to get an idea of what it sounds like. I should post clips of what I've got when i get the chance.

 

[Nando Vallart]

Mr =CB= told us that a Thinline with humbuckers and Gonçalo Alvez neck get a tad too fat ( for his taste at least)

Think Mahogany + Ebony 24.75" scale ( ) with a matching Figured Walnut headstock veneer would be the thing!
perhaps would be closer than a LP than you want, so Rosewood neck or 25.5" scale lenght would help to keep it a little less LP, being Rosewood the one that would affect less and scale the one that would affect more, I guess ^^

 

[lidesnowi]

If you have those solid bridge saddles Try bent steel saddles they add some resonance and warmth  !
How thick is the bridge plate?
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t25/Bubbanov/33MAR42008008.jpg

 

[GoDrex]

have you tried brass saddles and pure nickel strings?

 

[Mor Paul]

have you tried brass saddles and pure nickel strings?

+1 on pure nickel. I use them on my tele, and it helped a ton. Mess around with pickup height, too.

 

[tfarny]

+2 on the pure nickel strings, and pickup height. Brass saddles wouldn't hurt.
With all those knobs on your amp, you can't dial in a warm enough tone though?

 

[dNA]

i will try different strings - probably go a guage heavier than it is now. How do I know what material these saddles are made of? It's the gotoh tele humbucker bridge from W. In the description it only mentions a brass plate, but nothing about the saddles. Should I just order replacement saddles online?
I have messed with pickup height, but I'll try a bit more. I just don't like how it affects the output and the balance of the pickups. Should I move the pickups closer or farther away?

With the amp i can dial in a better sound, but it means totally different amp settings when I switch to this guitar, which I haven't had to do with other guitars so far. While I can turn down the treble, it doesn't actually change that the attack is much louder than the sustain of the note.
Really, the guitar doesn't sound the way I like acoustically, so I wanted to remedy the problem at the source.

 

[dNA]

Mr =CB= told us that a Thinline with humbuckers and Gonçalo Alvez neck get a tad too fat ( for his taste at least)

Think Mahogany + Ebony 24.75" scale ( ) with a matching Figured Walnut headstock veneer would be the thing!
perhaps would be closer than a LP than you want, so Rosewood neck or 25.5" scale lenght would help to keep it a little less LP, being Rosewood the one that would affect less and scale the one that would affect more, I guess ^^

hmm. it's funny cuz Goncalo is listed as being warmer than rosewood or mahogany and:

With an articulate, clean, warm tone, Goncalo gets rave reviews for its overall well balanced tone and great looks.

of course i am sold largely on looks, which is irresponsible of me.

 

[Death by Uberschall]

Assuming the body is walnut top and back, all of your wood components are well on the bright side of Warmoth's wood tone charts. So either get a warm wood body (like mahogany) with a walnut laminate to keep your current appearance theme, or at least go rosewood or mahogany for the neck. My Tele is nicely balanced with the chambered mahogany body and maple/ebony neck.

Something else to consider is weight of the neck versus the body. If you change the neck for something heavier you may get neck dive with that body.

 

[Tonar8352]

What about your pots and capacitor?  Those have a huge impact on tone.

 

[dNA]

Something else to consider is weight of the neck versus the body. If you change the neck for something heavier you may get neck dive with that body.

rosewood's heavy as it gets, right? Mahogany would be good except aesthetically I didn't think it'd look as nice as rosewood or goncalo alves.

What about your pots and capacitor?   Those have a huge impact on tone.

It's been noted - and I'm changing them out this week, after I get my pure-nickel strings in the mail. That being said: I think I stated more than once that the guitar sounds too bright acoustically. Fiddling with the electronics in this case is like treating a symptom and not the disease.

 

[Death by Uberschall]

You could put a laminate on the headstock to be what ever you want. As for the back of the neck, it's something to live with.

 

[dNA]

sucks all the exotic necks in the showcase are standard thins. there are a couple all-rosewood tele necks I'dve grabbed by now if any of them were '59 or SRV profiles

 

[pabloman]

I was always under the impression that brass kind of brightened things up. It sounds like you might kind of want to deaden things a bit. I would try some zinc saddles and a bone or tusq nut maybe even a plastic one. It sounds like you have a too much of the characteristics that most people desire in a guitar. I guess you could say too much of a good thing. I would kind of reverse engineer the things that would generally provide a more articulated pick attack and more resonance. That would be the cheapest route and be easily reversable. I know you are concerned with the acoustic qualities of your guitar but ultimately what is comming out of the output jack is what gets amplified. Maybe changing to a more compressed pickup would help your amplified tone.

 

[dNA]

So i got my strings in the mail yesterday and got to string up the tele today.  12-51 Pure Nickel D'Addarios. Talk about a whole nother ball game. Acoustically, the guitar sounds full and even across the whole range of strings. Clear powerful lows, smooth full sounding highs. Sounds good playing leads, sounds good strumming chords. Acoustically, this thing sounds perfect
Electricly, I found the bridge PAF to be great. Reflects the evenness of the guitars tone. I never used clean sounds from a bridge humbucker before, but this has a niche for sure. The neck pup (Roadhouse tele hybrid neck) is very hollow sounding, which might be ok but the pick attack can be very harsh. Like strumming some open chords sounds great unplugged, but plugged in that neck pickup sounds like I'm strumming with the edge of a quarter. Sounds ok until I play heavy handed (which I do a lot, i'm a fairly physical player, particularly when i strum) and then it starts sounding metallic and scratchy.
writing to Ken about the pup to figure out where I want to go next, but I think essentially the strings solved my problem and saved me from buying a new neck within the next year.