Telecaster neck pup

casper leblanc

I have a 93 Telecaster that I love. One strange thing about it is that it has a single coil pup that alsmost sounds as warm as a humbucker. It kinda misses the bright tele neck sound, especially with hard picking. Most of the time I'm very happy with the warmer tone, cause it's different and warm (duh), but sometimes I just miss that typical Tele tone.

And there's a question: is this a normal tele pup (I think it's still the original, but I'm not sure, bought the guitar used), and what could be the cause of the warmer sound? And if I were to put in another pup, what would you suggest?

exhausted

generally, the tele neck pickup is supposed to be quite warm with most of the bite coming from the bridge pickup.

at the same time, warm doesn't mean dull so it should still have some life to it.

if replacing it, i would tend towards something a little more strat like for the neck.

http://www.riograndepickups.com/3.html#VintTallNeck

there are a few others. including one company making a strat neck pickup the size to fit a tele neck position. can't remember the name off hand.

armanHammer

I played a 52 RI tele in the store, and I couldn't believe how horrible the neck pickup sounded. No treble or presence, hardly any midrange. All this lame bassy sound. No wonder Keith Richards put a Gibson Humbucker in his tele neck position.

exhausted

the neck in that switch position is supposed to sound like that on the 52.

it's vintage wiring. you get bridge, neck with volume and tone and neck with full tone roll off, which is what you heard. there was nothing wrong with the guitar.

3-Position Blade:
Position 1. Bridge Pickup
Position 2. Neck Pickup with Tone Control (Bright Vintage Circuit)
Position 3. Neck Pickup with No Tone Control (Dark Vintage Circuit)

casper leblanc

Mine has the 4-way switch. Turns up the heat and bridge and neck together do sound on fire when they're in series.

Pacomc79

check out the tele pups at http://www.harmonicdesign.net