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Vintage threads from the first ten years

tele bridge PUP in a strat?

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1/24/2005 9:06 AM
aaron	tele bridge PUP in a strat? Not exactly a make-your-own question, but figured you guys'd know best of anyone - Have you ever successfully stuck a tele bridge pickup in the bridge position of a strat? much thanks for comments Aaron

1/24/2005 7:24 PM
bd	I tried it and it sounded great. You have to rout the body very close to the bridge so if it's a tremolo bridge you could very well crack the body. I ended up using a an SK S-90 in the bridge, sounded close to a hot tele pup.

1/25/2005 6:11 AM
Mike Turk	It won't sound like a real tele though. The tele bridge is an important part of the recipe.

1/25/2005 7:01 AM
aaron	heh. I was thinking that. However, If possible I'd like to cut down on the number of guitars I have. Already using the bridge and neck pickup on my strat together sounds more Tele than my actual Tele. The neck pickup is brighter is probably why, but it's way more of a usable twang. was wondering if using the bridge pup would get me the rest of the way there.

1/25/2005 11:39 AM
MKB	You might want to try to find a Jerry Donahue custom shop Strat in a music store and try that out. IIRC it is a Strat with a Tele-like bridge pickup. They also install a ferrous plate under the pickguard to help it sound more like a Tele.

1/25/2005 2:49 PM
Glenn	I think there's more hoodoo associated with that pickup than any other - maybe all others combined, except something I've read about called a Velvet Hammer or something. I did it on a Strat a few years ago and it sounded better than what was in there, but didn't get into the plate, different metal for saddles, etc. Tele people are naturally insane.

1/25/2005 9:08 PM

Dwight Listmayer

To return to the original question, it could be a sort of make-your-own issue. Since we've ascertained that a Tele bridge pickup will barely fit into a Strat if at all, and would sound different anyway, I'll bet there's a few guys here who could wind a Strat bridge pup up to 9K and it would sound pretty hot, and still have nice balance and killer harmonics (like mine). It would be a do-it-yourself "Stelly" tm. But, I'd like to bring back some old 50's terminology, that Strats have a "suspended tone". It comes from their pups being suspended, or hanging in air from plastic pickguards. And I would also like to suggest that you try a Lead II guitar. Underrated and unpopular in 1980, I find that it combines the best of both by sounding like a Strat and a Tele, due to its hardtail. And WOW, it has hot X1 factory pickups! It also has a parallel mode that makes it sound like something else, but I wouldn't want to upset the Les Paul guys. Strat man Dwight

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