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Dingus
Silver Member
USA
472 Posts |
 Posted - 05/23/2006 : 21:25:33
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Hi Guys,
I've been thinking about buying a telecaster for a while now, and I know I either wanna go top of the line with an American Standard or bottom of the barrel with a Squier Affinity. Does anyone have either of these to talk about or compare with. The price range is naturally the thing that makes the difference, I just don't know if I'd play a tele enough since I've got an American Standard Stratocaster, a Gibson Les Paul, an SG, and an Ibanez piece of crap I put new Seymour Duncan Jazz and Invader pickups in, and gave it a Roland Midi Pickup to use as a GuitSynth.
I'm looking for the twang. Anyone know if the Squier will do? Maybe with pickup upgrades? |
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StratoSphere
Double Platinum Member
Canada
2232 Posts |
Posted - 05/24/2006 : 02:25:31
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| sorry dingus, i cant help you with the telecaster, but how is the SD invader?? is it as good as they say? i almost bought one, but decided to play it safe with a SD JB. |
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Dingus
Silver Member
USA
472 Posts |
Posted - 05/24/2006 : 14:57:05
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| The Invader is amazing, very very loud, especially compared to the SD Jazz. If you're looking for an in your face loud kind of sound it's the only way to go. I've actually considered going back and putting another invader in the neck, but that will have to wait for another day. For reference though I am really disappointed by the Seymour Duncan Jazz, it ended up sounding a lot like the stock pickups I took out, not very high output at all. |
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Goran
Double Platinum Member
Sweden
2203 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2006 : 07:10:28
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Squier is a good alternative, cheap and relatively good quality, but go for the Standard not Affinity.
You will win a lot with swapping of the pickups, as all cheaper guitars.
A nice alternative is Fender Highway 1, pickups OK but the guitar will be excellent with high quality pups. This one is wood wise a very good guitar, hardware also very good except maybe the saddles (a little bit tiny).
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bosshog
Silver Member
Canada
493 Posts |
Posted - 05/29/2006 : 16:07:45
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Recently,
I have come to appreciate the Telecaster alot more. I guess it loss its appeal when so many Gibsons and a 'power style' guitar being sought after. But there are many subtle nuances that can create great music. I know Bruce Springsteen, Dylan and Radiohead all adhere to the Tele. There is a great new book as well on its history:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0879308567/104-1001376-8177502?v=glance&n=283155
Check it out.... |
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FRANZONI
Double Platinum Member
Ireland
3543 Posts |
Posted - 06/24/2006 : 15:56:50
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i have a squier silver series tele..red with a lovely maple neck its my 'backup guitar' on most gigs,i changed the pickups on it to seymour duncans a vintage stack in the front and a hot rail for tele with a coil split in the back i find the old jap squiers to be the best for bodies,necks.. but the pickups don't do them justice i picked it up here in dublin a couple of years ago for about 200 punts(about 250 euro now)they are ideal for customizing and if you are on a budget like me i.e kids,house,bills etc you can have a very decent guitar for silly money...ok its not a 52 tele but if its not your 'main' guitar and you haven't won the lottery its not a bad bet... i've had a few people come up to me at gigs and complement me on its sound(as well as a squier strat i have done a job on)i am no electronic expert by any means so if i can manage to use a soldering iron and not burn the house down anyone can...!!..i have heard the older jv series squiers are the mutts nuts but the resale value is going up as well.... |
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Dingus
Silver Member
USA
472 Posts |
Posted - 06/27/2006 : 20:28:58
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So yeah I should mention that last week I went ahead and bought a Made in Mexico Fender Standard Telecaster. It's from 1994, it's red, its beautiful. The neck feels amazing, and the guy I bought it from put a Seymour Duncan Hot Stack pickup in the bridge, which sounds great. Now all I have to do is upgrade the neck pickup to a Seymour Duncan Vintage Rhythm Stack, and I'll be good.
The thing really sounds great, and the guy who had previously owned it also upgraded the tone knob to a push-pull knob for coil splitting.
I dont know if the new MIM teles play this well, but I am rather impressed with this one.
Thanks everyone for your suggestions! |
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digsy
Bronze Member
56 Posts |
Posted - 07/25/2006 : 11:38:57
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hey guys,
need some advice.. juz bought a sqiure Affinity Tele... and there's heaps of static fr the pickups... in fact when i 1st bought the guitar, i already know that i need a pickup upgrade... juz wondering if anyone has any advice on wad pickups to put? cheers... 
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Dingus
Silver Member
USA
472 Posts |
Posted - 07/25/2006 : 15:30:07
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At the moment the only experience I've had with Tele pickup upgrades is the Tele I ended up buying already had a Seymour Duncan Hot Stack in the Bridge of it. I think it sounds pretty good, but ultimately I am replacing it in favor of more traditional tele pickups since I have enough other guitars that can make a humbucking sound.
I've heard lots of things about Shielding (http://www.monteallums.com/Shielding.html) Scroll down a little on that page.
I figure I'm gonna do it for my tele and my strat, because hey it's not that expensive, and I dont think it can hurt.
I'm planning to buy some Noiseless pickups for my MIM Tele and USA Strat because I can't stand the noise/hum that either puts out.
The Vintage Noiseless ones are a pretty good deal, I'm still deciding whether or not I wanna go with the SCN ones or not. I'll have to go to a Guitar Center and try some out before I make a decision. For the Strats they have the Fender Hot Noiseless Pickups, which I would totally do for my Tele if they had that.
Right now I have almost $1000 worth of Pickup Upgrades Planned for my Guitars, I plan on doing one guitar per paycheck so things don't get out of hand and I have more projects to do then I want.
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Dingus
Silver Member
USA
472 Posts |
Posted - 07/25/2006 : 20:22:39
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And in other news I got more GAS, and went ahead and bought the Fender Samarium Cobalt Noiseless Telecaster Pickups, and I'll let you guys know how they turn out.
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FRANZONI
Double Platinum Member
Ireland
3543 Posts |
Posted - 07/30/2006 : 13:13:54
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| as far as i know eric johnson has the same in his new signature strat so your in good company dingus.....!! |
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Dingus
Silver Member
USA
472 Posts |
Posted - 07/31/2006 : 16:16:02
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I installed the new Fender Samarium Cobalt Noiseless Pickups in my Telecaster yesterday. Here's the verdict:
I LOVE'EM!
They are frickin awesome. That awful tele hiss & hum is totally gone, and the tone, my god, the tone, its better than ever.
I did make one mistake somewhere though, because both my knobs are now tone controls. 1 for each pickup. Which isn't bad, and with my Ernie Ball Volume Pedal I dont think it'll bother me what-so-ever. But it might have something to do with the fact that I replaced the selector switch and both pots as well, and used a 250k pot for the regular tone pot and used a 500k for the volume pot. That's the only irregular change I made to the schematic, but oh well. It sounds so good I'm not really concerned at all.
I will most definitely be upgrading my USA Strat with these pickups without a doubt.
If you have a store near you that carries any of the recent Fender USA Deluxe models, I think they are in all of them. Go do yourself a favor and try them out.
The only thing to keep in mind with Samarium Cobalt technology is that it is somewhat heat sensitive.
Bill Lawrence states that they can take up to 350 degrees farhenheit without any damgage, which is more than enough for me, if I'm keeping my guitar in 350 degree and up weather I shouldn't even own a guitar.
Anyway here's some brief Q&A about the SCN pickups from Bill Lawrence:
http://www.billlawrence.com/Pages/SCN.htm
and here's an article by Dan Smith (Fender's R&D Man)
http://www.billlawrence.com/Pages/SCNHistory.htm
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Telecaster
