[cboutilier]

I traded my Les Paul for a Tele today. Ive pinned down what I want in guitars, and Les Pauls aren't it.

It's a slightly modded Fender Classic 50s Esquire.

The previous owner added a couple of push pull pots, and changed the pickups. It has a SD Rails in the bridge slot, and a hidden Quarter Pounder under the black guard. I'll have pictures up shortly.

 

[cboutilier]

Heres a teaser picture til I can get some good ones got yall.

http://instagr.am/p/BZ91c4MFCbX%5B%2FMEDIA/

 

[butterknucket]

I don't see anything. We need pics!

 

[johnnyshaka]

Heres a teaser picture til I can get some good ones got yall.

http://instagr.am/p/BZ91c4MFCbX%5B%2FMEDIA/

I don't see anything either... you're a real tease.

 

[cboutilier]

 

[johnnyshaka]

That's mo' better! Love the black and white!

 

[StratCat]

And a reversed control plate, Cool. I never realized how versatile a tele was until I bought a Classic Vibe a year ago. My son favors it over the Strat and LP.

Enjoy that Tele!

 

[Scotty]

Nice, like the white and black too. What does the selector do then, coil split?

 

[mhammer]

Not a criticism, but I would imagine that the bridge dual rails is going to present a much stronger output than the "stealth" neck pickup, if only because it is that much closer to the strings. As such, the hidden neck pickup is not so much a "choice" to be used, as a sort of background texture to vary the sound of the bridge. Or am I woefully underestimating the capabilities of the neck pickup?

BTW, were early Esquires only routed for a single pickup, or did they have two routes for two pickups, only one of which was used? One hears rumours and myths. My wife got me a book dedicated to the Telecaster a couple years ago. I'm going to have to dig it up and take a reading break.

 

[cboutilier]

And a reversed control plate, Cool. I never realized how versatile a tele was until I bought a Classic Vibe a year ago. My son favors it over the Strat and LP.

Enjoy that Tele!

I'm not real fond of the reversed control plate. The tele is a Swiss army knife.

 

[cboutilier]

Not a criticism, but I would imagine that the bridge dual rails is going to present a much stronger output than the "stealth" neck pickup, if only because it is that much closer to the strings. As such, the hidden neck pickup is not so much a "choice" to be used, as a sort of background texture to vary the sound of the bridge. Or am I woefully underestimating the capabilities of the neck pickup?

BTW, were early Esquires only routed for a single pickup, or did they have two routes for two pickups, only one of which was used? One hears rumours and myths. My wife got me a book dedicated to the Telecaster a couple years ago. I'm going to have to dig it up and take a reading break.

The bride is much hotter than the neck pickup for obvious reasons. The neck however is just loud enough to be used for a nice warm jazzy blues tone. You just can't switch back and forth without a big volume switch.

It's not staying this way anyways. It's either going to be a conventional Tele or Esquire setup.

 

[greco]

The bride is much hotter than the neck pickup for obvious reasons.

I would hope so!!!

 

[butterknucket]

Not a criticism, but I would imagine that the bridge dual rails is going to present a much stronger output than the "stealth" neck pickup, if only because it is that much closer to the strings. As such, the hidden neck pickup is not so much a "choice" to be used, as a sort of background texture to vary the sound of the bridge. Or am I woefully underestimating the capabilities of the neck pickup?

BTW, were early Esquires only routed for a single pickup, or did they have two routes for two pickups, only one of which was used? One hears rumours and myths. My wife got me a book dedicated to the Telecaster a couple years ago. I'm going to have to dig it up and take a reading break.

All Esquires had a neck pickup route in case you wanted to add a neck pickup later.

 

[butterknucket]

The bride is much hotter than the neck pickup for obvious reasons. The neck however is just loud enough to be used for a nice warm jazzy blues tone. You just can't switch back and forth without a big volume switch.

It's not staying this way anyways. It's either going to be a conventional Tele or Esquire setup.

You can tap the bridge pickup if you want.

 

[nnieman]

The bride is much hotter than the neck pickup for obvious reasons. The neck however is just loud enough to be used for a nice warm jazzy blues tone. You just can't switch back and forth without a big volume switch.

It's not staying this way anyways. It's either going to be a conventional Tele or Esquire setup.

Does this setup give you a good middle position sound?

I personally like the sound of a neck
Pickup being real low to the body but you might have better results with a pickup that has screw pole pieces.
A p90 or fralin steel pole.

Nathan

 

[nnieman]

Whoops just noticed that you're going to go to standard tele or esquire.

Should have read the whole thing I guess lol

Nathan

 

[cboutilier]

Does this setup give you a good middle position sound?

I personally like the sound of a neck
Pickup being real low to the body but you might have better results with a pickup that has screw pole pieces.
A p90 or fralin steel pole.

Nathan

I haven't had it plugged in since the test drive. The middle position sounded good to my ears, especially with the bridge split. But I wasn't playing through my rig. Hard not to sound good through a Dr. Z

 

[cboutilier]

Well, I pulled the pickups and rewired it tonight. I messed something up along the way, but the one setting that works sounds amazing haha.

I took the two pickups out and loaded it with a single Fender Broadcaster bridge pickup. The setting that currently works is tone control bypass, and the sound is lovely. It's a very spanky upper midrange tone. Think Brad Paisley without his overdrive pedal, or Vince Gill with less high end.

 

[Davidian]

Nice! Love Esquires...and pretty much any other one pickup guitar.

 

[rollingdam]

I bought a parts caster Esquire from a forum member here and the back position is bridge straight to the jack-no tone or volume control
The middle position is the bridge with tone and volume
The front position is the Eldred mod with volume only.