adamg67 Posted September 19, 2018 Share Posted September 19, 2018 As mentioned in this topic, I recently picked up a nice MIM Telecaster with some aftermarket pickups fitted. After trying them out for a while, I decided I wanted something a good bit more “Tele”, so after a look around I decided to try a pair of Fender Custom Shop Texas Specials The idea was that these would take me most of the way to a Tele sound but still satisfy my blues rock leanings. It wasn’t really clear from the internet whether 500k or 250k pots would be best, the “high output” tag and my desire for a tele sound led me to try 500k first. Nope, the tone rolled off much too quickly, and volume was clearly going to work nicely with 250k. No problem, I wired the control plate with chocolate block so I could just unhook it and try again. I was confident enough that 250k would work to ditch the chocolate block, except for the tone cap so I could play with different values. So the controls are: 250k tone pot, 0.047uF orange drop cap 250k volume pot with push / pull for direct out (aka “bright switch”) 4 way selector switch with the 2 pickups in both series and parallel I also shielded all the cavities with copper tape while I was at it. The new stuff with conductive glue makes this so easy. The end result is *exactly* what I was after. Clear and cutting without being over-twangy, lovely and clear for clean work through something like a Fender Champ model. Good for bluesy rocky stuff as well, really good for cutting through the mix. The direct out switch is worth doing with these pickups and 250k pots, it does noticeably bump the brightness. The neck / bridge combos are nice too, the series one gives a nice fat soloing sound. These will definitely be staying in the guitar now. I will try and do some sound clips when I get chance. I’m also hoping to do a back to back test with the standard MIM Tele pickups, if my mate still has his guitar, which is nearly identical but with stock pups. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gary mac Posted October 2, 2018 Share Posted October 2, 2018 Will look forward to hearing the sound clips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamg67 Posted October 3, 2018 Author Share Posted October 3, 2018 (edited) In the interests of getting something up, I did a very quick recording of the pickups late last night. Apologies for the ropey playing, I literally just fired up my DAW, grabbed a drumbeat and started playing, so it's a bit all over the place. It runs through a 12 bar ish thing 6 times with a different setting on the guitar each time, no change to the amp. I've added the times from the clip. In order, they are: 0:00 Bridge pickup, treble on full 0:21 Bridge pickup, bright switch on (direct out) 0:40 Bridge pickup, treble rolled off half way 0:59 Bridge + Neck in parallel, treble on full 1:18 Bridge + Neck in series, treble on full 1:36 Neck only, treble on full The amp sim is Amplitube's Fender '57 Deluxe, just as it came on a preset with some overdrive on it. Edited October 3, 2018 by adamg67 Added times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
