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sal paradise wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 01, 2021 2:04 am

Any pros/cons of going for a PAF when I rebuild?

It's mostly just a matter of getting something low output enough and bright enough to balance well with the bridge pickup. Ideally you want a slightly hotter, maybe Broadcaster-y kinda bridge pickup, with a low-wind PAF or something more Gretsch-y in the neck.

As far as pro-con it's really just whether you're gonna like the sound -- I had an old LTD TE-202 (IIRC that's the model number, but they changed it a few years back) that had a bridge single and neck humbucker, and aside from the usual issues of a cheaper guitar, I really dug the sounds I got out of it. That was a hotter single with a bit more midrange paired with a lower-output, brighter humbucker (that was also set pretty low from the factory, actually, which helped a lot).

Humbucker sized P-90 might be a nice idea.

sal paradise wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 01, 2021 2:04 am

Started stripping the Tele for a refin. Apart from the fact that I’ve mislaid my soldering iron, just realised it’s routed for a neck humbucker.

I’m definitely more of a Gibson neck pickup fan & it’s the bridge sound that I covet for this tele. Any pros/cons of going for a PAF when I rebuild?

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/512 ... 839b_k.jpg

Pros: yes.
Cons: none.

Conclusion: do it.

Gordon wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 01, 2021 10:32 pm

sal paradise wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 01, 2021 2:04 am

Started stripping the Tele for a refin. Apart from the fact that I’ve mislaid my soldering iron, just realised it’s routed for a neck humbucker.

I’m definitely more of a Gibson neck pickup fan & it’s the bridge sound that I covet for this tele. Any pros/cons of going for a PAF when I rebuild?

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/512 ... 839b_k.jpg

Pros: yes.
Cons: none.

Conclusion: do it.

+1

Personally, I don't care for Tele neck pickups, they seem to lack character. I much prefer the P90 I replaced mine with. Just be aware of possible output differences between the two pickups. The neck pickup will probably sound better with 500k pots, and the bridge with 250k pots, but that can be accommodated.

Do it! I have “Macawber” set from Sunday Handwound Pickups in my JM and love it. It’s a Braodcaster style bridge pickup and a vintage output PAF in the neck. I mostly live in the middle position in this setup, but either one soloed sounds great.

This has me excited. The bridge pickup is pretty hot/aggressive, so I guess I’ll start looking at low output humbuckers & work from there.

Sauerkraut wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 02, 2021 3:14 am

The neck pickup will probably sound better with 500k pots, and the bridge with 250k pots, but that can be accommodated.

Thanks, that could be a game changer

I'll be the dissenting voice on this one. I tried the neck humbucker thing with a hot tele bridge pickup and it did nothing for me. Even with the neck being hooked up to a 500k pot and knocking down the load to 250k on the bridge pickup the neck was still a muddy, muffled mess.

I'm a big fan of "twisted tele" style neck pickups. Gives that straty chime to the tone.

I can’t recommend a humbucker in the neck either, as I haven’t tried it. But a P90 + Tele bridge go great together imo.

I’ve tried Sanding & heating the poly on my Tele & getting nowhere with both. With the Pine body, heat gun & putty knife is denting & chipping the wood like crazy.

Considering I’m just not a DIY/craft person, might be time for plan B: buy a new body. Blank or finished.

But the sound of the guitar is really important to me. It’s got so much attack for a Tele. I’m sure 90% of that is the pickup & the bridge. How much difference will a new body make? Say Alder instead of this Pine, and I guess a different weight.

Why are you trying to remove the poly? Could you not just finish over the top of it?

I tried sanding it off- seemed to have little impact with a rough grain & looked like I’d go through a lot of paper.

No patience for this stuff when I’m not as a good as I want to be. Raging anxieties.

Is there a reason you want to remove it though? The only reason I can think of is if you wanted to refinish in a natural finish (which I'm guessing you don't). Otherwise, you can just key the poly then paint on top of it. The poly will provide a good, flat surface to take paint.

Oh, I thought it needed to sand it back quite a bit first. Either way, now I’ve got a mess that probably needs to be properly stripped & tidied before a refinish

Good news! I forgot I had a ryobi sander. Managed to tidy up my mess & get the rest of the body sanded enough to paint over.

Bad news is that first coat was a disaster- trying to spray outside in the wind. Sanded it back at the worst bits & it’s sort of okay. Will give it a light sand after the colour coats & try to remove any remaining blemishes before clear coat.

I’ll be happy with a pretty amateur finish. But I have promised myself I’ll give the appropriate care to buff & polish after the finish has hardened in a few weeks. Quite excited seeing the new colour. I really hated the old finish.

Lost my patience with this so many times. Anyways, this is what I’m accepting as the colour coat. I’ll put 5-6 clear coats on tomorrow. As an impatient, non-diy type of person I’ll be happy even with an amateur finish. And this colour is so much nicer than the fake wood of the original finish.