Advice on uprgading my MIM tele?

[Ezzo]

Hey everyone. I was fortunate enough to receive a very cool 1992 Mexican Telecaster for christmas this year. My main guitar is a very dark sounding SG standard so this is real change for me. Right off that bat I knew I was going to swap out the pickups, the bridge seems really shrill and and the neck is quite muddy. I think I'm going to put in some Duncan's (unless I get hipped to some other cool tele pups). Probably going to replace the nut too.
I also want to replace the bridge, now this something I know practically nothing about. I've been doing a little preliminary research and it seems a lot of people like the wilkinsen replacement bridge. But I was hoping someone could tell me what the tonal difference there is (if any) between the three saddle style "vintage" bridges and the six saddle style? Also, does having brass saddles make a noticable difference? I should probably state that I am looking to take the twang factor down a little on this guitar. I know that twang is the tele specialty but it just doesn't suit the kind of music I play. Not looking to loose the twang, just tone it down a bit.

Thanks

[Conisewer]

IMO, you should change the pups, tuners (if your having tuning issues, which I've had issues with), and get a pro set up.

Is there anything particularly wrong with the bridge? If there is, you should probably go with a modern tele bridge: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,..._for_Tele.html

It allows for individual string intonation, if the intonation is what was bugging you with the stock bridge.

I think that if you want that twang, you should research what kinds of tele pups suit that style. I'm not really a huge tele guy, so you might wanna do some googling to figure out how to get that twang.

Best of luck

Conisewer

[wilblee]

PM sent.

[Ezzo]

PM replied!

Conisewer: I'm not having "problems" with pickups per se they just don't sound as great as I know aftermarket pickups can. I lowered the bridge pickup quite a bit and that has taken a bit of the harshness out of it.
I think changing the tuners would also be a good idea as this guitar seems to slip out of tune pretty easily. Would changing the nut help the tuning at all? I have a graphite nut on my SG and it stays in tune really well. It was installed before I got it so I was never quite sure exactly what it's purpose was. I figured it was either to prevent string breakage or improve its tuning.

As for the bridge, It just seems a little cheap to me. I was reading up on them on some Tele forums and some people seem to say having a thicker back plate on the bridge can thicken up your tone. Also a lot of people seem to be of the opinion that brass saddles are superior although I haven't been able to ascertain exactly how.

The intonation on this guitar is pretty good, not great, but passable. Again, back the other tele threads I've read, it seems that a lot of people prefer the three saddle rollers. I'm not sure if this actually improves tone and intonation or if they are just for vintage purists (they do look cool).

One last question I had regarding the bridge. Is there any significant tonal change provided by those old, ashtray style bridge covers? I could see it mellowing out the tone on the bridge pickup a bit. Also, I think they look very cool and as a smoker, it could have some other inherent benefits

[swem]

I was going to sell my mim tele recently but decided i was just gonna mod it. Picked up a fralin blues special neck pup on the emporium for a good price and i LOVE it, gets me in the stratty neck tone arena but is still a bit different somehow. Of the two stock pups I think the neck was the weak link, that said im still going to replace the bridge pup but im unsure what im gonna go with. The other electronics seem to be fine but might change them still at some point, the nut is deff getting changed, but thats about it. I think mim teles can be great instruments with a couple upgrades and a decent setup enjoy your guitar!

[Boris Bubbanov]

Originally Posted by Ezzo

a very cool 1992 Mexican Telecaster

Ezzo, the bridge you have is a 3 hole toploader bridge. Congrats!

It is not compatible in any way with the Gotoh bridge referred to above, which is 4 mount hole, through strung bridge. Drilling holes in a '92 is IMO not recommended no matter which bridge assembly is involved.

The advantage of the Wilky/Sung Il 4 screw bridge you've mentioned is, it is designed to be used as a toploader or through strung, and so you just align and drill 4 new holes and mount the new bridge in such a way to give yourself proper intonation. See Jim Campilongo. Make sure the bridge is far enough away from the neck, that the A and especially the low E string end windings do not come up or over the saddle break point. Push the bridge/pickup assemblage back as far in the rout as it will go and still permit height adjustment of a base plated Tele bridge pup.

[Ezzo]

Swem, I completely forgot about Fralin pickups. I checked them out a while ago when I was researching different strat pickup options. I seem to remember people raving about them. It's funny you describe the tone as similar to the tone of strat's neck pickup becsause that's the sound I was aiming for in the neck. I'm definitly going to check his his website again.

Boris, thanks for the clarification. I don't think I'm going to be doing any drilling any time soon. I was hoping to find a bridge that I could just swap in without having to any serious tooling. I'm pretty green when it comes to guitar mods. Basically, if I can't do it with a screw driver I take it to someone who knows what they're doing.
I've been looking around and it looks like there are 3 hole top loaders with the 3 saddle configuration available. You wouldn't happen to know if there is any significant difference between the 3 and 6 saddle configuration?

[Conisewer]

Yeah Boris is right. The 4 hole won't work. I think that switching the tuners to lockers (I prefer Sperzel) would fix any tuning issues. If you still have issues, then you could put some "Nut Sauce" on the nut when you restring. Cheaper than changing the whole thing, and it works wonders.

http://www.amazon.com/Big-Bends-Sauc.../dp/B000T4HWBM

Oh, and +1 on the Fralin pickups. Great option.

[Dale]

My thoughts. Set-up first. If not staying in tune then try new tuners. Pickups: Translational Tele tone- SD Antiquities, Fender Boadcasters. More modern Tele sound: SD 5-2's.

[Ezzo]

Yeah, I definitely going to get it set up soon. I was thinking of going for Fralins for the pups or maybe SD STL-1 and STR-1. As for the bridge, something about the way the springs are holding the saddle feels a little janky to me. They work fine but I feel like an upgraded bridge would be fun to try. I'm really into trying different parts to personlize my tone. I keep reading that a bridge with thicker/heavier backplate makes a noticable difference in the tone. This guitar has a maple fret board so its pretty bright sounding, I'd really like to thicken it up a bit.

[David Vee]

Originally Posted by Ezzo

Yeah, I definitely going to get it set up soon. I was thinking of going for Fralins for the pups or maybe SD STL-1 and STR-1. As for the bridge, something about the way the springs are holding the saddle feels a little janky to me. They work fine but I feel like an upgraded bridge would be fun to try. I'm really into trying different parts to personlize my tone. I keep reading that a bridge with thicker/heavier backplate makes a noticable difference in the tone. This guitar has a maple fret board so its pretty bright sounding, I'd really like to thicken it up a bit.

I'm in agreement with your assessment that it can be a very bright guitar (part of its charm, actually). That said, what amp/speakers are you running it into? I'm thinking of Clapton's trick of zeroing the tone controls on a guitar and brightening the amp's tone might work in reverse for you... darken the amp's tone a bit to see if that helps before dropping coin on new pups, et al. (Not sure if you already tried that... but I've talked to many folks that forget to tweak their amp to a different guitar's characteristics).

Since stock Fender pups are hit or miss (although I accidently found the most amazing sounding stock MIM tele last year after trying many on the shelf), Fralins would get my vote for aftermarket pup upgrades (and that because I'm just not the biggest fan of Duncans. Of course, your mileage may vary.)

Hope this helps you!

[Ezzo]

Thanks David, I was kind of intending this tele to be my "at home" guitar which I'm running into my new Vox AC4TV. It sounds really good, although that amp doesn't offer a lot in the tone shaping options. I find backing off the guitar's volume a little bit and rolling the tone back a bit gets me closer to the sound I want with the neck pickup. The bridge always seems thin and brittle no matter how I tweak (unless I back everything way off, then its too weak). I also tried it through my live rig which is an Orange Rockerverb 50 into to two Orange 2x12's. It sounded ok through the orange but unless I backed the volume down to about half it howled with feedback when I wasn't strumming. Also when I tried to play at half volume on the tele I was drowned out by the other guitar player's LP/JCM 800 rig. I know that tele isn't an ideal choice for a high-gain set up BUT when I was playing at full volume on the guitar (between blasts of feedback) it sounded pretty cool.

[smolder]

pickups (I put lollar vintage t's in), a callaham bridge, four position switch and a set up with a fret dressing. decals are optional.

[Ezzo]

Nice Tele Smolder! Funny thing, mine looks identical to your's. Cream with white pickgaurd and maple neck. I checked out the lollar web page, it looks like they have some cool options, how would you describe the sound of the vintage T's? Is there any advantage to having brass saddles? And finally, what does a four position switch do on Tele? I mean as far as I can tell you have neck/bridge/and out of phase. What else is there?

[smolder]

Brass on the bridge is suppose to be a slightly brighter tone... But I can't verify that. This is the only tele I've owned... They came with the bridge. Vintage T's are a bit old school... They get thicker rather than twangy... But not overwound. Lastly, the forth position is both pickups, but in parallel instead of series. A Gibson guy's selection. Neck, bridge, both series, both parallel.