"Keith Richards" Telecaster Custom

[MurphyMD]

Hello everyone, happy new year.

I have a MIJ '72 Tele Custom reissue that I'm planning to use mostly as an open G guitar. The pickups aren't the greatest, though, and I was wondering what pickups I should try to get a good Keith type of sound. The bridge pu is okay but a bit thin, and the neck humbucker gets pretty muddy. I know I'll have to get a new pickguard if I put a regular sized humbucker in (or a P-90) for that matter. If anyone has any thoughts, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

[Tele72]

I have an MIM '72 Custom and the humbucker sounds much better than the ones in a MIJ '72 thinline I once had. It's brighter and not muddy like the MIJ. You might try ordering one from Fender.

For the bridge, a Fender Texas Tele is a great match. Can be twangy when you want it to be but also has a nice mid-rangy growl to it.

For Keef, I like to have both pickups on, bridge at 10 and neck at 9 - 9.5.

[Teleologist]

The pots that come in the MIJ guitars aren't the greatest and you might want to start there and see if you can get the existing humbucker sounding decent. Then you could match it with a new bridge PUP. Since the Custom has seperate controls for each PUP, you might try a 500K audio taper volume pot for the neck PUP along with a 250K for the bridge.

The original Fender humbuckers had some unusual magnets(Cuniff) that could be threaded and used as adjustable poles. They were designed by Seth Lover to be brighter sounding than a normal PAF. I have no idea how they did the MIJ PUP, but an alternative would be to have it rewound or to find an original(or MIM?) somewhere if rewinding isn't feasible. A good place to ask might be the forum on the Seymour Duncan site - their Custom Shop will rewind almost anything, usually for less than a new PUP.

I have a Duncan SH1 '59 neck bucker and a Vintage Stack bridge PUP in one of my Teles and it does the Keith sounds just fine, especially thru a Boogie amp. It's a fairly bright ash/maple Tele to begin with and I did some tweaking of the pots and tone cap. The dual-PUP position is very sensitive to height adjustment on the neck bucker - a half-turn on the screws either way and the tone changes, so try that too.

[MurphyMD]

Thanks, guys. I spoke to the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop and I think I will just send it to them. Have either of you tried the Fender no-caster pickup? Just saw it on a website and was curious. Thanks again.

[Teleologist]

Mine came with the older 10K version and it got along just fine with the '59. I put the stack in to make it quiet(not my only Tele), otherwise it'd still be in there ;)

[Tele72]

I have heard that the old Nocaster Pup (10k) is the same as the Texas Tele but with flat pole pieces. The Tx Tele gets along great with the bucker so I would think that a 10k Nocaster would as well. Teleologist seems to like it. Not sure about the newer 7.5k Nocaster tho.

[Dale]

I have a nocaster clean (7.3K) in my US fat tele. Good to great match to my ears.

Dale

[MurphyMD]

Thanks guys!

[Grinder]

Is the nocaster PU produced by Fender?

[wideload]

hey murph,
did you see keith and the boys on hbo saturday night live from nyc? pretty good show. what did he play, about four different teles? i know one was a tom anderson.

[MurphyMD]

I missed it! It figures, I had to work. I'll wait for a repeat. As for the Tele, I think I'm going to sell it, as I have one Tele too many! Thanks for the reminder, though; I'll try to figure out when it's on again.

[Guitar Ray]

I think they are going to replay it on Thurs. night. Even though I saw it Saturday I think I'm gonna grab a blank video tape so that I can play it at will.

[jim in texas]

I'm sure that you know this....
Keef uses old gibson PAF humbucks in the tele's.

you might want to look at some of the PAF style replacements that the guys use next door if you really want to split hairs with his sound.

I'm thinking that a whole bunch of cigarettes and orange vodka's will get you closer to his sound than a pup change.