Played a '55 tele this weekend

[jeru]

I played at a block party this past weekend with some friends. The drummer that we played with lives on the block with his wife and kids. A couple of days before he mentions that there was an older guy on the block who collected vintage guitars and amps, and that he might bring out some goodies. I've never really played any vintage stuff except at stores, so I was jazzed.

Sure enough, this guy comes out first with a custom shop relic strat and his original blackface deluxe reverb. We play a couple of tunes, he plays my CIJ custom for one of them. He then says something to the effect of "you like telecasters, do you?"

He then goes inside and comes out with what he represents to me is a '55 tele. It's whitish-blonde (no yellow) almost translucent, white guard, beat up and chipped in all the right ways. SO pretty, SO badass. The neck was HUGE, biggest neck I've ever played. A lot of the finish seemed gone from the back of the neck, really good feel.

He just hands it to me and tells me to have fun. I must have played the thing for an hour, just a really nice guitar.

Here's the thing that struck me about it. The Neck Pickup. I am not much of a neck pickup guy, never have been. Most of 'em sound like they have a blanket over them to me. The neck position on this guitar sounded ALIVE, clear crisp, biting, like no neck pup I have ever heard.


What might they have done to those pickups then that we don't do now? How -- how, my friends, can I get a neck pickup to sound this good?

PICTURES -- I have a few really crappy shots taken by a friend who may have had a couple too many beers, which I will post tonight. For reference, the tele looked like this, except way more beat up.

[Jim Collins]

It may be that the pickup wasn't potted as well (or at all) as they are potted, these days. Those old Teles could be as microphonic as hell. If you don't turn it up loud enough to squeal, you might get a tone such as you are describing.

Personally, I like my Tele pickups to be a bit on the microphonic side. If they aren't, the guitar doesn't sound lively enough, to me.

[Kap'n]

Sounds like a good time. And the description sounds spot-on like a '55.

[Power_13]

He then goes inside and comes out with what he represents to me is a '55 tele. It's whitish-blonde (no yellow) almost translucent, white guard, beat up and chipped in all the right ways. SO pretty, SO badass. The neck was HUGE, biggest neck I've ever played. A lot of the finish seemed gone from the back of the neck, really good feel.

He just hands it to me and tells me to have fun.

I'm not usually a fan of collectors, but this guy sounds awesome.

[JM3]

Cool

[jeru]

It may be that the pickup wasn't potted as well (or at all) as they are potted, these days. Those old Teles could be as microphonic as hell. If you don't turn it up loud enough to squeal, you might get a tone such as you are describing.

Personally, I like my Tele pickups to be a bit on the microphonic side. If they aren't, the guitar doesn't sound lively enough, to me.

OK -- so, out of curiosity, who makes an unpotted or possibly a less than completely potted tele neck pickup? I seem to recall that the duncan seth lover bucker is unpotted, what else is out there?

[jeru]

Pictures of a beautiful '55 tele. Ignore the picker..

[Stonefreefuzz1]

Sounds like a good time ya had, Bet ya didn't want to let he 55 go! Cool pics, Beautiful guitar!

[Jim Collins]

OK -- so, out of curiosity, who makes an unpotted or possibly a less than completely potted tele neck pickup? I seem to recall that the duncan seth lover bucker is unpotted, what else is out there?

Duncan Antiquities are lightly potted. Even if you get something that is fully potted, you can alter it, if you dare. You can take the pickup out of the guitar, and hit it with a hair dryer, for a while. This could turn out to be an annoyingly iterative process -- how long with the hair dryer is enough?

Some of the boutique makers might make something unpotted or lightly potted, for you. Jason Lollar made me a set of unpotted P90 pickups. (Those pickups really woke up that guitar, and are the reason I still have it.) He isn't the only one who will do this, I'm sure.

[refin]

Very cool!
That first pic looks like bigger than stock frets---refretted?

[jeru]

Dunno -- I'll tell you next year when I play that block party again..

[flintpunk]

Hey Jeru, that's a nice looking guitar! Congrats on getting to play it! I feel the same way about neck pickups for the same reason. There are very few that really do it for me. Some exceptions are the JV Tex-Mex's in my strat and Duncan Antiquities in just about anything but the one that REALLY does it right for me is the Twisted Tele in my Baja. Man is that an amazing and versatile pickup. If you haven't played a Baja, you must!

[chuckocaster]

i used to get to play a 59 in the same color as that one, except of course it had a RW board. they are certainly sweet. the particular guitar i played had one of the ballsiest bridge pups i've ever played. it was inbetween a normal tele and a p90. i loved that guitar.

[g6120]

here is my blonde 55

love those teles