Hi everyone, I bought a Fender Tele in the 1970s and at some point put a DiMarzio lead pickup in there and later sold the guitar. Anyway, I still have the stock Tele bridge pickup and just bought a Squier Tele to put it in and see if it picked up any mojo sitting around in a plastic box for around 40 years. Well it did, Albert Lee here I come! (talking tone, I'll never have anything like his chops)
But here's the thing, when I combine it with the stock Squier neck pickup, the volume drops and the tone goes nasally like out of phase. The neck is reverse wound or polarity or whatever makes it go humbuck with the two pickups combined. Could I solve this by swapping the wires on the neck pickup?
Another question, I'm not crazy about the Squier neck as it's kinda dark. What brighter Tele neck pickup do you think would be a good match for my 70s Fender? It's output is a hair over 6K so pretty weak, but full of glassy biting tone.
Any thoughts appreciated!
I need help from a passive pickup expert
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You can reverse the neck pickup wires - that should solve the phase issue.
I have a matched set of Dimarzio True Velvet pickups in my Tele, so, I can't offer any pickup suggestions. The neck pickup has plenty of high end, but, I've not compared it directly with a 60's Fender pickup.
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I actually sorted it with help from a youtube vid. In case anyone in the future encounters this I'll explain how.
On a Tele you can't just swap the leads because the ground wire is connected to the cover on the neck pickup and the bottom plate on the bridge. I wasn't going to touch my old Fender pickup so I converted the neck to a 3-wire pickup by clipping the ground wire from the cover to ground and soldering a wire directly to the cover. Then I could swap the wires coming from the pickup and ground the neck cover separately. -
Sorry about that-I forgot about the soldered metal shield being in common with the ground wire on the tele pick up. I’m glad you got it sorted out