So I love tele bridges, but I hate bridge pickups (I've switched all my guitars to medium output neck humbuckers wired to volume then jack). Some people I'm making instruments for, on the other hand, love bridge pickups...go figure. I'm working on a tele right now and having a hard time finding a bridge pickup that is both reasonably priced and decent sounding (trying to keep overhead low so i can produce these w/o charging an arm and a leg).

I am considering mounting a strat bridge pickup on an aluminum base so that it will mount in the tele bridge w/o modification. Any suggestions on how best to go about this? Am I better off drilling the bridge? any sources for reasonable tele pickups?

Also- just finished the first danelectro-type body, w/ poplar center block and edges, masonite top/back. Bottom half of the back is removable, making it easier to work on. I'll post pics when it's painted/routed.

chris jury wrote:So I love tele bridges, but I hate bridge pickups (I've switched all my guitars to medium output neck humbuckers wired to volume then jack)

you are weird.

I think I just did part of this backwards... I put a tele bridge + pickup on my strat because i thought the strat bridge pickup sounded pretty lame and the tele bridge looked cool.
I guess attaching a chunk of metal to a strat pickup would alter it's sound, but personally I don't like them as they are.

If you're dead set against using a tele pickup, you can get tele bridges routed for humbuckers. As for manufacturers, here in the UK Kent Armstrong pickups are quite a bit cheaper than others. I've never used them myself but they're meant to be pretty good. Not sure if that helps at all!
Matt

I am sure that I am weird. But i don't see what's weird about any of this.

Tele bridges are super sturdy, and stand up to abuse way better than hardtail strat-sort of things, and don't cut up my hand like tune-o-matic's do.

I like having all the treble, but SC bridge pickups add a lot of hum/noise and have a certain shrillness. The humbucker at the neck is a little more controlable for me, and by eliminating the pot/cap of a tone control, I get the treble and attack that that bridge pickup would have had.

chris jury wrote:I am considering mounting a strat bridge pickup on an aluminum base so that it will mount in the tele bridge w/o modification. Any suggestions on how best to go about this? Am I better off drilling the bridge? any sources for reasonable tele pickups?

some people say that a lot of the tele bridge pickup's tone comes from that metal baseplate. you could make one up out of plastic pretty easily if you wanted to conserve the strat pickup's tone. it'd be a hell of a lot easier than drilling a tele bridge: i certainly wouldn't fancy doing that without a drill press.

the higher-end gfs tele pickups are great in my opinion, and cheap. you may need to wax pot the ones with the brass baseplates. i have one in a guitar with a humbucker at the neck and they work really well together. no shrillness. it's a low-output humbucker so if anything the bridge sounds fuller.

HCT wrote:some people say that a lot of the tele bridge pickup's tone comes from that metal baseplate.

I say that is false. Fender ditched the baseplate on most of it's models long ago. MIM doesn't use it, neither do the Am Standards. Somehow people still make them sound like Teles.

i think the guitars you mentioned do sound slightly different... possibly it's just the difference in bridges - but a 3-saddle bridge with a metal baseplated pickup sounds different to me than a 6-saddle with no baseplate.

but then i'm not sure how much effect it has. i think i remember reading that the pickup sounds more "focused"... i'd be inclined to say that the width of the coils, the mounting method and the different angle of the pickup are what differentiates it from a strat pickup.

chris jury wrote: I'm working on a tele right now and having a hard time finding a bridge pickup that is both reasonably priced and decent sounding (trying to keep overhead low so i can produce these w/o charging an arm and a leg).

You are making this guitar to eventually sell?