Juggling parts amongst my Tele-style guitars....

[Joe Bfstplk]

Just re-did my $99 special HLK Southern Belle experiment-bait guitar, so that the bridge spot would fit a humbucker, so now it's a dual-bucker Tele. I used a couple parts-bin pickups to put it together, but a pair of DiMarzio PAFs are on their way. This freed up the SD Jazz neck pickup for my Fender Tele.

Just ordered this pickguard from Warmoth:

The current neck pickup (Lawrence L202TN) will slide closer to the bridge, and the SD Jazz will take its spot.

It will have a 4P5T Super switch, with the following:

1. Neck
2. Neck + Bridge OOP (1/2 OOP)
3. Neck + Bridge
4. Middle + Bridge
5. Bridge

Will re-use the pull-pot I currently have on the control plate for the tone knob to do series/parallel for the SD Jazz.

Bridge pickup will be a high-output (10% hotter - not ridiculously hot, still uses 250k pot) Fralin Split-Blade Tele....

https://www.fralinpickups.com/product/tele-split-blade/

I also have a set of Fender locking tuners that I found in a drawer, likely left over from when I upgraded my Strat years ago to the Grover Mini Rotomatic locking tuners.

Can't wait for all the parts to arrive....

 

[Joe Bfstplk]

Well, I still have to wait for the Fralin pickup to arrive, but it's together. Won't take much to swap in the new bridge pickup later.

I ended up with a 100nF cap for the 'half out-of-phase' position. Just a bit of low-end trim, so it gets teh nasal going, but still enough to prevent it from losing much output.

All 5 positions sound great, with the neck pickup in parallel mode or series mode.

Can't wait for the Fralin Split-Rail to show up....

 

[Joe Bfstplk]

K, so the Fralin bridge pickup arrived a lot sooner than I thought it would, given the COVID situation putting a drag on things, so I installed it tonight.

Wow. What a difference that one pickup made in the sound of the whole guitar (minus the neck pickup alone sound). It is their "hot" one, that trades a little bit of the traditional Tele snap for a little bit more mids. It still sounds like a Tele, just one with a slightly overwound pickup--not ridiculously hot, just a little beefier in the mids.

I had to adjust the other pickups to balance with it once I got it dialed in, but man was it worth the effort.

The bridge/middle clucks pretty much like a Strat does, even with the slightly different pickups.
The bridge/neck position sounds nice and full, with good bite, with a tad more lows due to the neck pickup being a humbucker, even if it is in parallel mode, and sounds like Keef when the 'bucker is in series mode. I seriously played Brown Sugar and Start Me Up for about a half hour once I got to that spot on the switch.
The bridge/neck-OOP position gets a nice small bit of nasal and a little bit of bass trim as one would expect from a half-OOP switch when the neck pickup is in parallel mode (although that I took out the cap that makes half-OOP a thing, so it's now just OOP), and it gets a bit snarkier and more aggressive sounding when the neck pickup is in series mode.

Really digging the sounds this can get. Eight different sounds are available, and not a bad sound in the bunch....

If you have a Tele, I can wholeheartedly recommend the Fralin Split Rail pickup in the bridge spot.