Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

I am kinda new to telecasters.
Do people ever remove the cover from the neck pickups, the way les paul players do?
If so, how would this affect the sound?

Would not recommend --- Single coils are notorious in picking up ambient signals (i.e. Neon lights etc) --- which translates into noise or buzz --- taking covers off of pick-ups for the most part increases potential for unwanted noise.

Hope this helps ----

okay, thanks! I was wondering if I should even try it. Maybe I'll get one of those 70s style teles with the humbuckers in them. I heard those play with a really fat sound with the great look of the telecaster. I think they have the single f-hole on them too. very cool.

I am also a telecaster guy. I recently upgraded my pickups with seymour duncan custom pickups, love the rich tone and better quality sustain and sound.

I have Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders pickups in my Tele. The sound very strong through my Marshall. Very pleased.

If you're worried about ambient noise, look into a noiseless pickup. I would HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend Kinman's. I was super skeptical myself when I bought them, but I am extremely satisfied with the noise reduction and sound quality. And if you’re looking for that humbucking sound, Kinman's are double wound, as if it were a humbucker but stacked on top of each other rather than side to side.

Still, if you’ve already bought a Tele, don’t buy another one just for humbucking pups, you can swap out electronics…

[quote="glezzery"]Putting humbuckers on a Tele is SACRILEGE! What you end up with is not a Tele! You take a perfect unique tone and KILL IT! .....I built an awesome Bubinga tele w/gold everything and installed Kent Armstrong hot lead, a P-90 rhythm, and strat in the middle, keeping tele lead and getting funky P-90 rhythm and strat tones in one axe. That tele is AWESOME![/quote]
If modifying a Tele is sacrilege, isn't building and customizing one kinda like the same thing? At least don't call it a Tele . . .

These babies are sweet I have installed Bass, Strat, and Tele pickups from these guys...WOW !

Your bridge pickup is probably potted with wax, and taking the cover off will make it very noisy.....better off leaving it alone, or replacing it with a hotter Tele pickup. I would definitely put a humbucker in the middle position though...Teles sound great in that position, and you still keep your Tele sound in the lead position. Many pros do that.

I definately would not take off the cover. Tele-'s are great, they are thee 1st, guitar designed strung through the body, no floating tailpiece, which is the no1 reason they sustain, like no other