# Nashville Tele vs Strat ?



## ajcoholic (Feb 5, 2006)

I am mainly a Tele guy (when it comes to single coil guitars) but I really like playing my Strat, especially in the 2nd and middle position.

I am going to install a Strat middle pickup (a Suhr model I just got today) into my Tele, and replace the 3 way switch with a 5 way.

I hope I will be able to cop a Strat-like quack in the 2nd position, and a fat, warm middle strat tone out of the middle position.

Am I going to like it?? WIll mean bringing just the Tele to a gig instead of both - ie, easier.

AJC


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

i think itll work nicely- 
only real difference would be the bridge design and the bridge pickup.
ill bet if you can balance the bridge pup with the middle youll get nice strat quack.
ive put tele pups in strats before, they seem a bit sharper and brighter, usually a bit hotter, so id think that lowering it and experimenting with the 2 pups youll find a good middle ground. in theory, besides the bridge pup, its not much different from a hardtail strat-
maybe ill try this with my tele as well.:smile:


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## bcmatt (Aug 25, 2007)

fraser said:


> ive put tele pups in strats before, they seem a bit sharper and brighter, usually a bit hotter, so id think that lowering it and experimenting with the 2 pups youll find a good middle ground.


Heeeeey!
I just played a friend's Tele and was thinking how I'd like that bridge pickup, but don't need another Fender when I already got my EJ strat.

So, can you fit a Tele BRidge pickup somehow into a strat Pickguard?
I'm going to go take a closer look now....


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

bcmatt said:


> Heeeeey!
> I just played a friend's Tele and was thinking how I'd like that bridge pickup, but don't need another Fender when I already got my EJ strat.
> 
> So, can you fit a Tele BRidge pickup somehow into a strat Pickguard?
> I'm going to go take a closer look now....


hey bcmatt-
to make it work i needed to enlarge the strat bridge pickup hole, and drill new ones for mounting.
another problem may be in the body routing- the ones i did were routed for humbuckers so there was room for the baseplate. 
looking at a regular s/s/s strat routed body, and trying to place a tele pup(looking at a late 60s vintage one), it doesnt fit. a little work with a dremel tho.........
however, theres a lot of body routings, and a lot of tele pickups out there-
my experiences are limited to things i actually have on hand.


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## ajcoholic (Feb 5, 2006)

OK, I drove home from Toronto today (all 7 hrs in one shot) and got home with some time to spare... so I grabbed my Tele, went down to the shop and in 1 hour I managed to install the Strat middle pickup, rewire with a 5 way switch and get some new strings on it.

After dinner, plugged it into my amp and (well, after swapping the new pickup's leads as it was out of phase) it sounds GREAT!

YES - 2nd position gives a GREAT Stratty quack tone. Lovely!

Middle position - strat pup alone - sounds a little cleaner/brighter than the bridge/neck used to but warm. Maybe just a little less dull. Also a great tone.

#4 sounds better than on my strat! Quacky but warm and clear - just nice.

So, I think the mix of standard Tele pickups with an added middle strat pup is a great combo. Why dont we see this more?? I did see a lot of them down in Nashville last summer... maybe thats where they got the name?

Anyhow, I like it. Easy mod (relatively speaking, for me anyhow). Try it!

AJC


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## ajcoholic (Feb 5, 2006)

No love for the 3 pickup Tele??

Man I am telling you its a whole new instrument!

AJC


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Only shortcoming is that you can't get the classic N+B sound from the Tele using a conventional 5-way switch. For me, that's a dealbreaker. I found a way around it, though. Just flip the hot wires from the middle and bridge pickups on the switch. That will give you:
1 - N
2 - N+B
3 - B
4 - B+M
5 - M

Alternatively, swap the hot leads for the neck and middle pickups to get:
1 - M
2 - M+N
3 - N
4 - N+B
5 - B

Basically, you get to keep the N+B by forfeiting one of the Strat cluck settings. Your choice.


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## ajcoholic (Feb 5, 2006)

but the middle strat pickup sounds great on its own.. 

I play my tele (well used to) mainly on the bridge or neck, not as much middle. So for me its a win win situation.

I guess one of those mega switches could also offer more wiring options if you were so inclined.

The main thing I am impressed with is how "straty" 2 and 4 sound... and that I can have it with just one guitar at a gig instead of two.

AJC


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

i definately would do this too, and just may at that-
i use only the 2 3 and 4 positions on a strat, but sometimes want some tele bridge pup tone- this would be the perfect combo-
but i dont gig, and ive got a bunch of strats and teles, so whatever sound i want is there, somewhere.
otherwise i woulda done it ages ago.
if i do it, ill try it on my mim tele- maybe cut some strat contours and refinish it while im at it:smile:


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## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

I think the Nashville Tele makes a lot more sense with a Strat neck and middle pickup. That Strat neck pickup is a classic and I can see it being a lot more useful, and versatile, than a regular Tele neck pickup.

I've never had the nerve to do it (because it involves removing wood) but I'd love to try a Strat neck pickup in a Tele - same as the Jerry Donahue Tele.


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## Hypno Toad (Aug 1, 2009)

Argh, I dislike the middle pickup a lot.

No offense to you, but to me it sounds like it's got both the unfavorable aspects of both the neck and bridge pickups.

It's got the nasal tone of the bridge, and the bass of the neck. I find the tone to be nasally and bassy at the same time


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## ajcoholic (Feb 5, 2006)

I am a Tele guy. I LOVE the tele bridge pickup tone. It can do IMO any kind of music.

But I love the Strat "quack". And now I get thebest of both worlds.

I really think choice of pickups, and in the right guitar makes the instrument. I have excellent quality/sounding pickups (BG Custom tele set - low output, Suhr strat pickup) in a killer guitar (my chambered ash body tele)

There IS no "bad tone" you can get out of it, seriously. Its all good!:smile:

AJC


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

ajcoholic said:


> I am a Tele guy. I LOVE the tele bridge pickup tone. It can do IMO any kind of music.
> 
> But I love the Strat "quack". And now I get thebest of both worlds.
> 
> ...


Send 'er down, I'll see if she really can't sound bad


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## Scottone (Feb 10, 2006)

ajcoholic said:


> I am a Tele guy. I LOVE the tele bridge pickup tone. It can do IMO any kind of music.
> 
> But I love the Strat "quack". And now I get thebest of both worlds.
> 
> ...


I have a similar setup in my Tele and really like having the "in between" Strat tone on tap.  Like you though, I love the bridge pickup sound and use it 90% of the time Here is a pic of my setup...


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## Tycho (Jan 3, 2007)

ajcoholic said:


> So, I think the mix of standard Tele pickups with an added middle strat pup is a great combo. Why dont we see this more?? I did see a lot of them down in Nashville last summer... maybe thats where they got the name?
> 
> 
> AJC


Yeah, I read that it was a common mod in Nashville, hence the name.

I've had the Mexican Nashville Tele and now I have the American Nashville with B-bender, or whatever it's called. I loved the Mexican Tele, but it had to go when I got the B-Bender, since I didn't have room for two Nashville Teles. Both of them have the five-way switch, but the Mexican gives you the Strat pup in position 3, while the American gives you the neck and bridge together in position 3 for the classic Tele two-pickup tone. The middle pup is used only for positions 2 and 4, never on its own. It's kind of odd, but it works.


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## six-string (Oct 7, 2009)

below is the Fender Plus custom shop version.
it is a great Tele with a very wide palette of sounds available. Lace Sensor pick-ups, a toggle for in or out of phase wiring, and a very comfy cutaway in the back.
this was definitely one of my favorite Telecasters.
but last year i sold it to a well-known musician who needed it more than i do.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

bagpipe said:


> I think the Nashville Tele makes a lot more sense with a Strat neck and middle pickup. That Strat neck pickup is a classic and I can see it being a lot more useful, and versatile, than a regular Tele neck pickup.
> 
> I've never had the nerve to do it (because it involves removing wood) but I'd love to try a Strat neck pickup in a Tele - same as the Jerry Donahue Tele.


The thing is, Derek, that the polepiece spacing in the Tele neck pickup is narrower than that of Strat. Not hugely so, but there is a 1/16-3/32" difference from the outside of one E polepiece to the outside of the other. Opinions vary as to whether that buggers up the tonal balance of the neck pickup if one were to install a Strat pickup in the same spot (with a wee bit of machining to accommodate the extra length). Opinions also vary as to whether that slightly wider spacing has any impact on volume stability when bending.

For myself, I scored a set of Tele flatwork from Stewart-McDonald and wound my own no-cover neck PU with #42 wire. Works fine, and I don't worry myself about polepiece alignment.

Actually, now that you bring it up, I don't think I've ever seen a coverless Tele neck pickup with the Tele polepiece spacing, but staggered polepieces as on a Strat.

Finally, I suspect that the "original" Nashville Tele is the product of Nashville-based modder-to-the-stars Joe Glaser. Insomuch as the "standard" guitar for Nashville players is going to be a Tele, plunking a 3rd pickup on one makes it possible for any Nashville-based session player to bring one axe to a session and do most of what they need. Here's what session-ace Brent Mason plays: http://img26.picoodle.com/img/img26/5/12/30/juliebugg/f_BrentMasonCm_5612a5f.jpg


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

I didn't know there was any such thing as a "Nashville" Tele. Isn't a tele a tele?


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## six-string (Oct 7, 2009)

FlipFlopFly said:


> I didn't know there was any such thing as a "Nashville" Tele. Isn't a tele a tele?


actually the one i posted is called by Fender the Nashville telecaster custom plus or some such title. for the reasons explained previously. a lot of Nashville (translation: country music) players modified their standard telecasters to include three pickup configurations similar to, but different from the Stratocaster. Fender picked up on this trend and started building guitars that included the popular modifications.


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## ajcoholic (Feb 5, 2006)

FlipFlopFly said:


> I didn't know there was any such thing as a "Nashville" Tele. Isn't a tele a tele?


There are lots of different Tele's...

sc/sc
HB/sc
HB/HB
mini HB/sc
sc/mini HB
Mini HB/sc/sc
TVjones/sc
TV/TV
P90/sc
P90/P90

And more!

AJC


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

ajcoholic said:


> There are lots of different Tele's...
> 
> sc/sc
> HB/sc
> ...


More like the Tele shape is the platform for all those pu's . don't ya think


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## Big White Tele (Feb 10, 2007)

*heres one of mine, and by the way, It will kick your guitars butt.*


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## guitarman2 (Aug 25, 2006)

I've owned many strats and modded many teles with a middle pup. When I sold off the last strat I owned about six months ago (62 hotrod reissue) I finally after close to 30 years have to admit I am just not a strat guy at all. I like the tone of a strat but playing them for me has always been awkward. The knobs are too close to the right hand and get in the way, the middle pickup is in the way of picking. and no matter what strat I've had, (and to me the 62 hotrod was the best I ever played) the bridge pup could never come close to the sweetness of a Tele bridge pup. I've put middle pups in teles but then they always seem to be in the way and clutter things up. It was nice to have that strat like tone on a tele. I say strat like because I've never gotten one to be anything more than fairly similar. 
But in the end I love the simplicity of a Telecaster.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I've been curious about playing one of the Jerry Donahue Telecasters. It has two pickups but a 5-way switch. One of the positions is a variant of a neck+bridge combination that puts the two pickups out of phase but sticks a capacitor in series with the neck pickup. 

"But I don't like out-of-phase sounds", you say. Note that cancellation is always a function of the overlap in signal between two pickups. The more overlap, the more nasal the tone and the bigger the volume drop. In this istance, the cap in series with the neck pickup chops out the bass from it, such that the only cancellations are taking place in the upper mids and highs. I haven't tried it, but supposedly it sounds strikingly like a bridge+middle setting on a Strat, but without having to install a 3rd pickup. Might be worth considering for a Tele that is not yet ready to commit to a Nashville address.

You can find the wiring diagram here: http://www.geocities.jp/dgb_studio/faq_e.htm

Scroll down to Q24 for the specifics.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

shoretyus said:


> More like the Tele shape is the platform for all those pu's . don't ya think


That's the way I look at it. It's like any other guitar, whether it be a Les Paul style, hollow body, tele, strat, etc. They are what they are with different parts on them. Some people and companies just want theirs to be special.


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