Telecaster with Hot Broadcaster Pickups

AngryGoldfish

I really miss the sound of the bridge pickup in a Japanese '72 Deluxe Tele I owned a few years back. The guitar wasn't anything special, but the bridge pickup was this Broadcaster-style single coil (supposedly) wound by the chap who wound Brian May's pickups, and it was so fat and punchy sounding. It was awesome for aggressive drop tuned riffage. Can anyone give any thoughts on Telecaster-style guitars with hot single coil pickups in them?

I have a few that I'm looking at. Has anyone experience with them or opinions? They're all around the £500-1000 price range, give or take. The last two are custom guitars from the States and will be a huge expense to import. I don't want vintage specs. Ideally I'd like belly/forearm contours, but they're not essential. Thin necks, flatter fretboard radii (9.5" or above). I don't mind a humbucker in the neck or a P90 as long as it has a bridge Broadcaster. The body shape doesn't even have to be a Tele. 

Chapman ML3 Pro Traditional
Gordon Smith Classic T
Fender American Special Tele
Fender Player Series Tele (the new Mexican yokes)
Reverend Buckshot
Reverend Eastsider T
G&L ASAT Classic/Special 
Godin Stadium '59
Fret King
Balaguer Thickett
Titan by Kauer KR1

I've also chatted to a lovely dude who makes Ruby Guitars in the UK. He makes these cool little guitars using slab bodies, stained finishes, custom pickups, built in the UK by a young and seemingly passionate chap, all for around £1000-1200. 

chris78

A post 2012 American standard would seem to have everything you want

flying_pie

A Fender Baja Tele also has a Broadcaster pickup. 

They are cheap upgrades to any decent Tele - around £50-60 including offerings from UK hand wind pickup makers. I wouldn't just look for one with a Broadcaster fitted. 

thermionic

The Custom Shop Broadcaster pickups had a very hot bridge pickup at one point - 10k or so as opposed to the 7k that they are usually. I'd guess these sound quite different to the usual ones.

meltedbuzzbox

Mojo pickups broadcaster

Or a Seymour Duncan's broadcaster

OilCityPickups

thermionic said:

The Custom Shop Broadcaster pickups had a very hot bridge pickup at one point - 10k or so as opposed to the 7k that they are usually. I'd guess these sound quite different to the usual ones.

Those pickups were not in fact hotter ... I will carry on explaining about wire resistance till I'm blue in the face ... here goes again:
Early broadcaster pickups were wound with 43awg wire, later telecaster pickups were wound with 42awg wire. 43 awg wire has a higher resistance per foot that 42 awg ... so for roughly the same number of turns and the same output  the broadcaster 43awg pickups display a higher DC resistance. Their tone is more punchy and aggressive in the mid range (a characteristic of the finer wire gauge) which can make them seem louder as they cut through better .... but a later 7k pickup has the same output as an early 10k one!

You cannot compare DC resistances for output when a different wire gauge is used ...end of story.

poopot

If you want a hot tele bridge contact @TheGuitarWeasel himself...

he recently wound a liquidator bridge for my tele... awesome pickup!...

the clip below was recorded on my on my phone so quality isn’t the best but....

tele>5e3... clip starts with the guitar volume rolled back to about 7(ish) sounds like a tele... on full volume the pickup has enough poke to push my little amp into overdrive!...

https://soundcloud.com/user-296617142/liquidator

More than happy with it!... buy a tele... buy one of these pickups and be happy!

thermionic

I didn't mean the original 1950s pickups, I meant the CS Nocaster (not Broadcaster, my mistake) reissues. I definitely remember reading that for a couple of years the bridge pickup had a dc resistance of around 10k and sounded different. Maybe they switched wire gauge and the output was more or less the same, or maybe they had more turns of the same gauge of wire and it did have a higher output. Hard to find any info about them now anyway, it was a good few years ago.

OilCityPickups

poopot said:

If you want a hot tele bridge contact @TheGuitarWeasel himself...

he recently wound a liquidator bridge for my tele... awesome pickup!...

the clip below was recorded on my on my phone so quality isn’t the best but....

tele>5e3... clip starts with the guitar volume rolled back to about 7(ish) sounds like a tele... on full volume the pickup has enough poke to push my little amp into overdrive!...

https://soundcloud.com/user-296617142/liquidator

More than happy with it!... buy a tele... buy one of these pickups and be happy!

Now the Liquidator IS hot, wound to 15.5k with 43awg wire and 1/4 inch poles (like a Duncan Quarter Pounder but with a lighter wind).

OilCityPickups

thermionic said:

I didn't mean the original 1950s pickups, I meant the CS Nocaster (not Broadcaster, my mistake) reissues. I definitely remember reading that for a couple of years the bridge pickup had a dc resistance of around 10k and sounded different. Maybe they switched wire gauge and the output was more or less the same, or maybe they had more turns of the same gauge of wire and it did have a higher output. Hard to find any info about them now anyway, it was a good few years ago.

Don't believe all you read :-) 

A normal Telecaster bobbin physically will not take 10k worth of 42awg wire ... my hardman is nudging 9k with 42awg, and is bursting the doors at that. It's a lot higher output than a vintage Broadcaster style (like my 9.5k, 43awg Fortyniner). By the time of the 'Nocaster' Fender had switched to 42awg wire, and genuine nocaster pickups are around the 7k mark, but with the early alnico 3 magnets (like the Esquire and Broadcaster pickups) which gives them more natural midrange than the later alnico 5.

AngryGoldfish

chris78 said:

A post 2012 American standard would seem to have everything you want

Thanks! I'll keep a look out for one of those. When do they change to what they are now (American Professional)? 


@TheGuitarWeasel I'm not necessarily looking for a 'high gain' pickup; I still want it to sound round and... 'vintage', just with a little more bite and rambunctiousness. Describing pickups is a nightmare. All these random adjectives makes me sound like a clown. 


Has anyone tried out any of the guitars I listed? 

OilCityPickups

AngryGoldfish said:

chris78 said:

A post 2012 American standard would seem to have everything you want

Thanks! I'll keep a look out for one of those. When do they change to what they are now (American Professional)? 


@TheGuitarWeasel I'm not necessarily looking for a 'high gain' pickup; I still want it to sound round and... 'vintage', just with a little more bite and rambunctiousness. Describing pickups is a nightmare. All these random adjectives makes me sound like a clown. 


Has anyone tried out any of the guitars I listed? 

Not suggesting you want a high gain pickup ... just agreeing with you that you need a 43awg wound one, ie a Broadcaster style :-) 

I was simply stepping in to correct the usual error of equating high DC resistance with high output. 

As far as I can see, very few 'off the shelf' guitars have a true Broadcaster pickup in the bridge.

rivercider

I had a Baja and an American Special and found the Special had slightly hotter bridge pickup, although I preferred the Baja bridge pickup overall.  Plus the Baja allows you to use that fourth position so you have pickups available in both series and parallel, with the little boost that gives. Might be worth you trying out before heading into more expensive territory. 

Gassage

TheGuitarWeasel said:

thermionic said:

The Custom Shop Broadcaster pickups had a very hot bridge pickup at one point - 10k or so as opposed to the 7k that they are usually. I'd guess these sound quite different to the usual ones.

Those pickups were not in fact hotter ... I will carry on explaining about wire resistance till I'm blue in the face ... here goes again:
Early broadcaster pickups were wound with 43awg wire, later telecaster pickups were wound with 42awg wire. 43 awg wire has a higher resistance per foot that 42 awg ... so for roughly the same number of turns and the same output  the broadcaster 43awg pickups display a higher DC resistance. Their tone is more punchy and aggressive in the mid range (a characteristic of the finer wire gauge) which can make them seem louder as they cut through better .... but a later 7k pickup has the same output as an early 10k one!

You cannot compare DC resistances for output when a different wire gauge is used ...end of story.

I can attest that Ash is spot on here, him having just rewound my 1961 strat pup to 43awg Gilmour Strat specs- it sounds bloody stunning.

@theguitarweasel - I owe you some money too, when you're ready...

AngryGoldfish

rivercider said:

I had a Baja and an American Special and found the Special had slightly hotter bridge pickup, although I preferred the Baja bridge pickup overall.  Plus the Baja allows you to use that fourth position so you have pickups available in both series and parallel, with the little boost that gives. Might be worth you trying out before heading into more expensive territory. 

Any variations in feel of the two guitars? 

poopot

AngryGoldfish said:

rivercider said:

I had a Baja and an American Special and found the Special had slightly hotter bridge pickup, although I preferred the Baja bridge pickup overall.  Plus the Baja allows you to use that fourth position so you have pickups available in both series and parallel, with the little boost that gives. Might be worth you trying out before heading into more expensive territory. 

Any variations in feel of the two guitars? 

Yes... the baja has a baseball bat for a neck... and glorious it is too!

AngryGoldfish

Ha! Hmmm... well, I'll probably avoid that one then. Big necks tend to give me cramps.

The words of a mass murderer. 

chris78

AngryGoldfish said:

chris78 said:

A post 2012 American standard would seem to have everything you want

Thanks! I'll keep a look out for one of those. When do they change to what they are now (American Professional)? 


@TheGuitarWeasel I'm not necessarily looking for a 'high gain' pickup; I still want it to sound round and... 'vintage', just with a little more bite and rambunctiousness. Describing pickups is a nightmare. All these random adjectives makes me sound like a clown. 


Has anyone tried out any of the guitars I listed? 

It was for 2017. I think the pros came out Xmas ‘16 from memory. The standards had a broadcaster, Twisted Tele pickup combination (my favourite), modern c shape, 9.5 radius with medium jumbo and a body cut (heresy in my view, but what you wanted). 
You can pick them up for about £750 in decent condition if you’re patient

Keefy

chris78 said:

AngryGoldfish said:

chris78 said:

A post 2012 American standard would seem to have everything you want

Thanks! I'll keep a look out for one of those. When do they change to what they are now (American Professional)? 


@TheGuitarWeasel I'm not necessarily looking for a 'high gain' pickup; I still want it to sound round and... 'vintage', just with a little more bite and rambunctiousness. Describing pickups is a nightmare. All these random adjectives makes me sound like a clown. 


Has anyone tried out any of the guitars I listed? 

It was for 2017. I think the pros came out Xmas ‘16 from memory. The standards had a broadcaster, Twisted Tele pickup combination (my favourite), modern c shape, 9.5 radius with medium jumbo and a body cut (heresy in my view, but what you wanted). 
You can pick them up for about £750 in decent condition if you’re patient

I had an American Standard (natural ash body) and yes it had that pickup combination. As it happens, I sold it in decent condition for £750! It was a cracking guitar, and was only displaced from my rack by a Palir Titan (at considerably greater cost).

Here's the neck pickup, and then neck and bridge (taking the lead part). Sorry I don't think I recorded the bridge pickup on its own.

AngryGoldfish

@chris78 Yeah, a Tele should be a slab body with no fancy nonsense. But that ain't practical. As much as I love the look of an old Tele, I'm man of simple comforts and I like to play guitar without putting a dent in my ribs or arm. xD

I'll keep my eye out for the Standard between '12 and '16. 

flying_pie

AngryGoldfish said:

@chris78 Yeah, a Tele should be a slab body with no fancy nonsense. But that ain't practical. As much as I love the look of an old Tele, I'm man of simple comforts and I like to play guitar without putting a dent in my ribs or arm. xD

I'll keep my eye out for the Standard between '12 and '16. 

I have the USA standard that preceded that 08-11. You can probaly pick them up between £5-600 second hand as they were cheaper sure to the pickups. The bridge pickup is rubbish but the neck pickup is good. It's a proper Tele with no body contours if you prefer that. I replaced the bridge pickup in mine with an Oil City 49er and it shiva great. Loads of midrange bite but not hot (I used to have a BK Piledriver which was just crazy)