Twangbanger experiences

Zoolooter

Looking at a more Tele orientated strat bridge. Like to hear from anyone that has used one. Happy with it, did you swap it out and try something else, etc. Did it change the quintessential strat sound too much? 

I’ve had a strat lying around in parts and final got round to putting it together. I like the idea of a strat but not the typical scooped thinnish sound. I have two teles and spend most of my time in the middle position. I just know if I put ‘normal’ strat pickups in it I’ll end up hardly ever picking it up and just playing the teles.

Cheers.

Lewy

I had a twangbanger in a strat a long time ago. I enjoyed it but eventually swapped it back to a more standard bridge pup because without the classic tele bridge assembly, a pickup can only get you so close and it wasn’t close enough to my ears to be worth sacrificing the classic strat bridge/middle sound.

historyisjunk

Have one in a Mex Standard, bridge position. I like it a lot & it sounds great with the stock middle pickup, to the extent I don't want to change that. (I think MIM Stnds can be great guitars, but I don't like the pickups). It probably doesn't sound like Hank Marvin or James Calvin Wilsey so it won't give that kind of Strat sound, it's got more "honk" like a Tele. The name's a bit silly, but it's a great pickup (I think).

Funkfingers

I pretty much agree with Lewy and historyisjunk.

Like the Duncan Custom Shop Strat-Tele pickup before it, the Twangbanger can lend a Stratocaster a strong hint of Telecaster twang and, possibly, a hint of P90 grunt.

How it combines with the other pickups in a guitar will depend on the individual guitar. Adding a Fender No-Load tone control can increase the treble bite. Setting the fulcrum vibrato bridge down on the guitar body to facilitate the sort of multiple string bend stunts associated with Country music adds to the illusion.

The thing that I especially liked about the Twangbanger is that hard attack into a semi-clean Fender valve amplifier. In my opinion, the best way to obtain this from a Stratocaster is by using a single coil pickup of between 9 and 10k Ohms d.c. resistance. e.g. Antiquity Custom Hot, Oil City Diamond Geezer et cetera.



To save the OP the embarrassment of asking, yes, I have at least one "spare" Twangbanger pickup. Plug, plug!

Zoolooter

@Funkfingers @Lewy ;;; @historyisjunk ;;;;; many thanks for your detail advice and thoughts, much appreciated.

@historyisjunk a bit of ‘Tele honk’ is what I need!

So, do you have one for sale funkfingers?

Funkfingers

I may even have two.

One is totally original.

The other has had its output conductors and baseplate ground connection reversed to have the correct phase and polarity relationship with two Duncan Antiquity II “Surfer” pickups for Stratocaster.

CountryDave

My EBMM Albert Lee has the twangbanger bridge pickup and it does a pretty passable job.  However I think the main thing that contributes is the fact that it is a string through body model.

As @Funkfingers mentioned above, setting the trem so it sits on the body (and even blocking it Clapton style if you aren't going to use it) will have an impact.

You mention that you spend a lot of time on the middle position when playing your tele. As a tele player, I was also looking for the neck/bridge selection with my strat.  Fitting a superswitch (along with a beefy bridge pickup) gave me the following combinations 1. Neck, 2. Neck & Middle, 3. Neck and Bridge. 4. Middle and Bridge, 5. Bridge.  Best of all worlds (for me) as this gives me the strat positions I like/use - 1, 2 & 4, along with the 3 'tele like' positions at the point on the selector that I am used to finding them.

Zoolooter

Funkfingers said:

I may even have two.

One is totally original.

The other has had its output conductors and baseplate ground connection reversed to have the correct phase and polarity relationship with two Duncan Antiquity II “Surfer” pickups for Stratocaster.

Well @Funkfingers ;, the neck and middle pickups I have are as follows:

 The neck is north with an anti clockwise wind attached to the white lead

The middle is south with an anti clockwise wind attached to the white lead

So, which one of your Twangbangers would I need??

Cheers

Zoolooter

CountryDave said:

My EBMM Albert Lee has the twangbanger bridge pickup and it does a pretty passable job.  However I think the main thing that contributes is the fact that it is a string through body model.

As @Funkfingers mentioned above, setting the trem so it sits on the body (and even blocking it Clapton style if you aren't going to use it) will have an impact.

You mention that you spend a lot of time on the middle position when playing your tele. As a tele player, I was also looking for the neck/bridge selection with my strat.  Fitting a superswitch (along with a beefy bridge pickup) gave me the following combinations 1. Neck, 2. Neck & Middle, 3. Neck and Bridge. 4. Middle and Bridge, 5. Bridge.  Best of all worlds (for me) as this gives me the strat positions I like/use - 1, 2 & 4, along with the 3 'tele like' positions at the point on the selector that I am used to finding them.

Thank you for the sound advice. I like the idea of that wiring config.

Funkfingers

To recreate the Albert Lee circuit described above on a regular Stratocaster, it will necessary to use a 24-contact Superswitch. Like this.

https://i.imgur.com/EeCBJEU.jpg?1

Zoolooter

Zoolooter said: Funkfingers said: I may even have two.

One is totally original.

The other has had its output conductors and baseplate ground connection reversed to have the correct phase and polarity relationship with two Duncan Antiquity II “Surfer” pickups for Stratocaster. Well @Funkfingers ;, the neck and middle pickups I have are as follows:

 The neck is north with an anti clockwise wind attached to the white lead

The middle is south with an anti clockwise wind attached to the white lead

So, which one of your Twangbangers would I need??

Cheers

@Funkfingers so any idea which one of your picks will match up best with the two I have?

Funkfingers

Zoolooter said:
The neck is north with an anti clockwise wind attached to the white lead

The middle is south with an anti clockwise wind attached to the white lead

If both of these statements are correct,
EITHER you have one of the pickups connected white to ground and black to selector switch
OR the neck/middle pair will yield a horrid, thin sound.


All regular Twangbanger pickups are wound anti-clockwise. I need to research the magnetic polarity.

Zoolooter

@Funkfingers after a bit of research, Google tells me a twangbanger is South up.

Funkfingers

If I understand you correctly, we are talking about three single coil pickups, all wound anti-clockwise.

Your middle pickup and my unmodified Twangbanger have the same magnetic polarity. They will combine signals nicely but not cancel RF interference or hum.

As described at 1345 BST, your middle and neck pickups are same wind direction but opposite magnetic polarity, Connected in the conventional manner, they will combine to produce an electrically out-of-phase signal. (Thin, weedy, not hum-cancelling.) 

For all three pickups to work as a set, you will need to reverse the black and white output conductor wires of your neck position pickup. All two coil combinations will be in phase. Only positions 4 (neck + middle, in parallel, in phase) and 3 (neck + bridge, in parallel, in phase) will be hum-cancelling.

Zoolooter said:
which one of your pickups will match up best with the two I have?

The unmodified Twangbanger will work as I describe above. 

Alternatively, I can reverse the alterations that I made to the second pickup and charge an accordingly lower price for it.

Zoolooter

@Funkfingers sorry, should have said earlier I don’t need RWRP, just all pickups in phase

Funkfingers

I'm only banging on about this because of your description of the relationship between your neck and middle pickups. (Same winding direction, opposite magnetic polarity.)

With the combination of coils under discussion, some pairings will be RPRW whether you want them to be or not. 

Zoolooter

@Funkfingers let’s do a deal on one of them because if this carries on I’ll be in a twangbanger out of phase, messed polarity coma!. 

Funkfingers

PM incoming.

Octafish

I've had a Twangbanger in my main Strat for five or so years, sounds great although more a thicker, ballsy Strat sound wouldn't say it makes a Strat sound like a Tele.

I've got mine wired up with a no-load tone pot and use a Superswitch to change the mid/bridge position to bridge/neck, which I really like. Twangbanger by itself sounds really good with fuzz (particularly Fuzz Face) and overdrives. Also can some great driven sounds with the tone rolled down a bit.