Lace sensor blue for Tele position ?

gordiji

I 've got a BP tele in 70's silver sparkle which i love so much that i got the even more aesthetically pleasing BP esquire. Now, i knew the stealth pup in the neck pos. would be weak which it is and i also knew i could put something else there and un esquire it.

Despite the stealth pup being weak it does give an excellent mid position sound without vol drop.

So i thought i might put in a Lace sensor blue. Reasons being 1) I liked the blue in a strat i had, it's unique, giving an 'old fashioned ' blues lead tone, fat and rounded. 2) Being a lace sensor it has low magnetic pull so wouldn't interfere in the whole argument that esquires sound good because of the lack of string pull from the neck pup. 3) Having a black polepiece-less cover it would still look quite err stealthy.

What i want to know. Will it fit as it's strat sized without routing ? (i don't really want a lace tele pup which wouldn't be a blue anyway and i don't think avaivable singly and it wouldn't look stealthy )

Also it has 3 wires so i guess hot & ground, what's the 3rd doing ?

Thanks in advance for wisdom.

rpr

Stray pickups don't fit Tele neck routing in my experience, the 3rd wire is a ground for the metal cover

Funkfingers

gordiji said:

What i want to know. Will it fit as it's strat sized without routing?

BAD NEWS
The Stratocaster Sensor will not fit into a vintage-spec Telecaster pickup cavity without some wood removal.

It will fit into a modern Fender with the TSH cavities.

GOOD NEWS
There used to be a blue Fender-Lace Sensor model in vintage Tele neck/Rhythm size. AFAIK, this was only offered as an aftermarket accessory. In the UK, it was pretty scarce.

BAD NEWS AGAIN
This pickup was only available with a chromed cover.

Attempting to remove a Lace Sensor cover involves cracking some bonding adhesive. This is likely to damage the coil.

CarbonCopy

What's BP?

Paul_C

CarbonCopy said:

What's BP?

Brad Paisley

Funkfingers

Perhaps, the obvious neck pickup to match the stock bridge position unit is the Seymour Duncan La Brea (BP signature) model. I'm not sure whether these are available singly.

One alternative - and stealthily black - option would be the Duncan Hot Rails for Telecaster N. Adjusted low, it would be disguised in black pickguard surroundings and balance for output against the bridge pickup.

Philly_Q

Funkfingers said:

GOOD NEWS
There used to be a blue Fender-Lace Sensor model in vintage Tele neck/Rhythm size. AFAIK, this was only offered as an aftermarket accessory. In the UK, it was pretty scarce.

BAD NEWS AGAIN
This pickup was only available with a chromed cover.

I had (maybe still have) a Lace Sensor Blue Tele neck pickup.  As you noted, it had a chrome cover and the "Lace Sensor" decal was just a little sticker which easily peeled off, so the pickup looked exactly like a regular Tele neck pickup.

It didn't sound great though, as I recall.  Fairly weak and not as good as the Lace Sensor Blue for Strats.

I'm assuming the Brad Paisley, being vintage-ish, just has a regular Tele-sized neck pickup routing, so a Strat pickup won't fit, as has already been observed.

gordiji

Thanks all i thought so much. Would this still be the case if i ground off the lugs on the blue so it's width would literally be the walls of the cover ?  

Philly_Q

gordiji said:

Thanks all i thought so much. Would this still be the case if i ground off the lugs on the blue so it's width would literally be the walls of the cover ?  

It might then fit, but how would you hold it in place? (Vertically that is, not horizontally)

gordiji

I think i'd glue it after getting the height right. they're not that sensitive to height adjustment anyway so as long as it would be snug. It would of course make it unsellable if i didn't like the end result. The current pup is glued in as there's no visible evidence of anything else and it sits snuggly against the underside of the scratchplate. i'll probably chew it over for a while, you'd understand this 

Philly_Q

gordiji said:

i'll probably chew it over for a while, you'd understand this 

LOL!  I salute you, sir. 

You might be able to get some of that sticky gel stuff, like they used to use to stick CDs on the front of magazines?  Wouldn't be so difficult to get the pickup back out, and it would act as a bit of a cushion against vibrations.