Direct mounting pickups

Roland

Later this year I'm going to make a second guitar. I like the idea of a Telecaster without a scratchplate. How would the sound be affected if I screw the neck pickup directly to the body?

WezV

Like a normal tele???

WezV

Direct mounting is the traditional way for tele neck pickups

paulnb57

I would expect the metal bridge plate assembly to make a difference and contribute to the Tele "sound"  so I guess if you need it to sound like a Tele then you would have use the standard bridge, if not then go with your original plan......

WezV

paulnb57;689884" said:

I would expect the metal bridge plate assembly to make a difference and contribute to the Tele "sound"  so I guess if you need it to sound like a Tele then you would have use the standard bridge, if not then go with your original plan......

It does affect the bridge pickup, not the neck

ThePrettyDamned

No idea if it has tonal implications but, on a practical note, direct mounting is a bit more effort than pick guard or pickup ring mount.

I direct mounted the pickups on my gspbasses prs and my p bass, and they're fine but the p bass pickup is a tiny bit slanted thanks to my inability to drill straight. Oops. sounds great, though.

Tele neck pickups are usually direct mount anyway. Use some tubing to make it height adjustable.

paulnb57

WezV said:

paulnb57;689884" said:

I would expect the metal bridge plate assembly to make a difference and contribute to the Tele "sound"  so I guess if you need it to sound like a Tele then you would have use the standard bridge, if not then go with your original plan......

It does affect the bridge pickup, not the neck

Obviously……..

WezV

paulnb57 said:

WezV said:

paulnb57;689884" said:

I would expect the metal bridge plate assembly to make a difference and contribute to the Tele "sound"  so I guess if you need it to sound like a Tele then you would have use the standard bridge, if not then go with your original plan......

It does affect the bridge pickup, not the neck

Obviously……..

sorry, not being arsey, just clarifying because the question was about direct mounting a neck pickup

Roland

Just shows my lack of Telecaster knowledge.  The few that I've played have all had neck pickups mounted on the scratch plate.  The question still stands: "how does it affect the sound".  I'm expecting a different responseon some frequencies, and possibly more handling noise

WezV

i think its a bit livelier, you get much more of the bodies vibrations fed directly into the pickup.   this is good for some things but not for others.  and if you have a microphonic pickup its likely to make it worse

paulnb57

@WezV

It was me, I misred, apologies...

Paul

JohnB

Do P90s count as direct mounted ? I haven't noticed any handling noise problems with them, and they screw to the body wood. I know little or nothing about teles

WezV

Yeah, they are also generally known as a lively pickup, although its not all because of direct mounting


They are generally no good for mega modern high gain stuff but cope for most other styles... Bags of character, and the direct mounting is part of that

normula1

and is it just me who thinks that a scratchplate mounted Tele pickup just looks wrong?

Chalky

Its just a faff to adjust body mounted pickup on a tele. And as a Strat pickup is scratchplate mounted then arguments about sonic impact fade away