Tele woes

[t-rey]

I recently bought a Schecter PT Fastback. Which is pretty much like a tele deluxe with a bigsby. Very snazzy looking guitar that plays well.

Here is the problem - the guitar always sounds kind of dead or muddy compared to my other guitars (Gibson SG Classic, Schecter C1, Epi Les Paul). This effect is more pronounced plugged in, but is still somewhat noticeable when unplugged (almost sounds like dead strings). I don't want to sell the guitar since it does play well and I bought it with inheritance money, making it already sentimental to me.

I don't know where to start looking to correct this problem. I have never had an alder guitar. All of my other guitars have mahogany set necks. This is maple and bolt on. I've never had a guitar with a bigsby or roller bridge.

What might be the cause? For whatever reason I'm assuming that the bigsby and/or roller bridge are causing this. But it could be the pickups/pots causing some of it.

For all I know, it's a shit piece of wood and will always sound this way.

What say you, fuzzbros? What might be causing this?

[Holy Schnikes]

My Tele sounds great now days but it took some work and financial investment to get it there. First off, those guitars just sound inherently different than everything else I own. My LP and semi hollow have a bunch more sustain and fullness, noticeable even acoustically. Same goes for my maple fretboard Jazzmaster. Teles just don't sing the same way, notes die out a little faster. There's def more "snap" but the thick sustaining tone isn't what it excels at.

Have you tried a full setup and new strings? I'd start there, first things first. Something like adding needed relief and fine tuning action can really improve the resonance and sustain of your guitar.

Also very likely that you could benefit from a pickup swap. I put some Bare Knuckle Flat 50's in mine and it truly came to life, best Tele tones I've ever heard! I also changed the bridgeplate, saddles, and tuners to get mine feeling/playing/sounding how I wanted. The pickups were easily the biggest improvement tho.

[t-rey]

Yeah...I'm beginning to come to terms with the fact that it's not going to sound like a Les Paul. Don't know why, but I really wanted it to.

Mine has noticeably less snap than any of my other guitars, which is one of the major things that made me start wondering if something was wrong. It is a deluxe style, so no ashtray bridge, and it has humbuckers - which I'm sure accounts for alot of that.

I put a new set of strings on it a couple of days after I got it, which was an improvement, but not much. Not had a setup - probably going to find a reputable tech around here to check it out when I have the extra cash.

It has a roller bridge, so I may try brass saddles in there to liven things up. Or maybe replace the bridge entirely. Could the Bigsby be responsible for any of this? If it gets me the toanz I want, I have zero issue with pulling the bigsby off of it.

I definitely want new pickups and/or pots. I like my bridge pickups to sound massive and tight with high gain. This sounds neither - somehow focused and muddy I may go with some sweet hb size p90s since that will certainly add brightness and clarity.

Thanks for the advice - extremely helpful as always

[lapsteel]

Check out the cap values. Check out the pot values. Change to taste.

[AxAxSxS]

How close are the pups to the strings? Bear in mind that they are magnets and will exert a pull on the strings that can dampen the vibration. Hums are normally going to create more pull than singles so this could be why you percieve it as having less pop than other teles.

Before shit canning, I would pull the pups, ensure that nothing weird is going on at the nut, ensure the strings are not contacting the frets anywhere, and hear how the guitar sounds accoustically with no other factors. it may be as simple as lowering the pups or raising action at the bridge just a mm or two. neck relief could also be a culprit but if its straight and plays well as is I tend to leave it be. I often set up my guitars close to zero relief which requires everything else to be damn near perfect.

[greyscales]

Check out the cap values. Check out the pot values. Change to taste.

I would start here since it is the cheapest fix other than a string change. Put in at least 500k pots if they aren't already in. Go 1meg if you really want it brighter.
If that doesn't work then try some new pickups. Maybe something other than humbuckers (P-90s perhaps).

Ultimately, it'll sound different than everything else. That's the way Teles work.

[Holy Schnikes]

Yeah, when Fender first introduced the '72RI Teles, they brought 'em out with 250K pots, no bueno. Maybe a similar situation here....

[t-rey]

How close are the pups to the strings? Bear in mind that they are magnets and will exert a pull on the strings that can dampen the vibration. Hums are normally going to create more pull than singles so this could be why you percieve it as having less pop than other teles.

Before shit canning, I would pull the pups, ensure that nothing weird is going on at the nut, ensure the strings are not contacting the frets anywhere, and hear how the guitar sounds accoustically with no other factors. it may be as simple as lowering the pups or raising action at the bridge just a mm or two. neck relief could also be a culprit but if its straight and plays well as is I tend to leave it be. I often set up my guitars close to zero relief which requires everything else to be damn near perfect.

The pickups are both pretty close to the strings. Maybe I will back them way down and see if that changes anything. The guitar sounds different than my others unplugged, but not in a bad way - except the low e, which still sounds kinda boomy and not defined.

I really should learn how to do a basic setup.

Check out the cap values. Check out the pot values. Change to taste.

I would start here since it is the cheapest fix other than a string change. Put in at least 500k pots if they aren't already in. Go 1meg if you really want it brighter.
If that doesn't work then try some new pickups. Maybe something other than humbuckers (P-90s perhaps).

Ultimately, it'll sound different than everything else. That's the way Teles work.

Yeah, when Fender first introduced the '72RI Teles, they brought 'em out with 250K pots, no bueno. Maybe a similar situation here....

I'm assuming the pots are absolute garbage - for the price they certainly had to cut corners somewhere, which is more than likely the electronics. I should probably learn how to change out pots and pickups at some point as well. Seems like that would be a handy skill to have.

[Holy Schnikes]

Dude, doing a basic setup is sooooooo simple, just takes a little practice. I think it's pretty fun honestly and it'll allow you to experiment with different feels and settings, see exactly what's perfect for you. No tech, no matter how good, can get your guitar set to your exact specs better than you.

And def dial those pickups down. I always get 'em low first, next adjust the bridge pickup where it sounds best, then match the neck output as closely as possible making sure neither pickup dominates the middle position. You'll find that very small adjustments can make a HUGE difference. That statement is true of any adjustment on a guitar really.

I'll pm you a basic setup guide and just give it a go. You can't learn without practicing and you won't permanently fuck anything up if you take it slow and follow instructions. I got sick of dropping $50 per setup only to go home and tinker with it more. In the beginning, I was super anal trying to measure everything and get things on the number. Eventually you can do it all by sight/feel alone, not hard at all unless your working with an extra stubborn guitar. Luckily, I don't own one of those.

[Mudfuzz]

If you seem to have the same problem unplugged as plugged then it is not something electronics can fix, saddle "might" help, pulling the neck to see if it is shimmed might help and if it is shimmed improperly you lose a lot of neck to body contact, you might to just tighten everything down a little: neck, bridge tuners. Fastest way though to change a guitar's sound is a different neck, it's kind of amazing how different you can get with this, but you also have to know what you want and you really wont be able to get it to not be a tele... but a tele should be bright and sparkly... more so then a paul..

[Gone Fission]

There are some set-up tricks floating around that might be worth trying. One has you slightly loosen and then retighten the neck bolts while strung up and at full tension; supposed to get the neck and body in sync. Going the other way, I've seen a trick that Buzz Feiten advocates about decoupling the neck and body, IIRC by shimming the neck at the front (headstock side) of the neck pocket.

Other things to play with are things like changing the weight of the tuners or adding a Fathead to change the resonance of the neck, messing with string gauge and alloy (including trying light gauges if you normally play heavier), and maybe just leaving the headstock tilted against a speaker cabinet so it's feeding back for a long while to encourage it to open up. (Neighbors love that last one.

[t-rey]

Took a minute and lowered the pickups quite a bit. Seemed to make a noticeable positive difference when unplugged - didn't have a chance to plug in though. The improvement gives me hope for what a setup and/or changing some hardware can do for the guitar.

[dubkitty]

1mΩ pots and an .035-ish cap FTW.

[weed_killer]

1mΩ pots and an .035-ish cap FTW.

This man speaks the truth.