Tonerider Tele Hot Classics - Any comments??

Jacquesg4j

Hey folks,

I am thinking of trying a set of these in my Parker p36 to get a little fatter sound in the bridge area... Any comments or anyone with experience with these? Or would the Vintage plus set be better? I just dont wanna buy something that would be rubbish... So far I have read good things on Tonerider but can't find anyone with them in a tele!

Much appreciated!!

Jacques

chris77

Hey Jacques. I have a hot classic neck pup in one of my teles (fender std ash) and I like it a lot better than the stock fender pup it used to have. Not sure about the bridge though. I absolutely love the stock bridge pup and won't be swopping it out anytime soon. I have a brand new set of the hot classics that I was going to use, but won't anymore. So if you want, you can have 'em, fit 'em and play 'em for a while. If you like them you can buy them. If not, you can send them back to me - no obligations. Let me know if you're interested.

AlanRatcliffe

From the specs and Tonerider's good rep I'd say they are what you're looking for. Especially if you use your piezos a lot, hotter, warmer pickups make sense.

Keira-WitherKay

chris77 wrote: Hey Jacques. . I have a brand new set of the hot classics that I was going to use, but won't anymore. So if you want, you can have 'em, fit 'em and play 'em for a while. If you like them you can buy them. If not, you can send them back to me - no obligations. Let me know if you're interested.

damn what really nice people we have on this forum thats a generous offer , and you were "thanked" by me , even though i'm not benefitting but it's just so nice to see some trust and helpfullness from someone ............ deserves a 'thank" for an attitude like that nice one chris

Bob-Dubery

Keira WitherKay wrote: damn what really nice people we have on this forum thats a generous offer , and you were "thanked" by me , even though i'm not benefitting but it's just so nice to see some trust and helpfullness from someone ............ deserves a 'thank" for an attitude like that nice one chris

Jacquesg4j

+99!! With more people like Chris this place would have been called GuitarHeaven! Geeepers thanx Chris I can not refuse an offer like that! Will send you a PM so that we can organise something!!

singemonkey

Nice one Chris. You're a gent.

Jacquesg4j

singemonkey wrote: Nice one Chris. You're a gent.

A super gent!!

Jacquesg4j

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: From the specs and Tonerider's good rep I'd say they are what you're looking for. Especially if you use your piezos a lot, hotter, warmer pickups make sense.

Ahh yeah Alan I actually never liked the Piezo/Magnetic combinations, the only combination that really worked, and produced some nice clean tones, was using the neck pickup with the piezos and the neck volume at about half of the piezo volume... So basically just breaking the piezo sound a bit. So yeah I am excited to hear what the warmer ones would sound like! Will definitely record some before and afters! And in future get some piezo tips from you... Saw the stereo system you are running on your pedalboard... Looks interesting!

telefan100

I have a Tonerider Vintage Plus set in a Jap Tele and they're excellent. I use it mostly for country playing and it's the best set I've had in the guitar yet. Clean, twangy and warm.

Jacquesg4j

telefan100 wrote: I have a Tonerider Vintage Plus set in a Jap Tele and they're excellent. I use it mostly for country playing and it's the best set I've had in the guitar yet. Clean, twangy and warm.

Thanx Telefan I am surely giving them a try! Sounds like a good sound is on the way!

AlanRatcliffe

The Fishmans are bright at the best of time. Did you try the piezos through the PA/an acoustic amp or only mono into the same amp as the mags?

I'm actually EQing the piezos less and less these days, just reducing the low mids a few dB. However what I am doing is using lowpass filters on reverbs and delays to take of some of the extreme high end. I still get a warmer sound overall, but the piezos still cut through.

Jacquesg4j

To be honest I haven't been using the piezos a lot lately but when I still was, I did the stereo thing through an acoustic amp. I preferred that to DI'ing so that I can do the EQ myself... And yes like you said, I took quite a lot off the mids but the lows I pushed up a bit to compensate for the high ends. But as of late I only did mono into my Marshall, or mono into a DI if i needed accoustic vibes!

Jacquesg4j

YAAAAAY received the tonerider at 8'o'clock this morning at Postnet! So excited to have them fitted!

BIIIIIG UUUUP to Chris that sent them out sooo quickly without even receiving a cent for them yet! Watch this space!!

Jacquesg4j

ALRIGHTY...

First time that I ever installed pickups into a guitar... And in my experience it's not as hard as it seems! As long as you know how to soldier wires it is really not that hard. BUT I am not here to talk about the installation but rather the result...

I started fiddling with pickup heights and I got it to a point where I could only say... WOOOOOOW... It really made a huge difference to my tone and it is sooooo clear! I strummed some chords at first to set the pickup heights (nice info on Alan's website btw) and it was just so crisp! Every note on every string on any fret is just sooooo bright! I have done 6 services at my church in the last 2 weeks and the people there are also very amazed at how nice it sounds! Like Chris also said above... the neck pickup is something out of this world and the bridge really a lot fatter and crunchier than the standard ones were. In my likes I am going in the right direction, my bridge is fatter, but I still need some more! Will post some clips as soon as I have time!

I saw that my tone and volume pots are 500k... Will it make a difference if I put 250k pots in there? I read somewhere that it might take some of the twang away??

AlanRatcliffe

Congrats on your first pickup change!

Yes, I'd definitely swap the volume and tone to 250K pots - Teles need some of the brittle highs rolling off at the best of times.

Jacquesg4j

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Congrats on your first pickup change!

Yes, I'd definitely swap the volume and tone to 250K pots - Teles need some of the brittle highs rolling off at the best of times.

Looks like it's time to get the soldier iron out again! Will try that for sure, thanx Alan. Makes me wonder why they brought it out with 500k's in the first place!

chris77

He-he, ja congrats man. I ussually stuff up the wiring at least 2 times before everything works :-[

If you're not in a rush:

http://more.take2.co.za/moreusa-fender-original-250k-splitshaft-potnetiometer-volume-or-tone-b0002kzeae.html

Not sure if you can get them cheaper anywhere else.

AlanRatcliffe

If the pots are true-to-Tele, they will be solid shaft, not split. Solids work better with knobs that use grub screws.

Jacquesg4j

chris77 wrote: He-he, ja congrats man. I ussually stuff up the wiring at least 2 times before everything works :-[

If you're not in a rush:

http://more.take2.co.za/moreusa-fender-original-250k-splitshaft-potnetiometer-volume-or-tone-b0002kzeae.html

Not sure if you can get them cheaper anywhere else.

Great advice thanx Chris! Will quickly phone my local store and see what they can do otherwise that really is a good price! Also I have decided to keep the toneriders non-the-less! So please when you have time PM me your details for the payment!! This is a super-twang-tastic upgrade!