New Tele Neck Pickup, Open G Tuning, and a Favorite Keef Riff....

....played through a Boss Blues Driver with the Allum Blues Stack Plus mod, into my mega-modded Fender Blues Junior. The guitar is my Squier CV 50's Tele fitted with a recently installed Firebird-style mini-humbucker from GFS. I hope the clip captures just a fraction of how good this sounded in person (the tone, not necessarily the playing!).

I was poking around during lunch today on YouTube and found a lesson where the guy was showing how to play this tune in open G. It is just RIDICULOUSLY easier & better sounding than the way I used to play it with standard tuning. The lesson is HERE, if you're interested.

Anyway, here's the clip I recorded:

http://www.box.net/shared/ru9gpqa2f8

That would seem to have done the job, eh? :AOK

Sounds good Vood. Open tunings do make life easier at times, don't they?

gfs HB

The clip sounds real good.

I have bought GFS pups quite a bit but am now trying to get better pups from SD, etc., when I can.

I have a Peavey Gen EX Vintage tele with a full sized covered HB in the neck and it is my favorite Peavey tele.

I want to mod a Squier tele std I have with a full sized SD '59 or maybe even JB HB in the neck. I don't know if the Squier std tele body is routed for a full sized HB or not and haven't checked within memory. I should look.

I have been thinking of getting one of those small trimmer routers and trying to do the rout myself. I'm not sure if I can control the bit though. It would be an experiment. Plus I don't want to build the jigs and guides. And I REALLY don't want to mess up the rout.

So, if necessary, I might pay out to have a good knowledgeable and experienced tech do the rout and also rout the pickguard, saving the cost of a pick guard, but routing the guard is probably more than a new gaurd, so I don't know about that.

I have also been thinking of using sharp wood chisels and cutting the rout with them. It seems like a sensible option and well within my skill range. It would be easy to NOT mess up the rout opening and perform the task with great precision, using the chisels with close exactness in small increments, working my way to the desired depth that way.

I don't suppose anyone has tried the wood chisel rout, but it seems to make sense.

How did you install your mini humbucker? Did GFS provide all the needed stuff? Was the CV already routed for the mini HB? Did you change the pot and wiring to accomodate the mini humbucker and how does the volume blend in the middle position?

Seems like a simple job but I bet there was more to it than one might expect.

Duffy said:

How did you install your mini humbucker? Did GFS provide all the needed stuff? Was the CV already routed for the mini HB? Did you change the pot and wiring to accomodate the mini humbucker and how does the volume blend in the middle position?

Click to expand...

I bought the mini-'bucker along with a precut Tele pickguard that GFS sells. Mounts into it the same way Strat pickups mount. And the CV's come routed for humbuckers, so plenty of room. I came up with a "quick-connect" system for the wiring to make it easy to swap back and forth between this and the stock configuration. Details here:

http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=15752

In my response to the Keef open G thread I posted my attempt at the same intro that I recorded about 8 years ago after I found out that Keef played it in open G. There was no youtube lesson to go to so I just tried to figured it out by ear.

my Keef riff

Hmmmm, I just relistened to my clip a few days after recording it, and it's evident to me that I need to work on my recording technique. The tone is much "muddier" sounding than the amp sounded in person. Funny how after the memory of the live event fades, the recorded version's shortcomings become very much evident!

I think I need to experiment some with mic placement--distance, angle and orientation vs. the speaker's position....