Tech: The Frankencaster (a.k.a. the Telesmashter)

Stuck in my head: "Tush"
ZZ Top
Fandango!

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I doubt this will be the last blog entry on Rio Grande or the Wide Range Humbucker topic, but I'm not sure I expect another for a while. In case you're reading this and actually feel like keeping up, you can read the other entries at the links below, in order of volume:

Vol. 1: Wide Range Humbuckers
Vol. 2: Wide Range Addendum
Vol. 3: Wide Range of the Rio Grande
Vol. 4: The Rio Grande Conundrum (First-world Problems)

There was a web site several years ago called Anchor States written by Matt Weed from the band, Rosetta. He had shared an entry early on in my research of the Rio Grande Big Bottom '72 set, and we had an email exchange about the matter in 2011. Anchor States is long gone, but I was able to resurrect the entry through the web archive. I am sharing it here for posterity's sake.

The original site address was:
http://www.anchorstates.net/2009/02/frankencaster-aka-telesmashter.html

Proper credit goes to Matt Weed for this entry. A video on Matt and his gear as of 2015 can be viewed here on YouTube. Some links might be long gone, and any images that weren't immediately displayed are also unavailable.

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2.10.2009

Tech: The Frankencaster (a.k.a. the Telesmashter)

Nobody asks about this guitar because I haven't recorded anything "serious" with it apart from (Temet Nosce). But it's probably my favorite because it's so weird, and it's one of a kind.

It started as a standard MIM Fender '72 Telecaster Deluxe reissue, made in 2006. I bought it to replace my '87 Les Paul, which had been destroyed by heat and botched neck repairs. '72 Tele Deluxes are electrically identical to Les Pauls -- two humbuckers with two volumes, two tones, and a 3-way switch -- but sound radically different because of the traditionally-Fender materials and construction. The reissue pickups, while oversized, are in fact average humbuckers that have been sized up to look like the original Seth Lover-designed Wide Range humbuckers. The original '72 Deluxes had 1MΩ pots, but the reissue uses 250kΩ, presumably as a cost-cutting measure. Replacing the 250ks with 1Ms makes a substantial sound improvement to the instrument. I used the guitar this way with Rosetta in Fall of 2006.

The first things to go were the pickups. I initially swapped in two EMGs which I had previously used in a Les Paul, but quickly removed them because they weren't wide enough for the huge 2-1/4" string spacing -- a result of the "vintage style" Strat hardtail bridge -- and the outside strings had a noticeably lower volume. After realizing that the spacing is so weird that appropriate aftermarket pickups would be vanishingly rare, I gambled on the only other drop-in option I had: Rio Grande's '72 Big Bottom Humbucking set. This set is their Vintage Tallboy humbucker for the neck and Muy Grande humbucker for the bridge, rebuilt specifically for the '72 Tele. The nicest part about these units is the 4-conductor wiring for coil splitting. These models are single-coil-specific designs that have simply been doubled into humbuckers. I replaced the two tone controls with push/pull pots to switch between single-coil and humbucking mode on each pickup. The guitar did duty this way in Rosetta in Winter/Spring of 2007, but I went back to the stock neck pickup because I only used the bridge pickup in Rosetta and the weaker Fender reissue pickup caused less sonic interference ("stratitis").

I was surprised and pleased at the versatility and sweet sound, but eventually decided the bridge humbucking wasn't really suitable for Rosetta. The Muy Grande output was huge but the combination of AlNiCo magnets and high DC resistance didn't allow enough treble attack, and I felt the guitar was being misused and undervalued in that context. So it gave way for yet another Les Paul (the red guitar) and became my home experimentation instrument. At this point I set it up as a straight baritone guitar, tuned B E A D F# B, and set about trying to maximize its potential for new sounds.

The main change was a custom pickguard from Warmoth, routed for the full-size 4-bolt pickup at the bridge and a standard 2-bolt Gibson humbucker at the neck (where the string spacing is not a problem). I opted for only two control holes --- one for a volume pot and one for a switch.

The current neck pickup is a Gibson Dirty Fingers 4-conductor humbucker (I added a nickel cover from an old 490R, it helps with hum in split-coil mode). This is one of the only ceramic pickups I find tolerable for the neck position, and it seems to flatter this guitar and its low tuning, more so than the Gibson 490R I tried first. I previously had the Dirty Fingers in the bridge of my Les Paul before swapping in a Bare Knuckle Painkiller there. I don't know of anyone else using the DF in the neck position, and certainly not on a Tele. Gibson claims it is "bridge only," but in fact its spacing is the same as Gibson's "neck" models (50mm), narrower than their other "bridge" models (53mm) like the 498T.

The bridge pickup is hardwired to the switch and output, with no volume/tone controls. With zero loading from any pots, this gives maximum output and attack, mitigating the Muy Grande's overly-warm tendency. The silver toggle switch shorts the middle wires to the hot wire, bypassing the lower coil and running the upper coil by itself. The neck pickup is wired to a 500k volume pot with a DPDT pull-switch. This switch shorts the middle wires to ground, running the lower coil by itself. When blending both pickups in single-coil mode, using "opposite" coils like this results in hum cancellation (this is called "RWRP"), just like switch positions 2 and 4 on later model Strats. With the Dirty Fingers at lower height, plus the cover, and with the pot loading, it matches up just perfectly with the Muy Grande in terms of output and blending. See below for a schematic.

This guitar is also fully shielded internally, using copper foil. Shielding doesn't completely eliminate hum from single-coils, but makes a noticeable difference. I tried shielding the pickup coils themselves, but hum was still present and it dulled the sound.

Tuning the guitar baritone B to B presents some challenges -- both in the accuracy of tuning and with staying in tune. It also requires higher-than-usual action to accomodate heavier strings, more slack, or both. I use a 14-18-28w-38-48-58 set for this guitar. To give a finer tuning ratio, I installed Steinberger gearless tuners. These use screw shafts to pull the string into the headstock, without gears, at a 40:1 ratio. They work well. You won't need to enlarge the existing mounting holes, but the Steinbergers require a small (1/16") auxiliary hole pointing in the direction of the nut. Getting the Fender tuners out is also a pain, since the topside inserts are wedged tightly in the mounting holes and can take the finish off as they come out, if not tapped out carefully.

To reduce friction and increase sustain, I replaced the high string tree, nut, and saddles with Graph Tech lubricated models. The lower string tree is a roller model, which worked better with the tuning machines so close to it. Replacing the nut required that I re-profile it, which also allowed me to fine-tune the setup for baritone tuning and larger strings. This is an absolutely necessary procedure if you're going to drastically change tuning or string gauge. I don't use needle files -- instead, I use the folded edge of a piece of 620-grit sandpaper. It's slower, but works well.

Obviously, the guitar is quite versatile. I have not found the absence of tone controls or a second volume knob to be a practical limitation. The amp isn't "covering the deficiency" either, since I primarily use this guitar with two Valve Juniors that have no tone controls themselves.

As far as tone, single-coil mode on either pickup is excellent and very characteristic of a Telecaster, and the blended sound between them is actually much better than most other Telecasters I've heard played that way. In addition to canceling hum, it has broad harmonic response without being harsh or spitty. Being able to fade the neck pickup in and out without changing the bridge pickup's output is an excellent way to tweak for tone. In humbucking mode, both pickups have extraordinarily high output, but different character. The DF in the neck position is very deep, but retains a lot of treble clarity, far better than the 490R. The Muy Grande in the bridge has the most mids I've ever heard, period. I don't use it for clean sounds except when blended with the neck pickup and a bright switch on the amp engaged --- but it sounds incredible for high gain, very smooth and responsive.

EDIT 4/2009: I'm now tuning this guitar A to A, or sometimes drop-G, using string gauges .014, .018, .028W, .038, .050, and .070. I have also removed the lower string tree, since I found that it gets in the way of the Steinberger tuners.

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Feb 18, 2011, 11:45 PM

hello;

firstly, thanks for reading my email. i hate to show up unannounced and seemingly out of left field, but i figured you might be able to help me. i came to this conclusion by finding this blog article:
http://www.anchorstates.net/2009/02/frankencaster-aka-telesmashter.html

i've been researching for possible replacement pickups for the '72 mim telecaster deluxe reissue... i have scoured the web for information, and you are apparently the only person in the world who has ever actually used the rio grande muy grande/tallboy direct replacement pups for this guitar - the reissue of which truly highlights fender's ridiculous laziness and asinine ineptitude - and decided to write about it. a lot of forums all over the web point to the rio grandes, but no one has actually used them. it's almost as if they're an urban legend or something: someone says so-and-so used them, but when you ask so-and-so, they say john doe is a fan, but john doe doesn't know who so-and-so is.

needless to say, this matter has been rather annoying, so i decided to drop you this email.

the old joke is, "how many guitar players does it take to change a light bulb? one to do it, nine others to say they can do it better."

every time i have pose this question, the first response is, "just switch to 500k pots". when i refuse that route, people then tell me, "you need to go to jason lollar/curtis novak/telenator to get that vintage sound." well, i don't want "that vintage sound", i want my own sound. i use high-output pups in my main strat because it's who i am, what i sound like.

in discussing the issue with my guitar tech, it seems like these pups would work, and would be really high output (can you verify that they are indeed high-output?), but probably sound a little dark (as noted in your blog entry). my tech's suggestion is that once the rio grandes are installed, then we can adjust this darkness by switching out all of the 250k pots, replacing them with 500ks, and then adding a treble bleed capacitor so that no high-end is lost when rolling the volume down.

so, that being said, i'd love to hear your experience with these pickups in more depth. if i understand the context of your blog entry correctly, you have 1M pots when you had the rio grandes installed... did that still give you a dark sound?

thanks.

-christopher.



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Feb 20, 2011, 9:05 PM

Hi Christopher,

About the pot change -- no pot change is going to make the Fender reissue pickups sound like the originals. They're totally different pickups. Slight changes in loading are not going to change the pickup's sound.

I did have both the RGs installed at one point, I now have just the Muy Grande in the bridge and a Gibson Dirty Fingers in the neck. Both have coil splitting. When I had the Tallboy, it had a great clean or dirty sound, nice all-around pickup, though it seemed a little weaker than it should have been compared to the Muy Grande, especially in single-coil mode. Beware that the magnets on both are really strong and will cause "stratitis" if adjusted too close to the strings. This is more noticeable on the neck pickup.

Right now, there's a 500k pot on my Gibson neck pickup and no pot AT ALL on the Muy Grande, so no load and no treble attenuation. Even so, I'd go beyond saying it's "dark" to saying it has almost no treble at all in humbucker mode. It really is two Muy Grande single coils just stuck together into a humbucker. Those are high-output single coils to begin with, so yes this thing is VERY high output. The reason the treble is so attenuate is the high internal DC resistance, which has to do with the high number of windings and the small wire gauge used. The coil-split single coil sound I get out of it is really fantastic, perfect high-output Tele sound and exactly what you'd expect. I really love the sound of the neck humbucker mixed with the Muy Grande in single-coil mode, clean or slightly overdriven.

The MG's humbucker sound is much harder to deal with... it's so unruly. Basically it sounds awful clean. Boxy, nasal, honky, whatever you want to call it. No pot or treble bleed cap is going to fix this, the highs just aren't there. The bass is pretty wooly and I tune LOW. It's like somebody took an EQ and put a "frown curve" on the pickup. I've found that I can get a beautiful clean sound out of it when it's mixed with the neck pickup, but not by itself. However, that said, it is a MONSTER when it comes to high-gain distortion. Ultra-fluid, thick, smooth, sustain for miles, no squeal-y microphonic feedback, not noisy. Oddly enough it may be the best sludge/doom/stoner tone I've ever gotten, better than my main touring/recording Les Paul with Bareknuckle pickups. It's not MY sound as much as the Les Paul, since I don't play straight up stoner doom and I need a reasonable clean sound out of the bridge pickup, but it is a great sound. I think it would work for any kind of high-gain rock where smooth, singing distortion is required without fartiness or mud or scratchy ice-picky highs.

The weird thing is that I can't imagine Rio Grande intended the pickup to be used this way. I think they just stuck two MG singles together and called it a humbucker. It's probably an accident that it works so well for extreme sounds. At this point I've made peace with its eccentricities and would probably never get rid of it. That Tele will do Tele sounds with both pickups in single-coil mode, but in humbucking mode it is an outrageous and unique instrument.

HTH

matt