Bubba: just get ‘blank’ strat pickguard and cut the holes yourself. It’s not difficult to do, you just need some hand tools. GuitarFetish sells an (otherwise blank) single-humbucker pickguard that you can customize with tele-sized mounting holes. $14 – way cheaper than two decent strat pickups.
Yep, I checked out some pickguards. Seems like I just couldn’t find the right one (the one you linked to is 11 holes where mine is an 8 holer) I considered getting or cutting a blank and then cutting out my own slots etc. I even thought of ways to hot glue some extension plastic on the existing Pickguard. Since its a “for tone” and not a “for looks” guitar I wouldn’t really much care if it looked a little rough. But then I thought of the time it would take to totally disassemble the existing pickguard and wiring and if I was going to go through all of that process I might as well replace the switches knobs electronics etc (blank pickguard project) or I’d be spending a few hours trying to retrofit the old pickguard and I came to the realization that right now I have more money than common since or patience and Amazon Prime can have two PU’s that fit on my doorstep by Wednesday afternoon… and I caved. Besides, now I have an excuse to pick up a tele later or some bargaining chips to trade later.
BubbaDog, you’re talking about using Tele bridge pickups? Yeah, those would be a challenge to fit on a Strat. Besides the pickguard woes, you’d have to enlarge some cavities in the body too.
I seem to remember seeing some Teles with Strat electronics; 3 single coil pickups (with the bridge pickup slanted) and 3 knobs. I think G.E. Smith (when he was the musical director and band leader on SNL played one occasionally). I don’t know if that was a factory job or custom.
Clarifying question: do your Tele pickups have the same footprint as the Strat pickups? I am trying to figure this out: standard Tele pickups are bridge and neck. Neck is a little chrome-covered job. The bridge appears to have a similar long oval shape of a Strat pickup, but under the bridge is a bigger rounded trapezoid-ish shape. If that type of Tele pickup is what you are trying to fit into a Strat pickguard, I can imagine there might be issues. They are nothing like a Strat pickup and would stink in the mid or neck position.
If I am completely misreading the question, sorry.
GE Smith is known for his signature Tele, with an exposed bridge pickup - the bridge is cut away to expose it. GE feels this adds to a tone closer to a pedal steel - the neck inlays of his sig are based on a pedal steel, too. And because GE (so incorrectly ;)) favors a heavyish guitar, his Tele’s tend to come in close to 9 lbs…
Check this out:
Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge doing “Mean Mother Blues” on a couple of nice old Martins. Virtuoso picking but fun and melodic, too.
I had ordered two tele neck PUs (Seymour Duncan STR-2 and STR-3) to replace my strat neck and middle pickups. Both were variations of the chrome covered job. The surprise to me was that the tele neck pus have a slightly smaller shape and even though the pole pieces will line up just right the mounting holes for the PUs are inset a little bit. Unfortunately the tele mounting holes line up right on the edge of the strats pickguard edge.
Wow! Thanks for that. I was unaware those guys had an album out before about ten minutes ago. But thanks to the Internet I have it now, cranked up to a high volume.
Ah, there ya go. Yeah, you could get a custom-cut pickguard, but seems like a lot of work. Folks are usually figuring out ways to replace that pickup - with a humbucker like Keef has there, or a P-90 or even a super-old-fashioned Charlie Christian pickup off the first Gibson electrified guitars…
Pork Rind - I know, right? Good stuff.
I prefer the mini-humbucker. But yes, nobody thinks much of the OEM lipstick tube PU.
Loved it, but I always feel like I need to go home and apologize to my guitars after seeing a performance like that.
I just want to go home and give mine away. 
Read the article - thanks! Kinda frustrated I wasn’t aware of it - I read the New Yorker, but I swear I only skip over some of each issue’s articles ;).
Trivia: In the photo accompanying the article, they are sitting on steps leaning against a screen door. That’s the entrance to Retrofret (taken from the inside), my favorite old instrument shop, in Brooklyn. It’s address is 233 Butler, which Lage used as the name of a song - I have linked to his solo version of it in the past - he’s playing a '29? Gibson L-5 - swoon:
I think I have mentioned the Retrofret’ers have told me that Julian loved a guitar I have now, my '31 Gibson L-1 - and borrowed it a few months at one point for studio work, I believe. Yay.
Have you ever tried to ‘find’ it in his recordings?
You know, I haven’t. A quick Google doesn’t point to any geek liner notes where his instruments are listed by tracks. I will have to think about this. It kind of kind of doesn’t matter - if I find it, it will no doubt intimidate me ;). That guy can play. So nimble and melodic. I am nowhere close to his thumb-on-back, splay-fingered precision. So fun.
How Stupid is Bubbadog, part 2
A few weeks ago I came across a Gretsch G9201 Honeydipper at my local guitar shop. I had wanted a resonator for a long time so I fell in love and started making plans to acquire it. Looking around my guitar room I figured that it was getting too crowded with guitars (lovely problem to have) and that one of them needed to go before I snatched the Honeydipper.
About four years ago I picked up a used Ibanez Ragtime Special that the previous owner had modified with a brass bridge and nut. It had a delightful sound although the string spacing had kind of shifted too close to the lower edge of the fretboard. Still I liked the guitar but I had another acoustic (Recording King) that sounded better and after adding an LR Baggs Soundhole had a gorgeous plugged in sound. The fact that I could plug in the RK made it my hands down favorite over the Ragtime.
So I pretty much had my mind made up to push the Ragtime out the door. I did some research and saw that the Ragtime was pretty rare but being a mid priced guitar that rarity didn’t seem to drive the price much (I think the rarity of the guitar was matched by a rarity of active buyers) Still I could probably get enough out of it to draw close to even for a new Gretsch.
So, I sat down and noodled around on the Ragtime, getting ready to give it a good cleaning and new strings to make it look it’s best for selling. I peered down to the bottom of the guitar through the sound hole and saw A WIRE?.
I thought, “What the hell? This isn’t an electric acoustic!?”. Flipped the guitar upright and sure enough there it was. The endpin had been replaced with an endpin jack. Now I had installed the LR Baggs on my Recording King myself and had drilled, reamed , and installed an endpin jack into that one. You’d think I would have noticed that jack on another guitar.
So, the previous owner had done more than just replace the nut and bridge.
Here it is. A guitar that I’ve owned for four years and I didn’t even know it had an electric pickup in it. :smack: Worst part. I won’t tell you what I did for a living for 30 years but if you guessed electrical engineer you’d be right.
Immediately plugged it in and got a sound from it that rivaled the RK.
I’m gonna find another guitar to get rid of. Or find a bigger room.
I vote bigger room, or start hanging them off the walls…
In our house, when someone 'fesses up early on a bit of self-induced silliness, we subject them to a Ritual Mocking™, and then are done with it, with no further mention allowed.
So, here is your Ritual Mocking:
::stands and points finger at you::
Mock mock mock mock mock mock mock mock mock mock!!! 
::Sits down::
That will be all.
(too funny - I hate it when stuff like that happens…)
They are.
My GAS has resulted in 9 guitars hanging from the walls. Walking into my guitar room would give anyone the false impression that I am capable of playing them.
There’s a various assortment of electric acoustic 12 string bass etc. put them all together and they might be worth almost as much as one of Wordman’s better guitars…almost. But I love them all.
I’ve decided to dump one of my Fernandes Nomads they’re a gimmick guitar, popular in Japan. They have an on-board amp and a speaker in the body, but they can plug in if you want. They only have one pickup but its a nice crunchy humbucker on the bridge.
Here’s a demo of a guy playing a standard model which I have.
Another demo of a guy playing a Nomad Delux which has on-board sound effects. Neither demo has them playing the on board speaker.
They are both fun but the novelty wears off after a while. Only problem is that I’ll have to take them to Ebay to get a decent price and it’ll probably be an offer overseas.
Wordman,
Ouch
OK, I’m over it.
Now, I’ve seen Andy McKee on Youtube and am blown away by Rodrigo Y Gabriela’s percussive style but this…this…this. I don’t even know where to start learning how to play this. I started watching a bunch of Justin King vids and I just want to go home now and burn my guitars…wow.