New Telecaster basses to hit the stores??

[user362432]

Some times ago I've got "Fender newsletter" mentioning new Squire Telecaster bass in 2 different versions. There are some videos on Youtube, too.
It looks like they are going to hit the stores soon with the price for about $300. They are 32 scale and I really have interest for that "special".

Did anyone actually tried them?
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If I can get that black one with black pick-guard, I would do it. It might be some good deals around Christmas...

Where are TBers on this one?

 

[pastorjamesc]

WE have one of the two pickup Squires in the shop. Was very interested till I plugged it in. I didn't like the sound...but that's just me. seemed to have good action and size, etc. A little on the heavy side. But just sounded puny to me.

 

[Davyo]

Yea,,, the Tele Squire looks very cool and I think sounded great on the video I watched.

Very interesting,,,, I might have to buy me one of these.

Cheers
Davyo

 

[bootsox]

I've listened to these a few times, and they always seem to have enough mud in them to make an EB0 blush but still manage to not capture the fat sound that this sort of configuration really needs to be any decent. The plain jane single coil is obviously an exception, but the two with humbuckers just sounds like a nasty fart to me

 

[GBassNorth]

I have the Modern Player Telecaster bass (butterscotch blonde with two pickups). It's a dub machine. The neck pickup is incredibly deep (and muddy) sounding probably because it's all the way at the neck heel. The bridge pickup is low but tight. I typically set the volume on the neck loud enough for a solid foundation and then dial up the bridge pickup for clarity. Fun bass to play, very much a niche bass, not one of my mains but for regae, dub or club gigs where you just want a really deep foundation and arent as concerned with hearing every note distinctly its great.
I think the pickups are split precisions in a mudbucker housing so if you can imagine putting a split p up against the neck and one up against the bridge then dialing in a balance of the two that's what you'll have. Very dark, very deep, grunts like a pig if needed.

 

[pjmuck]

I have an original '76 Tele bass with the Seth Lover mudbucker. The key to improving the tone and clarity is to remove 2 of the 4 pole pieces and string it up with flats. Also roll back your volume 50-70% and adjust with a decent amount of EQ.(I usually do a slight mid scoop/low cut since these basses can be very barky in the mids/lows).

 

[Batmensch]

I have the Modern Player Telecaster bass (butterscotch blonde with two pickups). It's a dub machine. The neck pickup is incredibly deep (and muddy) sounding probably because it's all the way at the neck heel. The bridge pickup is low but tight. I typically set the volume on the neck loud enough for a solid foundation and then dial up the bridge pickup for clarity. Fun bass to play, very much a niche bass, not one of my mains but for regae, dub or club gigs where you just want a really deep foundation and arent as concerned with hearing every note distinctly its great.
I think the pickups are split precisions in a mudbucker housing so if you can imagine putting a split p up against the neck and one up against the bridge then dialing in a balance of the two that's what you'll have. Very dark, very deep, grunts like a pig if needed.

I do believe that to be incorrect, they are the same design of humbuckers that have been around since the 70's, and NOT disguised P-bass p'ups.

 

[GBassNorth]

I do believe that to be incorrect, they are the same design of humbuckers that have been around since the 70's, and NOT disguised P-bass p'ups.

The Fender website indicates they are "modern player wide range precision bass pickups" and if you look at the poles you'll see they are staggered with the G and D poles in line closer to the neck and the A and E poles in a different line closer to the bridge. They are housed in a mudbucker housing. I haven't had the need to pop the pickups out and look at them but my guess based on pole locations and the tone they put out is that they are in fact split precisions which is kind of what the website says.
I don't currently own a 70's tele but my recollection of the few I've played is that they had all 4 poles in line on the mudbuckers, these don't. If in fact the 70's teles had pickups with staggered poles then you are correct these are similar to the 70's pickups.

 

[gurensan]

The Seth Lovers (and the Squier TEB-101 pickups) have EIGHT pole pieces. 4 inline on each coil. 2 south and 2 north, and they're flipped between the two coils (which are on separate, full-width bobbins). The cover exposes only two on each coil; the hidden pole pieces are the same as the exposed ones but are screwed in from the back and are thus upside-down and have a reversed magnetic field.

It is a full-on dual coil humbucker - the website is wrong on a lot of counts when it comes to every bass with these. They do a lot of copy/paste. The stuff about the Squier VM TBs is especially full of it. I have a sneaking hunch that the copy on the website is written wholly by non-bassist interns and not someone in the know. To think that Fender would fake out and put a P in a chrome cover when they already have at least two examples, one in current production, of the correct pickup seems incredibly dumb to me.

I have not seen the back of the pickups on the Modern Players yet, but if the Squiers are such a close copy of the Seth Lovers it would stand to reason that these would be reasonably close, too.

(pics are elsewhere on web and may or may not be cool to post but they're all I could find so here they are.)

The back of the original:
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The guts:
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The TEB-101 is identical to the original when viewed from the back; I'm not about to open up one of mine to check the guts but I really doubt they'll look any different from the pic immediately above.

It has the wrong pole screws to be a P. The originals had threaded CuNiFe magnets for poles; I'm not sure if the TEB-101 pickups have AlNiCos or something else entirely. They did a good job copying, that much I can tell you first-hand.

They're definitely not repackaged Ps!

 

[fenderslaper]

The pickups are indeed humbuckers (I have one) but have four leads coming out unlike the 70's Seth Lover model. I believe these new ones can be wired with a series/ parallel switch or split the coils. Maybe someone here with more knowledge than I can correct me if I'm wrong?

 

[grenadilla]

On the Fender demo, the best sound [for me] was both pickups together-a hi-fi blend with enough highs to balance the mudbucker. What if someone wired the bridge pickup in parallel with the 'bucker [pickup switch toward the neck] and installed the single-coil Tele pickup in the middle? It would be wired to the "bridge" position on the pickup selector . Then you could have the "original Tele" sound , the two pickup mudbucker-Jazz blend, or triple pickup extravaganza!

 

[sven kalmar]

i owned a squire (VM?)telecaster bass some time. it was a very nice bass for the price. I also had a 51 reissue at the time before they got sold...
the tele was a cool bass. nice neck..very light. The pickup was incredibly heavy sounding to the point of being too much. I kind of miss it, but prefer my roadworn. it can be quite heavy and deep too i i tweak a little..

 

[gurensan]

Yeah, the originals had only 2 leads and the current production pickups have 4.

(Edit: I have no idea how a coil split would be possible without opening the pickup case, but then I've never done one at all so I really got no clue! )

I did the series/parallel switch mod on my TB. Parallel gives somewhat less intense bass and a more cutting mid, but it's not as big a jump as I was hoping. It's not a subtle change but then it's not really all that dramatic, either.

I might buy an extra pickup and send it to Curtis Novak to see if he can do with it what he did for that EB-0 pickup up on youtube. Now THAT is dramatic!

Love the neck on the TB, too, but not a fan of the old 70's Tele neck at all.

I think the new one is the same neck as on the TB. If so, I'll like the neck at least.

 

[bassvi]

Got a Squier Tele Special on order (2-P.U. model), will report when I get it in. For the price and style, I found it too good to pass up, though if it's not a decent bass I will surely return it. I've been quite impressed with Squiers lately, hoping this is a gig=worthy instrument.

 

[fenderslaper]

My 78 Tele bass has a single coil installed in the usuall single coil spot along with a new style humbucker with the four leads at the neck. I really like this setup . I used the tone control pot for the second vol. Never use tone controls anyway.

 

[Batmensch]

The Fender website indicates they are "modern player wide range precision bass pickups" and if you look at the poles you'll see they are staggered with the G and D poles in line closer to the neck and the A and E poles in a different line closer to the bridge. They are housed in a mudbucker housing. I haven't had the need to pop the pickups out and look at them but my guess based on pole locations and the tone they put out is that they are in fact split precisions which is kind of what the website says.
I don't currently own a 70's tele but my recollection of the few I've played is that they had all 4 poles in line on the mudbuckers, these don't. If in fact the 70's teles had pickups with staggered poles then you are correct these are similar to the 70's pickups.

The Fender Tele bass mudbuckers, from the 70's on, have always had the staggered poles. These are NOT disguised P-bass pickups.