I have a '72 Telecaster that I just love: nice light resonant body, great feeling well broken in chunky neck. But, I can't stand the big bucket-o-mud that is the stock Fender humbucker...ick!
Enter Fred Hammon and the Dark Star pickup:
http://www.hammoneng.com/
I had previously tried one of these as an add-on second pup in the neck position of an OLP MM2, and really liked it. I had the OLP apart for some bench work and thought "ya know, that Dark Star is just about the same size as the Tele Mudbucker...hmmmm..."
So I got out the Tele, took it apart, and dang if the Dark Star doesn't just drop right in. The stock route is plenty big, and the Dark Star top mounts over the stock p/g hole as tho it were meant to from the factory.
I bought a new pickguard so I could pull the stock Tele pup and p/g as a unit and set them aside in case I'm ever held hostage and need a stock Tele bass as ransom money or something.
The installation process: de-tension the strings and set them out of the way. Remove the vol/tone knobs, and drop the pots into the body route. Then, sweat the Tele's stock pup wires off the volume pot, sweat the Dark Star leads on, install new guard, lay the DarkStar down, drill four 1/16" for the Dark Star surround's mounting screws, screw her down.
Tension the strings back up. Took about 1/2 an hour.
The results: great huge authoritative lows, sparkly bell like highs, killer mix cutting clarity. Sweeeeet!
Enter Fred Hammon and the Dark Star pickup:
http://www.hammoneng.com/
I had previously tried one of these as an add-on second pup in the neck position of an OLP MM2, and really liked it. I had the OLP apart for some bench work and thought "ya know, that Dark Star is just about the same size as the Tele Mudbucker...hmmmm..."
So I got out the Tele, took it apart, and dang if the Dark Star doesn't just drop right in. The stock route is plenty big, and the Dark Star top mounts over the stock p/g hole as tho it were meant to from the factory.
I bought a new pickguard so I could pull the stock Tele pup and p/g as a unit and set them aside in case I'm ever held hostage and need a stock Tele bass as ransom money or something.
The installation process: de-tension the strings and set them out of the way. Remove the vol/tone knobs, and drop the pots into the body route. Then, sweat the Tele's stock pup wires off the volume pot, sweat the Dark Star leads on, install new guard, lay the DarkStar down, drill four 1/16" for the Dark Star surround's mounting screws, screw her down.
Tension the strings back up. Took about 1/2 an hour.
The results: great huge authoritative lows, sparkly bell like highs, killer mix cutting clarity. Sweeeeet!
