i just got my guitar center order in today. i got a new DiMarzio DP112 Bridge pup and a DP177 True Velvet Neck pup for my tele. i plan on installing them tomorrow night so when i do, i'll make a post here.

The birdseye maple neck sounds like a wonderful choice, I plan on acquiring one in the near future for an arctic white mex tele.

Lindy Fralin blues special, ummm, I had a good run with the Fender Custom Shop Texas Specials. And actually, I have been looking at the Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro APTL-1 bridged myself, but honestly, I have no real info on it.

Ive never played any DiMarzio Tele pups, how is the bridge you speak of Hetjr? Oh... please let me know how that bridge pup sounds after its installed. Im really curious to try out some new pup combos.

I did some reading up on the DiMarzio website, as i cannot find any other reviews on either of the pups. The DP112 Pre-B is supposed to be a bit meatier than the King Twang.

"There are two kinds of Tele® players: country pickers for whom twang is king (we don’t make Twang King™ pickups for nothing, right?), and players of blues and rock who need less high end snap and more low-end muscle. We’re not talking imitation humbucker-sound here. The Pre B-1™ maintains a lot of the basic character of the Tele® bridge position, but the sound is bigger. It can still cut through a mix, but it will fill more space, as well. It also has about 25% more power than a stock Tele® bridge pickup. That means thicker overdrive and more sustain from your favorite tube amp."

as for the True Velvet:

"Tele® neck pickups are finicky creatures. Players have often complained that they’re too weak, too muddy, and just don’t sound good. The Twang King™ Neck solved these problems, and we’ve taken it to the next level with the True Velvet™ T Neck. The low strings are as big and clean sounding as they are with the Twang King™, the highs are smoother, and the attack is stronger. This combination of qualities allows the True Velvet™ T to sound both pretty and tough.

Recommended For: Standard Tele® neck position.

Tech Talk: Like the Twang King™, the True Velvet™ T features controlled-tension coil-winding, special wire and hand-calibrated magnets. It also has an unplated nickel cover for the purest sound, and it's wax-potted twice for squeal-free performance. "


...of course none of this means anything until it's heard in practice. So we shall see!

I was looking at the DiMarzio Area T from the neck and bridge, but I just don't know. If I want a more bluesy sound, I can go with any of my strats, or my Les Paul. I want the tele to be bright and punchy. Something that gives me that twang I often hear in rock-a-billy, and that sparkely/stereo chorus sound in country music. I would prefer single coil humbuckers, but not if I can't get that sound. Joe Barton makes a Danny Gatton style bridge with a slight cutaway. That's probably the bridge I'll go with.

I swapped out the pups in my Tele with a Dimarzio ToneZone in the bridge, its better than stock and I like it but it's not mind-blowing.

In the neck, however, I put a GFS Fat body that I love. It's built with pole pieces from a bass pickup and sounds sweet!

It doesn't really twang so much, but it's chrystal clear and sings so smooth and warm. The best part is most of the GFS pups are less than $40!

Check out www.guitarfetish.com.

well, i got the stuff all wired up but i forgot strings, which i picked up one the way home from work today. will finish tonight.

oh, i should note that not only did the pups not come with any form of installation instructions, the DiMarzio website didn't have any either. Also, the DP112 (bridge pup) only came with 2 mounting screws and springs.... and ya need 3 so i had to root around and i found on old screw and spring from and old humbucker. I had to cut the screw in half but it worked out all right so far.

i LOVE the DP177 True Velvet Neck! It's got a good bit of bite with a nice amount of twang. I'd say it's def leaning more toward a rock/blues twang than a country twang though. I'd say it doesn't have the traditional twang that would come with a higher end stock Fender Tele. Mostly because it does have a boost in low end. It's not tinny or muddy at all. Very warm sounding. I've got a Boss ME-50 and I was tooling around with some of the harder metal settings (think MT-2) and the sound was very ballsy. Some serious crunch. I'd say it's currently, it's the best pickup I've ever tried.


The DP112 Pre B-1 doesn't have the twang you'd want. Actually, it's fairly sans-twang. Again, very ballsy. Lot more low end than stock. Very pronounced tone, like the DP177. Very Clear and biting. I'd say for what I wanted it was a good choice.

Both pickups have a moderate to high output. Although, I think my ground solder might not have set right and popped off because i'm getting a fair bit of buzz.

I don't really know much about tele's except my experience with them when I was in highschool and played around on one while helping set up someone's gear at a school talent show was that it was very prone to feedback when you put more than just a slight overdrive on it for distortion.

Maybe that was just my inexperience... I know that I loved the tone of Albert Colins and some of the nicest sounding clean tones I've ever heard were done with a tele.

My buddy has one, and he says go with the standard lipstick, and the regular singlecoil at the angle, on the bridge. I just talked to him about it, and he builds guitars on a regular basis.

just ordered a bunch of copper shielding tape. gonna take everything off and coat the cavities and underside of the pickguard with it. see if that kills the buzz.

The neck should come tomorrow. I aquired a pickguard, control plate, bridge, pots, knobs, and pickup switch. I just need to get the pickups, jack, and tuners. I love the idea of building an $1,100 guitar for $400!