My new Telecaster sounds like a fucking anvil! Help needed

[Backe]

Hi guys! I bought a Telecaster the other day, a Korean-made Lite Ash series with Seymour Duncan alcino2s stock, and after setting it up it plays like a dream. I got great intonation with the three saddle vintage bridge, and got the strings super low without any buzz. The problems start when I jack it in and crank the gain.

This sound clip helps to explain the things written below:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10612702/Telecaster_Problem.mp3
(chain: Telecaster -> Blackstar HT-Dual (emulation out) -> Mackie CR1604 (line-in and direct-out again, for monitoring) -> ESI Juli@)

First of all, the grounding/shielding is complete shit, when it sits in my lap it picks up my cellphone in my pocket (things being sent/recieved as ticks) which is pretty fucking insane. Second, it hums like a transformer station on both the bridge and neck setting, but not in the middle, which I find weird. Third, the bridge pickup is super duper hexa octa mega fucking sensitive. Again, if it sits in my lap and I'm wearing jeans, the friction between my pants and the lacquer sounds like a door squeek being amplified. And if I so much as tap a metal part with the pick (not playing, litterary tapping guitar parts, on a guitar body) the whole guitar sounds like a tin can.

Now, I know how to shield the pickups with copper foil and solder some extra grounding wires. But as for the rest of these issues, I'm completely clueless. I'd really appreciate some advice on what to do. The guitar is bought used, meaning there's no warranty or anything. The guys at guitar center don't know much more than me, and will probably charge more than I paid for the guitar just to look at it.

I've tried altering the chain, going straight to the soundcard, different cables etc. Going through sims instead of the Blackstar pedal I bought today.

Any help is appreciated!
Thanks in advance

 

[raisedfist]

Yo. I had one of those a few years back and the first one I got had to go back as it was just totally fucked. THe neck plate was not flush and the nut was horrid.
I mainly used the pups in mix but I seem to remember the bridge pickup being a bit noisy. I reckon swap out all the wiring and capacitors as I just changed the pickups in a squier bass with similar problems and I need to just start from scratch under the hood as a good starting point....

 

[Sloan]

Single coil pickup.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

Microphonic pickups man, its kind of part of the classical tele, if you want to get rid of that you will have to upgrade to some high gain single coil pickups. To some old school tele users that is blasphemy but with stock pickups you really can't get anything too crunchy without issues. Teles were really made for clean chicken pickin' sounds.

 

[006]

You need a humbucker in the bridge man.

 

[JeffTD]

You guys are nuts. Teles weren't made for "chicken picken'" and you don't need a humbucker. The after-chug plinking; have you muted the strings above the nut to make sure those aren't leaking through? That happens with most guitars but the timbre of a Tele can accentuate it.

Your main issue is that the A2P pickup isn't designed for high-gain use; if you want Tele tone but in a heavier context, you're going to want to replace it with something a bit beefier. My personal favorite is the Jerry Donahue bridge pickup but there are a lot of other ones that will work, too.

 

[Strachan of D]

if its a Microphonic pickup just get them wax potted . that always sorts out things like that out

 

[Jordon]

Single coils guitars, Teles, soapbar-equipped guitars, are FANTASTIC for heavy stuff, if you can tame the noise. It's really hard to beat their punch and clarity if tracked properly.

 

[Grease-Bear]

Simply the fact that the bridge is so fixed to the guitar that the sustain and vibration will be amplified in comparison to other guitars. also those microphonic pickups will even catch your voice if your yelling to close to it. Also on a lot of the tele re-issues they would wire them so that when the switch is in the second position it wires the two pickups together to create a humbucker like effect. I would just get a modernized bridge pickup and you'll be good, even if not a humbucker a modern pickup will reduce the noise by quite a bit.

 

[jeid]

You guys are nuts. Teles weren't made for "chicken picken'" and you don't need a humbucker. The after-chug plinking; have you muted the strings above the nut to make sure those aren't leaking through? That happens with most guitars but the timbre of a Tele can accentuate it.

Your main issue is that the A2P pickup isn't designed for high-gain use; if you want Tele tone but in a heavier context, you're going to want to replace it with something a bit beefier. My personal favorite is the Jerry Donahue bridge pickup but there are a lot of other ones that will work, too.

+1

I've had Teles all of my playing life and even the Telecaster I just built with ultra care and attention to detail, has what Jeff just described (noise from behind the nut)

If the pickups are microphonic, and it sounds like they are, replace them. They don't seem like the right pickups for you anyway. I've got Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders in my Telecaster and they have a bit more beef. The Jerry Donahue pickup is also a nice sounding single.

If you want big humbucker sounds, buy a Les Paul or something.

 

[Fragle]

sort of going off topic, but does anyone know which pickups jari / wintersun is using in his tele?