Telecaster Esquire Feedback Fix - Stop Microphonic Squeal - Increase Sustain & Tone. Tutorial How To

Easy Tricks to keep Microphonics, Feedback & Squeal to a minimum in Fender Telecaster & Esquire Style Guitars.
DIY Partscaster or a factory built, that wonderful 'Tele Twang' comes at a price... potential Microphonics.
With a few tweeks you can use your Tele at Higher Gain settings and Recording without the problems caused by Microphonics, Squeal and Feedback

partcaster parts caster part caster

[mumusse]

Thanks for that vid. My telecaster was squealing so loud. Seems like everything was wrong : bridge plate not flat, springs instead of tubes, and copper base plate not properly glued to the pickup. Added some surgical tube instead of springs, glued the copperplate using heated candle wax and flattened the baseplate by adding strips of copper tape to avoid unwanted vibrations.
Its now perfectly quite.

[stevepirtle]

The common practice in the seventies when a Tele started the microphonic issue was to create a wax pot and dip the pickup. My dip has made my pickup work properly since 1979.

[markjwgraham]

Thanks for your help. I just installed a new Fender Pure Vintage 64 pickup in my Esquire and it was SUPER microphonic.

Melted wax between the bobbin and baseplate did the trick when out of the bridge, but mounting screws kept causing separation whenever I screwed it in. Had to hold the assembly together firmly to prevent further separation. Sorted now!

[daveydacusguitars]

Thanks for the wisdom.

I've wound multiple pickups with success, but I recently wound my first tele bridge pickup and it squeals with even light over drive. It's fine clean. But in a cranked amp or light overdrive its sqealing a lot.

Being a strat guy, and having wound multiple sets of strat pickups with success, I approached it the same way.

Pretty sure its plate that's causing the sqeal. I didn't know to make sure it wasn't in direct contact with the magnets. I'm going to also make sure I've got surgical tuning for the mounting screws vs springs. I honestly don't remember what's in it, but it needs to be the tubing I think.

Again thanks for the knowledge.

[HarryCan]

Thank you so much for your Tipps! It absolutely worked out for me! Additionally i added a piece of Foam in the cavaty which ads additional force on the backplate and keeps it from moving.

[Riverdeepnwide]

Another good video Roger, thank you.
There’s one more old trick for controlling a vibrating bridge plate if one doesn’t mind doing the irreversible mod to their original plate or replacing it with an aftermarket part.
An extra screw can be installed at the leading edge treble side corner of the plate to just snug it down to the body.
Some have installed one screw at each leading edge corner.
I’ve only had one Tele in the past fifty years which had a sympathetic vibration (B on this one) at that front corner but a nice little pick guard or control plate mounting screw will blend in naturally with the originals, look like it belongs there and takes care of that one errant fizzy sound which took a week to find.

[richdaigle]

Real deal guitar wisdom…many many thanks to you sir!

[GITARRENHIMMEL]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge! I play a ´73 Telecaster Custom and the bridge pick up is not really microphonic but picks up every little touch on the body. Will definitely try your ideas. Thanks Roger!

[stevespayde]

Great video, thanks for sharing your knowledge! I used to just put wax between the plate and the pickup.

[voornaam]

Thanks for explaining bridge and pickup config in a Tele. Now I really need installing a steel plate (looks like a motorbike brake pad) under my FrankenStratTele bridge pickup. There is already something, I tinkered in, but it is rather small. I bet I can get closer to the original Tele sound.

[LuisGonzalez-djbh]

Thank you for spreading your knowledge sir! Learned something new 🙌🏽.

[zrodanen]

Thank you a lot sir for your time. I will follow your instructions carefully. My last rehearsal was partly damaged by my squealing new bridge pickup that sounds very good indeed but I must have let some or all these issues on my bridgeplate pending for sure after I installed this new pickup.
Thanks again sir

[deyobraun]

I have a ‘52 reissue from 1982 and both pickups are squealing like crazy once I hit about 8 on my amp volume. I have gotten the bridge to be more manageable using your wax method between the back plate and the pickup, do you have any recommendations for the neck pickup? It doesn’t have a plate attached. Also both pickups have been wax potted, the cavity is shielded with copper tape and I have put Electrical tape of the front edge of the bridge plate. Any other suggestions would be much appreciated!

[MrTruth]

Roger my recent 68 tele arrived with original looking electronics but maybe some non original soldering ? Maybe a bad solder or ground issue as the bridge pup hums with hands off strings. There is a splayed ground wire running from the plate to ground pot.
Previous owner questioned whether bridge pup worked but it does seem too.
Other issue is neck pup tone is bit muffled ?
Tone pot varies tone somewhat. Oddly the bridge pup doesn’t seem to be affected by tone pot at all? May have to rewire the whole thing? Could try and send you pics somehow?
She’s an old crackled blonde and I want to tread carefully. Thanks

[geraldboettcher]

Should the bridge pickup be high or low..?..

[svendtveskg]

Thanks for the video, very informative, and what a nice calm voice you've got! I recently aquired a Tele, now my go-to guitar for almost any style. But the problem for me is not so much the bridge PU as the neck PU, that I use almost exclusively. I play with the fingers, i.e. no pick, and have so called gel put on my natural nails for strength (what a revelation after 45 years of playing, no more cracked nails, yes!) But the way I position my right hand makes the nail of my thumb hit the neck PU rather often, which reults in a loud, trebly click through the amp. It seems to have evolved over time, so now even hitting the scratch-plate near the PU with a nail makes a click. I go the the-guitars-volume-pot"-way, so the amp is very susceptible to this noise. Do you have a trick to remove this problem?

[alxjfos]

Hi Roger, great video, very informative. My ‘66 Hagström 12 string has some pretty bad microphonics; the squeal is most prevalent when I’m using moderate gain. I think the source of the squeal is likely the metal rings housing the single coil pickups, since whenever I tap on the rings with some gain, it causes a shrill “ping”. My question is, how would you go about dampening the vibrations of the metal rings in this particular system? The issue seems to be that the rings surround the whole pickup and are very thin, so there’s no real flat surfaces to attach some adhesive material, as you would with say, a humbucker cover. I’ve not seen this pickup mounting system used by any other brands - it seems unique to Hagström. The guitar has a Stratocaster-esque pickguard, yet has metal rings to attach the pickups to the pickguard. I’ve described the system poorly but you’ll be able to find it easily online. Thanks again and apologies for the long comment:)

[TNTGoBoomBoom]

Thank you. I will definitely look into some of these solutions

[nickf]

Just a question about the mag plate to the flat work....Ever try running fingernail polish around the entire edge where these two pieces meet? Once that sets up, it should keep the two parts married together I would think. Never tried it, just wondering if it might help?

[ekrem]

Will this work on a humbucker, i got an ibanez with dimarzio pickups, with a brass plate behind it