Strat tone from a Tele? (Don't shoot me)

[midwayfair]

When I think of a stock Tele body, this is what comes to mind:

Older ones are like that, so you still see them that way for partscasters, but the bodies on normal teles from Fender are routed for H-S-H, so they can use the same body for dozens of models.

[GermanCdn]

I think post 2012, American Standards and Deluxes are routed for middle and neck pickups (I say 2012 cause my 2011 Std wasn't, and 2012 was a redesign year for the Am Stds).  MIM Deluxes I think have a swimming pool route under the PG.  Pre 2012, you'd be hard pressed to find a non-Nashville body with a middle pickup route IIRC (I can't remember ever pulling the pickguard off a tele and seeing a 3 pup route, but I haven't owned a Fender tele newer than 2011).

RIs, Vintage series, Classic Vibes, Highway 1s (and possibly American Specials), and Thinlines don't have middle pickup routes.  Safe bet - if it's got a three barrel saddle, it probably won't have a middle pickup route, if it's got a six saddles, it likely does.

[Guybrush]

Mine is a pre 2012 American Deluxe. I've just checked and it's got routing for a 3rd middle pickup.

[JoeDorcia]

I'd just like to clear something up...

The middle pickup on Strat is NOT out of Phase. Reverse Wound and Reverse Polarity is very different from out of phase. Reverse Wound and Reverse Polairty (RWRP) pickups are used to cancel hum, hence why positions 2 and 4 on strat cancels any hum you may hear from using positions 1/3/5. Out of phase switches the ground and hot connections that gives a different sound, much thinner, tinny and more of an effect rather than a usable sound.

The Neck pickup on most Teles will be RWRP so that it cancels the hum between the neck and bridge pups. If you wanted to add a middle pickup (this would get closest to the strat tone) you would have to replace the neck pickup too, so only the middle pickup is RWRP. Otherwise you would no get the hum cancelling and sound that this creates.

My suggestion, get a fresh set of pickups, Tele neck, RWRP Strat Mid, Tele Bridge, 5-way switch and stick an EQ box on your board to target the high mids that the tele creates (via its body shape and string through bridge). Use the EQ around 1-3kHz as previously mentioned, dip those and you should get a much quckier, hollower sound in strat territory.

Anyone else you refers to RWRP as out of phase shall now be shot 
ahahahahaaaaa....

[jball85]

I highly recommend asking some of your questions at the tdpri.com forum, if you haven't already.