Don Mare 2324's: The Secret To Roy Buchanan's "Nancy" Tone?! (& Hot Bakelite Comparison)

Disclaimer: I can't play like Roy Buchanan. If you're looking for epic Tele chops, keep scrolling...!

As regulars will know, my favourite Telecaster pickups I've ever played are the Hot Bakelites made by legendary winder Don Mare. They're just that 5% extra over everything else I've tried...there really is a 'magic' to them, for the want of a better expression.

So when another Don Mare pickup cropped up on eBay recently, I couldn't resist checking it out. It was just a solo bridge pickup - but that actually worked out well, as it was destined for my (slightly homebuilt) Esquire.

This one is a little bit different though - chasing after the legendary tone of Roy Buchanan's "Nancy" 1953 Tele. Don managed to get his hands on that guitar a good few years ago and find out its secret(s) to how Roy achieved that iconic 'piercing' tone.

The main secret was...it was broken! The bridge pickup was shorting out, but despite not giving a DC reading, still worked....it just sounded thinner and brighter than it would have been if it were fully functioning. But that was 'the' tone Don was wanting to recreate....and so, the 2324 "The Real Nancy' pickup set was born.

This particular Nancy pickup is a two-tapped pickup - meaning that it has two outputs: one for the 'broken' 4k (approx.) that Roy's pickup would have probably read were it giving a DC reading; but also a 'fixed' 6k (approx.) tap of a standard vintage-spec blackguard pickup.

But on top of that, Don told me of a wiring mod that he feels gets even closer to the Nancy tone than the 4k tap - using the full 6k, but with a high-pass capacitor wired in series (much like old Rickenbacker's did on the bridge Toasters) to shelve off the low end; leaving just the brilliant frequencies that Roy used so well.

So - I've wired all three options into my Esquire. Pos. 1 is the 6k; Pos. 2 is the 6k + the High Pass Filter capacitor; and Pos. 3 is the 4k Tap. As well as the blackguard setting, that's two different variations of the Nancy sound.....so which is closer? Today we'll be taking a look to find out.

What do you think? "Real Nancy" sounds? Which setting got closer to something resembling Roy's iconic tone? Comment below!

Amp is a Dr Z Z-Master recorded with Aston Spirit Condenser, '70s Sennheiser MD441 and sE RNR1 ribbon mics, with a Schoeps CMC6 room mic. Spring reverb is a Dr Z Z-Verb unit.

0:00 Intro
2:14 The "Nancy" Mystique
6:35 Clean Tones
10:33 Cranked Tones
14:04 Hot Bakelite + 2324 Comparison
15:53 Outro

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