Duncan pickup holes too close, won't fit

I got a Hot Lead Stack for my tele. I have a vintage style bridge for it. As soon as I saw the pickup, I noticed the adjustment screw holes appeared very close together, and there was no top adjustment slot. I'll get a picture in the moment, but I found this very odd. Maybe a different bridge would counter this, but this is visibly very different from any pickup I've seen.

What if I used double-sided tape and a piece of foam to hold the pickup in place behind the bridge? That may be the only option to get it to work.

Here's a picture that strangely resembles goatse.

http://i.imgur.com/eI2Zh.jpg

I also can't get it to wire properly. It has red, white, green, black, and bare.

I attached the black to the hot, soldered red and white together and taped off, and green and bare to the ground. Is the incorrect?

Ive got a Duncan Lead Stack in this guitar, and it fits in a regular Ashtray tele bridge.

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm308/coltwknight/IMG-20110104-00022.jpg

Red &White soldered together and taped.
Black to the switch
Greend and Bare to ground.

I had one and it fine, too. That pickup looks funny. Is there a chance that it's been modified?

Everything looks clean, doesn't look like it was ever sanded or modified.

Are you 100% sure that its a SD pickup? where did it come from?

What brand, or where did you get your bridge?

It's a Duncan, it's got a Duncan logo brazened on it, and that'd be a rough fake to make. I got it used on a forum.

The bridge came with the project body I bought, no markings, but as I said, it's the same size as every other tele bridge I have, including the Fenders I've got. It's not an issue of the bridge, it's the pickup.

I also can't get it to wire. I wired it directly to a jack and plugged the jack into an amp. It makes noise, but incredibly faint, and I tried moving things around and couldn't figure out much.

Well, I'm seeing part of the problem. The red lead is broke from the little solder cup in front, and the ground is broken from the back.

http://i.imgur.com/NKLya.jpg

I've made a makeshift connection between the grounds, but the red wire is going to be difficult. What kind of a jerk...

http://i.imgur.com/iGxXh.jpg

I attached the black to the hot, soldered red and white together and taped off, and green and bare to the ground. Is the incorrect?

This should be correct.

I also can't get it to wire. I wired it directly to a jack and plugged the jack into an amp. It makes noise, but incredibly faint, and I tried moving things around and couldn't figure out much.

A pickup isn't a microphone. You'll have to get it really close to some vibrating strings (but away from other magnets), or a tuning fork to see if it works. Even then you'll only get a real rough idea of whether it really is a good pickup or not.

It's a Duncan, it's got a Duncan logo brazened on it, and that'd be a rough fake to make. I got it used on a forum.

It's probably a Duncan, but it's probably not really a Tele Hot Stack. It's probably from a parted out non-Fender Tele clone of some sort. I'd bet that if you carefully measure the distance from the E to e magnets on this pickup and compare it to the same measurement on a known Fender pickup you'll find this pickup is slightly narrower.

It could be mounted to the body rather than the bridge, and the screw holes in the bridge filled with dummy screws, it'd be hard to adjust though. The double sided tape idea would work for a while, but when it comes loose you'll surely break wires or something.

Good luck with it...

A pickup isn't a microphone. You'll have to get it really close to some vibrating strings (but away from other magnets), or a tuning fork to see if it works. Even then you'll only get a real rough idea of whether it really is a good pickup or not.

Yes, I'm aware of this, thank you. I'm hardly shouting into it to see if it works. Generally, tapping it with a screwdriver will produce sound. This doesn't.



It's probably a Duncan, but it's probably not really a Tele Hot Stack. It's probably from a parted out non-Fender Tele clone of some sort. I'd bet that if you carefully measure the distance from the E to e magnets on this pickup and compare it to the same measurement on a known Fender pickup you'll find this pickup is slightly narrower.

It could be mounted to the body rather than the bridge, and the screw holes in the bridge filled with dummy screws, it'd be hard to adjust though. The double sided tape idea would work for a while, but when it comes loose you'll surely break wires or something.

Good luck with it...

Now I'm trying to figure out what the hell this guy did. The red wire was broke, I just soldered the one, single lead from the actual winding itself back to the red cup, and the wire from there.

However, it still doesn't seem to work right.

http://i.imgur.com/iGxXh.jpg

From this picture, I can definetly tell the bridge pup has been modified. Looks like the original bridge holes were hacked off.

You could trying soldering a jumper from the white eyelette to red one. If you can successfully resolder the pickup wires and get the pickup working again. I would suggest body mounting like a GE Smith model.

Yes, I'm aware of this, thank you.

Just to be clear, I wasn't trying to be insulting. It's hard to judge how much experience or even common sense someone has from a description of a broken pickup. Questions about things that aren't working as expected most often come from people with very basic ideas about how things work, so the tendency is to over explain. Sometimes that comes off as patronizing when the intent is to give as much useful information as clearly as possible without putting everyone to sleep.

Sorry if my response rubbed you the wrong way... but, on the other hand it looks like you're on the way to figuring this thing out.

Take care.

Just to be clear, I wasn't trying to be insulting. It's hard to judge how much experience or even common sense someone has from a description of a broken pickup. Questions about things that aren't working as expected most often come from people with very basic ideas about how things work, so the tendency is to over explain. Sometimes that comes off as patronizing when the intent is to give as much useful information as clearly as possible without putting everyone to sleep.

Sorry if my response rubbed you the wrong way... but, on the other hand it looks like you're on the way to figuring this thing out.

Take care.

No problem at all. Hard to judge tone and intention in text. Thanks for the input.

It's dead, no fixing it as far as I can tell. It's goin back.

It's dead, no fixing it as far as I can tell. It's goin back.

And I would suggest avoiding future purchases from the seller.

It's dead, no fixing it as far as I can tell. It's goin back.

Yeah, I think that's the right move. If he sold it to you without disclosing that it was modified, which it clearly was, then there's no reason for you to waste your time trying to make his junk work in your guitar. Get your money back and get one that's right. The Lead Stack is a great pickup, I hope you get all this sorted out so you can give it a whirl!