Middle Pickup on Tele for Blues

I'm new here, and need help deciding what middle pickup to install in my Tele.

I have an American Standard Telecaster. It has Alnico 5 pickups which I'm fine with for now. But I want to install a colorful pickup in the middle for a bluesy, mid-range sound. I'm thinking of artists like John Mayer, David Gilmour, SRV. I would like the price range to be around $50. And hopefully it would mesh great with the Tele neck and bridge.

Any help, advice or direction to threads would be great! Thankyou!

Well, I guess since you are going nashville you want to go with a start pup. My nashville has tex/mex pups. They are overwound alincos have a little more treble. Texas specials have a little more mid presence. I don't know about Gilmore tones though.

I have a seymour duncan duckbucker strat pickup I got used off eBay. I like it a lot. I really like the middle and front pups together and feel like that is all my tele's miss. I've become a big fan of the Nashville setup! I think I got mine for $60-70.

Since you only need one pickup, it will be more of a challenge because most are sold in sets. I'd reccomend the Seymour Duncan SSL-1.

Wow you guys are really helping out a lot! Please continue to give me more tips. There's a couple other things I want to consider. I don't know a lot about pickups and how hot certain ones are, or how soft. But I would like the middle pickup to be at the same level as my Alnico 5's. Also, this is a small thing, I would like the pickup to come in white.

Leave it alone, the tele middle position is great for blues as-is.

Leave it alone, the tele middle position is great for blues as-is.

ya, tell Robert Cray that :razz:


I have a Nashville Tele I installed Keystone Tele pups and also put a Custom Shop Texas Special Strat middle in it and it sounds fantastic with the others, especially the bridge !

Maybe another to consider is a Tex Mex, you could buy one of them pretty cheap and give it a try. Very nice pups they are.

I love Van Zandt Blues pickups and have them in the middle position of almost every one of my Teles and Strats (eight guitars).

S Mac

Hey guys thanks a lot for your help. I ordered some middle Texas Specials from Amazon for $50. I'm really looking forward to installing it and thanks again!

It may be a bit wacky, but I think a lipstick pickup sounds great in the middle.

The main thing is watch for both wind and magnet direction as most modern T sets are rwrp, so there is a good chance either position 2 or 4 will give you trouble.

there is an adventure over every hill -- Pooh