Highway one tele - Pickup Suggestions and 3 way or 5 way

I just picked up a highway one with a rosewood fret board. The guitar is quite light weight but very good acoustic qualities. I actually think it has a one piece body ...

Anyway I am looking at in the near future replacing the pickups. I think they are the weak link in this guitar. I was wondering of perhaps you could help me narrow down my selections. I play clean low gain blues and some classic rock but mostly blues style about 80% to 90% of the time. I do dabble (or try) in playing clean jazz so a good warm neck pickup is a prerequisite in my selection be it full size humbucker, mini humbucker or tele pickup. Splitable humbucker is not out of the question too but I am little apprehensive to getting into 5 way switches or getting too complex with switching. Anyone find 5 way switching too cumbersome in live situation? I am just curious.

I was also curious of noiseless bridge positions pickups that still have good quality single coil tone (Area T or Hot T?). Also a bridge in combination with a humbucker or mini humbucker do you recommend a higher output bridge?

Here are some thoughts I was thinking:

1) Firebird pickup neck, standard tele bridge (3 way)
2) Mini humbucker neck, Standard tele bridge (3 way)
3) PAF Neck, Standard Tele bridge or noiseless or stacked bridge. (considering a 5 way to split the humbucker)

Anyway I know this contains several questions so I appreciate the efforts.

I think a Mini Humbucker (DiMarzio's is amazing in the neck) would cover a lot of that ground; pair it with an Area Hot T to catch up with that neck pickup and you'll have an awesome pairing.

Here's a demo:

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Go w the 5 way. HB of any kind neck, trad bridge. Have N, B, N and B parallel, and for the other 2: N thru B series and B thru N series. N thru B gives a darkish, rich tone great for slow Blues w plenty of warmth for jazz. Great harmonic content. B thru N emphasises the mids, good hard rock tone. Articulate when clean. Wiring isn't that hard. Phostenix,s site has it, and I'd be happy to help as well. Half a HB is half a good idea.

I just changed the pickups in my MIM Tele to an off-the-menu set of David Allen pickups: Alleycats humbucker in the neck and Bluescat singlecoil with solid copper baseplate in the bridge. David suggested this combo based upon my preferences (I mostly play blues and classic rock).

I'm really happy with this set. They balance really well. The Alleycats humbucker is a lower output Alnico II pickup modeled after mid to late 50s PAFs. And the Bluescat pickup is a slightly hotter Alnico V Tele bridge pickup where the solid copper baseplate helps smooth out the top end a bit.

I have it all wired to a 3 way switch (I could have split the bucker but chose not to), 500k volume and tone pots, 0.022 uF tone cap, and a 240k resistor across the bridge pickup to keep the 500k pots from making it sound too ice picky.

Like I said, this set was not listed on David's website, but I emailed him anyway, just in case he was willing to put together a set that would fit my needs. He was super helpful and responsive to all of my questions. I would definitely recommend shooting David an email to see if he can help you. Believe me, all the great things you may have read about David and his pickups are true.

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. I am leaning toward this setup:

SD Seth Lover neck and Area Hot T for the bridge. I may use the Toneshaper wiring to give me easy 3 way - 500K for neck and 250 for bridge. Any forseable issues with this setup?

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. I am leaning toward this setup:

SD Seth Lover neck and Area Hot T for the bridge. I may use the Toneshaper wiring to give me easy 3 way - 500K for neck and 250 for bridge. Any forseable issues with this setup?

Seth Lover and Area Hot T pickups are both great. I say go for it.

I'm a big fan of the 4 way switch on a Tele.

1 = bridge
2 = bridge/neck parallel
3 = bridge/neck series
4 = neck

I'm a big fan of the 4 way switch on a Tele.

1 = bridge
2 = bridge/neck parallel
3 = bridge/neck series
4 = neck

Same here, but shouldn't 3 and 4 be the other way around? In my guitar they are.

I also use a push/pull tone pot to invert the phase of the neck pup. Seldom used, but I like having the feature.

Perhaps not exactly what you're searching for, but the CS '51 Nocasters sound great in a Highway One.
BTW: Not to offend you, but your guitar most certainly has a 3 piece body. But that doesn't mean anything imho

I think the 4-way switch has potential. I'd actually suggest going the opposite direction for good jazz tones - get pickups that can produce highend well and without harshness, and turn down your treble control at the amp. You can achieve this pretty easily with either Bill Lawrence's Keystones or microcoils (true singles with significantly less noise and greater clarity). Depends what sort of amp you use, but with a Fender-style, this helps avoid a huge boost the treble control introduces lower in the upper mids (1-2 kHz especially) that doesn't sound great with all styles. It's easier to have the highs there than to add them when they're not, which is what the treble control is used for with most pickups.

http://www.gmarts.org/pix/amps/a_fender_treb.gif

As you can see, the control is ineffective at adding highend. Sweet highs start at 6 kHz and won't make the tone "brighter", sparkle occurs above 4 kHz, and the really unpleasant harsh/bright tones generally accentuate somewhere between 3-4 kHz. If you have a pickup that produces content 4 kHz and above well, you can get all the clarity, sparkle, sweet highs, etc without getting a harsh or unpleasant tone. It just might require turning the treble control between 2 and 3 to get it exactly where you want.

Same here, but shouldn't 3 and 4 be the other way around? In my guitar they are.

Mine, too.
While I understand the back-to-front layout logic of having the 4th position for neck, I have my 3rd position for neck, and 4th for neck and bridge in series, as well. This configuration makes it easier for me get to the hotter and thicker series position on the fly, for a solo.

I'm looking at 4-way switch too. I was at first thinking of a bridge coil split on a stacked single coil, but from what I've heard, you don't get either a good humbucker or a good single coil tone from a stacked coil. I read that the David Grissom PRS has a split where one side is 3/4 of the pair to keep it beefier when you split.

(The tone Chrismo's minibucker at the neck sounds nice too.)

I think the 4-way switch has potential. I'd actually suggest going the opposite direction for good jazz tones - get pickups that can produce highend well and without harshness, and turn down your treble control at the amp. You can achieve this pretty easily with either Bill Lawrence's Keystones or microcoils (true singles with significantly less noise and greater clarity). Depends what sort of amp you use, but with a Fender-style, this helps avoid a huge boost the treble control introduces lower in the upper mids (1-2 kHz especially) that doesn't sound great with all styles. It's easier to have the highs there than to add them when they're not, which is what the treble control is used for with most pickups.

http://www.gmarts.org/pix/amps/a_fender_treb.gif

As you can see, the control is ineffective at adding highend. Sweet highs start at 6 kHz and won't make the tone "brighter", sparkle occurs above 4 kHz, and the really unpleasant harsh/bright tones generally accentuate somewhere between 3-4 kHz. If you have a pickup that produces content 4 kHz and above well, you can get all the clarity, sparkle, sweet highs, etc without getting a harsh or unpleasant tone. It just might require turning the treble control between 2 and 3 to get it exactly where you want.

It is funny you mention Bill Lawrence pickups as I have been looking at these with some detail and have actually pretty much reversed my thought process on my original post. I am seriously looking at Bill Lawrence but not decided if Keystones, The noiseless L200TN (there seem to be varying numbers which are not explained 290, 280 etc), or the dual blade. I have heard of some people using the dual blade in the bridge and the L280TN in the neck. I have heard the standard noiseless on youtube and they sound pretty nice. Any comments on what might fit my taste as mentioned in my previous post? I am going to probably use a 4 way with these.

Any advice on which pickup model?

Same here, but shouldn't 3 and 4 be the other way around? In my guitar they are.

I also use a push/pull tone pot to invert the phase of the neck pup. Seldom used, but I like having the feature.

Yeah, I didn't list them in any particular order. I just meant to show the 4 available settings with the 4 way. my bad.

It is funny you mention Bill Lawrence pickups as I have been looking at these with some detail and have actually pretty much reversed my thought process on my original post. I am seriously looking at Bill Lawrence but not decided if Keystones, The noiseless L200TN (there seem to be varying numbers which are not explained 290, 280 etc), or the dual blade. I have heard of some people using the dual blade in the bridge and the L280TN in the neck. I have heard the standard noiseless on youtube and they sound pretty nice. Any comments on what might fit my taste as mentioned in my previous post? I am going to probably use a 4 way with these.

Any advice on which pickup model?

My only experience with Bill Lawrence's pickups is with the Keystones, but with a 4 way and using the tone knob to taste, I can get very good jazz tones from both the neck and the series position, in addition to getting superior blues and R&B tones from the neck, and, when cranked, ballsy rock tones from the series. All for $90! (The cost of Keystones + a 4way.)

This link below from his website will give you more info on the differences between his various noise-free models. And even though the Keystones (microcoils, too) are true single coils, they are extremely quiet, as well.

http://www.wildepickups.com/Wilde_Bill_s_NF_Singles.html

It is funny you mention Bill Lawrence pickups as I have been looking at these with some detail and have actually pretty much reversed my thought process on my original post. I am seriously looking at Bill Lawrence but not decided if Keystones, The noiseless L200TN (there seem to be varying numbers which are not explained 290, 280 etc), or the dual blade. I have heard of some people using the dual blade in the bridge and the L280TN in the neck. I have heard the standard noiseless on youtube and they sound pretty nice. Any comments on what might fit my taste as mentioned in my previous post? I am going to probably use a 4 way with these.

Any advice on which pickup model?

They'd all be great choices. The L48TL (dual blade bridge) has a very sweet tone with a smooth attack and high sensitivity to playing technique, tonal variances and dynamics. The L200/202 is a pretty straightahead classic Fender tone but with greater clarity and superior highs (6 kHz+). The L280 is more versatile generally but more difficult to setup, but isn't usually offered for the bridge (used to be, though). The L290 is similar to the L280 but darker, while the L298 has very rich lows and a strong voltage output but is best used with the Q-filter, which you would perhaps also want to use with the L290. The L280/290/298TL are more sensitive to the bridge plate they're used with compared with the L48/L200, not because of a flaw in the construction, but because they directly sense the bridge plate for an "omni-directional" performance that helps get an amazing classic Tele sound - it also requires the bridge plate be secured firmly to the body or that the plate isn't ferromagnetic. The L48TL will give more consistent results than all the rest regardless of cable length, partially due to its low inductance (the pickup's inductance interacts with cable capacitance to give the pickup coloration, rolling off highend above).

For the neck position, there's no dual blade model for Tele (some people use the Strat-sized L45 with great results). The L200/202 is comparatively low inductance and gets beautiful highs, as mentioned before. The L280 is also a bit more versatile in this position but has a little bit more of an upper-mid presence. I don't know what other options are available, as I don't think the L290/L298 are consistently available for the neck position, but I really wouldn't push most people in that direction regardless for a neck pickup.

edit: Also, worth checking out the microcoils. They have greater immunity to noise than a traditional Fender-style pickup. Part of this is through getting rid of a considerable amount of the surface area. Here, they're compared with the CS 69:

http://images.yuku.com/image/jpg/ed3361405b10bd5441db9e472fb059d0e34b9856_r.jpg

Their coil has a much higher winding density. A classic Fender pickup has 180 turns per square, best case, while the micros are much closer to 440, which raises voltage output considerable. The small coil and the magnetic circuit work together for a much more efficient pickup. They're also releasing a noise-canceller for it for those who play in very high-gain contexts and want to get rid of the last bit of noise in those circumstances.

I appreciate all the feedback. I actually just placed an order with Bill and Becky Lawrence. I picked up the L-48TL and an L-45S for the neck.