good single coil bridge PU for a Paulowinia body Tele?

Hi guys,

I have a parts Telecaster with a Paulowinia body from GFS and GFS pickups in it. The body is very resonant and is pretty loud acoustically, and seems to have a very naturally bright and chimey sound, even with 11's as the string gauge.

I have a mini HB in the neck that sounds beautiful. Has the right combination of warmth and sparkliness for a very nice full sound.

There's a GFS Fatbody pickup in the bridge. It's full of high end, but is a bit too bright to be used on its own, even with the tone rolled off. It just sounds way too thin in comparison to the neck pickup. Maybe it's because the body doesn't have a ton of natural low end, but I'm not sure.

Does anybody have any recommendations for a good bridge PU? I was thinking one of the Seymour Duncan Alnico II pickups might tame the guitar a little bit, such as the Alnico 2 Pro or the Jerry Donahue pickup, as they have a little more warmth and less treble than most single coils.

Dimarzio twang king!

any quality pickup will be great….

Ron Kirn

Dimarzio twang king!

Aren't those pretty bright as well?

This one. (http://frettech.com/cavalier/)

But be careful,you may never use the neck p/up again. :wink:

Hi guys,

I have a parts Telecaster with a Paulowinia body from GFS and GFS pickups in it. The body is very resonant and is pretty loud acoustically, and seems to have a very naturally bright and chimey sound, even with 11's as the string gauge.

I have a mini HB in the neck that sounds beautiful. Has the right combination of warmth and sparkliness for a very nice full sound.

There's a GFS Fatbody pickup in the bridge. It's full of high end, but is a bit too bright to be used on its own, even with the tone rolled off. It just sounds way too thin in comparison to the neck pickup. Maybe it's because the body doesn't have a ton of natural low end, but I'm not sure.

Does anybody have any recommendations for a good bridge PU? I was thinking one of the Seymour Duncan Alnico II pickups might tame the guitar a little bit, such as the Alnico 2 Pro or the Jerry Donahue pickup, as they have a little more warmth and less treble than most single coils.

Rob Distefano from www.frettech.com cavalier pups they are great for the money

Interesting...Rob has built several P-wood Tele's. I wonder if he's ever had one sound really bright? I don't know of any body wood in that thickness that would have a low bass resonance. I think the dimensions limit the resonance to upper bass at the lowest, even with P-wood. I could be way off on that. It could be that the neck/body combo puts the guitar's resonant frequency below the range of the instrument, so it's missing that boost in the bass region? I think my Parker has a bass resonance at ~120Hz. You may be unlucky in that something in the makeup of the guitar creates a bright resonance that offsets the balance of the instrument. It's really impossible to predict these things. What kind of bridge/saddles do you have? Do you have 250k pots?

Is the neck joint really tight? Is there possibly some loose cracked finish in it, or is it shimmed? Some people think direct wood to wood contact in the neck is the best solution, but I wouldn't sand it out. It's too easy to ruin the coupling, and the angle. If your interested, I have an interesting and easy to implement neck joint idea based on the Taylor neck joint.

Interesting...Rob has built several P-wood Tele's. I wonder if he's ever had one sound really bright? I don't know of any body wood in that thickness that would have a low bass resonance. I think the dimensions limit the resonance to upper bass at the lowest, even with P-wood. I could be way off on that. It could be that the neck/body combo puts the guitar's resonant frequency below the range of the instrument, so it's missing that boost in the bass region? I think my Parker has a bass resonance at ~120Hz. You may be unlucky in that something in the makeup of the guitar creates a bright resonance that offsets the balance of the instrument. It's really impossible to predict these things. What kind of bridge/saddles do you have? Do you have 250k pots?

Is the neck joint really tight? Is there possibly some loose cracked finish in it, or is it shimmed? Some people think direct wood to wood contact in the neck is the best solution, but I wouldn't sand it out. It's too easy to ruin the coupling, and the angle. If your interested, I have an interesting and easy to implement neck joint idea based on the Taylor neck joint.

Rob built me a partcaster strat and the body is a p-wood and the is a japan (allparts) neck. I'm really impress whit the sound and the quality of the guitar, he put on a set of is own pups(SRV) 60's version of strat pups great great guitar. He's a great guy to deal whit. He would answer all your questions.

Tonerider Hot Classic

Hi guys,

I have a parts Telecaster with a Paulowinia body from GFS and GFS pickups in it. The body is very resonant and is pretty loud acoustically, and seems to have a very naturally bright and chimey sound, even with 11's as the string gauge.

I have a mini HB in the neck that sounds beautiful. Has the right combination of warmth and sparkliness for a very nice full sound.

There's a GFS Fatbody pickup in the bridge. It's full of high end, but is a bit too bright to be used on its own, even with the tone rolled off. It just sounds way too thin in comparison to the neck pickup. Maybe it's because the body doesn't have a ton of natural low end, but I'm not sure.

Does anybody have any recommendations for a good bridge PU? I was thinking one of the Seymour Duncan Alnico II pickups might tame the guitar a little bit, such as the Alnico 2 Pro or the Jerry Donahue pickup, as they have a little more warmth and less treble than most single coils.

after your playing influence, "guitar tone" is mainly a reflection of the pickups and electronics. the rest of the guitar - wood, finish, nut, saddles, tuners, et al - offer far less to the "tone" of the instrument, particularly if modulation is used and volumes are at gigging levels. body wood density will affect tone, to some degree, and typically can be heard at lower playing levels with little modulation. paulownia is particularly pleasingly resonant. so, look to the pup(s). think: alnico v mags, 42awg, high turn count.

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