swaping out the humbucker?

I have customshop with a 59 S.D. HB. at the neck that im not crazy about. The tone is a bit muddy. I would like to switch it to a single coil. What pup would work well with the bridge pup? Its a brodcaster pup. Thanks!!

I'm a big fan of the twisted tele. What about changing a pot value or cap? Try a 500k pot in the volume and maybe a .033 cap? Should brighten it up some and be a lot cheaper than a new pup.

Almost any HB at the neck on a tele will be a bit bass-heavy - I had same thing with a D'Imarzio PAF.

I read somewhere that the Eric Johnson Dimarzio solves the problem.

Or you could dial back the bass control on the amp a couple of numbers which is what I started doing to avoid the issue.

That's funny - I use humbuckers in the Neck position because I find Tele neck pickups too dark, clotted, and muddy. Several winders now are addressing the issue with a new wind, such as the Fralin/Analogman Big T, Fender Twisted Tele, Don Mare S-Telly, etc. But I find most Teles the front pickup is real muddy. My favorite setup on a Tele is a humbucker neck pickup and the single coil bridge pickup.

I'd try a Twisted Tele or Big T (from Analogman) because any other tele neck pickup is too muddy IME. I think a lot of it has to do with that cover. Just my. 02. I prefer a Strattier tone for a Tele neck pickup.

It might be worth trying a 500K tone pot. That will brighten up the humbucker quite a bit, and many people like the sound of single coils with 500k. I know it's a $7.00 fix and not nearly as sexy as a new pickup, but it might just work. I'm assuming you've tried adjusting the pickup height already, that's my ultra-cheap solution to nearly everything.

Good suggestion.

Furthermore, if you find the bridge too bright for your tastes with the 500k pot, you can always add a resistor so that your bridge pup "sees" 250k instead.

I play in a Friday night jam band at a Velodrome (bike racing track) and have a bunch of teles. We play loud rock and roll, where tonal finesse is out the window. I just got home from playing 2.5 hours straight. My left hand fingertips hurt, and I have a big smile on my face because we rawked tonight. I usually bring a solid state amp with a lot of grind because we sometimes have to play off a generator and sometimes get rained on :) Cube 80X is what I'm using this year.

My favorite tele in the world for this band is my "flamethrower" MIM tele with a Duncan '59 bucker in the neck, and the bridge pickup is a WAY over the top Duncan Hot Tele (16K of wire) in an ashtray bridge. I have also had a Duncan '59 bucker in the neck of a former tele, with a Rio Muy Grande in the bridge. I will note that I still have the 250k pots in this guitar, but it is not very bright so I run the treble on the amp higher than I normally would. With the Muy Grande, I ran 500K pots and used my pinky to turn down the treble on the bridge pickup when I went there.

A tele with a neckbucker can be a beautiful thing, but IMO works best with a bridge pickup that is a bit over the top itself. Otherwise the contrast and volume balance between the two pickups is a bit more than I like.

Something like the Eric Johnson bucker (which is said to sound like a filtertron) might be a real nice match with a more normal bridge pickup, and don't be afraid to run the bucker really low in the guard so you get a good balance. Alternatively, 500k pots might be a good remedy if you are prepared to knock the tone back whenever you get to the bridge pickup.

I also love minibuckers in the neck position of a tele--they are more coherent when combined with a regular tele bridge pickup. (Note that I have 5 other teles with pickups ranging from vintagey to medium hot, and none of the others have buckers.)

Good luck,
George

When I was working with a Dimarzio PAF at the neck and the original 250K pots & .47 cap in my 68 tele I had plenty of brightness/treble/highs.

Maybe even too much brightness. It was bass heavy on the 2 bottom strings compared to the other 4 strings --- not muddy but seemed out of balance.

This is a common problem with some HB pickups in teles.

I'm using a Les Paul for a thicker trio sound and have restored the original 68 pickups in my tele for when I want single coils.