New bridge pickups?

Hi,

I have a 2011 Mexican standard tele and love the neck pickup. Not too keen on the bridge one though, looking for a more rocky sound, what should I get? Cheers.

If you want more of a humbucker sound a lot of folks like the Duncan little '59.

There are quite a few options for overwound pickups, but if you don't mind a little more expense and wait time you can always talk to a custom pickup maker. I just installed a set of Mick Brierley pickups that sound amazing, just tell him what sound you are looking for and he'll try to match it. Klein pickups also does custom winds. There are plenty of others as well.

Tele_Fan's suggestion of a Seymour Duncan Little '59 is a good one if you want a humbucker sound. There are a lot of single coil sized humbuckers to check out.

It might help if you defined your ideal sound a little more - what kind of rock? Are you looking to darken the tone, or just want more output/treble/midrange...?

CV 50's Alnico III bridge pups run right at 9k. They can definitely rock, and for small money too. They are available on ebay for 25 bucks. Just sayi'n. Good luck!

There was an awful lot of good Rock music made on vintage teles from Keith Richards to Jimmy Page. But if you are looking for a pickup that will retain some tele character but have some extra power under the hood for drive, SD makes a good lead stack that would work really well.

The sound I want is somewhere between Noel Gallagher and Jimmy Page.

The sound I want is somewhere between Noel Gallagher and Jimmy Page.

Then get a Gibson. :shock:

Think STAIRWAY. A DMZ Pre-B1 will get you there cheap,the overdriven sounds are REALLY good, and it still sounds very tele,unlike the stacked HB offerings I've tried/heard. For more money (well spent IMHO) a Lollar Special was designed to do exactly what you're looking for and has become the go-to choice for tons of working players. Harmonics and dynamics are off the scale. And as kubiacl has said, any of the top winders can nail that sound, the Lollars just already do it right off the shelf.

Then you need Don Mare's Zepotone. Period.

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QLieVB3nutM

Hi,

I have a 2011 Mexican standard tele and love the neck pickup. Not too keen on the bridge one though, looking for a more rocky sound, what should I get? Cheers.

Cavalier Lion from Rob distefano, great pup

AFAIK, there is no SC spaced HB that really sounds like an HB. Much of the sound of an HB comes from the wide dual aperture of the poles. Even as fat as a good p90 is, it still has that tell tale focused SC aspect to the sound. AFAIK, the inverse is true of HB's.

If you go for a stack, a Wilde (Bill Lawrence), or Dimarzio is probably your best bet -- neither are too expensive nor do they suffer from the phase-induced power/tone losses of some other stack designs. Stacks may require a non-ferrous bridge plate for proper operation. Your MIM Tele bridge is probably steel, so it might be an issue.

The main thing to consider is that higher wound pickups aren't necessarily better for rock. Lot's of players used low wind pickups in the 60's for some great rock sounds. In a well designed pickup, a little over-winding can add some nice punch and mid definition for distortion tones, while still sounding sparkly with clean sounds. Really high wind count tends to be muddy with clean sounds. More than any other specification, inductance can be used to somewhat gauge tone/output within a given design. I think a benchmark 60's Tele bridge pickup was ~3.2H, whereas a Strat bridge was ~2.8H. The modern Strat benchmark is more like ~3.5H, I think.

I don't know the specifics of the Dimarzio Area line, but The Wilde L298TL, or L290TL are med/high output SC stacks that are good for distortion and clean tones. They're both ~5H -- not too high wound. It has been said that the L298TL has a "fatter" sounding midrange. I think the L290TL is a little brighter. You would need to replace your bridge plate for those. There are plenty of pickups around with similar voicings and output levels. Those are good examples of what to look for. At the very least, you can use this info as a guide to find what you are looking for.

Finally, the capacitance of your guitar cable serves to tune the resonance of the pickup. You might try experimenting with cables before you change any pickups. Here's how that works:
http://www.aqdi.com/cablecap.htm

CV 50's Alnico III bridge pups run right at 9k. They can definitely rock, and for small money too. They are available on ebay for 25 bucks. Just sayi'n. Good luck!

Absolutely. Love my CV50. Cheap experiment that might just do it for you. It's not shrill or ice picky at all. Really good for Stones riffing, IMO. The Duncan 1/4 pounder might be another good choice and if you need even more gain, the Duncan little '59 should work based on what I've read, but i can't personally vouch for them.

Hi,

I have a 2011 Mexican standard tele and love the neck pickup. Not too keen on the bridge one though, looking for a more rocky sound, what should I get? Cheers.

All joking aside, I bet I could make your Tele sound very "rocky" as you say. A lot of it has to do with the amp, pedals and above all, technique.
Technique is one thing that unfortunately cannot be bought at the store...

you'll never know how any pup will sound for you unless it's in your guitar, with you playing, through your amp. if you use even a fair amount of modulation, that will change the "natural" tone of the pickup(s). chasing "tone" is a waste of time, particularly if you get anal about it.

true vintage style single coil tele bridge pups come in 3 basic flavors - shrill, trebly and fat. the typical common denominator is the turn count, where more turns increase the mid-range and lessens the ice-pick-in-the-ear thing.

Listen to Rob.....

If you want a rockier sound but still with some Telecaster qualities check out the Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound for Tele set. I've been using them since I was 14 and they're very muscular.

Well, maybe it's gonna be a long journey but I'd say start from here: SD APTL1 (set it high) with Marshall amp.

There was an awful lot of good Rock music made on vintage teles from Keith Richards to Jimmy Page. But if you are looking for a pickup that will retain some tele character but have some extra power under the hood for drive, SD makes a good lead stack that would work really well.

Think STAIRWAY. A DMZ Pre-B1 will get you there cheap,the overdriven sounds are REALLY good, and it still sounds very tele,

Cavalier Lion from Rob distefano, great pup

Those are my 3 choices. The custom winders and high ends are prolly great - these 3 are really great choices IMO.
The SD Vintage Lead Stack is quieter for me than the Pre-B1 (but I liked that a lot).
The Cavalier Lion could be a great choice - search for Rob's posts in these kind of threads.

I'll throw another option in... D Allen's Hot vintage pup is what I use in the bridge. I only play rock and with my amp distortion and big muff I get the sound is am looking for. Great customer service too.

The sound I want is somewhere between Noel Gallagher and Jimmy Page.

I think you'll find Page did most of his tele work with bog-standard Fender tele single coil pickups, and a Marshall amp.

Broadcaster?

my fav bridge single coil for tele is the fender scn noiseless pup..its discontinued but you can contact bill lawrence to get one made for you.....i keep one in my junk box just in case the one in my tele ever blows...