Dark side continued: SD Little 59 demo

Cause I said I would, I am posting this one. It's not my best playing (by a long shot!) but I just finished setting this up and so here you go.

My old 52RI setup with a Duncan Little 59 bridge, and a Duncan Little 59 Strat neck PUP in the neck position. This required a bit of routing and a new pickguard, but that's OK. I've wanted a Strat neck PUP there for a while.

The guitar is wired in standard series humbucking, with 500K pots and a 0.022mfd tone cap.

My previous demo was the Fender Vintage Noiseless set. I used them for a few months and then grew frustrated with a sense of "coldness" from them. In recording sessions they did not fare well, sounding thin and distant compared with my Strat with VanZandt pups.

The Duncans are pretty darn different. Here you go, round 1:

SD Little 59 set in 52RI (https://dl.dropbox.com/u/613804/SD59Demo.mp3)

That sounds great! Excellent demo.

That sounds great! Excellent demo.

+1

That sounds great! Excellent demo.

The extra "darkness" takes a little getting used to, but overall it's a very organic and useable set of sounds. This was recorded with minimal adjustment of the pickups - I am sure that I will tweak height and polepieces a bit to see what I get.

It feels like a cross between a Tele and an SG!

Thanks for the demo!

The extra "darkness" takes a little getting used to, but overall it's a very organic and useable set of sounds. This was recorded with minimal adjustment of the pickups - I am sure that I will tweak height and polepieces a bit to see what I get.

It feels like a cross between a Tele and an SG!

Ya know, I never thought of that...but it sounds like it! The '61 reissue SG I played had plenty of chime and twang. I really enjoyed it, and I really enjoyed that '59/'59 setup in your Tele.

I like it, good demo. I have always liked a Tele, but sometimes they are kind of like a woman you like, who's always a bit brash and you just over look her ways because you really like her in spite of her faults. I think you did yourself and your guitar a lot of good with the mods. Really sounds good all around.

Just listened to this through my headphones - WOW. I am really considering this for a future Tele. I'm thought about a P90/Little '59 combo, but I really like that Strat Little '59 in the neck.

Nice demo.Have been kickin around a l59 myself for my Tele, that is what I got in my head it should sound like!

Fantastic!
As always!
I feared the guitar would lost its tele character but not at all.
I listened to your EMG demo, and even with the SPC almost all the was up is not even close to the warmth of the lil59 set.

Enjoy your new setup and thnx for the demo!

Fantastic!
As always!
I feared the guitar would lost its tele character but not at all.
I listened to your EMG demo, and even with the SPC almost all the was up is not even close to the warmth of the lil59 set.

Enjoy your new setup and thnx for the demo!

Thanks and you're welcome. I'll do another once the set is dialed-in.

It is indeed very warm, but the notes "pop" in a way that EMGs do not. The tone control is now a different and very useful beast, too, acting more as a balance control between the higher and lower strings, rather than it's usual "defroster" function on the Tele.

Needless to say, overdrive tones with these pickups are as massive as you please. I'm probably going to readjust my pedal board to fit.

I am using 500K pots with a treble bleed network that consists of a 220K resistor in series with a .001mfd cap. This works extremely well with my usual 10 ft (3m) cables.

I've got one of my favorite gigs on Saturday, first real test drive!

Just a quick note on the Little 59 pickup change.

Traditional Telecaster pickups work "backwards" from most modern designs. By that, I mean that a Tele has a relatively warm pickup in the neck position and an aggressive, bright pickup in the bridge. Contrast this to many modern designs in which a darker pickup is used in the bridge to help balance perceptions of volume and tone.

We all deal with this in some way or another. On my Teles that's usually meant making liberal use of the volume and/or tone controls in order to make the thing work, something that I don't need to do much on a Strat or Gibson-style guitar.

The Little 59 set definitely works in the "modern" way. The Strat neck pup is clear and bright (for a humbucker) while the Tele bridge is powerful and dark. This threw me off for a bit when I first installed them, but with a small adjustment of expectations I think it will be quite rewarding. I'll keep y'all posted.

All I heard was talking....is there any playing? What did I miss?

All I heard was talking....is there any playing? What did I miss?

There is talk and there is playing. In roughly that order. Fast forward as you see fit.

Brad!

Thanx so far!

IF... you have the time to post more clean playing (w/o the slight grind), I'd really appreciate it!

I have the L'il 59 bridge and GFS Fatbody combo in a cheap Affinity. I installed a on/on/on mini DTP switch for series/parallel/coil split. Great combo.

http://img808.imageshack.us/img808/3974/cimg0652j.jpg
By dada1952 (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/dada1952) at 2011-08-21

Nice demo.

The neck pickup is infinitely better than the bridge.

The bridge lacks complex character and chime. It has "Telephone Tone" and sounds like it's being played through a little squawk box of an amp. Then you flick to the neck pickup and the fidelity improves dramatically.

From what I've heard, I'd bet the bridge pickup will sound best with more over drive which will help fill in for the lack of sparkle.

The combination of the neck and bridge sounds devastating! Great tones there!

Nice demo.

The neck pickup is infinitely better than the bridge.

The bridge lacks complex character and chime. It has "Telephone Tone" and sounds like it's being played through a little squawk box of an amp. Then you flick to the neck pickup and the fidelity improves dramatically.

From what I've heard, I'd bet the bridge pickup will sound best with more over drive which will help fill in for the lack of sparkle.

The combination of the neck and bridge sounds devastating! Great tones there!

I just took this rig on it's maiden voyage last night at one of my usual gigs. It's in a small room with some of my favorite musicians, lineup is bass/drums/keys/guitar. I brought my usual kit, a '65 DR with a JBL and my pedalboard.

I had made some adjustments to pickup height and polepieces, but it is essentially the same as the demo. I wondered how the bridge pup would fare, as in this ensemble I play clean about 80% of the time. I brought my trusty Strat along in case the Tele wasn't working for me.

After a few amp adjustments, I was having a great time. The darker, fuller sound worked very well at stage levels, and the neck/bridge balance is excellent. I found myself not missing the extra sparkle and enjoying the way it works, which is quite different than any pickup set I've had in there before. I wound up on the bridge pup about 60% of the evening. Perceived sustain is greatly enhanced, and the balance between wound and unwound strings is much improved.

In short, the "boxy" tone of the bridge pup on the demo (with a Champ amp) isn't a problem on my stage setup. It sounds like a huge pedal steel, and the neck pup is finally a true peer to the bridge (for me and the way I play).

I received many compliments on my sound from audience and band members alike. It's a win!

That's awesome. I did something very similar but took it a little further:

http://i1218.photobucket.com/albums/dd401/bayoubulldog/e1bb9d79.jpg
It's a Little 59 Tele bridge, a SD Duckbucker for strat in the middle, and a SD JB Strat neck pickup. It has a 5 way switch a la strat. My favorite positions are two and four!

Wow! That's awesome! There's a JB for the Strat neck position? Or did you use the bridge model?

I just took this rig on it's maiden voyage last night at one of my usual gigs. It's in a small room with some of my favorite musicians, lineup is bass/drums/keys/guitar. I brought my usual kit, a '65 DR with a JBL and my pedalboard.

I had made some adjustments to pickup height and polepieces, but it is essentially the same as the demo. I wondered how the bridge pup would fare, as in this ensemble I play clean about 80% of the time. I brought my trusty Strat along in case the Tele wasn't working for me.

After a few amp adjustments, I was having a great time. The darker, fuller sound worked very well at stage levels, and the neck/bridge balance is excellent. I found myself not missing the extra sparkle and enjoying the way it works, which is quite different than any pickup set I've had in there before. I wound up on the bridge pup about 60% of the evening. Perceived sustain is greatly enhanced, and the balance between wound and unwound strings is much improved.

In short, the "boxy" tone of the bridge pup on the demo (with a Champ amp) isn't a problem on my stage setup. It sounds like a huge pedal steel, and the neck pup is finally a true peer to the bridge (for me and the way I play).

I received many compliments on my sound from audience and band members alike. It's a win!

I'm glad it worked out for you! Congrats and have lots of fun with your new setup!

Sounds great, cheers for the demo, makes me even more excited about the tele I am currently building, lil 59 bridge, phat cat p90 neck. Maybe I'll do some demos once it's all up and done!

Thanks for posting about these pups. I just got this tele in trade. Didn't think I needed another tele but the idea of the humbuckers in a tele case appealed to me. These pups are great and they do make this tele a different animal than my traditional one piece ash RCB Twangmaster Tele with Bill lawrence Keystones. They really make it useful for blues and rock with the darker element. This Tele with the Duncans sounds real close to my G6129 Sparkle Jet with TV Jones Classics. Here is the you tube link video of the guy I traded with showing me the guitar. Pics of my RCB Twangmaster and the new trade with the Duncans and Gretsch bar bridge intonation is spot on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZkLJF7uC1g