Seymour Duncan Li'l 59er

Just bought a '90s Telecaster Custom that the previous owner had installed a SD Li'l 59er in the bridge position. What experiences have you had with this position? How does it compare with a single coil?

Nice and quiet but minimal twang. Very smooth midrange with rich harmonics. I liked the way it sounded but took it back out after a few months and put the stock single back in. I missed the twang too much and I have other guitars that can do the humbucker thing. You can put in a coil splitter switch and have the best of both worlds. If this is your only guitar that may be the way to go.

As clayfeet said. Not a bad sounding pickup, but you're not going to get much tele twang tone from it. Depending on what you want from a tele bridge pup, it may or may not do the trick.

I used one for six months or so, but replaced it as it was just too darn muddy and dull for what I wanted. It may have been my guitar as I know a few other players who dig the Lil 59.

IMO, if you need this type of pickup, the Dimrazio Tone Zone T is a much better option. I found the Tone Zone T to have a much better tone in bucker mode...and the split mode to be about the best I've heard in this type of pickup. As usual, ymmv.

Thanks for the responses. This is not my only guitar but my first and only Tele. I have a Strat and a Guild X-170 to go along with it. The Guild has GFS Liverpools in it.

The seller is enclosing the original pickup with it so I can go back to it. I think it is called a Japanese Vintage.

So how good is the split sound on the li'l 59er? How would it compare with the original pickup or other single coil? Would that give me the option to get it back to the traditional Tele twang?

So how good is the split sound on the li'l 59er? How would it compare with the original pickup or other single coil? Would that give me the option to get it back to the traditional Tele twang?

I never got around to trying it split. I believe some here have. Try a search and see. 8)

I've done coil-shunts on a few Lil' 59ers, and it doesn't make them more "Tele" sounding - it just decreases the gain a bit, to my ears.

Here's some eye-candy of one I did, with WD body and neck, Warmoth "black pearl" pickguard:

http://deaf-eddie.net/guitars/wd-t-sd.jpg

Nice axe, but it just didn't do "The Tele Experience..." The Lil' 59ers have their own sound. I now have it loaded with a set of Fender Tex-Mex specials that I eBayed, supposed to have been pulls from a Nashville. Now, that's the Tele tone we all know and love!

If this is your only Tele, and you want to achieve the Tele experience, I sez, put a Tele pickup in it. Teles with Lil' 59ers do NOT sound like a Tele.

Thanks, DE.

Funny, I just got the tele yesterday and it is the '90s Custom in Black Pearl/Gold. For a second, I thought you had a photograph of my guitar (although mine has a stock rhythm pickup).

First judgement is that I really like the guitar but you are right, it does not have the signature tele sound. I'm going to try it the way that it is for awhile and may go back to stock or other single coil.

I had one of these in a parts Strat. I was not able to get a good tone out of it, and it certainly was incompatible with the Texas Specials in the middle and neck positions. I eventually got rid of the whole guitar.

In my view, you either get a single-coil or you get a humbucker. A pickup like this is trying to serve two masters, which, as we all know, jus' ain't possible.

When I worked at a guitar store, the owner was nuts about those PUPS and I installed and tapped a bunch.
Decent sound and noise response, but no real character.
IMHO I wouldn't use them in a Tele of mine.
Might be a good PUP for a backup or slide guitar.

I put a lil' 59 in my Strat copy guitar and I use it for hard rock, it hangs with my Peavey Wolfgang with extremely hot stock pickups.

So the lil' 59 is best with distortion IMO, and sounds petty blunt on cleans, no country twang at all.

They're nice for "faking" a Les Paul.

It's doesn't sound like an actual LP, but close enough for live work.

I split it to get some brighter "twang" back, BUT it's not exactly Telecaster again either.

I like it on one "utility" guitar, but prefer my stock Teles and Les Pauls for their respective sounds.

I'll agree with the live part about that, for sure. Cranked up and overdriven, it's a fantastic humbucker sound, with just enough cut to remind you that 4kg of mahogany isn't around your neck, thanks to that Tele bridge we all know and love.To me, the bridge really does save the day, keeping the thing from sounding like a deadbucker. Clean? Think twang factor running at only 20% and you're close...For that matter, in mid position the creamy chime is a savory mix with the P90 in the neck.

Split the thing is a mixed bag. Driven mid gain it's not bad and appraoches Joe Strummer sniffles from my eyes, but still a rather uneventful tele bridge sound at anything cleaner, a bit "plinky" too, not nearly as lively and bridge jumpin' as you'd want from a little spanker. My friend's Sliver Series MIJ Squire Tele sounded much better with it's cheapest-in-the-MIJ-line electronics, BTW.

Nonetheless, I like what mid position, both split and unsplit soundlike. The bridge '59 is wound hot enough to keep up with the neck, and slamming the unsplit bridge through our BJFE Emerald Green Distortion Machine and TSL602 roars like any Paul would seem to do.........through an imaginary AC-15, Says me...^_^.

Good times, certainly not for everyone.

I'd try wiring it up in parallel.