Tele bridge pickup for CONTEMPORARY worship

Hey guys,

I have a tele with a Seymour Duncan SM-1 (vintage) mini-humbucker in the neck and was wondering what recommendations you would have for a good "contemporary" worship bridge pickup.

I play a lot of hillsong/tomlin/crowder type stuff. Play at church and locally with an artist from our church (www.myspace.com/nathanarnoldmusic).

I use a VOX ac30 TBX reissue. Suggestions are appreciated. I've looked at the following:

Harmonic Design Super 90 (currently have)
Voodoo 60's Tele Bridge
Keystone Tele Bridge
Seymour Duncan Broadcaster
Seymour Duncan Jerry Donahue
Dimarzio Tone Zone T

I like the idea of the 60's era tone (Petty, Etc.) Thoughts? :razz:

You might be suprised at how nice the GFS lipstick bridge pickup will sound in that comination,,,, I like it!

Interesting...do you know what the output is on these bad boys? Would it match the mini well you think??? Thanks man! Nice stuff too, I checked out your website :cool:

Interesting...do you know what the output is on these bad boys? Would it match the mini well you think??? Thanks man! Nice stuff too, I checked out your website :cool:

Thanks,,,
The Mini-Humbuckers that I use in the neck are 7.5K output,, I'm not sure what the output is on the GFS lipstick Tele bridge pickup,,, but I find it to be a nice match up as they have such distinctly different tones, they do not seem to be that far off from eachother is output. There are a lot of different pickups that would work in this application but this one is pretty cool for CCM,,IMHO,,, I'm actually building one right now,,, the body and neck are in the finish shop.

Anything wrong with Fender's offerings?

http://www.fender.com/products//search.php?partno=0992119000

I play lead guitar with my Tele in a large church and a pretty good sized band. I use a 60th Anniversary sunburst Tele with the modern vintage pups and I find that they cover anything I need to play from blues to hard rock to jazz to hymns.

Frankly, barring a very harsh bridge pup, in the end, the sound comes from your fingers and technique much more than the bridge pup, but I don't think that's what you really want to hear.:wink:

Hey guys,

I have a tele with a Seymour Duncan SM-1 (vintage) mini-humbucker in the neck and was wondering what recommendations you would have for a good "contemporary" worship bridge pickup.

I play a lot of hillsong/tomlin/crowder type stuff. Play at church and locally with an artist from our church (www.myspace.com/nathanarnoldmusic).

I use a VOX ac30 TBX reissue. Suggestions are appreciated. I've looked at the following:

Harmonic Design Super 90 (currently have)
Voodoo 60's Tele Bridge
Keystone Tele Bridge
Seymour Duncan Broadcaster
Seymour Duncan Jerry Donahue
Dimarzio Tone Zone T

I like the idea of the 60's era tone (Petty, Etc.) Thoughts? :razz:

Hey Nathan;
Welcome to the site!
I live in Camas and play over at Summit View.
FWIW, I had a SD Lil 59 in the bridge position with my Nashville Tele.
While I liked the "hard rock" sound of the humbucker, I missed the traditional
Tele quack and my middle P/U didn't sound that good.
I went back to the stock Fender P/U.
Steve

I use a JD for exactly this application, and much of the same repertoire. Two G&L ASAT Classic benders and a Zion '50. All the guitars have strat middle and neck pickups as well. Clean to nicely overdriven tones and always articulate.

Lollar Vintage T's. Got 'em in the 3 Vinetto Teles I play in church every week. Not a lot of flavors I can't get from them with a roll of the volume and/or tone. Second choice would be the Voodoo's - great pickups as well.

I am actually currently sticking with my Harmonic Design Super 90. It's a p-90 in a single coil form. Sounds great for rock and cleans up well. Anyway, yeah I know the sound comes from you fingers...actually 75% (at least) comes from your amp...but anyway.

Steve: good to know someone local. I'm Ben actually I play with Nathan at First Church of God in Vancouver, WA. I am digging my tele but like humbuckers much better for my main application.

Keep in touch.

B

I am actually currently sticking with my Harmonic Design Super 90. It's a p-90 in a single coil form. Sounds great for rock and cleans up well. Anyway, yeah I know the sound comes from you fingers...actually 75% (at least) comes from your amp...but anyway.

Steve: good to know someone local. I'm Ben actually I play with Nathan at First Church of God in Vancouver, WA. I am digging my tele but like humbuckers much better for my main application.

Keep in touch.

B


Sorry about the mix up, Ben.
Say hello to Steve Cross for me!

Sorry about the mix up, Ben.
Say hello to Steve Cross for me!

For sure. He actually recorded on the EP! Great guy, I played a youth retreat with Travis Wagar a couple years ago. It was for the winter called Avalanche. Played with Danny, Steve C., Friesen (bass player), just to name a few.

Are you in a band outside of summit view? Or do you just play for Church services?

That is a new thread heading in itself, but I use the Dimarzio Chopper T in my MIM with a SD Mini-HB in the neck. We play everything from distortion to clean and the Chopper T has been very good for me. I run the tone knob as a coil cut for both pups, and I can dial in the tone I'm after. I like the fact that I can get a good single coil tone (better than you would think out of a coil tap), but if I need to use heavy distortion, I have that capability.

Well, I use a SD Lil 59 in the bridge on my Tele, but I need to get a hotter bridge pup, cause even my 1/4 pounder bridge pup is no match for it, so I figure I gotta go with a full size bucker to get a balance goin. And I already found out that the mini buckers just aing got enough oomph to keep up. Woulda loved to have one of them......

I'm leaning towards Dimarzio Tone Zone T...but am not sure...

Any thoughts on this pickup? Other recommendations?

I'd suggest a Lollar Special - which I had for a while (prob shoulda kept it). Its toneful, retains telecaster character its slightly higher output, is good for driving OD pedals plus its a bit more hi-fi than a traditional tele pickup, again I think that's important once your signal goes through the comp/OD/distortion/delay/ chain typical of contemporary worship.

I'd also consider something noiseless, depending on your church's lighting/wiring setup. I've had brief experience with a Dimarzio Virtual Vintage Hot T, but it was a bit sterile.

Well, I use Crook Custom Teles with 'buckers and single coils. My single coil has a Fralin Blues Special at the Bridge and the other tele has a PRS Dragon II in the Bridge. I love the PRS pickups at church because they give great definition and are very touch responsive. We do a ton of Hillsongs/Passion material and those guitars always work well.

just use a nice setup of pedals...

i just played my tele using the XOtic AC Booster+VoodooSparkleDrive or AC BOoster+TS-808..

i also have a MXR Zack Wylde on standby incase it's not hot enough.


pretty hot sounding on both the neck and bridge pups for praise songs

but if you want to use the neck for worship... really the only pups i'll use is the neck or neck+bridge selectors.

hope it helps in some way

I just put a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder in my bridge pickup spot (replaced a rail) and I LOVE IT! I was very impressed with the fatness and girth without getting thin or icepicky. I can actually use it now where as before I avoided using it. I like the neck pup sound most times at home, but on stage at church I fear that it gets too muddy and drown out. This puppy will cut through but will full sound. I just installed it on Sunday and looking forward to using it in worship!
Ken