Help, I can't make a decision.

[gchastine]

Thank you all for answering one of my past posts. I am stuck for a decision. I have a telecaster I'm replacing the pickups on. I am stuck on 4 different sets and cannot make up my mind. So by popular vote, I'll install whatever the popular census is. I will not hold anybody responsible for any answers. :-)

Seymour Duncan Alnico Pro II's
Kent Armstrongs
Fender Texas Specials
Lindy Fralin Blues Specials

Sincerely,
Greg

[Scotland]

Depends on what sound / style you are looking for. What do you play?

[Darrell]

Very different pickups...just depends on what you play or want to sound like.

[gchastine]

I play country, a little blues, and gospel. Mostly I'm looking for a sound that will be country/blues. To be exact, most neck pups sound muddy and most bridge pups have too much high end. I want something clear and mellow with mids/highs on the neck and mids with some honk on the bridge. Does this help?

[Scotland]

A Seymour Duncan Broadcaster for the bridge and a Fender 52 RI for the neck. A match made in heaven and should sound exactly as you have described.

[Kevin]

Yep. B'caster bridge and 52RI neck works for me.

You have to reverse-wire one of them, though (don't forget the shield or plate ground!), to make them work together, cos they're reverse polarity from each other. After you make the change, though, they'll be hum-canceling in the middle position.

Then, you use a four-way switch, and.....

[gchastine]

Great !! sounds like a great combo indeed. You lost me on the instruction to reverse wire?

[Kevin]

One of the pickups has north polarity and one has south polarity, so they are magnetically 180 degrees out of phase with one another. They are wound in the same direction, so they are electrically in phase.

Basically, what you want to do is swap the hot and ground wires on one pup when you connect them to your switch. That will then put the pickups 180 degrees electrically out of phase with one another. Since they were already 180 degrees out of phase, they will "magically" be back in phase, then (180 + 180 = 360).

Since they will then be reverse-wound (180 degrees electrically out of phase) and reverse-polarity (180 degrees magnetically out of phase), the combination in switch position #2 will be hum-cancelling.

It's an easy switch, but you also have to remember to swap either the cover ground (if you RW the neck pup) or the baseplate ground (if you RW the bridge pup) to the "new" ground, or it will be going to a "hot" signal, and will hum like crazy.

It's really not as complicated as it sounds. Once you have the pickups in-hand, you'll know what I'm talking about.

[gchastine]

Thank you for the explanation. I appreciate it very much. When I get the pickups ( I have to find where to order them from) I'll let you know. Thanks again. god bless the telecaster. :-)

Greg

[Kevin]

The best places to order Seymour Duncan pups are Black Rose Customs or Guitar Heaven -- you can Google either name to find the sites.

The Fender neck pup is harder to come by, now, cos Fender quit selling them separately; you have to buy the full set, now. However, they are often on eBay. I wish I'd bought a few extras when they were available....

[brassnuts]

The Duncan 5/2 neck is suppose to be a good match with the Broadcaster bridge p-up. I only had used the 5/2 bridge in the past so I can't speak from experience however Don Mare of Lace uses this combo in one of his Tele's and liked the results.

[11 Gauge]

it's just sitting in a box, not being used.

i'm not sure if it's the RI pup or an AmStd though.

i do know that it has cloth wire, if that helps.

if everyone clarifies that it's the right one, email me and name your price - i have no use for it.

i can get an ohm reading, wire colors, numbers, whatever you folks need to determine we got the right one.

hopefully it's the right pickup - you'll be doing us both a favor!