Seymour Duncan Hot Tele Bridge

[blackguard1]

Anybody here using this pickup in their Tele's? I have a 2008 USA Standard Tele, natural finish with an Ash body. I adore the Fender neck pickup, but would like a little more midrange in the bridge pickup. I've looked at some of the stacked pickups, but I don't want a humbucker. I want a genuine single coil, but with a little more midrange. I'm also considering Lollar's Vintage T set, as I use to have that set in a G&L ASAT that I used to own....stellar tone. For what it's worth, I'm playing rock, blues, and country covers and originals. Thanks in advance, guys.

[Ben Harmless]

This is one of those useless posts where someone says "I don't know about that specifically, but..."

So, I don't know about the hot pickup specifically, but I've been using a Duncan Broadcaster for a little while, and I love it. Significantly more mids than any stock Tele pickup that I've run across, and a little more output to boot. I honestly wouldn't go for a pickup that's wound that hot on a single coil. Duncan's own numbers show a resonant peak for the Hot that's significantly lower than those for the Broadcaster, indicating a lower frequency focus.

If you look at the numbers on Duncan's site, don't let the low end value fool you, there's plenty of that in mine, but not so much as to make my dirty tones muddy. I like it a lot.

[blackguard1]

Thanks for the suggestion, Ben. One of my biggest concerns about getting a pickup with too high of an output, is the compression factor. I love the vintage, low output pickups (singles or 'buckers alike) because of their openness, especially in Les Pauls and Telecasters. I hadn't considered the Broadcaster pup, but now that you mention it, it may be the perfect choice for what I'm looking for. Also am considering a set of Nocasters. Thanks!

[Ben Harmless]

I share your suspicion of high-output pickups. When people slam their super high-output active humbuckers into their Quadruple Rectifiers, they just wind up sounding like sludge. They sacrifice clarity for noise every time. Personally, I've never been happy with a pickup over 10k in resistance - even for the high-gain rocknroll that I've played a whole lot of. People seem shocked that the master volume Marshalls that I favor are capable of a fair amount of touch sensitivity when one doesn't just hammer on the strings.

The problem is that those super-hot humbuckers sound great when you're playing through your MetalZone in your bedroom and don't actually play with other musicians much. The blurring of your tone makes it sound like a whole band! How cool is that? Of course live, you vanish in a mix...

No, it's single-coils and big strings for me.

[kenfolk]

nocasters

[blackguard1]

Kenfolk,

Do you use Nocasters? I've honestly never played a Tele equipped with them, though I've heard a great amount of reviews on them....all of them stellar, of course. I had a set of Lollars in a G&L ASAT that I used to own, and prior to buying them, I was considering Nocasters. Went with the Lollars, though.....great tone. What are your thoughts/opinions on the Nocasters?

[blackguard1]

No, it's single-coils and big strings for me.

Amen to that, Ben. I feel the exact same way. I love the dynamics of single coils, and the bigger strings only make 'em sound better.

[saladin]

I'd second the Broadcaster idea, cuts thru the mix. I've also tried a QP Tele bridge and it sounds more like a P-90 then a Tele pickup.

I'm currently using a GFS Fatbody 10k and it sounds very nice and doesn't cost an arm and a leg + the Fatbody neck pickup is to die for!

You've got me thinking about the Hot Tele Bridge now...I'm using a SSL-6 in the bridge of my Strat and it's close to perfect, maybe the Hot for Tele would be close!

[RomanS]

The Nocaster bridge PU, set really close to the strings, will give you more midrange, yet retain the twang.
If you want to have less twang, and way more midrange punch, but still SC openness, try the DiMarzio PreB1.