So I've got a set of Hamels in my Tele... thinking of trying something new

[ToneShark]

And after having them in there for over a year, I'm starting to think about removing them and trying something else. I'm not sure how best to put my finger on it, but I feel like they're a little too bright and thin. Thing is, I don't imagine anyone would describe the pickups this way. There was a point in time at which I didn't feel quite so disenchanted with them, and the guitar got a B-bender put in between then and now. The guy who put in the bender took my pickups out and didn't seem to pay much attention to what height they were at when he did so, and ever since I got the guitar back, it hasn't sounded as good. Unfortunately, no matter how much I tweak the height of either pickup, I can't seem to get back to that sweet spot I miss so much.

Anyway, the band did a recording of our full show last weekend, and while there are a multitude of things that I didn't especially like about it (not the least of which being the fact that I was using a modeler instead of a real amp), I feel like the tone of the guitar sounds really weak. Unfortunately, the other guitar player in the band also plays a Tele, so these recordings really call out the difference between his sound and mine. He's using a 52RI, but there's this extra midrange warmth that I'm just not hearing. Not tons of it, but it's not quite so bright.

Does this sound crazy? And does anyone have pickup suggestions to remedy this problem? I feel like I just want something a little fuller sounding and not quite so Bakersfield.

[fezz parka]

Hmm. Is it a PW style bender?

You made a big change to the guitar. It'll sound different.

[ToneShark]

Originally Posted by fezz parka

Hmm. Is it a PW style bender?

You made a big change to the guitar. It'll sound different.

Not as big a change as you'd think. It's a B&W. Added maybe 6oz to the weight, and didn't require any huge routs, just mostly a few holes drilled and a small bit of extra routing under the pickguard where everything connects.

[fezz parka]

All of this stuff will make a big change:

[ToneShark]

Not saying it won't, but it wasn't perfect before either. It's always been a brighter sounding set of pickups. They sound good, but not right for what I'm doing right now. If I could just plug it straight into my amp and play, no doubt the guitar as is would be wonderful. However, the project I'm doing right now involves pedals, gain, delay... all that modern country crap (which, incidentally, pays pretty well).

Before the Hamels it had Lollars and I couldn't pull those out fast enough. They were really polite. No depth at all to their sound either. They didn't sound especially organic. I had an LSL that I got around the same time that was quite the opposite. It just seemed to breathe. Had the fretwork been better, maybe I would have kept that one instead of this one (which, by the way, is a toploading Creston very similar to Jim Campilongo's signature model although it predates it by a good 4 years).

[fezz parka]

All of the Hamels I've heard have been really smoky sounding, for lack of a better word. Very 50's sounding. The good news is you can get a pretty penny for them. As far as suggestions, I've got none except for maybe Ron Ellis.

[lank81]

You can always check out DAllen Pickups. I haven't tried his Tele pups but have had several sets of Strat pickups and all of them were superb.

[Whoa Tele]

IMO the OC Duff Plankster/Bigboy set is full sounding while maintaining the twang. I also
have a Rumpelstilktskin 50s Blackrope bridge that a darker sounding pickup.