whats the best Tele jazz neck PickUp?

[catalincaster]

I was wondering what's the best nonrouted (or slight routing) neck stacked humbucker pickup for play jazz. Any thoughts? Thanks, Paul
PS Check out the Catalincaster
http://www.pontrello.com/catalincaster.html

[tpaul]

I'd check out the DiMarzio Area T. But really, you can play jazz with any Tele neck pickup.

[elelpe]

Check out Wilde Bill's NF: L200TN/L202TN and L280TN. The Catalincaster is purdy!

[Le Jab]

I reckon the Lollar Charlie Christian. Tim Lerch does a Youtube demo worth watching......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgYsugjmITc

ETA the Lollar CC is single coil.

[bigbandtele]

EMG t-set with an SPC tone control.

[blowtorch]

you may laugh, but the GFS Fatbody tele neck pickup is very very good.

[Alain77]

I also think that any "fat" single coil would do the trick. Mine is an Harmonic design p90 and it is perfect for jazz too. A mini humbucker would work very well too, but your tele might need a bigger route.

[Steveareno]

[QUOTE=Le Jab;4256681]I reckon the Lollar Charlie Christian. Tim Lerch does a Youtube demo worth watching......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgYsugjmITc

Was tempted by the Lollar CC (they sound and look great), but got paranoid about noise and went with Bill Lawrence/Wilde twin blades: L-45S in the neck. Nice balanced tone and super quiet (can't stand buzzing, or hum). I reckon twin blades have a little bit of the CC sound in a smaller, modern unit. Sounds warm, jazzy and smooth thru my little Polytone.
Swang on,

[davidge1]

I think stock vintage-type Tele neck pickups have a great jazz sound.

[Rob DiStefano]

the BEST pickup for ANYTHING is the one that sounds "best" to .... you.

does that sound right? or am i stupidly incorrect? gee whiz ......

[Greg.Coal]

Originally Posted by Rob DiStefano

the BEST pickup for ANYTHING is the one that sounds "best" to .... you.

does that sound right? or am i stupidly incorrect? gee whiz ......

I like this answer more all the time; esp variations of it for all the "what is the best" questions out there.

Having said that . . . if you need a "typey" sound, mini-humbuckers are avilable, too. I think low-output pickups, too, maybe even AlNiCo II magnets, help retain the wood and string sound. Oh, yeah put a heavier string on.

The "jazz" tone everybody chases is an outcome of the state of the art in guitar/pickup/string/amp that was available a long time ago. So kind of sad unless you happen to love it!

Greg

[tele_bob]

I like my SD vintage stack neck pup for jazz and blues. For me, it's more about the amp. A lot of neck pickups sound good thru a Roland JC or a Mesa Subway Blues.

[daveaskren]

Sorry, but I have a thinline squire tele w humbuckers so I dropped a Duncan '59er in the the neck....! Fat!

[guitarbiker]

Simple,.......... Ron Kirn, neck pickup. Roll off a bit of the tone a bit. Perrrrrrrrrrrfect! Warm, Woody, clean, harmonic chime, Oh yeah, and a Barnbuster. Century old wood. I don't use my f hole guitar anymore. Then sometimes to freak my jazz brothers out I use the bridge pickup to shake things up a bit....come on.....it's jazz!!!!

[Narcoleptigon]

Originally Posted by elelpe

Check out Wilde Bill's NF: L200TN/L202TN and L280TN. The Catalincaster is purdy!

+1 on either of those. The L280TN is a little higher output and "wider" and more even sounding. The others are 50's style. Use a low capacitance cable, 250k pots, and put your tone at ~5 for a good jazz tone.

[Twinkie]

Good question.

I am a Jazz player with a number of old Gibson archtops, a couple of Gretschs, a Les Paul, a Strat, and four vintage Telecaster. I really, really dig Telecasters. The blend of Jazz and piercing twang performances out of Telecasters has been a quest of mine for some years now. Having played lots 30s and 40s Swing and plenty of Bebop, I know what a good Jazz guitar should like.

All of my Telecasters have Bardens in the bridge position and variations of humbuckers in the neck position. The 60 has a Barden, the 61 Esquire has a Seymour Duncan "Vintage Stack", the 66 has a Gibson 490R, and my 73 Custom I rebuilt the original Wide Range Humbucker. All the pickups in these guitars have individual series/parallel switching.

So here is my recommendation: The best sounding pickup of this bunch for the application of Jazz is the Duncan Vintage Stack in the Parallel mode. I also have it wired to a secondary option on a 4-Way pickup selector switch that runs said stack pickup through a large value cap. It sounds really good. Another advantage to this pickup, along with no routing of the body cavity required, is the price, at about $78 bucks.

[Ian]

Joe Barden