What do you like about your current pickup's?

Brad · July 23rd, 2003, 05:09 PM

I've always loved a bucker in the neck of a tele, so I built my chambered mahogany tele with that in mind. I bought a used Seth Lover for a good price, dropped it in and haven't looked back! I have been very, very pleased with the excellent tone I'm getting from the combo of Seth and the chambered mahogany body. The bridge pickup has been a different story! I've been through 4 bridge pickups in a year. While all of them have been OK, I'm still searching for "THE ONE". So far I've had: #1. DiMarzio Twang King. I think the neck TK is an outstanding pickup. The bridge TK, while nice, just sounds a bit too polite. It blended well with the Seth, but used alone did not have the snap and spank I wanted. #2. Van Zandt Flat Pole. An excellent pickup! I probably should have left this one in....but, you know how it goes! I sold it when I was going to route the bridge out and drop another Seth in. I had a change of heart and decided to leave well enough alone. As the VZ had sold, I picked up #3, a Duncan Broadcaster. Now, I know the Broadcaster is very highly regarded around here. As a matter of fact, I can't remember reading one discouraging word about it on these pages. For me, it was not a good match. It sounded OK used with Seth, but not outstanding. Used alone, it lacked the sweet spank of the VZ. Maybe it's the chambered mahogany body...maybe it's just me. Anyway, I would up trading it to a fellow TDPRI'r for a Duncan Lil' 59'r. I can't recall reading one "good" word regarding this pickup! Most seem to hate it! For me, it's been the best ( next to the VZ ) bridge pickup for this guitar. Used alone or with the Seth, it has a very nice tone. I'll hang onto it and put it in another part-o-caster I have in the works. Now, I'm on the hunt for another bridge pickup. Some options I'm considering are: 1. DiMarzio Tone Zone T. 2. Suhr. 3. Jason Lollar. 4. SK. 5. Harmonic Design. 6. Lawrence 290T. 7. Electrokraft. 8. Aero....you get the picture! What pickup set are you happy with? What would you recommend for a good bridge pickup? I'm not a classic tele bridge pickup player....I do love the bridge pickup, but I'm more of a blues player as opposed to a chicken picker and I hang out on the neck pickup and combo settings more than straight bridge. Yet, I want that bridge pup to honk & snap when I slap the old selector! Any recommendations? Thank you in advance...your insights are most welcome!

GuitarJonz · July 23rd, 2003, 11:58 PM

Nice beefy tone, twangs good too, I bet it'd match up nice with the Lover bucker.

Aaron Schiff · July 24th, 2003, 12:15 AM

In January I replaced the stock Fender pups with a Vintage Tallboy in the neck and a Muy Grande in the bridge. These are great pickups. The Vintage Tallboy in particular was a big change: tremendous output, clarity and definition with lots of warmth and great tone. I first tried the Tallboy in the bridge, but I didn't feel like the output was strong enough to balance the neck. The Muy Grande in the bridge balances the neck very well and also has great tone. In fact, my search for good tone has been satisfied and I spend almost all of my music time enjoying playing rather than dreaming of new changes. I spend a great deal of time playing "primative" '50's electric blues and this combo works well for me.

You already have one of the few humbuckers that I really like: the Seth Lover. If I had the money, I would buy another Van Zandt for the bridge. It seems like it would be a good choice to me and you already know that you like it. I think that would be a very toneful combination. Of course a Muy Grande would cost a lot less.

Butch Snyder · July 24th, 2003, 09:58 AM

Aaron,

You hit the nail on the head in your post. I have found from experience that you can't use the same pickup that you remove from a swamp ash body and put it in a chambered mohagany body and expect them to sound the same. People will tell you to go with a certain pickup that has worked for them. But, did they have that pickup in the same type of guitar you do? Maybe and maybe not...

That's what you have to look at. I tried all kinds of pickups that were recommended to me by players that has 50's type Teles with vintage style hardware and ash bodies. Well, my Tele's body was poplar with American Standard hardware. It got to the point that it was just pointless to take someone's word because the situations were just so different.

That said, I like the Duncan JD pickup the best hands down. It is big, open, airy, and sparkly. It's overwound; but not a hot picjup. It still retains the vintage character. The Alnico II Pro might also be a good solution for you. Your Seth Lover has Alnico II magnets.

Good luck,

Kris · July 24th, 2003, 03:03 PM

I tend to prefer the SD Broadcaster for my teles. But when I put one in my MIM 50s Classic, which has an above-average weight ash body, I didn't like the result at all: too bright and thin.

So I moved the Broadcaster to my 1992 lightweight ash bodied G&L ASAT Classic (with replacement 3-brass-saddle bridge) and I'm extremely pleased with the result. My MIM now has an HD '54 Special set and sounds much better.

Kris

Andy B · July 24th, 2003, 07:23 PM

My favorite is the Barden T. I have 2 paired with Duncan VIntage Firebird neck pickups. A close second is a DiMarzio Fast Track T paired with a DeArmond Dynasonic
in the neck. In the single coil realm I have a Rio Grande Muy Grande paired with a Gibson / Epiphone Mini Humbucker.
My rejects include a Duncan Broadcaster which is a great stock sounding pickup, a H-D Super 90 which sounded like the amp was covered with a blanket ( didn't do the P90 thing at all), Lawerence 290 & 250 which I just didn't care for.

Brad · July 25th, 2003, 11:09 AM

I have a Lil 59'r in the bridge now. I've thought about The Chopper, Fast Track, Tone Zone T....but no one here seems to use these pickups. What led you to the Fast Track? How does it mate with the other pickup in your guitar? What do you like ( dislike ) about it? Thanks!

T2tele · July 25th, 2003, 02:27 PM

I have Alan Hamel's (A&F) early Blackguard style pickups in all three of my Tele's. These pups (to my ears) turned my already great sounding Tele's into Killer Blackguard sounding T's. The tones that I hear are smokey, woody, spank, harmonically rich, twangy and 3 dimensional... all with clarity and beautiful balance. These guitars with these pups are a pure joy to play!

The sound of these guitars played through my Carr Rambler or BF Deluxe Reverb.. is about as good as it gets... To my ears anyway!

Ron,

Casey Jones · July 26th, 2003, 01:26 PM

any one tried these seymour duncans? bascially i'd want a tone that isn't too brittle, but still sounds like a single coil if you get what i mean, smooth. a figure a high output pickup would sound kinda fat, but it probably would still sound like a single coil. bearing in mind this would be for an ash body (any of you who have an ash bodies tele) with maple neck.

Andy B · July 26th, 2003, 06:43 PM

Brad,

The pickup looks alot like a Barden with a cover. Twin black rails stick through. It is a Strat sized pickup mounted on a plate made to fit a Tele bridge. I originally had 2 Strat pickups & got DiMarzio to exchange one for the Tele pickup. At various time I've had it in different guitars. It is currently in my MIM Fat Tele with an original DeArmond Dynasonic that I've had forever. It replaced a Muy Grande as an experiment to finding a better matchup for the DeArmond. They seem to work great together in this guitar.
The sound is a little thicker & less bright than a Barden with great sustain. Jimmy Thackery uses Fast Track's in his main guitar. Not traditional Tele but it works great for me.

hearmytrain · July 27th, 2003, 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Casey Jones

any one tried these seymour duncans? bascially i'd want a tone that isn't too brittle, but still sounds like a single coil if you get what i mean, smooth. a figure a high output pickup would sound kinda fat, but it probably would still sound like a single coil. bearing in mind this would be for an ash body (any of you who have an ash bodies tele) with maple neck.

i currently have this combination in a 52 RI...what surprised me the most is the neck pickup...i find it fat and warm but still with relative definition and clarity...it is also nicely calibrated with the QP bridge...these are high output pickups and will not "twang" in the classic sense but they absolutely slam the front-end of a good tube amp and give wonderfully rich harmonic content...if you back off the volume knob a bit they clean up nicely...i also have Van Zandts in another similar tele and like them for what they do as well (Vntage Tallboy in the neck and a Muy Grande in the Bridge...i originally tried a Vintage Tall Boy in the bridge but found it lacking compared to the neck output)...these are much more "authentic" tele sounding but, i just gravitate to the Duncan loaded tele because my style, tonally, is more in-line with Jeff Beck, Robben Ford, Eric Johnson, etc...
Brad

Brad · July 29th, 2003, 06:54 PM

I had a set of QP's in an old frankentele about 18 years ago. I really, really liked the neck pickup and used it probably 80% of the time for clean soloing. I loved the fat tone that baby put out! As said, not a traditional, twangy tele pup...but a good sounding pickup none the less. Just for different applications than twang'n.

Barrett · August 5th, 2003, 10:15 PM

That to me a pickup is just part of the picture (and I know this is old news but it took having more than one amp for me to realize it). My 73 strat with Fralin Vintage hot's sounds wonderful through my Tophat King Royale with EL 84's. It only acquired this character however after I put 2 Celestion GT 75's in this open back amp. (originally when I bought it used it had a weber VST and a celestion greenback and just sounded muddy, of course to the previous owner it was the ultimate speaker configuration for rock).
Plug that guitar into my Bogner Shiva head, with EL 34's going into my 4x12 Cab sporting two Celestion vintage 30's and two celestion GT 75's criss crossed and it sounds awful! Dull and lifeless, not what I would expect from single coils. I have to tweak the amps eq endlessly before I can get that open, full strat sound, not a good scenario for live playing.
However, plug my mongrel partscaster Jazzmaster with Bill Lawrence L490's into this amp OR my 50's MIJ RI Tele with Barden bridge and out comes tone that makes it hard to stop playing (well I have to roll off tone with the Barden bridge). Then there's the complications that come with what the Fulltone Fat Boost or my Analog man Orange Squeezer does with each guitar/amp/speaker configuration, not to mention an additional overdrive....
It's easy to see why folks opt for guitar-cord-amp.
I'm just finding it difficult to say one pickup sounds just great for me. However, it is a lot of fun exploring all the options! -b

July 23rd, 2003, 05:09 PM	#1 (permalink)
Brad Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Tacoma, WA Posts: 1,294	What do you like about your current pickup's? I've always loved a bucker in the neck of a tele, so I built my chambered mahogany tele with that in mind. I bought a used Seth Lover for a good price, dropped it in and haven't looked back! I have been very, very pleased with the excellent tone I'm getting from the combo of Seth and the chambered mahogany body. The bridge pickup has been a different story! I've been through 4 bridge pickups in a year. While all of them have been OK, I'm still searching for "THE ONE". So far I've had: #1. DiMarzio Twang King. I think the neck TK is an outstanding pickup. The bridge TK, while nice, just sounds a bit too polite. It blended well with the Seth, but used alone did not have the snap and spank I wanted. #2. Van Zandt Flat Pole. An excellent pickup! I probably should have left this one in....but, you know how it goes! I sold it when I was going to route the bridge out and drop another Seth in. I had a change of heart and decided to leave well enough alone. As the VZ had sold, I picked up #3, a Duncan Broadcaster. Now, I know the Broadcaster is very highly regarded around here. As a matter of fact, I can't remember reading one discouraging word about it on these pages. For me, it was not a good match. It sounded OK used with Seth, but not outstanding. Used alone, it lacked the sweet spank of the VZ. Maybe it's the chambered mahogany body...maybe it's just me. Anyway, I would up trading it to a fellow TDPRI'r for a Duncan Lil' 59'r. I can't recall reading one "good" word regarding this pickup! Most seem to hate it! For me, it's been the best ( next to the VZ ) bridge pickup for this guitar. Used alone or with the Seth, it has a very nice tone. I'll hang onto it and put it in another part-o-caster I have in the works. Now, I'm on the hunt for another bridge pickup. Some options I'm considering are: 1. DiMarzio Tone Zone T. 2. Suhr. 3. Jason Lollar. 4. SK. 5. Harmonic Design. 6. Lawrence 290T. 7. Electrokraft. 8. Aero....you get the picture! What pickup set are you happy with? What would you recommend for a good bridge pickup? I'm not a classic tele bridge pickup player....I do love the bridge pickup, but I'm more of a blues player as opposed to a chicken picker and I hang out on the neck pickup and combo settings more than straight bridge. Yet, I want that bridge pup to honk & snap when I slap the old selector! Any recommendations? Thank you in advance...your insights are most welcome! __________________ We don't stop playing because we get old, we get old becasue we stop playing.

July 23rd, 2003, 11:58 PM	#2 (permalink)
GuitarJonz Friend of Leo's Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Central Mass. Posts: 2,643 7 Photos	Fender Nocaster Nice beefy tone, twangs good too, I bet it'd match up nice with the Lover bucker.

July 24th, 2003, 12:15 AM	#3 (permalink)
Aaron Schiff Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Cedaredge, CO Posts: 347	Rio Grande In January I replaced the stock Fender pups with a Vintage Tallboy in the neck and a Muy Grande in the bridge. These are great pickups. The Vintage Tallboy in particular was a big change: tremendous output, clarity and definition with lots of warmth and great tone. I first tried the Tallboy in the bridge, but I didn't feel like the output was strong enough to balance the neck. The Muy Grande in the bridge balances the neck very well and also has great tone. In fact, my search for good tone has been satisfied and I spend almost all of my music time enjoying playing rather than dreaming of new changes. I spend a great deal of time playing "primative" '50's electric blues and this combo works well for me. You already have one of the few humbuckers that I really like: the Seth Lover. If I had the money, I would buy another Van Zandt for the bridge. It seems like it would be a good choice to me and you already know that you like it. I think that would be a very toneful combination. Of course a Muy Grande would cost a lot less.

July 24th, 2003, 09:58 AM	#4 (permalink)
Butch Snyder Tele-Holic Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Lebanon, OH Posts: 624	Aaron, You hit the nail on the head in your post. I have found from experience that you can't use the same pickup that you remove from a swamp ash body and put it in a chambered mohagany body and expect them to sound the same. People will tell you to go with a certain pickup that has worked for them. But, did they have that pickup in the same type of guitar you do? Maybe and maybe not... That's what you have to look at. I tried all kinds of pickups that were recommended to me by players that has 50's type Teles with vintage style hardware and ash bodies. Well, my Tele's body was poplar with American Standard hardware. It got to the point that it was just pointless to take someone's word because the situations were just so different. That said, I like the Duncan JD pickup the best hands down. It is big, open, airy, and sparkly. It's overwound; but not a hot picjup. It still retains the vintage character. The Alnico II Pro might also be a good solution for you. Your Seth Lover has Alnico II magnets. Good luck, __________________ Cheers, Butch Snyder

July 24th, 2003, 03:03 PM	#5 (permalink)
Kris Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Reykjavik, Iceland Posts: 355	Even different pieces of ash... I tend to prefer the SD Broadcaster for my teles. But when I put one in my MIM 50s Classic, which has an above-average weight ash body, I didn't like the result at all: too bright and thin. So I moved the Broadcaster to my 1992 lightweight ash bodied G&L ASAT Classic (with replacement 3-brass-saddle bridge) and I'm extremely pleased with the result. My MIM now has an HD '54 Special set and sounds much better. Kris

July 24th, 2003, 07:23 PM	#6 (permalink)
Andy B Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Englewood, Colorado Posts: 287	Bridge Pickups My favorite is the Barden T. I have 2 paired with Duncan VIntage Firebird neck pickups. A close second is a DiMarzio Fast Track T paired with a DeArmond Dynasonic in the neck. In the single coil realm I have a Rio Grande Muy Grande paired with a Gibson / Epiphone Mini Humbucker. My rejects include a Duncan Broadcaster which is a great stock sounding pickup, a H-D Super 90 which sounded like the amp was covered with a blanket ( didn't do the P90 thing at all), Lawerence 290 & 250 which I just didn't care for. __________________ Andy

July 25th, 2003, 11:09 AM	#7 (permalink)
Brad Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Tacoma, WA Posts: 1,294	Andy, tell me more about the fast track. I have a Lil 59'r in the bridge now. I've thought about The Chopper, Fast Track, Tone Zone T....but no one here seems to use these pickups. What led you to the Fast Track? How does it mate with the other pickup in your guitar? What do you like ( dislike ) about it? Thanks! __________________ We don't stop playing because we get old, we get old becasue we stop playing.

July 25th, 2003, 02:27 PM	#8 (permalink)
T2tele TDPRI Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Carlsbad, Ca. Posts: 93	Alan Hamel (A&F) pickups I have Alan Hamel's (A&F) early Blackguard style pickups in all three of my Tele's. These pups (to my ears) turned my already great sounding Tele's into Killer Blackguard sounding T's. The tones that I hear are smokey, woody, spank, harmonically rich, twangy and 3 dimensional... all with clarity and beautiful balance. These guitars with these pups are a pure joy to play! The sound of these guitars played through my Carr Rambler or BF Deluxe Reverb.. is about as good as it gets... To my ears anyway! Ron,

July 26th, 2003, 01:26 PM	#9 (permalink)
Casey Jones TDPRI Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Herts UK Posts: 18	quarter pounders? any one tried these seymour duncans? bascially i'd want a tone that isn't too brittle, but still sounds like a single coil if you get what i mean, smooth. a figure a high output pickup would sound kinda fat, but it probably would still sound like a single coil. bearing in mind this would be for an ash body (any of you who have an ash bodies tele) with maple neck.

July 26th, 2003, 06:43 PM	#10 (permalink)
Andy B Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Englewood, Colorado Posts: 287	Fast Track T Brad, The pickup looks alot like a Barden with a cover. Twin black rails stick through. It is a Strat sized pickup mounted on a plate made to fit a Tele bridge. I originally had 2 Strat pickups & got DiMarzio to exchange one for the Tele pickup. At various time I've had it in different guitars. It is currently in my MIM Fat Tele with an original DeArmond Dynasonic that I've had forever. It replaced a Muy Grande as an experiment to finding a better matchup for the DeArmond. They seem to work great together in this guitar. The sound is a little thicker & less bright than a Barden with great sustain. Jimmy Thackery uses Fast Track's in his main guitar. Not traditional Tele but it works great for me. __________________ Andy

July 29th, 2003, 06:54 PM	#12 (permalink)
Brad Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Tacoma, WA Posts: 1,294	Quarter Pounders I had a set of QP's in an old frankentele about 18 years ago. I really, really liked the neck pickup and used it probably 80% of the time for clean soloing. I loved the fat tone that baby put out! As said, not a traditional, twangy tele pup...but a good sounding pickup none the less. Just for different applications than twang'n. __________________ We don't stop playing because we get old, we get old becasue we stop playing.

August 5th, 2003, 10:15 PM	#13 (permalink)
Barrett TDPRI Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: New Hampshire Posts: 40	I'm embarrassed to say I'm just figuring out the equation That to me a pickup is just part of the picture (and I know this is old news but it took having more than one amp for me to realize it). My 73 strat with Fralin Vintage hot's sounds wonderful through my Tophat King Royale with EL 84's. It only acquired this character however after I put 2 Celestion GT 75's in this open back amp. (originally when I bought it used it had a weber VST and a celestion greenback and just sounded muddy, of course to the previous owner it was the ultimate speaker configuration for rock). Plug that guitar into my Bogner Shiva head, with EL 34's going into my 4x12 Cab sporting two Celestion vintage 30's and two celestion GT 75's criss crossed and it sounds awful! Dull and lifeless, not what I would expect from single coils. I have to tweak the amps eq endlessly before I can get that open, full strat sound, not a good scenario for live playing. However, plug my mongrel partscaster Jazzmaster with Bill Lawrence L490's into this amp OR my 50's MIJ RI Tele with Barden bridge and out comes tone that makes it hard to stop playing (well I have to roll off tone with the Barden bridge). Then there's the complications that come with what the Fulltone Fat Boost or my Analog man Orange Squeezer does with each guitar/amp/speaker configuration, not to mention an additional overdrive.... It's easy to see why folks opt for guitar-cord-amp. I'm just finding it difficult to say one pickup sounds just great for me. However, it is a lot of fun exploring all the options! -b