Need some advice

[Bluegrass]

I've got a telecaster MIA, that I'm planning on switching the pups on. I'm going for a clean/alternative rock kind of vibe. I'm torn between the 1/4 SD, and the little 59 for lead. I'm also thinking about putting in a strat pup in the neck, I want thick sound. Anyone have experiences with the 1/4 and little 59? and anyone strat pups that would pair up well with either one of those?

thanks

[Acephspades]

I've got the Lil '59 in the bridge of my strat and I am up in the air about it. I've had it for years. The clean tone of the '59 is a little dark, no real bite but it came tame a bright guitar. For distorted tones it does best but it can be a little muddy. IMO it doesn't blend that well with the other single coil pups I have in the guitar. Personally I would look around some more before deciding on it. All in all I am not super-impressed.

[Bluegrass]

I've read quite abit about Harmonic Designs, and decided to order a P-90, and vintage plus. Hopefully it works out, Seems like they've gotten alot of praise.

[JohnnyCrash]

I've gotta Lil '59 in the bridge of one of my Telecasters. I really do like the sound it has, but it wasn't 100% Les Paul PAF and it wasn't 100% Tele twang (when in single coil mode).

I compromised and kept the Lil '59 in that guitar - now I use Gibsons for "authentic PAF" sounds and other Teles/Esquires for "real twang", but I still use the hell out of my Lil '59 Tele all the time. Mostly live and not for recording... but when I need a Tele for looks and a Les Paul for sound - or - I need a guitar that can cover Les Paul, Strat, or Telecaster all in one set/jam, I bring her along:




.


Don't loose the pickup, just get another guitar to compliment that one :)

[Telenator]

I may be approaching this backwards but, I most often try to hear what a particular guitar sounds best at, and make alterations to bring out that guitars natural tendencies. I have ended up with some damn good sounding guitars that weren't necessarily what I was looking for at the time, but they sounded extremely good at what they did most naturally.

On the other hand, I have never had success in trying to make a guitar sound dramatically different than it did when I started the project. The only thing I accomplished was trying to force a guitar to fit a mold it just didn't want to go into. Swapping p'ups yeilded varying results, but the same basic voice of that particular guitar remained.

What I'm getting at is, if the guitar you're working with is close to what you want in sound, then swapping p'ups will probably bring out the qualities you're looking for.

If the guitar is way out of the ball park to begin with, you need a new guitar.

From the original post, it sounds like you need a new guitar to be totally happy with the sound. Just my skewed opinion.