Tele Pickup Help what Duncan for Tele

[mattpas]

I have a Tele with a Seymour Duncan Hotrails in the bridge that I have been using for about 12 years.
Now that I play at home I am just not into the Hotrails anymore as I find them to be too muddy and just too much for low volume playing.
I have been thinking about putting in a Duncan STL-2 Hot Lead or a Quarter Pounder.
I want a full, beefy sound without the ice pick high end since I play blues rock to heavy rock.
Anyone try either of these?
What do you think?

[teleyouk]

I fitted a tele with Duncan's quarter pounder tele bridge, many years ago.
I can give a key-word for this pickups, that SD uses too for the description: bite.
Very ballsy and aggressive sound, really.(not very subtle)
Also, due to its bigger mags, this pickups is definitely noisy, especially when used with overdrive or distortion.

[Delvis]

I had the quarter pounder a few years ago looking to darken the sound of a real bright Tele. It was a mud monster!

[2nd_degree]

Fralin Blues Specials should do it.

[do not be afraid]

if you want to stick with Duncans (and there's nothing wrong with that, despite what some of the boutique obsessed guys here might say!), i'd go with the Jerry Donahue. it's not a "hot" Telecaster pickup, but it is a little bit hotter than most, and uses slightly weaker magnets than most (AlNiCo 2), which comes together to create a pickup that's full and rich, with a smooth top end, but still plenty of that classic Telecaster twang (and definitely no ice-pick!) the Broadcaster is similar to the Jerry Donahue, but it uses AlNiCo 5 magnets, and so has a bit more "bite" and "sizzle" on top. the 5-2 is sort of like a cross between the two: AlNiCo 5 on the low-end for tightness and twang, AlNiCo 2 on the high-end for smoothness and no ice-pick! i find their other "vintage" Telecaster pickups just don't have quite enough "beef" for my taste, particularly under distortion.

the "hot" single-coils they sell do sound better than the "Hot Rails", but i think they'd still be too hot and muddy for what you want! if you're set on one though, i'd get the Quarter Pounder if all you care about is distortion (i find it's much less "mushy" under gain than the Hot), while the "Hot" pickup can be tapped with a push/pull so that you can get both "hot" and "vintage" Telecaster tones (the Quarter Pound can be tapped too, but it won't sound as much like a "vintage" Telecaster.)

listen to the sound-clips on Seymour Duncan's website, if you want to get a sense of how they sound. they don't have the 5-2, for some reason, but you can hear samples of the others — this is how a Telecaster is supposed to sound under distortion, imo (it's the Jerry Donahue!)

[guitarzan13]

Duncan Little 59!!

[spirochete]

I put a set of quarter pounders in my '71 tele and it sounds really punchy for playing rock.

[bobthecanadian]

Five Two

[hotraman]

Originally Posted by guitarzan13

Duncan Little 59!!

ditto the little 59!
You will love the rock tone this P/U gives.
But you may loose the "quack"

[randysmojo]

if you've been using a Hotrails PU, I doubt you'd loose any quack. A little '59 will give great rock tones, and will not be as hot. You can try lowering the pickup hight for less gain for starters too.