Best way to wire a Tele with a humbucker neck pickup for max clarity in the neck?

[thrashmetl]

My ideal guitar is a Tele with a normal Tele bridge pickup and a mini-hum or Firebird in the neck. The problem is that I haven't been able to find a way to wire it so that I get as much clarity as I need in the neck without making the bridge an icepick. I have to admit that I haven't tried very hard.

So how do I wire it up so that the neck has clarity and isn't too dark. The Hot Rod '52 Tele method I find to be almost there, but not quite. Has anyone been able to do better with a single volume/single tone control system?

Also, Hot Rod '52 Tele pickup question. I've done a tiny bit of reading on this guitar and it seems the bridge pickup is specially made just for this guitar. Does anyone know if Fender winds this pickup extra dark for this guitar or is it just hotter to match the Duncan Mini-hum?

[Rob DiStefano]

make the tone pot a no-load.

[Brooks A Hood]

thrashmetl - The pickup on the ´52 HR is hotter than a normal ´52 RI -but Fender also sends the HR guitars out with 375k pots to keep the brightness up and to match better with the mini humbucker.

I have had good results with standard humbuckers as well as mini hums by either getting a 4-conductor version or making the pickup a 4 conductor and wiring it in parallel. This reduces the power and the bass and makes it a better match - even with 250k pots.

[JohnS]

I have a 1997 Cali Fat Tele. 500K vol and 250K tone with .022 cap. Works pretty good for me.

[telex76]

I had trouble when putting a Humbucker neck pup in my Nocaster.
No matter what I tried, If the humbucker sounded really good - the bridge was just very shrill and icepicky. If the bridge sounded good - the humbucker was just mud.
I did the 50's/Fezz Parka/Ted Green thing and it was a little better, but not much.

Finally, I wired a 240 k ohm resistor from the the switch where the bridge pup is wired to ground on the back of the volume pot. I read about that fix in a thread on this forum and it worked for me. Both pups sound really good alone and together.
I used 250k pot for tone and 500k pot for volume with a .022 cap.

[BlueCajun]

Originally Posted by telex76

Finally, I wired a 240 k ohm resistor from the the switch where the bridge pup is wired to ground on the back of the volume pot. I read about that fix in a thread on this forum and it worked for me. Both pups sound really good alone and together.
I used 250k pot for tone and 500k pot for volume with a .022 cap.

I recently did the same thing with the exception that I also used a 500k tone pot. Both pickups sound great. But I should mention that I used a slightly hot bridge pickup (David Allen Bluescat) and low output neck humbucker (David Allen Alleycat) to balance the output between the two.

[boris bubbanov]

Originally Posted by telex76

I had trouble when putting a Humbucker neck pup in my Nocaster.
No matter what I tried, If the humbucker sounded really good - the bridge was just very shrill and icepicky. If the bridge sounded good - the humbucker was just mud.
I did the 50's/Fezz Parka/Ted Green thing and it was a little better, but not much.

Finally, I wired a 240 k ohm resistor from the the switch where the bridge pup is wired to ground on the back of the volume pot. I read about that fix in a thread on this forum and it worked for me. Both pups sound really good alone and together.
I used 250k pot for tone and 500k pot for volume with a .022 cap.

I like this idea.

I'll give it a try. Thanks!!

[Verne Bunsen]

I've got that very setup in one of my Teles, and it rocks! I have a Seymour Duncan Jerry Donahue in the bridge and a Lollar Firebird in the neck. I run 500k volume and tone, and a .022 cap. I've tried lots and lots of single coil + humbuckers combos in this guitar, and found just what others have: one pup would sound great at the expense of the other. The magic happened when, as BlueCajun said, I used a slightly hot single coil with a relatively low output bucker. Everything sounds great: the JD bridge is punchy with aggressive attitude on demand, and the Firebird neck is smoooooooth and airy, bell-like tones abound. I also used a MegaSwitch E for a little bit of tonal variety. Let us know how you proceed and how you like it! It's a killer setup, I have no doubt you'll dig it immensely.

[jonal335]

Lowering the pups will usually give a lighter and cleaner sound, particularly with humbuckers...

[doug]

Take the neck pickup off of the tone pot, using the tone for the bridge pickup only.