What pickup for Green Onions?

[Niles]

What bridge pickup will get me the 1960's Green Onions (MG's) type tone?

 

[surfoverb]

you'll get tons of suggestions and heres mine: Fralin Stock Tele

 

[BritishBluesBoy]

How about a set of Don Mare's "Green Onions" pickups?

(link removed)

 

[musicmatty]

Well...

1) Fender 62 Reissue Bridge pup 6.5K

2)Fender Classic 60s Series Bridge pup 6.5K

3) Fender CS Texas Special Bridge pup 10K

4) GFS Pro Series Hot 63 Bridge pup 7.K

 

[telex76]

I have six teles all with different pups, they all get it.

 

[Niles]

I should have mentioned that any thing over 85 bucks for a single pickup is out of my comfort zone. It has been a while since I have heard a Texas Special. The 62 reissue might work and it is cheap. I am going for sweet twang without the harsh treble. The Nocaster I am using is not exactly what I was looking for.

 

[surfoverb]

check out Rumpelstiltskin White Rope, they are under $80 or around that.(when I got mine they were $64 but theyve gone up recently) Just tell Aaron what you want and hell deliver. Im pretty sure the guitar on that album was a late 50s-early 60s Tele so thats why I suggest a Fralin Stock which is basically going for those specs. (6.6K, A5 slight raised poles)

But really any vintage spec Tele pickup will get you there.

 

[Baaford]

check out Rumpelstiltskin White Rope, they are under $80 or around that.(when I got mine they were $64 but theyve gone up recently) Just tell Aaron what you want and hell deliver. Im pretty sure the guitar on that album was a late 50s-early 60s Tele so thats why I suggest a Fralin Stock which is basically going for those specs. (6.6K, A5 slight raised poles)

But really any vintage spec Tele pickup will get you there.

+ 1 Can't go wrong with Aaron.

 

[WaylonFan76]

I should have mentioned that any thing over 85 bucks for a single pickup is out of my comfort zone. It has been a while since I have heard a Texas Special. The 62 reissue might work and it is cheap. I am going for sweet twang without the harsh treble. The Nocaster I am using is not exactly what I was looking for.

Well, that's too bad... maybe it's time you got out of yer "comfort zone". In pickups, just like in anything, you usually get what you pay for. Don Mare "Green Onions" should blow your hair back and build you a new comfort zone. JMHO YMMV

 

[Gypsyblue]

First you have to be Steve Cropper and record in the old Stax studio with the same mic, mic placement and recording console.

Then any good Tele and any good Fender Harvard amp would probably do the trick...if you're Steve Cropper.

As far as pickups go, I'd go for one of these: http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/telecaster/vintage-output/1102432_33_anti/

 

[surfoverb]

I dont believe that 'you get what you pay for' with pickups at all. The raw materials to make Tele pickups is stupid cheap, as long as the winder is talented a tele pickup shouldnt cost more than $50. Ive got $270 Fred Stuarts and $124 Rumpelstilstkins and they are both great. After say, $80 you are paying for the name. Which sucks because Fred Stuart doesnt even sign his PUPs They sure do smell old though

 

[Teleterr]

Take your p/up and soak it in 140 degree F water to remove the wax and not melt the enamel insulation. Then go to the market and buy some scallions that have that gross jelly in their stalks. Using a Mink hair brush from a art supply gentlly brush in the jelly. There's the tone !

 

[Ted M]

Well, that's too bad... maybe it's time you got out of yer "comfort zone". In pickups, just like in anything, you usually get what you pay for. Don Mare "Green Onions" should blow your hair back and build you a new comfort zone. JMHO YMMV

+1 - I have two different sets of Don's pickups in two of my Teles. Both are amazing.

 

[UserNotAvailable]

huge props to that "Harvard" and his recording engineer who added that cool reverb on the end of the solo , and working volumes on the board during that tune.

there's a story as to the LOUD part of the solo - something about the guitar was too loud and the engineer dived to the board to pull it down.

most the pickups produced in that era were usually 5.8 to 6.0 on the money

but while trying to get that "bulk" I hear in that recording.. and counting more on the pickup itself to deliver that tone... we went from 6.0k up 0.1 at a time and its 6.8 that seemed to encapsulate that tone...

but there's never been a Harvard Amp available to run these test again,

I typically try to use Fender tweeds to Black & Silver Face amps _because_ that's what most player will be using LIVE.. so its really a crap shoot and there's always "more then one way" to get these same tones..

But as far as that song... gosh... its got to be one of the Best American Guitar Tones of all time, and its got elements that are involved other then just the pickup, gees when I was little setting in the backseat in a 61' Chevy and that song came on with my head next to those 6x9" speakers.. I knew that was one Bad O'l Electric Guitar -even as a kid


as for "pricing" I feel its more "situational" than anything else,
Cause; it really depends on the "situation" that the makers under. some have really huge overhead, plus bills and machinery, then there's City, State, Employee Requirements, and there's always year end tax requirements others do not have some of these $-problems-$ . some have other reasons for their pricing..etc.. business tax alone is roughly always 30% right off the top.. it gets really discouraging running a small business- almost as if "they" want to discourage you... other countries are even harder $$ then USA to operate within.

So its something like owning a hamburger stand... Your bun ,ground beef patty, slice of cheese,Tomato, lettuce, dressing, onion, pickle, and packaging, may cost the owner .80 cents or more or less?? - but for him to pay all the "other" hidden bills hes going to need to price it all accordingly... and if he wants to stay in business, his version of the ol' classic-burger must be really good and priced to what people are willing to pay for it... and priced so he can pay his "nut" and still survive.
We've all read the success story's about fast food franchises and we've seen the "hot ones come and go"
( I miss Pup-N-Taco, & our old 15-Cent Geno's Burgers from 1970's here in Sol cal)-

a little off topic but a good watch: here's a vid, shows Booker T himself setting the Hammond up for that song, (link removed)

 

[UserNotAvailable]

From The web: http://jazzbackstory.blogspot.com/2009/09/best-recording-ever.html

On the recording, the introduction starts with four measures of organ accompanied only by the hi-hat, with a little bit of dirt in the organ sound that made the Hammond B3 the keyboard of choice at the time. The form is our old friend the 12-bar blues. People who’ve read this blog know that I’m a great lover of the 12-bar blues and you can see my entry “Why I Love the Blues” from 3/30/09. There is a particular sound to this opening lick and the following 12 bars that I find fascinating. At the risk of getting too musically technical, the bass line, in quarter notes, plays F-F-A flat-B flat, clearly indicating a minor bass line and an overall minor flavor. At the same time, on the top, the melody (if you could even call it that) starts with a beat of rest followed by quarter notes on F-E flat-D, in a descending line contrasting with the ascending line of the bass. While the bass line is playing in a minor mode, the top three chords underneath the melody tones are all major triads: F, A flat and B flat. I’m convinced that this major on top and the minor on the bottom is what gives this song a certain darkness but also an indefinable hip sound, that’s hip with a capital H. There’s no getting around the fact that the song oozes cool.

After the four-bar intro, the drums, bass and guitar kick in and immediately take it up a notch. Guitarist Steve Cropper found the perfect thing to play over the first 12 bars, as he nails an accented chord on the second half of every beat 4, slightly anticipating beat 1, giving a forward propulsion to the whole affair. Bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn doubles the left hand of the organist in unison on the ascending minor bass notes.

The first 12 bars has to be considered the melody of the song, as simple as it is. After that we launch into two 12-bar choruses of improvised organ solo, single note lines that include a beautifully placed choppy dissonance in the entrance to chorus number two. At the end of Booker T’s first two choruses, someone yells an enthusiastic but barely audible “yeah!” probably picked up by the drum mics. Check it out at 1 minute and 10 seconds into the song.

Al Jackson provides a minimal but forceful beat. These three elements, a unison guitar/bass line on the bottom, a single note solo on top, and the basic backbeat drum groove, may be the ultimate example of the whole equaling more than the sum of its parts.

The guitar steps up in the third chorus and affirms my theory that this song was one-take wonder. When the guitar solo starts you can hear it is significantly too loud, and it takes about five licks before somebody (either the man behind the control board or Steve Cropper himself) fiddles with the volume until the solo balances with the accompaniment. In today’s huge multi-tracking studios and months for making an album, this would never have been allowed. In the final mix there would never be any discrepancies regarding the balance between instruments. Cropper plays his second 12-bars with one lick repeated over and over, transposed up a fourth, back down, up a fifth, etc., in order to match the three basic chords of the 12-bar blues. The organ returns, filling two more 12-bar phrases with single note lines. The song fades out much like the intro. And after 2 minutes and 50 seconds the musical magic is complete.

Steve Cropper credits the name “Green Onions” to an attempt to come up with a title as funky as possible. The fact that Booker T and the MG’s was a quartet that was half black and half white only adds a certain hipness and panache to the song.

It’s nearly impossible to put into words what makes this song so seemingly perfect, and I’m sure there are people out there who think I’ve chosen an odd choice for my nomination for the most perfect song ever recorded. Everyone has a personal short list of songs that belong in “perfect” territory.

Some years ago I was hired to go down to Memphis to provide keyboard parts and string arrangements on a recording for an up-and-coming heavy metal band called “Young Turk.” While I was there one of the engineers happened to point to a Hammond organ sitting in the hallway. “You see that B3?” he said. “That’s the organ Booker T used on ‘Green Onions.’” Do you suppose I succumbed to the childish impulse to run my fingers over the keyboard? I did.

 

[musicmatty]

Don Mare,

Thanks for sharing all that info with regards to 'Green Onions'. Yes..things have changed over the past few decades in the World of music

 

[Niles]

First off, thanks to all the replies. I am an old man of 59, my first amp was a tweed Havard and that was in 1964, I am well aware that I am not Steve Cropper and lastly I do have to agree that there is a placebo effect with spending more. The guys that command high prices for their pickups have my respect as they have a following probably based in sort sort of reality. Thanks for the humor as we do tend to take this stuff too seriosly.
I have read good things about the Dimarzio Twang King aqnd they are cheap. Another decision is whether to go with staggered magnets or flat. Thanks guys.

 

[nixpix]

I have a Fender '62 AV Tele with Dan Mare Green Onions and they sound fantastic for the namesake song's tone. I swapped out the stock '62 RI pickups and the Mare's are a world of difference - more natural, better dynamics, and more versatile. Check 'em out if you can.

 

[Derek Kiernan]

I should have mentioned that any thing over 85 bucks for a single pickup is out of my comfort zone. [...] I am going for sweet twang without the harsh treble. The Nocaster I am using is not exactly what I was looking for.

I'd be very surprised if Bill Lawrence's Keystones didn't do what you'd want, and the price for a set is remarkable for quality that couldn't be better.

 

[Bigdawg]

when played live at least Steve uses the neck pickup...

Here in the 60s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-7QSMyz5rg

at 1.45 theres a very clear shot of the guitar, and when I saw him weds grin neck pickup all night...