Looking for a neck humbucker for my MIM Fender telecaster

[trandy9850]

what do you like to play?

Name it and, short of metal, I’ve done it…to be fair most of the time I play a dual- humbucker guitar….but when ”Tele time” rolls around I love that combination of pickups.

To be a little more specific: I’ve done Motown, Stax/Volt tunes, Beatles, Top 40 pop stuff (Michael Jackson, Madonna, Huey Lewis, etc), light jazz gigs (music to eat dinner by), etc.

 

[Willy-son]

Seymour Duncan Seth Lover. Should match well with the stock bridge pickup.

 

[BrokenTele]

I have a SD Jazz-clone in the neck of my tele, with a Texas Special in the bridge.

Sounds great. It’s quite bright, but I feel that neck pickups in Telecasters tend to sound “brighter” than Les Paul neck humbuckers, which seem to have more of a bassy sound, at least to me.

Volume mismatch between the bridge and neck is noticeable, but I can live with it.

 

[bobio]

While not a humbucker, still tasty sounds in a humbucker format...Seymour Duncan Phat Cat P90.
I also have a Tele with a Seymour Duncan Jazz humbucker in the neck and a Seymour Duncan Five Two in the bridge.
Then there is another with a Seymour Duncan '59 in the neck and a Seymour Duncan Little 59 in the bridge.
Love the tone from both the Jazz and the '59, can't go wrong with either.



Then again, lately I have really been loving the creamy tones from my Gibson Les Paul Studio
Nothing wrong with putting a Gibson humbucker in a Tele

 

[Wallaby]

I keep wanting to do this with one of my Teles too

IMO it's hard to go wrong with a classic low-to-medium wind PAF-style humbucker.

Something like a Seymour Duncan Seth Lover.

I would modify the wiring in a way that let's the bridge pickup "see" a 250k pot and the neck pickup "see" a 500k pot.

Fralin Pickups - How To Mix Humbucker And Single Coil Pickups

Mixing Single Coils and Humbuckers in a guitar can be tricky business. Fralin Pickups show you how to get the best tone from your HSS or HSH guitar.

www.fralinpickups.com

Good luck with your project!

 

[Robert H.]

Lollar Imperial. Maybe even the low wind. They’re pricey but great. Smooth, warm tone that can be pushed if you choose. Got one in my main Tele (Suhr)
It might seem like an over-improvement for a MIM guitar, but it’s not IMO. Just a great pickup.

 

[DavidP]

Look no further than Craig Vineham's "Telepaf" (http://www.vineham.com/telecaster_pickups.html)!

 

[cousinpaul]

If you go with SD, get the 4 conductor version. Easier to correct OOP when mixing with a Fender bridge pickup.

 

[schmee]

MINIBUCKER is the way to go on a Tele neck pup! "It ain't the size that matters, it's what you do with it!"

 

[kinkstah]

Low wind and unpotted, as in a vintage-style PAF, does the trick for me.

 

[PCollen]

It has the stock pickups in at the moment. It has room for a full sized humbucker in the neck position. I'm open to either a single coil sized humbucker or a full one.

As far as sound, I'm a huge fan of 1970s soul/r&b music and all the session guitar work from that era (e.g. Skip Pitts, Michael Toles, Craig McMullen, etc). I know some of them did not use humbuckers but I'd still like to swap. Overall, I listen to almost everything from jazz to pop to country to rock.

My concern is making sure that the pickup I choose is not going to have output that's far off from the stock neck pickup that I'm leaving in. I'm looking at DiMarzio HBs but I can't find any clear info on the millivolt output of the stock MIM single coils.

Any recommendations?

If you can settle on a P90 influenced Tele neck pickup, which installs with no modification to the guitar, you might consider the Lindy Fralin SP42 Tele neck pickup....

Fralin Steel Pole 42 Tele Pickups: Bright & Clear P90 Tone For Tele.

Steel Pole 42 Tele pickups: Perfect for musicians that want to blend flexibility, a Thick P90 Sound, and a snappy Single Coil Sound.

www.fralinpickups.com

 

[Trenchant63]

DiMarzio Air Classic neck. Full and smooth but still nice highs and defined.

 

[tfarny]

Nobody has mentioned them but I'm also partial to Duncan A2 pro and to Gibson '57 classics. But most of the pickups mentioned are all covering pretty similar ground, I'm sure any of them would be great.

 

[DisharmonicDark99]

Late to the convo here but just want to say, for those kinds of '70's r&b/soul tones you're after I think neck wise going for something like the Duncan 59, Antiquity or DiMarzio 36th ann. PAF could all work really well. And I like the idea of the SD Little 59 in the bridge for this, especially if you wire it for a push-pull so you can split it, you'll get the wider variety of tones you'll need for those styles. I do also dig the idea of putting something like a P-90 style pickup in the neck like the Phat Cat, I've gotten some great funk-y tones out of that before and that can be a really cool option for more diversity.

 

[1stpitch]

I've got a Gibson Burstbucker 2 in the neck on a Tele with a TexMex bridge. They work well together.

 

[Singin' Dave]

Much like the "what speaker for my amp" posts in the amp section here, your going to get a lot of opinions on specific types of humbuckers. All valid but can be a bit of a rabbit hole.

In general I agree with the low wind, lower output variants as likely having a bit better balance with a single coil bridge. For me personally for my '94 MIM Tele Special, I chose and am thrilled with the SD Seth Lover, but again, tastes vary.

Will also add I'd look into 4 wire humbuckers to add split bucker sounds to your arsenal; I had to custom order my Seth Lover as a 4 conductor model to marry to a 5 way switch.

 

[Mr Swisher]

Love my Seymour Duncan '59