Neck pickup recommendation - Baja 50s Tele

[Zenyatta]

Hey everyone, I just got a Baja 50s Tele. Very nice guitar, nicely made with tons of great features.

While I like the Broadcaster bridge pickup and the sound of both pickups together (in series or parallel), I'm not a huge fan of the Twisted Tele neck pickup on its own, which sounds thin to me. I like the more traditional jazzy sounding Tele neck pickup. Any recommendations for a swap? The caveat is that it needs a third wire for the metal casing due to the complex switching options on the guitar.

 

[uriah1]

For jazz if you are good with woodworking a Charlie Christian. Other than that a good low wind I would think.

 

[SnidelyWhiplash]

Do you want a vintage style drawn brass cover or more modern nickel silver???

 

[robt57]

I'd try a brass cover to see if it did what I was looking [listening] for. I never though about or tried this this on a Tallboy type bobbin PU I must confess.

You could also pop on a ferrous metal PU ring and try that both grounded and un-grounded to disturb the field and see if it does a desired tonal change.

If you have a black PG a black ring should not be very noticeable.

 

[El Tele Lobo]

Cavalier Fat Lion King is one of the best neck pickups I’ve found for jazz. In spite of its fatness, it’s still retains a surprising amount of clarity. The regular Lion King is pretty good too, but the Fat Lion King is great for jazz. I have some demos of it on my YouTube channel.

 

[archetype]

If you want to keep it 'all Fender,' the '52 Original Vintage or Pure Vintage will do the job nicely. There are early and later versions of the '52 OV. I don't remember what the difference is. Darren Riley stocks them. The Texas Special pairs well with nearly any bridge pickup, but it's gotten expensive.

 

[Grateful Ape]

Cavalier Fat Lion King is one of the best neck pickups I’ve found for jazz. In spite of its fatness, it’s still retains a surprising amount of clarity. The regular Lion King is pretty good too, but the Fat Lion King is great for jazz. I have some demos of it on my YouTube channel.

↑ This

 

[Zenyatta]

Do you want a vintage style drawn brass cover or more modern nickel silver???

Maybe brass covers I'm thinking

 

[FlarbNarb]

Could really go wild and put single coil Jazzmaster pick up in there. The old JM’s used a thin brass plate under the pickup as a shield. The pickups tend to be mellower than a strat pickup even though they’re still single coil since the coil itself is super flat and super wide and tend to be a little less output than other singles overall. A very good full range sound is what they produce with a nice large string sensing area. Bootstrap Pickups makes a beautiful JM set as well as Tele sets and the rest. Great winder with very competitive pricing.

 

[Zenyatta]

Could really go wild and put single coil Jazzmaster pick up in there. The old JM’s used a thin brass plate under the pickup as a shield. The pickups tend to be mellower than a strat pickup even though they’re still single coil since the coil itself is super flat and super wide and tend to be a little less output than other singles overall. A very good full range sound is what they produce with a nice large string sensing area. Bootstrap Pickups makes a beautiful JM set as well as Tele sets and the rest. Great winder with very competitive pricing.

I'm looking to avoid any routing, but I do love Jazzmaster pickups

 

[SnidelyWhiplash]

Maybe brass covers I'm thinking

If you want the brass cover, just get the Seymour Duncan STR-1 vintage Tele neck pickup.

 

[Butch Snyder]

If you can find one sold separately, the CS Nocaster neck pickup is very smooth and creamy without being muddy.

 

[Antoon]

I'm looking to avoid any routing, but I do love Jazzmaster pickups

Couldn't this be done without any body or even pickguard routing? The JM coil might fit between the strings and the pickguard on a Tele. The longer JM pickup magnets will fit in the Tele neck PU routing.

 

[FlarbNarb]

Couldn't this be done without any body or even pickguard routing? The JM coil might fit between the strings and the pickguard on a Tele. The longer JM pickup magnets will fit in the Tele neck PU routing.

JM pickups are super flat.

 

[Zenyatta]

I will keep all these suggestions in my back pocket. I actually think I've found a cheaper solution - a 2nF "mud switch" added to the circuit (kind of like what you see in some Gretsch guitars). That seems to give the right amount of jazz warmth to the neck pickup.

 

[Antoon]

I will keep all these suggestions in my back pocket. I actually think I've found a cheaper solution - a 2nF "mud switch" added to the circuit (kind of like what you see in some Gretsch guitars). That seems to give the right amount of jazz warmth to the neck pickup.

That is actually a great solution that will sound better than than just backing off the tone control.

 

[surfco]

Hey everyone, I just got a Baja 50s Tele. Very nice guitar, nicely made with tons of great features.

While I like the Broadcaster bridge pickup and the sound of both pickups together (in series or parallel), I'm not a huge fan of the Twisted Tele neck pickup on its own, which sounds thin to me. I like the more traditional jazzy sounding Tele neck pickup. Any recommendations for a swap? The caveat is that it needs a third wire for the metal casing due to the complex switching options on the guitar.

I recommend the Wilde L-280TN.
It has a third wire.

 

[El Tele Lobo]

I will keep all these suggestions in my back pocket. I actually think I've found a cheaper solution - a 2nF "mud switch" added to the circuit (kind of like what you see in some Gretsch guitars). That seems to give the right amount of jazz warmth to the neck pickup.

I would love to hear the results if you don’t mind recording a video demo.

 

[Grandfunkfan]

Check out Porter pickups 9Ts. The neck is FAT, perfect balance, beautiful articulate highs, and crystal clear. I use mine for blues clean to the edge of break up, very responsive and a ton of sustain when you do a slow bend or vibrato. There are some demos online but unfortunately they do em justice. You can get an idea of how thick they are, but as usual a lot of the nuance gets covered up by a bunch of effects.

 

[Zenyatta]

I would love to hear the results if you don’t mind recording a video demo.

I think I've decided to leave things as is for now - I've made some setting and setup adjustments and am pretty happy with the stock wiring.