need a noiseless Tele bridge pickup

[donelectro]

Hey,
I'm looking for a noiseless Tele bridge pickup.
I recently joined an upscale semi-professional party/cover band and although it might make more sense to use my G&L Legacy for this, I'd really like to make my Tele my go-to in this band. Love everything about the guitar (swamp ash, T-Tune bridge, Resophonic Mulecaster mini HB in the neck and for now a Quarter Pounder-ish pickup from Area 51 that has no business sounding as good as it does for the insanely little money it did cost.
What I like is a little more output than traditional tele pickups and a little warmer sound, this guitar improves if a little of the high end is cut.

My two (so far) choices are the Kinman Impersonator 52b and the SD Hot Stack. All Dimarzios I ever heard sounded rather terrible but I like Richie Kotzen's sound so...
Häussel is also an option.
Generally, I prefer single coil over humbucker, I like the Mulecaster mini HB because it IS microphonic by design. Love P90s.
Had a Rübezahl custom shop bridge pu in the Tele before.

I like what I heard of the Kinman (demo videos), I LOVE the guitar sound of Jeff Buckley'd Grace.

Any people here with real world experience of either these two pickups?

Thank you,
much appreciated.

 

[loopfinding]

I don’t know the composition of the t-tune, but something like the stamped steel plate (vs modern stainless) will interfere with the hum cancellation on a stacked noiseless (not as loud as regular SC hum but much louder than an HB or the neck).

If that is the case, the kinman with “the claw” will probably be okay (and my experience with kinmans is they just sound great in general, better than many real deal examples).

Otherwise maybe check out the mojotone quiet coil (it’s a side by side HB but matched to SC resonant freq/inductance and disguised under a fake bobbin top). Or you could also have a look at the Novak or Fralin split tele bridge (or hit up a pickup maker to make you something like that), since you don’t really have to worry about bends cancelling out at the bridge.

The area Ts (what I have now) sound pretty decent but are a bit darker than SCs. The vintage bridge also messes with the area T stacked bridge, but it doesn’t bother me too much since I’m not a bridge guy.

 

[bobio]

I am pretty partial to the SD setup I have in my Warmoth partscaster.
I have a 'lil 59 in the bridge and a '59 in the neck. It has a 5way Toneshaper.

'59 Model Humbucker Pickups | Seymour Duncan

Humbuckers for blues, jazz, rock, metal and everything in between. More sustain, more harmonics – from vintage to high-output.

www.seymourduncan.com

Little ’59™ Tele Pickup | Seymour Duncan

Full sounding, medium output humbucker P.A.F. pickup tone that drops into the bridge position of your Telecaster.

www.seymourduncan.com

 

[Teleguy61]

Wilde/Lawrence L48TL works well.

 

[JL_LI]

My avatar Telecaster has N4 Noiseless pickups with an S2 switch for series. I couldn’t be happier and can’t imagine the need for anything else.

 

[Tommy Biggs]

I hated the Hot Stack, but love the Vintage Stack. My .02 is that you don’t need that much extra in a Tele bridge pickup to give it the right amount of oomph.
Dead quiet though, and sounds rockin with some dirt, sweet blended with the neck pickup and the volume rolled off. Not very twangy, but I don’t really use that at all, so never pursued tweaking my effects or settings to twang out.

 

[SbS]

You said not liking DiMarzios and I'm no Tele bridge pickup guy either. But having DiMarzio PAF Master in neck and Area Hot T in bridge (stacked noiseless). I like the spark it gives on top of the HB when playing middle position and it's quite easy to balance with neck humbucker output wise too.

Got 500K pots there, so for me this combo is bright and sparkly enough. But as I said, I'm no expert in using Tele bridge pickup alone.

Edit: And yeah, I'm having modern thicker (non-steel) bridge plate in that Tele. I've read also some issues with vintage bridges as mentioned earlier.

 

[Grateful Ape]

AreaT 615. Bit more grunt than regular bridge model.

 

[11 Gauge]

All Dimarzios I ever heard sounded rather terrible...

Can you elaborate on this?

I've actually found the Area T to sound really good, especially as far as hum-cancelling stuff goes, and still sound a lot like an actual Tele pickup. I can't really say the same thing about other stack-like pickups I've tried (by SD and Fender, primarily).

I play on the bridge pickup a lot, too. The Area T bridge is like just a bit hotter than a standard Tele bridge pickup, but not like super high output or anything. And the Area Hot T isn't screaming hot either, but is just more mild in the treble frequencies. I also like the latter with 500K pots - gives a nice balance of snap and meaty midrange.

 

[Phrygian77]

Haven't tried the Area T pickups, but the Area 58s that I put in a Strat for my daughter sounded phenomenal. So good in fact that I want to rip the Mojotone 59 Clones out of my Strat and put those Area 58s in. No joke.

 

[DavidP]

...another thumbs up for the Area T, specifically the 615!

 

[Phrygian77]

...another thumbs up for the Area T, specifically the 615!

Dang it, man! You're giving me GAS. I nearly ordered it and the Area T neck for my last build, but I ended up going with a La Brea set, just because I knew what to expect out of those.

 

[Nick Fanis]

SD vintage stack.
Great classic Tele sound without the noise.
Takes distortion and gain really well.

 

[11 Gauge]

Haven't tried the Area T pickups, but the Area 58s that I put in a Strat for my daughter sounded phenomenal. So good in fact that I want to rip the Mojotone 59 Clones out of my Strat and put those Area 58s in. No joke.

I have the Area 58 in the neck slot of a Strat-like guitar that I recently picked up, and I like it a lot. I have an Area 67 in the neck slot of another Strat, and it is very bright and glassy. The Area 58 is just a bit smoother and warmer sounding, or at least I never have to cut the tone pot back (much) with it.

I've also got an Injector in the bridge slot of one Strat, and a Virtual Solo in the bridge slot of the guitar with the Area 58 at the neck. These are much hotter, albeit not really what I would ever call super overwound - they're just IMO great at the bridge position, where IME a Strat bridge pickup can sound kind of strident or thin (and cutting back the tone pot, if you add it to a Strat, doesn't really help much).

IMO, the Area-series pickups are a quantum leap better tonewise than the old HS-series of (traditional) stacked coils are. And we get Tele models with these, while the HSs were restricted to just being Strat pickups.

 

[teleplayr]

+1 on the Vintage Stack.

 

[loudboy]

I really dig the Bill Lawrence 480.

 

[That Cal Webway]

Fralin Split Blades

3 choices. I have the Hot, but has only a little more ooomph, not mid-rangey or truly "hot"
Skip to bridge example at 35 seconds- short vid. Clean:

 

[Beebe]

I have the 52b. Still waiting to install it though. I've loved other Kinman pickups.

These options also look like original Tele bridge pickups (if that matters to you):

Revel Humdinger (three output choices):

Humdinger™ Humbucking Tele Bridge Pickup - Revel Custom Pickups

The Revel Humdinger humbucking Tele bridge pickup combines classic Telecaster single coil bridge pickup tone without the single coil hum. The Humdinger is NOT a stacked pickup and does not suffer from the sterility and blandness of a stack. The Humdinger is lively, touch sensitive, dynamic, and...

revelcustompickups.com

Mojotone Broadcaster Quiet Coil:

Broadcaster Quiet Coil Tele® Pickup

Click here for current lead times Our approach was very simple, to make a tele pickup with the exact same parts and materials as a vintage tele pickup, without the hum. Broadcaster “Quiet Coil™” tele pickups are passive and only use the same parts and materials found in original vintage 1950-51...

www.mojotone.com

 

[Tommy Biggs]

The vintage stack looks pretty traditional too, although it might be cool to take off the sd logo.

 

[donelectro]

thank you guys for the great suggestions!