THE Best Telecaster Bridge Pickup!

[Travisb1989]

I have tried several pickups in the quest for the “perfect” tele bridge pickup. And while I know that tone is extremely subjective, I wanted to share. After trying the stock alnicos that came with my American made G&L Asat, fender Texas specials, Seymour Duncan La Breas, Lollar vintage Ts, Lollar special ts, Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound, Seymour Duncan five-two, and a couple dimarzios, I FINALLY found the perfect pickup for the bridge….
The Seymour Duncan Jerry Donahue Pickup.
It is clear and articulate, yet does not get spikey and ice-pick like! It seems extremely balanced between the low, mid, and high frequencies. It is Full sounding on clean tones and with natural overdrives it has excellent tone and feel as well. There is a comfortable amount of compression without sacrificing the attack that I have come to love from a T-Style guitar. This pickup has made me fall in love with my tele again, and I just wanted to share my findings with everyone. I can’t recommend this pickup enough!

 

[Humbuckers]

Curious to hear what you felt about the other options you listed.

 

[Travisb1989]

Curious to hear what you felt about the other options you listed.

My goal was to find a balanced pickup with even highs, mids and lows. The stock pickups were fairly balanced, but on the weaker side, so I wanted to try something a little hotter.
-The Seymour Duncan La brea was hotter, but had an odd voicing. It was not balanced IMO and was too honky.
-I then tried a Lollar vintage t in the neck and Lollar special T in the bridge. I loved the vintage t in the neck, but I struggled to get the treble response out of the special t to match the vintage t in the neck so I put a vintage t in the bridge as well. The tone of the neck and bridge now matched well, but I wanted a little more beef than the vintage T bridge pickup could provide.
-So I tried a tappped Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound bridge pickup. However, in tapped mode the pickup was so weak that it was unusable and at full power, the Quarter Pound was way too hot and had lost all the high end of a tele.
-The Seymour DuNcan Five-Two in the bridge was a good output, but despite fiddling with the pickup height constantly, I did not like the blend of the alnico 5 and 2 magnets, the low strings were barky and the high strings were too soft in comparison.
- The Seymour Duncan Jerry Donahue, for me, has the perfect balance of highs, mids and lows. It also blends extremely well with the alnico 5 I have on the neck. Having an alnico 5 in the the neck and the Alnico 2 JD in the bridge really makes the tonality when switching between the neck and bridge consistent. I am extremely happy and my hunt is over.

 

[somebodyelseuk]

LOL...
My limited experience of Tele pickups (despite having 40 years playing experience)...
'86 Squier - from memory, surprising. Expected worse, but the guitar was bought for other purposes, so it got pulled, and eventually sold it about a decade ago.
Whatever was fitted in the US Standard in '97 - Okay. Still in the guitar. Not bad enough to pull. Not good enough to get excited about.
The Broadcaster in my 2011 Baja - they say it's a Custom Shop pickup, but I'm not convinced, however, it is a fantastic sounding pickup.
H/W '58 in my '22 CS Tele - Great pickup... really great pickup, but I do prefer the Baja's Broadcaster. It should be noted that the Baja has brass saddles and the CS Tele is '59 spec, with steel saddles... it does make a difference.

Okay, ignoring the Squier, this is the only Tele I own that doesn't have it's original pickups.
'21 Vintera - the original pickups were 'meh' - not bad, not good. Replaced them with a set of CS '51 Nocasters, which are really good. Had a problem with the neck pickup after a few days and ended up binning it. Had a set of Monty's Broadcaster pickups made for it.
Had I not killed the neck pickup, I'd have been happy with the Nocasters, but the Montys are in a different league.

As I already mentioned, those bridge saddles do make a difference. Aside from the original Squier and the CS Tele, mine all have brass saddles.

 

[Humbuckers]

My goal was to find a balanced pickup with even highs, mids and lows. The stock pickups were fairly balanced, but on the weaker side, so I wanted to try something a little hotter.
-The Seymour Duncan La brea was hotter, but had an odd voicing. It was not balanced IMO and was too honky.
-I then tried a Lollar vintage t in the neck and Lollar special T in the bridge. I loved the vintage t in the neck, but I struggled to get the treble response out of the special t to match the vintage t in the neck so I put a vintage t in the bridge as well. The tone of the neck and bridge now matched well, but I wanted a little more beef than the vintage T bridge pickup could provide.
-So I tried a tappped Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound bridge pickup. However, in tapped mode the pickup was so weak that it was unusable and at full power, the Quarter Pound was way too hot and had lost all the high end of a tele.
-The Seymour DuNcan Five-Two in the bridge was a good output, but despite fiddling with the pickup height constantly, I did not like the blend of the alnico 5 and 2 magnets, the low strings were barky and the high strings were too soft in comparison.
- The Seymour Duncan Jerry Donahue, for me, has the perfect balance of highs, mids and lows. It also blends extremely well with the alnico 5 I have on the neck. Having an alnico 5 in the the neck and the Alnico 2 JD in the bridge really makes the tonality when switching between the neck and bridge consistent. I am extremely happy and my hunt is over.

Thanks for the rundown. What were your feelings on the Texas Specials? How did you feel the Jerry donahue compared to the Special T?

 

[corliss1]

There is no such thing as "best" - only the best for your, your playing style, and your ears.

 

[Vibroluxer]

There is no such thing as "best" - only the best for your, your playing style, and your ears.

He kinda said that in his 2nd sentence.

 

[Travisb1989]

There is no such thing as "best" - only the best for your, your playing style, and your ears.

That is very true sir. I’m just glad I finally found the tone I was chasing.

 

[Travisb1989]

Thanks for the rundown. What were your feelings on the Texas Specials? How did you feel the Jerry donahue compared to the Special T?

The Texas special was really good and was actually very similar to the Special T. I just feel that the Jerry Donahue is more balanced in tonality and has a softer attack than both the Texas Special and the Special T.

 

[montyveda]

There is no such thing as "best" - only the best for your, your playing style, and your ears.

...and budget

 

[boris bubbanov]

There is no such thing as "best" - only the best for your, your playing style, and your ears.

Yup.

I liked the Jerry Donahue in one project, but not so much installed in another T type. Way too many variables, the #1 variable being the guitar player.

But I like the fact that the O.P. is plainly putting a lot of concentration into his choice(s). There's a lot of players using a pickup that seems plainly not best for them - but they are not open to the observations of others - nor are they self-critical enough IMO.

 

[UPtele]

I love JD I got mine paired with a twang king and it's perfect for me

 

[bendercaster]

I've always wanted to try the JD bridge pickup. The CS 51 Nocaster was my favorite for many years, but it can get a little shrill if the tone knob is all the way open. I tend to keep it or the volume rolled back a little. I have an Alnico pickup from a recent classic Vibe Thinline in my current favorite Telecaster right now though, and I think I like it even better. It growls like a P90, but isn't woofy or otherwise unbalanced sounding.

 

[Humbuckers]

Shameless plug for the Jerry donahue I have for sale in the classified section.

 

[pippoman]

Shameless plug for the Jerry donahue I have for sale in the classified section.

Perfect timing

 

[Andy B]

DiMarzio for me. Chopper T is my mainstay for many years. Just tried a Air Norton T in my Thinline. Matches up very well with the Mini Humbucker in the neck.

 

[UPtele]

Shameless plug for the Jerry donahue I have for sale in the classified section.

You don't like the JD?

 

[Humbuckers]

You don't like the JD?

I really liked it for a good while; it was my preferred pickup for doing the thick, big (but not super dark and lower-mids heavy) Tele sound. My taste seems to have swung in the opposite direction now, though: I want the absolute maximum amount of treble without sounding thin and needle-y. Might even experiment with 1 meg pots!

Consequently, I’ve been unloading all of my “Tele with a twist” bridge pickups. I’ve got a Fralin Blues Special and a Cavalier Humongous Lion that I’m letting go of, too.

 

[NiceTele]

As a Tele player for over 45 years, I must say that the bridge pup in my 2021 Road Worn MIM Tele Vintera just knocks everything else out of the water, and that's a lot of early and newer Teles- just does every Tele thing possible.

 

[rogerzilla]

SD Vintage Stack? I listened to a lot of sound samples before buying.