which single sized bucker for Nashville Tele's middle position

[~ufo~]

Hi all,

I'm new here.

Looking into buying a nashville tele.
it has three single coil pickups.
I like single coils for clean, especially the lipsticks at the neck.
but for lead stuff I prefer humbuckers mostly.

I currently use a cort MGM-1 on stage which has two splitable Mighty Mite humbuckers and it's a good guitar for the price. However, they don't come near a good tele sound, nor have the humbuckers the output of the buckers in a tele deluxe I just borrowed.

So I'm looking to buy a tele, but I'd miss the humbuckers if I'd get a standard model and I'd miss the single coils if I'd get an all humbucker tele.

so I do a lot of stuff on my cort with the neck pickup in humbucking mode and the tone control shut all the way and my mesa mkIII is in lead mode.
This gives a real fuzzy tone that I love for riffs.
For lead chord sounds I like to use the bridge pickup in humbucking mode.
I must add I never use power chords, but a lot of open stuf and full bars.

For this Nashville Tele I'm looking for a single coil sized humbucker in the middle position. it has to be warm and full enough to get the fuzzy lead w/ the tone control shut, yet powerful enough to give a good lead chord and riff sound when the tone is open.

which one would you recommend? also, I guess it should be passive to not be too hot compared to the single coils.

k guys, I know I'm asking a lot from a single guitar, but i don't like changing gits on stage a lot.

thanks in advance!

Cheers,

~ufo~

[Benjy_26]

Re: which single sized bucker for Nashville Tele's middle position

Will you have singles in the neck and bridge?

[~ufo~]

Re: which single sized bucker for Nashville Tele's middle position

yeah,

I'll leave the org singles on in bridge and neck position.

I just want to change the middle single coil with a SC sized humbucker for heavier lead stuff... I'd prolly mostly use the lipstick at the neck for clean stuff and crunchy subtle riffs.

so I need a bucker that's beefy but isn't so hot to render the two singles useless....

I'm looking for a warm sound out of the humbucker. slightly more towards a neck humbucker sound than an agressive bridge humbucker thing....

smelling my coffee ?

[joelap]

Re: which single sized bucker for Nashville Tele's middle position

Maybe a Little 59?

[Benjy_26]

Re: which single sized bucker for Nashville Tele's middle position

I concurr with the Lil 59, or if you preffer Dimarzio, the Fast Track 1 balances nicely with Fender's single coils as far as output goes.

[jeremy]

Re: which single sized bucker for Nashville Tele's middle position

i think a lil 59 would be a good chioce, i might go for the bridge model just to thicken the tone and add a touch more gain. i think that pup sounds awesome in the middle position. it might be a little hotter than the others but itll be a great tone to work from

[~ufo~]

Re: which single sized bucker for Nashville Tele's middle position

Thanks guys!

yeah I'm thinking '59 too, I'm just a bit worried about its output.
is there a pup w/ the same kinda sound that is less hot, or do I just need to pad it w/ a resistor and won't that affect the sound?

also, since we're talking about the nashville tele, the middle pickup is supposed to be a strat type.... so should I replace it with a strat type '59 ?
is there a difference in size or something?
the strat models are a tad bit cheaper at my local store...

anyway I might change the wiring on this thing. Maybe incorporate this S1 switching, can I?

I'm thinking:
normal mode: standart tele (bypass the middle bucker)
just switching: neck, neck+bridge, bridge

switch on the volume control down:
lead mode:
neck, 59, bridge (or if I leave the 5way switch in: neck, neck+59, 59, 59+bridge, bridge)

can this be done? think it would work?

I've never customized a guitar before, but friends have so I'll do it in collaboration...

any thoughts on this?

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: which single sized bucker for Nashville Tele's middle position

this is another vote for the lil59...btw welcom to the board! I'll tell you something that will helpyou alot about trying to judge the output of pups here...If you are looking at the "Tone Chart" you see a bar graph type thingit shows the tone in bass, middle, and treble, then it shows output...do NOT pay attention to the output section...for whatever reason it is very misleading! I had a talk with Scott 2 nights ago about this, he doesn;t know why it shows it like this. To show you what I'm talking about...If you were to look at a set of standard Tele pickups (singlecoils) and compare them to a lil 59, you would think that the 59 would be ALOT louder that the Tele pups...this is not the case! That said, good luck...

The guy who invented fire

[~ufo~]

Re: which single sized bucker for Nashville Tele's middle position

this is another vote for the lil59...do NOT pay attention to the output section...you would think that the 59 would be ALOT louder that the Tele pups...this is not the case! That said, good luck...
The guy who invented fire

Oh thanks! that takes one concern away.
I was beginning to doubt whether I'd have to replace the stock pups too.
I'd like to keep the guitar as stock as I can....
wait that's not true, cos I wanna replace the rosewood neck w/ a maple one etc.

Anywho, someone help me out which lil' '59 to take.

from the tonechart it looks like the strat '59 is much brighter w/ specs rated for bridge and neck position.

the tele '59 however, looks a lot warmer and beefier, but only has specs for a bridge position.

from the tonechart it looks like the tele version is my puppy BUT is there a size difference in strat and tele pickup "sockets" ?
would the tele '59 not get overly bass heavy in the mid position (I'm looking for a dark creamy fuzzy lead sound, but w/ the tone control open it should have somewhat of a bite)

also what's this thing I read about polarity of fender singles not always being compatible w/ SD pups? this is a modern guitar, does that apply?
anyone know?

sorry, I have a lot of questions, I just like to be on top of things

thanks guys!

[Benjy_26]

Re: which single sized bucker for Nashville Tele's middle position

You need the strat sized version, the tele Lil 59 is for bridge only and will not fit in your middle position without modification. SD and Fender pickups are wound to opposing polarity. All you need to do is wire the SD pickup with ground to switch and hot to the back of a pot and you'll be OK. Like Jeremy said, the bridge Lil 59 for strat might be just what you're looking for.

BTW, as far as output goes, you can always raise or lower the pickups to get the balance you want.