Telecaster: Single sized humbuckers?

[Tav]

Hi all. I have just started building my Warmoth Telecaster. It's an alder body routed for two single coil pick ups and a maple neck. I would have prefered to have it routed for humbuckers but because I bought it from the showcase <it was the ONLY goldtop coloured tele> I didn't get the choice of routing. Any how onto the buisness of pickups...

I currently play styles ranging from Pearl Jam <think clean tones, strats, teles, LP's and a range of distortion tones from light to quite full on> to Alice In Chains <hard rock/grunge> to Metallica <metal!> amoungst a lot of other stuff. What I am looking for is a set of pick ups which would hopefully let me go from Pearl Jam to Metallica without too much hassle, perhaps letting the amp/distortion pedal do most of the tone work there.

So I consulted the tone wizard and put in both "hardrock/metal" and "fusion" as my styles and here's what was recommended.

Bridge

STHR-1 Hot Rails <fusion>
STL-3 Quarter-Pound Lead <for both catogeries>
ST59-1 Little '59 <hard rock/metal>

Neck

STR-3 Quarter-Pound Rhythm <for both catogeries>
STR-2 Hot Rhythm <for both catogeries>

What I need are peoples informed opinions on which two to go for. So far I have the following ideas/concerns...

The hotrails might be too hot to manage more subtle tones?
The lil' 59 might be the better choice for versatility at the bridge?
I think I need a humbucker at bridge to get the harder tones but the option of spliting either of the above is very welcome.
I don't know which neck pickup would combine to make the best mix with the bridge unit I choose.

So opions please...thanks in advance,

Tav.

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Telecaster: Single sized humbuckers?

If I were you, and I was not gonna open up the body for full size buckers, I would get a lil 59 for Tele (ST59-1b) and a Tele Rhythm Stack (STK-T1N) if you want it to be fully humbucking. I'm not too sure how far you will get with the metal tones but it shouldn't be too far off...with the right amp and stompbox.

[Robert S.]

Re: Telecaster: Single sized humbuckers?

I haven't had a chance to play the Tele lil59 but it gets rave reviews from people I trust and it will probably be more managable than a Hot Rails for Tele. But I have played and listened to a Tele with a Hot Rails and it sounds pretty darn good clean and huge under gain so don't rule it out. I was very impressed by the Hot Rails for Tele and I know it will do the things you are asking about. It also has enough output that you could wire a series/parallel push pull pot to it and the parallel sound should help out out alot with very clean passages.

For the neck I wouldn't rule out something like a lil59 Strat neck pickup. You'll need to open up your pickguard a bit (or get another made) but the lil59n for Strat combined with the Tele Hot Rail would sound very nice. Almost Les Paul-ish with both pickups on, A Fat Tele thing with both on and the HR in parallel and you neck tones will be full and smooth clean and under gain the lead tones will be stellar.

Sold yet?

[InstituteOfNoise]

Re: Telecaster: Single sized humbuckers?

I've got a Lil 59 in my Tele and you can get very clean twang to nasty crunch. You can also set it up to be parallel/series within itself which is a cool feature. Plenty of area to work with for sure. I've got a real humbucker in the neck so can't give you much advice there.

[Benjy_26]

Re: Telecaster: Single sized humbuckers?

I like Robert's idea of the Lil 59 for strat at the neck, or if you plan on splitting both and are going with a HR at the bridge, the JB Jr for strat neck might also be a good choice.

[Tav]

Re: Telecaster: Single sized humbuckers?

Thanks for the help guys. It's a really hard decision to make. Spending £160 on a set of pickups that I won't have a chance to hear on my guitar before hand is quite a daunting task. I'm into two minds about it. Stick with the humbucking idea or maybe make a hotter/modern Tele with a 1/4 Pounder or such like and then get another more dedicated guitar for heavier tunes...it's so up in the air! I heard there's another tele thread so I am going to check it out for single coil mix ideas.