Suggestions for quack with a tele bridge

[zionstrat]

I've got a friend who has an American standard tele that he is routing for a center pickup with a five-way like a Nashville..

Doesn't care about the middle pickup tone.. The center position is going to be outer pups in series.

What he does care about is quack in the two and four positions and I've never really thought about it with a telecaster bridge..

I'm guessing, in theory, that the best match would be a low output single, just as you would do on a strat, but interested in your thoughts since this is a tele bridge pup.

[jeremy]

yeah, vintage wind a5 pup would be my suggestion. which is also what i would choose if using the series option in the middle so it doesnt sound like mud

[Mincer]

Yeah, I agree...the series in the middle is gonna sound muddy. I'd go parallel, so you don't lose the middle position Tele sound.

[freefrog]

I'm guessing, in theory, that the best match would be a low output single, just as you would do on a strat, but interested in your thoughts since this is a tele bridge pup.

That's what I've found in practice too. Surprisingly or not, I've also obtained good results from a Twisted Tele neck PU transplanted in the mid slot... Even paired with a beefy Tele bridge PU (measured at 4H: the inductance of a P.A.F.), it was giving a nice usable quack in position 2.

If ever it's not quacky enough, it's still possible to put a dummy coil in parallel with both pickups, in order to lower even more their parallel inductance.

FWIW. HTH.

[zionstrat]

Regarding series, I suggested phase flip if he's going for series. We will see...

Thanks for reinforcement on the vintage center!