Alnico question for a Tele pup swap

Drunken Uncle

Drunken Uncle

New member
Last guitar I bought was a twenty year old Squier Pro Tone Tele, ash body, rosewood board. It's a fat Tele, single coil bridge and humbucker in neck, bridge is a bit brittle and the neck muddy so going to swap them out.

Was looking at either an A3 50's style bridge pup or a tapped bridge single coil which heats up a bit when on full whack, that's available in A2/A3/A5. For the neck I was going to go with a '57 spec humbucker available in A2/A3/A4/A5.

I'm looking for classic highs and twang from the bridge and a brighter humbuckers than the stock one but not a hot humbucker, I already own a Tele with A5 single coils wound to 12k/8.6k, I also own a Tele with a low wind A5 wound to 5.9 and a low wind P90 in the neck, I'm looking for a happy medium between the two of these, any thoughts re magnets?
 
Re: Alnico question for a Tele pup swap

JD or Nocaster bridge and Seth Lover neck.

I have the same guitar. Nocaster - '59 combo was delicious. I have it with A5/9k broadcasterish bridge and low wind hb sized P-90 now.
 
Re: Alnico question for a Tele pup swap

Jd Bridge and Pearly gates neck is a gorgeous combination, but a seth or other vintage wind neck pup would be great too.

Your humbucker is probably muddy because of 250k pots.
Try a pair of 500k pots with an extra 510k resistor wired off the toggle so that the bridge pup gets the correct loading.
 
Re: Alnico question for a Tele pup swap

Tapped Quarter Pound bridge, Demon neck. This will give you in-between the two you already have with great clarity (esp. with the QP tapped) and versatility.
 
Re: Alnico question for a Tele pup swap

Thanks for the replies

Re muddy neck pup, when looking through other forums other people were complaining of same problem with same guitar. I'll pass the pots/wiring info onto the guy who does all my tweak work
 
Re: Alnico question for a Tele pup swap

It is probably not a great pup to start with, but 250k pots will exacerbate it noticeably.
 
Re: Alnico question for a Tele pup swap

Some great suggestions here. I like the JD bridge and the Seth Lover neck. But pots are the easiest to change first. Those Pro Tone Teles are nice guitars, and shouldn't sound as bad as you are describing.
 
Re: Alnico question for a Tele pup swap

Cheers all, in a typical move something appears to have blown in my amp today, buzzing through headphones, assume a valve so pups put on hold until that's fixed.
 
Re: Alnico question for a Tele pup swap

Since I never use the tone control on the neck pickup of my Teles, I attach the tone control only to the bridge pickup. That helps de-mud the neck pickup.

I have an Alnico 2 Jerry Donahue in one Tele and the Hot for Tele in another for lead pickups.

Gotta say, tho, that my favorite neck pickup in a Tele is an Alnico 5 Stratocaster pickup: Duncan Surfer or Fralin Vintage Hot. Or a Duncan SSL-1 .
 
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