Re: Another what pups should I buy this time for a Tele
APB_4 said:
Thanks for the PM. Just a couple of questions:
1. Does the Surfer fit in a tele? (I'm making this guitar so it doesn't technically matter but I just wanted to check in case I want to stick a tele pup in).
2. Which do you think would suit those styles more? I put in blues rock just so that people would know that I wanted a bit of overdrive occasionally rather than a clean blues tone all the time.
I'm a blues rock player myself. If you're building this guitar, a Strat neck pickup will sound better than ANY TELE NECK PICKUP, and the Surfer is one of the very best I've ever used. I'd have that guitar routed so a Strat neck pickup will fit.
The JD works beautifully for me. I had a '51 Tele...a real one. I searched forever trying to find a modern pickup that sounded like the that one and finally found it in the JD.
The story is that Jerry Donahue had Seymour copy the bridge pickup in his '52. Must've been similar to the bridge pickup in my '51.
Those early Fender pickups are mostly along the lines of the alnico 5 Duncan Broadcaster but there are some that are differant and apparantly Jerry and I both had old Teles with a bridge pickup that was stock but differant: hotter, fatter, thicker...not as glassy and or quite as twangy.
I prefer that tone. The Antiquity I also has that tone but it's not quite as hot as the JD.
The Antiquity I, being wound a little less hot than the JD, does have a little more chime and twang.
I have an Antiquity set in one Tele and the Jerry Donahue in another. It's hard to find it all in one pickup so I use both.
There is a pickup though that does have the tone of both: the alnico 2 Tapped Tele Hot from the Duncan Custom Shop. Tapped it has the tone of the Antiquity I and the full output is similar to the Jerry Donahue. I use one in a Strat that's routed to fit a Tele bridge pickup.
Lew
Lew