Best tele bridge pickup to match with neck humbucker?

[jimijames]

Re: Best tele bridge pickup to match with neck humbucker?

That is pretty much what i'm after. Thanks for the great and detailed information.

...how did you wire all that stuff?
do you have any diagrams?

re: vintage...im putting a gibson style humbucker in a tele so im not too concerned about "true vintage". I believe Albert didint install the humbucker, it was there when he bought the axe, but yeah...im sure whoever installed it did not agonize over pots and caps too much but the guitar sounded good enough for the iceman! Thanks again for the info.

So, it's a tele deluxe style body with a single coil bridge pickup. So, each pickup has its own "volume" and "tone" control. This is closest to how I wired it:

But instead of jumpering the split control, I have the wire from the DPDT switch top row going to the middle lug of the pot. When I wired it like that it was an all on or all off proposition. I believe a SD forum member originally made that diagram, much thanks to him for doing so. I think ArtieToo? The diagram is from a while ago. Also, the spin-a-split only works while the pickup is in series.

The bridge pickup is wired to a single volume, and the tone control is actually wired to the output jack itself so it's a master tone. For 500k volume controls and a 500k tone, I found a .022uf cap had a lot of useable range. It's a swamp ash tele with a rosewood neck and a bigsby bridge though, so it's bound to be less bright than your traditional tele anyway.

I like that wiring scheme because I can get all the sounds from a traditional tele, as well as a decent strat neck sound, and of course the classic PAF neck h/u sound.

The JD bridge sounds fantastic for everything I've tried on it. I don't know what it is, but you can do everything from a good clean rhythm sound to heavily distorted stuff. Idk about thrash though. Not sure it would work for that haha.

 

[loversmoon]

Re: Best tele bridge pickup to match with neck humbucker?

Donahue or a lil 59

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: Best tele bridge pickup to match with neck humbucker?

Here is the diagram from US Fat Tele:

http://support.fender.com/service_diagrams/telecaster/011-8000Cupg1_SISD.pdf

And I suppose you already know this, hence the 270K resistor...

I am not %100 sure on how the switch works, thus, I am not sure whether or not this resistor is in series to the hot signal of the bridge when active. But I suppose that this is the particular wiring at hand. Yet, I am not sure. I wish I had my trusty multimeter with the logic function and this switch at hand, so that I could tell you exactly what's happening. BTW 500K resistor thing is for getting the volume pot working as a "250K" pot... 1/250 = 1/500 + 1/500, you know...

John's guide is a great one:

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/potm.htm

So if you wanna go that route, either you'd have to get a superswitch and figure out how and where to place the 500K resistor so that it's effective when only the bridge is active (or whenever the bridge is on, if that's what you want...); or, you'd have to get yourself a push pull pot (provided that you don't wanna drill that steel tele route plate).

For a while I used the latter of these two approaches. It did not work for me, because it was not automatic you see... But the nice thing is that it showed me that working with a 500K volume pot and 250K tone pot is not bad at all. So that's exactly what I am using currently.

And... I am not a stranger to using a HB in the neck of a tele, as I do not favor tele neck pickups. My tele currently has a Hamel STD-A (Blackguard) pickup with a3 rods, and a Antiquity Neck HB with the good old stock Dun-Aged magnet. I love the night and day combination... Still the bridge is very cool. Moreover, I have tried my share of tele pickups in the bridge of this guitar. Fralin Blues sp., Hamel STD-B (Broadcaster), Duncan Broadcaster, Duncan Jerry Donahue, Duncan Alnico 2 Pro, OC Duff, ... some that I do not remember. Jerry Donahue was among the best. Indeed, I'd love to try an alnico 3 Jerry Donahue. Anyways, I suggest a Jerry Donahue bridge as well.

Regarding the HB choices... Well, I am with Zhang on this. A5 necks are tricky... Maybe too boomy and all. But you could do an a4 swap there. I love the results. One of the best neck buckers I have ever owned is a 7.50K 59N with an a4. It kills... But with an a5 it was boomy in the lows. And... don't shy away from using the PG in the neck. It is a2 alright, but the whole bright bridge and deep neck tone mix actually works, which I am sure you already know... You could even go all the way to the antiquity neck. Because the contrast between the spongy and round (yet deep and hollow) tone as opposed to the Jerry Donahue bridge (which I view as Duncan's take on a3 Broadcasters) produces beautiful results.

B :beerchug:

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Best tele bridge pickup to match with neck humbucker?

thats brilliant, doc. Thank you

 

[Juanhanglo]

Re: Best tele bridge pickup to match with neck humbucker?

I have a harmonic design vintage plus in the bridge of my tele. It has been there since 2000 or so.
I know they are yesterdays news but man what a ballsy pickup!

I just pulled my tele out, did a setup, and have had it in the rotation since.

I run a vintage plus set thru a 3way switch into a 500k tone and volume pot with a treble bleed circuit. If I cut the volume to 8 or so, it removes just the right amount of bass to bring it back to tele-land.

Oh, and they are easily as loud as most regular buckers.

 

[GilmourD]

Re: Best tele bridge pickup to match with neck humbucker?

If you're looking to stick with Duncan, I'd go with a Jazz in the neck and an STL-1. That would probably be closest to the setup I have in the two Teles that I have with humbuckers in the neck, but those don't have Duncans in them. Both of them have 500K volumes and 250K tones.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Best tele bridge pickup to match with neck humbucker?

JD model on the way.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Best tele bridge pickup to match with neck humbucker?

I think the original poster had it right from the beginning. The Jerry Donahue bridge and PGn. Two of the best pickups Seymour Duncan makes. How could it not sound great?

I can't wait to hear how this set works out. It sounds perfect for that guitar.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Best tele bridge pickup to match with neck humbucker?

i waiting for all the parts. This will be a partsocaster that ill be finishing in shellac. I'll do a build thread with lots of pics when things start taking shape.