J
JBAdamsJr
Guest
I play rhythm guitar at my church and when I first got my Fender MIM Standard Telecaster, it had hum issues in the gym where we play; it has high intensity lighting and I stand up against a concrete block wall where a lot of the electrical wiring is located. So I swapped those pickups for Fender's SCN Noiseless pickups which are a little better on the hum, but the tone is not that great (the neck is pretty good but I am not crazy about the bridge pickup and hardly ever use it alone). The sound guy is still telling me that he is getting a hum from my channel unless I turn down the guitar volume to about 1/2 and then turn down the volume from the VOX Tonelab LE I am going through into the PA. But turning down the volume on the guitar is making it harder to get some good overdrive and distortion tones.
I want to replace the pickups to get a wide variety of tones, but I also want to get some that would reduce the hum I am getting. But I am not sure that will require getting "noiseless" or "hum-cancelling" pickups, or if I get good pickups that are low noise anyway, that this might be acceptable. Maybe I need to get humbuckers, but I don't know if anyone makes SC-sized humbuckers for the Telecaster, other than the SD Lil '59 bridge pickup. I will be moving out of this space at some point, but it could be a year out; so at some point the hum might not be an issue, but I don't want it to be a real issue until then.
I like the modern country clean tones and their tight compressed overdrive/distortion tones, that you can tell come from a Telecaster. I would like those kinds of tones, as well as smooth jazzy tones from the neck pickup. I also like the old 50's/60's Rock 'n Roll/Rockabilly tones like Scotty Moore and James Burton, and classic rock tones from groups like Boston, Journey, Fleetwood Mac, STYX, etc. I like their distortion tones as well as their lead tones. I don't know if I could get all of those types of tones out of two new Tele pickups, but I would like to try, whether they are single coil or humbuckers.
I am looking at some of these pickups:
Harmonic Design Vintage+ (hum cancelling in mid positions)
Zhangbucker Paul Bunyan
SD Blackguard Broadcasters
Dimarzio Area T (noiseless)
Seymour Duncan Hot for Tele
others?
I could use some suggestions as to what type of pickups I should get and in what configuration as to get some of the tones I would like to achieve. Then any suggestions as to what pickups would get me there would be appreciated. I also use a 4-way switch so I can use these in both series and parallel modes.
I want to replace the pickups to get a wide variety of tones, but I also want to get some that would reduce the hum I am getting. But I am not sure that will require getting "noiseless" or "hum-cancelling" pickups, or if I get good pickups that are low noise anyway, that this might be acceptable. Maybe I need to get humbuckers, but I don't know if anyone makes SC-sized humbuckers for the Telecaster, other than the SD Lil '59 bridge pickup. I will be moving out of this space at some point, but it could be a year out; so at some point the hum might not be an issue, but I don't want it to be a real issue until then.
I like the modern country clean tones and their tight compressed overdrive/distortion tones, that you can tell come from a Telecaster. I would like those kinds of tones, as well as smooth jazzy tones from the neck pickup. I also like the old 50's/60's Rock 'n Roll/Rockabilly tones like Scotty Moore and James Burton, and classic rock tones from groups like Boston, Journey, Fleetwood Mac, STYX, etc. I like their distortion tones as well as their lead tones. I don't know if I could get all of those types of tones out of two new Tele pickups, but I would like to try, whether they are single coil or humbuckers.
I am looking at some of these pickups:
Harmonic Design Vintage+ (hum cancelling in mid positions)
Zhangbucker Paul Bunyan
SD Blackguard Broadcasters
Dimarzio Area T (noiseless)
Seymour Duncan Hot for Tele
others?
I could use some suggestions as to what type of pickups I should get and in what configuration as to get some of the tones I would like to achieve. Then any suggestions as to what pickups would get me there would be appreciated. I also use a 4-way switch so I can use these in both series and parallel modes.
