Clean tight and sweet

[Gtrjunior]

I'm somewhat surprised that I'm responding to this thread.. I have very little baritone experience so I was reading with the intent of learning more.

But following up mincers suggestion of antiquity humbucker sparked a thought for the bridge...

Currently, the most clear and tight humbucker that I know of is a railhammer hyper vintage... Many Reverend guitars are based around this pickup but they also sell them separately..

The reason the hypervantage jumped to mind is the unusual construction. It has bars for the bass strings and way oversized poles for the treble. As a result the base is ultra tight however the treble is clear and smooth... Think of telecaster bridge high-end but with more sustain and body and in my mind that would be a great sound for a baritone.

And here's the big bonus.. it is extremely good at parallel to self... When parallel it loses some mid-range but keeps the bass and treble... Of course no humbucker sounds exactly like a single coil however there's been many times that I found this a better bridge tone then my strats and telies.

With that said, I would sure like to hear somebody try one of these pups in a baritone!

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Railham...saArheEALw_wcB

You bring up a good suggestion.
From the OP’s description I’m thinking he wants the low end (bass strings) response of a humbucker with the high end of a single coil.
Now I don’t exactly know if there is something in the market that aims to achieve this but to me, that’s a good starting point.
Some sort of humbucker/single could hybrid sounds ideal to me.

Also, to the OP.
You mentioned a series/parallel option. I think this is a good idea. I personally find that option much more usable than a coil split. Plus, you get the added benefit of no hum.

 

[pjd3]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, gives me some good things to go listen to, and listen for. The suggestion for the 59 makes me wonder if say, an Antiquity or low wind/low output A2 pickup would be good for the bridge position. And one with 4-conductor for versatility. Surely, if you don't know how a bridge will mix with a neck then its probably good to be able to ser/par/split both pickups individually and see what the large list of possible combinations bring. And a middle pickup, or close to the bridge pickup certainly isn't out of the question. I have to wonder how something like a mid pickup with a bridge coil cut with a neck in parallel would sound. So many combinations that way. Sounds like an awesome venture. One time I modded my Strat to smithereens - added a JB junior right above the bridge, ser/par with itself, with the Strat pickups and 2 out of phase switches, then a separate output just for the JB junior. Didn't get around to doing alot with it but proved to myself that I could do it. It was a fun exercise in over-doing it. As it turned out, I felt Fender got it right the first time around! The best and most useful tones were the stock pickup configs - for me.
I have plans for making this guitar very artsy, in terms of wooden and metal appointments on the body, ash, wood burning, engraved celtic knots and Trees of Life , So I can use having an incling of what pickups will be there to design around them, making things fit.

Thanks again for good things to think about and listen to. It all pushes this project ahead,

Best,
Phil Donovan

 

[Despair]

My favorite neck pickup for a tele is a Firebird pickup. Articulate, bright but not harsh, great clean or distorted. I'd expect it to behave much the same for a baritone.

I'd probably pair that with a Kinman tele bridge & strat middle for a Nashville setup, if wanting to stick to expanded tele tones. But I loathe hum, there are plenty of people that would argue for cheaper and more readily available in the US standard single coils.


There's a lot of other great options for articulate pickups. Jazz set is known for being articulate. You could also do a Full Shred neck to ensure there's no bloated low end.

Parallel Axis, stacks if you want a single coil sound, or PATB-1n neck humbucker & PATB-3 Blues Saraceno bridge humbucker are great choices for articulate with maximum sustain (the poles not being directly under the string, but rather either side, combined with softer magnetic field, is great for sustain, and harmonics).

And the Railhammers look like a really interesting option. For your needs, I'd probably stick with the Hyper Vintage.

And Wylde's L500, L45S, and L48T pickups are great options, too. The singles are a great alternative to Bardens (and are what his design was influenced by), and a lot cheaper.

TV Jones has a lot of great Filter'Tron options, and those could be great fun as well. Tend towards twangy, but in a Gretsch rather than Tele fashion. And like all the options I've suggested/seconded, they're known to work well for fingerpicking.


Other options to consider are piezo or hexaphonic pickup system under the bridge saddles. With appropriate IR/parametric EQ/amp, can be a fantastic option for another clean texture, that can do a very convincing approximation of a live amplified acoustic guitar tone (minus the tendency for unwanted feedback in some rigs/venues...).

 

[hamerfan]

To make it short: a long scale guitar won't ever sound muddy with pickups made for short scale guitars.