Covered Tele neck pickup to match up well with a DiMarzio Tone Zone T?

[GilmourD]

So, I built myself a Tele and dropped a DiMarzio Tone Zone T in the bridge. I went that way because I wanted something with a ton of balls for higher gain stuff but could also split into a "vintage"-ish (notice the quotes) tone for that Tele twang.

However, the neck pickup was kind of an afterthought. What's on the guitar is the whole pickguard assembly from an '04 MIM Tele I haven't even owned in years. It's the nicer AlNiCo Tele neck pickup they put in the MIM Standards back then. It actually sounds pretty good. However, it has to be cranked up really close to the strings to be remotely near matching the output of the bridge, even when the bridge is split.

I want to replace it with something that ticks off a few checkboxes:

• Covered for that classic Tele look
• I don't want a full-sized humbucker (I already have two Teles with neck humbuckers), mini bucker, or a Strat pickup since that would require routing and also not have the classic Tele look
• Higher output than the MIM that I have in there now
• Not SUPER hot, since I don't a mudfest or even darkness
• Has to be found on Reverb since this would be purchased with Reverb Bucks

I started looking at the Quarter Pounder Tele Neck but it seems to be darker than I'd like.

Part of me is leaning towards the Fender Twisted Tele neck but I don't know what the actual output on that thing is.

You guys have any suggestions?

 

[TVFV]

Re: Covered Tele neck pickup to match up well with a DiMarzio Tone Zone T?

Quite honestly, I don't think you'll find anything that would work.

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[GilmourD]

Re: Covered Tele neck pickup to match up well with a DiMarzio Tone Zone T?

Quite honestly, I don't think you'll find anything that would work.

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Why do you say that?

 

[piblock]

Re: Covered Tele neck pickup to match up well with a DiMarzio Tone Zone T?

Harmonic Design has a few options which may work, although I don't know how often they show up on reverb.i h

https://www.harmonicdesign.net/allpages/teles.html

I haven't used their tele pickups, but generally HDs sound fantastic.

 

[TVFV]

Re: Covered Tele neck pickup to match up well with a DiMarzio Tone Zone T?

Why do you say that?

Traditional Tele pickups are just so low in terms of output that can hardly keep up with anything. You mentioned the Quarter Pound but that's likely to be too dark. The best I think of is get QP and bump the treble on the amp up.

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[Techy Beccy]

Re: Covered Tele neck pickup to match up well with a DiMarzio Tone Zone T?

Maybe try Seymour Duncan Hot for tele neck? I haven't tried it but the write up sounds good - and all Seymour Duncan pickups sound amazing!!

Alternatively Fender Texas Special
Dimarzio Twang King

 

[GilmourD]

Re: Covered Tele neck pickup to match up well with a DiMarzio Tone Zone T?

Maybe try Seymour Duncan Hot for tele neck? I haven't tried it but the write up sounds good - and all Seymour Duncan pickups sound amazing!!

Alternatively Fender Texas Special
Dimarzio Twang King

What's the output of the Twisted Tele like compared to the Texas Special? I keep seeing that the Twisted Tele neck is actually kinda loud, proving that DCR doesn't really dictate output, but I have yet to see anything actually verifying that.

 

[Techy Beccy]

Re: Covered Tele neck pickup to match up well with a DiMarzio Tone Zone T?

What's the output of the Twisted Tele like compared to the Texas Special? I keep seeing that the Twisted Tele neck is actually kinda loud, proving that DCR doesn't really dictate output, but I have yet to see anything actually verifying that.

The Texas Specials are hotter than the twisted tele.

I think the best thing is if you get a pickup that you like the sound of! Your ears will change, either you like it or you don't. And you have to leave it in for a while and sometimes dont play it for a few days or so then come back to it!

The Texas Specials and Seymour Duncan Hot neck both have DCR around 10.

The Duncan Quarter Pounder for Tele neck would probably work ok.. not sure it's going to sound overly twang though.

Also depends how you wire the pickups. Im not really into fancy wiring yet so I cant say much about that.

Good luck

 

[GilmourD]

Re: Covered Tele neck pickup to match up well with a DiMarzio Tone Zone T?

The Texas Specials are hotter than the twisted tele.

I think the best thing is if you get a pickup that you like the sound of! Your ears will change, either you like it or you don't. And you have to leave it in for a while and sometimes dont play it for a few days or so then come back to it!

The Texas Specials and Seymour Duncan Hot neck both have DCR around 10.

The Duncan Quarter Pounder for Tele neck would probably work ok.. not sure it's going to sound overly twang though.

Also depends how you wire the pickups. Im not really into fancy wiring yet so I cant say much about that.

Good luck

Super twanginess isn't much of a concern for me, but I've definitely played some Teles with neck pickups that are darker than a hot humbucker, and that's what I want to avoid. I mean, after all, I have a Tone Zone T in the bridge, so... LOL

I like the idea of the Twisted Tele neck because I used to have a Tele with a Duncan SSL-1 in the neck and I loved that tone. I'm just wondering if something like that could keep up with the Tone Zone T better than the stock MIM neck pickup from '04 that's in there now.

 

[Techy Beccy]

Re: Covered Tele neck pickup to match up well with a DiMarzio Tone Zone T?

Super twanginess isn't much of a concern for me, but I've definitely played some Teles with neck pickups that are darker than a hot humbucker, and that's what I want to avoid. I mean, after all, I have a Tone Zone T in the bridge, so... LOL

I like the idea of the Twisted Tele neck because I used to have a Tele with a Duncan SSL-1 in the neck and I loved that tone. I'm just wondering if something like that could keep up with the Tone Zone T better than the stock MIM neck pickup from '04 that's in there now.

I've played the twisted tele pickups and they ARE nice!
Personally, I find Seymour Duncan in general nicer than fender pickups!
I paired a fender pure vintage 65 Jazzmaster neck with a Loller T special in the bridge of a SH Jazzmaster. It was the cheepest descent neck pickup I could find at the time. And I thought the stock Mexican neck sounded a bit crappy / dark.. they do have a little bit of a darker quality - I know what you mean.. anyway the stock bridge humbucker I didn't like.
The pure 65 neck sounded good! But I was pairing 2 vintage type pickups - it was noisy - which I dislike!

The problem you are going to have is that the T bridge is high output, and if you keep a vintage type neck pickup you will notice not only a drop in volume but it will probably be noticeably noisey - the midle possition would probably be good!
You can could use a booster pedal and maybe a noise gate or something to clean up your sound.. you can pair anything with anything.. its just how much you will get use to it!

Personally, I'd rather hear a good quality pickup with any output over an unremarkable one.

 

[Techy Beccy]

Re: Covered Tele neck pickup to match up well with a DiMarzio Tone Zone T?

Super twanginess isn't much of a concern for me, but I've definitely played some Teles with neck pickups that are darker than a hot humbucker, and that's what I want to avoid. I mean, after all, I have a Tone Zone T in the bridge, so... LOL

I like the idea of thhttps://www.seymourduncan.com/pickup/vintage-stack-tele-neck?__uuid_ref=5d547d037ad55e Twisted Tele neck because I used to have a Tele with a Duncan VINTAGE STACK® TELE - NECK STK-T1NSSL-1 in the neck and I loved that tone. I'm just wondering if something like that could keep up with the Tone Zone T better than the stock MIM neck pickup from '04 that's in there now.

Yes! I like this idea!

VINTAGE STACK® TELE - NECK STK-T1N

And yes it will keep up better than stock MIM neck!

 

[Juanhanglo]

Re: Covered Tele neck pickup to match up well with a DiMarzio Tone Zone T?

Harmonic Design has a few options which may work, although I don't know how often they show up on reverb.i h

https://www.harmonicdesign.net/allpages/teles.html

I haven't used their tele pickups, but generally HDs sound fantastic.

This x 10

Look at the super chrome tele neck pickup.

I have its predecessor the vintage plus. They are p90 style pickups that are fat, loud (twice as loud as standard p/us?), and never sound over wound.

It is by far my favorite single coil neck sound to date.

I ended up going with the 500k pots and tone cap they suggested on their site. I added a treble bleed to that and can get some more traditional sounds from them.
This should work out well for the TZT.

Maybe check out Rio grande pickups as well? They do high output fender stuff.