I need a bridge pick up to match a SD P90 in my tele

[b0rmusic]

Hello everyone,

I have a SD Vintage P90 installed in my telecaster (neck position) and the stock MIM Standard tele pickup in the bridge.

I love the P90 and the sounds I can get with it, however, when switching to the bridge pup... You can feel the difference.

I don't know a lot about pickups so I don't know which one would be a good match. The thing is that I don't want to lose the classic tele clean tone, but I also want something more powerful so when I switch between pups, it doesn't look like you are playing two different guitars.

I came across the SD Broadcaster, do you think it would be a good option? They other pick ups that I have in mind are the Lollar Special T and the Bare Knuckle Flat 50.

Recommendations are welcome!

Thank you!

 

[jeremy]

welcome to the forum!

a p90 has a good amount of output and in the neck, even more so. i have a broadcaster in the bridge of a strat right now (thanks artie) and im loving it. if you have the p90 low and the broadcaster high, it may work. for the price of a bare knuckle you could get the custom shop to wind you something to suit you perfectly

 

[beaubrummels]

Broadcaster is vintage tele. More powerful will be less Tele clean. You're going to have to accept some kind of trade off, but there are many options. Custom shop might have some of the better options for what you are describing, like Pearly Gates for tele, BG1400, 53 ttapped tele and 5/2 stack tele. I haven't used these however as I prefer vintage tele in the bridges of mine.

 

[jeremy]

the '53 tapped tele is hands down my favorite tele bridge pup. 6.6k tap is vintage output and spanky, the 9.6k is thick and meaty but still sounds like a tele

 

[b0rmusic]

Hi guys, thank you for the taking the time ro respond!

jeremy I thought about ordering a custom shop one, but I live in Europe and I'm agraid the shipping and the taxes will increase the price a lot :/ do you know if any other SD pickup could do the trick? The output of the P90 is 8k si isn't that hot, right? That's why I thought the broadcaster could be a good option as it's 8k. Maybe I should try to lower the P90 a bit more...

beaubrummels thank you for your response. Yup I know that I will have to sacrify some cleaness but I also don't want to put something too hot, just something balanced. As I said, unfortunately I live in Europe so ordering a custom shop would be too expensive... I also want to avoid any kind of humbucker alike pickup. Maybe I'm asking for too much lol

 

[jeremy]

8k for a p90 is fairly typical but especially in the neck, thats a pretty loud pup. the broadcaster is 8k but the construction of the two pups is quite different and the physical placement of the neck vs bridge pup makes a very big difference. as i said, the broadcaster might work if you adjust the pup heights. the flat 50 is like 10k i think so as much as i love duncan, that might be a better fit output wise

 

[b0rmusic]

8k for a p90 is fairly typical but especially in the neck, thats a pretty loud pup. the broadcaster is 8k but the construction of the two pups is quite different and the physical placement of the neck vs bridge pup makes a very big difference. as i said, the broadcaster might work if you adjust the pup heights. the flat 50 is like 10k i think so as much as i love duncan, that might be a better fit output wise

I see, thank you for the explanation! I love Duncan too, it's always my first option.

So in this case, would you pick the Bare Knuckle over the Lollar?

 

[jeremy]

not sure. the lollar, i think, is 8k with #42 wire, the bare knuckle is 10k with #43 and i dont have a ton of experience with either.

 

[SoPhx]

It's always hard to match the output of a HB/P90 to a standard Tele bridge. Even with a hot (10K) bridge pickup, the low end is not there as compared to the P90. I have done the P90 install many times and one solution is to remove one of the P90 magnets. It works fine and that will cut some low end and output---it will match much better.

 

[jeremy]

if the op loves the p90 tone he has now, i dont know if i would do that but youre right that it would make it easier to match the output without getting an overly hot bridge pup

 

[SoPhx]

if the op loves the p90 tone he has now, i dont know if i would do that but youre right that it would make it easier to match the output without getting an overly hot bridge pup

It still has the P90 character but this way you're not stuck trying to EQ the neck or the bridge pickup. One's too bright, the other is too dark. Something has to give. Alternately, a Franz low wind type works really well with a stock Tele bridge pickup (among others).

 

[Mincer]

I'd go with a Jerry Donahue. It can still twang, but easily keeps up with a P90.

 

[Reee]

have you tried lowering the P90 and raising the bridge SC? that could achieve the desired results

 

[b0rmusic]

have you tried lowering the P90 and raising the bridge SC? that could achieve the desired results

I will try this, yes! I will post the results as soon as I can.

 

[AlexR]

P90's (and humbuckers too) tend to overpower any vintage (and hot vintage) tele pickup. Not only strength wise, but 'width' wise. The tele bridge is punchy, but it has a more narrow focus to the tone being a rod magnet singlecoil. P90's 'see' more of the string, so make for a tone closer to the fatness of a humbucker (but with more rawness due to no cancellation).
Tricks like loading the p90 with A3 mags for a bit softer sound, plus the height adjustments as recommended can all help to even out both the tonal and volume/drive imbalances.

 

[elelpe]

Broadcaster and JD can't keep up with Vintage P-90. Out of the two, you can raise JD optimally with less magnetic pull though. But still Vintage P-90 is too hot for most vintage sounding tele pickups. Lower it, and you'll lose the sweet spot. Output wise, Hot for Tele and QP are the better matches. You'd feel slight imbalance from the former but you can still coax vintagey sounding from it. QP obviously is the opposite of vintage tele sound, unless you get the tapped version for that pseudo vintage sound. Tele pickup and P-90 is my favorite set. In this scenario, I'd pair Vintage P-90 with Hot for Tele. But if I started from zero, I'd go with JD and Antiquity P-90. For this set up, lower output P-90 is the key.

 

[AlexR]

^ Yeah, I've always gone for the Gibson 70's type mini humbucker if I want a fatter neck pickup with a vintage tele.....its a bit more polite, and its tone is more in keeping with the tele bridge pickup.

 

[Mincer]

Another option is something like a Pickup Booster pedal when you use the bridge pickup. If volume balance is the goal, we sort of run into a wall when mixing a few very different pickups. Many people are OK with the imbalance, some are not.

 

[b0rmusic]

Hello guys,

Thank you for all the feedback. Next week I will try to lower the P90 a bit to see how it compesates with the stock bridge pickup. I was reading in some forum and apparently the stock pickup is quite hot, like 10k and it uses ceramic magnets. So I was wondering, can a SD broadcasger pickup sound hotter because of the coild winding? Maybe I messing things so sorry about that.

Right now I am hesitating between the Hot for tele, the Special T and the Flat 50. I know that there are some great manufacturers in the US, but if they don't sell in the EU it's going to be complicated for me to get them.

 

[Mincer]

Well, the Hot Tele pickup is a good balance choice, but it is pretty thick sounding, so it starts to lose the inherent Tele-ness. It is certainly a balancing act between power/balance, and tone.