Re: Lil '59 tele bridge???
I have a Michael Kelly 1957, which is a Telecaster-type guitar. It comes stock with the Duncan Little 59 Tele bridge pickup and 500K volume and tone pots (it has a full-size humbucker in the neck).
The guitar has an ash body with a maple neck and fretboard. All that, and the 500K pots, would seem to make the context very bright.
But in this guitar, the Little 59 Tele bridge is tonally fine. If anything, I want *more* treble and bite out of the pickup. It's not a big want, as the pickup sounds very good. I'm just used to the upper mid spike that often comes with full size bridge humbuckers, and the Little 59 Tele bridge pickup doesn't have that spike. It is very even across the EQ spectrum.
So I would use 500K pots with the Little 59 Tele bridge pickup.
It should keep up fine with the noiseless soapbar in the neck. In my 1957 guitar, the neck pickup is currently a Duncan 59 neck full size humbucker. It matches up perfectly with the Little 59 Tele bridge pickup both tonally and in output.
Contrary to SD's marketing, the Little 59 Tele bridge pickup isn't like a PAF, at least to my ears. It is hotter and louder than a PAF, isn't voiced like one, and doesn't respond like one. If it's like a PAF, it would be a very overwound one. To me, the Little 59 Tele bridge pickup is medium output, not vintage output, i.e., a midpoint between, say, the 59 bridge and Custom. The Little 59 bridge actually reminds me a little of the Perpetual Burn humbucker.
