Little '59 wiring question

[FenderFan79]

hey folks, I am about to start building my own tele, and have decided on a duncan little '59 for the bridge position, and a beefy single coil for the neck, but am wondering what pots to use, since I am running both a single coil and a humbucker? I heard its normally 250K for single coils and 500K for humbuckers. Any suggestions for a wiring newbie?

 

[Dave]

Re: Little '59 wiring question

I'd stick with 250k. FWIW-I've not tried a lil 59, but I have a JB Jr in my strat w/250k pots in it. With those ceramic, mags, I'd think that 500 or higher pots would get to brittle and fizzy. You may also want to swap out your capacitor to a 0.047 if you would like a bit more treble roll-off with the tone control.

I'm not sure if you're directly asking for a recommendation on a neck pickup, but the Quarter pound is very growly and beefy-awesome if you want big rock tele sound. I had a set, but cannot comment on how they'll do with the lil 59.

 

[Dave]

Re: Little '59 wiring question

One more thing, a tapped QP would be cool, but I cannot honestly recommend splitting the 59 coil as it may be too thin sounding. I say this because the JB Jr and the hot rails pickups I have played with that are split sound brittle. You just have to have a full sized humbucker to split in order for one coil to sound nice-IMO.

Others may feel differently and I'd like to hear their opinions.

BTW-Welcome to the forum!!!

 

[ErikH]

Re: Little '59 wiring question

The Little 59 with 250k pots sounds great. That's what I use with it. I think it would be a little too bright with a 500k. Plus, with the single coils, some resistors would have to be put in place so that when switching to them they see 250k and not 500k. Single coils with 500k pots don't sound very nice IMO.

 

[FenderFan79]

Re: Little '59 wiring question

Hey, thanks for the welcome and the input on the pickups, I was considering doing a coil tap on the Little '59 too...think I may avoid that.

 

[Artie]

Re: Little '59 wiring question

I used a Lil 59 with a 250k pot also. Loved it.

Artie

Edit: Although, it was in the neck of a Strat.