Looking for some suggestions

agentzero12

agentzero12

New member
I have a cheap HS Tele I got to work on. Actually plays pretty well but had absolutely the worst sounding pickups I had ever used. I put a crunch lab I had laying around in the bridge and a hot for Tele rhythm in the neck. It sounds good, but the crunch lab is too hot for the neck pup. Looking for some suggestions for a bridge pup to match the output of the neck. I usually go for hot modern pups but I'm thinking ill need a more vintage pup in the bridge. The body is a relatively thin basswood with rosewood fingerboard. Let me know what you suggest.
 
Re: Looking for some suggestions

Quarter Pound Lead, (STL-3). It can also be tapped for a bright punchy Tele sound.
 
Re: Looking for some suggestions

I'm looking for a bridge humbucker. If it were single I'd stay with the "hot for Tele" series.
 
Re: Looking for some suggestions

If you say a pickup is "absolutely the worst" in a guitar, I'm inclined to think this guitar has either strong disposition towards being too bright, or too dark, because IME this is the only condition under which any pickups sounds really bad, so taking that into account is important to make sure you don't get a replacement pickups that emphasizes it's weaknesses.

Most all my Teles are basswood also, and I've had to play musical chairs with pickups, putting the brighter pickups in the darker sounding Teles and vice versa. I'm about a ditch my Nocaster set for SD Antiquities because the Nocasters are just too bright for that particular guitar. That's relates to why I think the SD Antiquity II's have received such high praise, their slightly weaker A5 matched with a slightly hotter coil makes for a single coil that seems to go either direction really well. You can put them in anything and end up with a satisfying result.
 
Re: Looking for some suggestions

The guitar itself is pretty well balanced. I don't notice any excessive highs or lows.
 
Re: Looking for some suggestions

PAF-style humbucker might sound nice.

Humbuckers are naturally louder, so you could get away with an alnico-2 in the bridge and get those sweet rounded highs.
or, go the SH-1 Duncan '59 humbucker for a bit more bite.
 
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