Modern Player Plus Tele Pickups

[spenserj87]

After reading through quite a few threads and reviews, I just upgraded my Fender Telecaster Modern Player Plus to the following:

Neck - STR-2
Middle - Quarter Pound SSL-4 RWRP
Bridge - 59/Custom Hybrid SH-16

I also put in new 250k pots and used a .022 orange drop cap. I also installed a three way switch for the bridge pickup.

I like the sound of the pickups individually, but the neck and middle combo doesn't have the ducky sound the original pickups had. Not sure if my selection is off. Does anyone have thoughts?

The 59/Custom sounds great, especially with the middle in single coil tapped mode. More of that ducky sound than the neck and middle.

I do notice a bit more brightness from the .022 cap instead of a .033 but easily managed with the tone control.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Modern Player Plus Tele Pickups

welcome to the forum!

a qp isnt going to help with quack, usually brighter thinner pups help get a good quacky tone. you can try adjusting the height of the middle pup to see if that helps at all

 

[spenserj87]

Re: Modern Player Plus Tele Pickups

Should I use a different pickup than the QP? Any suggestions?

 

[baritone]

Re: Modern Player Plus Tele Pickups

Different pickups would probably be necessary. Alternatively, are you able to lower the pickups a whole bunch?

 

[jeremy]

Re: Modern Player Plus Tele Pickups

did you get the tapped qp by any chance? if so using the lower output tap will help

 

[spenserj87]

Re: Modern Player Plus Tele Pickups

I have the middle set pretty low, so I could just raise the neck and bridge. So higher neck relative to middle will help?

 

[spenserj87]

Re: Modern Player Plus Tele Pickups

did you get the tapped qp by any chance? if so using the lower output tap will help

I did not get a tapped SSL-4.

 

[spenserj87]

Re: Modern Player Plus Tele Pickups

The middle SSL-4 is RWRP which I thought would be enough, unless I'm misunderstanding. I'm happy to change out the pickup if there is a better suggestion.

 

[spenserj87]

Re: Modern Player Plus Tele Pickups

After doing some further research, I'm wondering whether the Vintage Staggered Strat SSL-1 or the Alnico Pro II Staggered Strat APS-1 would be better, RWRP.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Modern Player Plus Tele Pickups

i like the ssl4 quite a bit but if you are trying to get quack in the notch tones then the ssl1 is probably a better choice