Neck or Center? Tele Pickup Placement

[misterfawx]

Hello! Brand new to the forum, glad to have another resource for opinions and insight.

I have a 2011 Fender Blacktop Baritone Telecaster HSS, and I previously installed an Omega humbucker in the bridge. I play a lot of heavier music with mid to high gain, and needed something with clarity and tightness, and it has been nothing but excellent.

I finally got around to ordering some single coils to replace the center and neck position, and I need some advice on where to place which pickup.

The two options I’ve got are the Quarter Pounder and Hot Rails. The 5-way switch on this model has a unique layout, where the third position is neck-bridge parallel instead of solo center. I’m struggling to decide which of the two single coils I’d like to set in the neck and which to put in the center.

The QP has great high output tele tone, but the Hot Rails have the really warm and full character of the humbucker. In the third position, I’d either be splitting Omega with QP, which would probably sound unique and retain some tele flavor, or I could split with the Hot Rails and get a really broad and warm sound. Output balance is also a factor, and both options will be lower than the Omega, but will blend well regardless of the layout.

Has anyone used the QP or Hot Rails in an HSS scenario, in either the neck or the center? How do they play with humbuckers in general? Am I going to miss having the full-on position for either, or is one of them better for blending and okay to miss out on solo?

Any info or experience you can provide would be valuable, thanks so much.

 

[Mincer]

Welcome to the forum! That sounds like a great project. Are the Hot Rails and QP the neck versions? If so, I might put the HR in the neck and you might be surprised by the output balance...it might actually be pretty close. Both the QP and HR work well with full humbuckers- I've used them with a Custom 5, and a Black Winter. But I used the neck version of both pickups. For a clearer sound, the neck HR sounds great in parallel, too.

 

[misterfawx]

Thanks for the reply! They are the neck version of each, yeah. I figured the HR would balance pretty well, it’s good to hear that it performs well. I’ll try out that positioning and see what happens.

Welcome to the forum! That sounds like a great project. Are the Hot Rails and QP the neck versions? If so, I might put the HR in the neck and you might be surprised by the output balance...it might actually be pretty close. Both the QP and HR work well with full humbuckers- I've used them with a Custom 5, and a Black Winter. But I used the neck version of both pickups. For a clearer sound, the neck HR sounds great in parallel, too.