Need guidance on best pickups...

[Junglist1985]

So I’m planning to modify my new Fender Telecaster HH into a sort of “jack of all trades”, and I’m a little lost on my ideal pickup choices. Basically my music tastes span lots of sounds and styles, and I’m hoping to modify to a simple HS setup — I need a beefy Pantera-like crunch out of the bridge humbucker and crisp, twangy cleans from the neck single coil.

What would you all recommend for both the bridge humbucker and the neck single coil? Is this even a good/realistic idea??

Btw I’m not a Strat fan, hence the Tele
Thanks!!

 

[Mincer]

Re: Need guidance on best pickups...

Welcome to the forum!

This is a good idea, but understand it might come with a few issues- one of them is that in order to get a good and clean single coil sound, you need a vintage-output single coil. The problem is that a Pantera-level humbucker in the bridge is going to seriously overpower it. This might be ok for you (some see it as a built-in boost), but some people are driven crazy by this.
You can always go with a Dimebucker for the bridge, but getting a single coil to match with that will be hard. If you go for less output in the bridge, like a 59/Custom Hybrid, you might be able to get away with an SSL-2 in the neck, or an Antiquity Surfer. But there will still be a volume difference.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Need guidance on best pickups...

I'd say 59/C Hybrid and an STK-S4 in the neck will get you whatever you need out of your Tele. What's most important for versatility is wiring. You will get the most usable tones out of this setup, from my experience:



I would also recommend a TBX tone control wired to be used as a high/low pass filter so that you can cut bass and treble. Here's the schematic:

 

[jeremy]

Re: Need guidance on best pickups...

dimebucker bridge, ssl2 neck. wire it to a 5 way switch so you can get split options on the bridge. the split dime should match up well with the neck for more traditional tones.

bridge series
bridge series/neck
neck
bridge split/neck
bridge split

or something like that. i dont care for the tbx control but plenty of people like it. id wire it with 250k volume and tone with the tone not active when the bridge is in series by itself for full crunch

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Need guidance on best pickups...

i dont care for the tbx control but plenty of people like it. id wire it with 250k volume and tone with the tone not active when the bridge is in series by itself for full crunch

The TBX in it's stock configuration sucks. The schematic I have posted works fairly well and greatly expands the versatility of an electric guitar.

 

[Junglist1985]

Re: Need guidance on best pickups...

Thanks all! Also if I didn’t necessarily need an exact Pantera tone (it was just an example), what would be a good high gain metal humbucker that works well in an alder body Tele?

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Need guidance on best pickups...

I think the Dime is a great high output humbucker that does a lot more than just the Pantera sound. I have one in a Washburn Mercury paired with some Carvin AP11's and it does a great strat sound when split and combined with the middle pickup. Split on its own it does a convincing country twang sound, and when in full humbucker mode, it can do a lot of 80's metal sounds very well along with more agressive tones (obviously).

 

[Ayrton]

Re: Need guidance on best pickups...

First, welcome to the forum!

Second, are we talking about the Tele HH that basically looks like a "Telegib" with two Blacktop humbuckers and a push/pull coil tap?

If that is the case, I would argue you don't need to alter anything. That is a pretty versatile guitar as is. You just got it, so you might want to spend some time with it first before deciding you "need" new pickups.

 

[SAguitar]

Re: Need guidance on best pickups...

This might be way off the OP's original intent, but I wired up an HH Tele with two GFS Retrotron Hot Nashville pickups, and it turned out to be one of the most versatile guitars I own. While I was at it, I put in a 4-way switch and a TBX tone control. It was just an experiment, but I have been very pleased with the results.

 

[Ascension]

Re: Need guidance on best pickups...

Had a combo that would pretty much nail what you are talking in my Carvin DC 127 for a while. I have a Sentient in the neck and had an Alt 8 in the bridge. With coil taps that was a very versatile set up with a nice warm clear humbucker tone in the neck, split the sentient has a very nice single coil tone. The Alt with the Sentient both full bucker and in particular split works pretty well and alone the Alt flat RIPS! Swapped the Alt for a Hybrid in this guitar because I needed a less aggressive bigger rounder bridge tone for how I'm using this particular guitar with the KOA and the fixed bridge. I really miss having that combo for the heavier stuff so will set it up in another guitar that is more suited to higher gain more aggressive use. That combo will probably will go into my 90 Carvin X220 C or a Super Strat at some point.