New Duncan Custom Shop Pickups in my Tele! YEE-HAW!

[Lewguitar]

I ordered a set of custom pickups for my Tele from MJ and after talking to her for a while, she promised me "I'm going to wind you the best pickups you've ever heard!" (nice lady...no other woman has ever promised me that! :laugh2: )

She wound me the same alnico 2 Tapped Tele Hot bridge pickup Seymour uses in his Esquire and an alnico 5 "Tele ala Strat" Hot neck pickup. (That's what it looks like MJ wrote on the neck pickup box: "Tele ala Strat")

I installed a 5 way switch and no load tone pot and now I get:

1. 6.7K bridge
2. 6.7K bridge & neck
3. neck
4. 9.4K bridge & neck
5. 9.4K bridge

I finished it up around 9:00 PM and plugged into my '59 Bassman. Bee-U-tiful! The neck pickup is outstanding and for certain among the very best I have ever heard. I'll do some comparisms with my other Teles this morning, but so far, I am one happy Tele-mon!

The Tapped Tele Hot bridge lets me combine the vintage 6.8K output with the neck pickup for my favorite Tele rythym tone and it's wonderful: clear and chimey as all get out.

For a similar rythym tone with just a little more balls I switch to the #2 switch position and get the hotter 9.4K tap combined with the neck pickup...also a great tone and alittle darker, but not much.

And then the neck pickup by itself in the middle position is just as stellar: bright and bubbley like a good Strat pickup...not dark and muffled like most covered Tele neck pickups.

The lead tones are equally excellant. The 9.4K tap sounds alot like the Jerry Donahue but seems to be a little hotter than the JD.

Between the JD and the Tapped Tele I'm not sure yet which I prefer. The JD and Antiquity are my favorite Duncan Tele lead pickups...but the Tapped Tele is right up there too.

If you've heard Seymour playing the blues on the demo CD, you've heard this bridge pickup.

I'm auditioning these in my maple neck/alder body James Burton Tele (had a Fralin Stock neck and Duncan Jerry Donahue in it previously) but I actually ordered them for possible use in my '54 Tele which has a Fralin Blues Special bridge and Fralin Tele Stock neck pickup in it now. (Love 'em!) The original bridge pickup from my '54 is a little weak...both pickups have been out of the guitar and safely stored in the case for years now.

I need to make some comparisms to my other Teles, but this morning
I'm heading up to the Indian Peaks Wilderness area to hike Pawnee Pass: 12,500 ft. Should be awesome...it always is.

Bye!

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: New Duncan Custom Shop Pickups in my Tele! YEE-HAW!

Oh...one more thing:

Thank You MJ! You're the best!

 

[Curly]

Re: New Duncan Custom Shop Pickups in my Tele! YEE-HAW!

Lew,
cool
since I have the same set, that's good news for me, and good reason for me to get busy with my tele project!

and, I agree, MJ's the greatest!

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: New Duncan Custom Shop Pickups in my Tele! YEE-HAW!

Well you're the one who got me thinking about it in the first place Curly! :laugh2: BTW, I've already got a nice compliment on the new look for my website...thanks for the nice job updating it.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: New Duncan Custom Shop Pickups in my Tele! YEE-HAW!

That's great Lew and Curly....Now I'll be jonesin for those same pickups for one of my own Teles! LOL....Never ends does it guys? ;o) Lew,glad your stylin buddy...

John

 

[mrfjones]

Re: New Duncan Custom Shop Pickups in my Tele! YEE-HAW!

so when do we get clips of these wonderful pickups guys?

 

[BS123]

Re: New Duncan Custom Shop Pickups in my Tele! YEE-HAW!

so when do we get clips of these wonderful pickups guys?

Yes!!!

and congrats Lew! Sounds really great...

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: New Duncan Custom Shop Pickups in my Tele! YEE-HAW!

These sound interesting to me, since my Tele's wired with a pullup tone pot to split the stacked singles. I'd just wire it to the bridge. Which bridge pickup has more beef? This new Custom Shop, or the Donahue? What are the differences?

 

[mrfjones]

Re: New Duncan Custom Shop Pickups in my Tele! YEE-HAW!

that bridge pickup sounds like it would be perfect for an esquire. I may have to find out some time soon. Maybe i can have one wound just a bit higher to 10.5k or so

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: New Duncan Custom Shop Pickups in my Tele! YEE-HAW!

These sound interesting to me, since my Tele's wired with a pullup tone pot to split the stacked singles. I'd just wire it to the bridge. Which bridge pickup has more beef? This new Custom Shop, or the Donahue? What are the differences?

Hard to say since I removed the Jerry Donahue to install the new Custom Shop pickup. I think the Custom Shop Tapped Tele has more beef tho. More output also seems to mean less highs tho. I've had a chance to play through a few of my amps now with this new set up and through my 5E3 tweed Deluxes the Tapped Tele sounds best, to me, with the lower 6.8K output: more highs. Through my much brighter '59 Bassman either output has plenty of highs and sparkle. Lew

 

[Kelsey]

Re: New Duncan Custom Shop Pickups in my Tele! YEE-HAW!

Lew,

What is the DC resistance reading on the custom neck pickup?

Kelsey

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: New Duncan Custom Shop Pickups in my Tele! YEE-HAW!

Lew,

What is the DC resistance reading on the custom neck pickup?

Kelsey

The alnico 5 neck pickup is 6.1K (that's what MJ wrote on the box)...but it's surprisingly strong sounding. Vintage Strat pickups also measure about 6K.

Regarding the alnico 2 bridge pickup, I'm finding that through my tweed Bassman, blackface Deluxe Reverb and Super Reverb that the tone is just about perfect. Plenty of highs and sparkle and everything else you'd expect from the Ultimate Tele.

Through my smaller amps, like my old 5E3 tweed Deluxes and '51 tweed Super, the hotter coil makes the amps sound a little warm...which those amps are. The lower 6.7K tap sounds great tho...very much like an Antiquity Tele bridge pickup.

Most guys don't play through mellow old tweed Deluxes tho! So I wouldn't hesitate to recommend these pickups to anyone with a more modern (made after 1961! :smack: ) amp who's looking for the ULTIMATE TELE TONE.

In fact, these pickups just continue to grow on me the more I use them. I really don't see how anything could be much better.

Five killer tones from a simple 2 pickup plank of a guitar.

I feel about them the way I feel about the Antiquity Strat Surfer pickups: NONE FINER.

Lew

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: New Duncan Custom Shop Pickups in my Tele! YEE-HAW!

My Tele has a set of Custom shop pups as well...similar to yours but kinda different...The neck has Alnico V mags, and measures 7.81k, the Bridge has alnico II's and is tapped as well at 9.26k and at 16.2k...I LOVE THESE
PICKUPS!!! I would have to agree...MJ is the best!!! I get more coments about the tone of this Tele than any other axe I have...

 

[brinton]

Re: New Duncan Custom Shop Pickups in my Tele! YEE-HAW!

how much was it?
I need to get me a tele pup in my no. 1 strat, something like that 7-10k tap, some kinda alnico magnet for enough bass to make it solid, but low enough to combine well with the twangy highs (aged a5 perhaps), and slightly thicker mids and a super top end that is totally solid/there but not intensely picky or shrill but present. I could go on and on but, it's a dream.