New PU's for Fender Lead II

[hopeless_opus]

Hey everyone.

I have an old (1979) lead II collecting dust and was thinking I might spruce it up. It is not too heavy but it feels like very dense wood. The neck is on their like it's fused to the body. It has two strat style pickups. The tone is good, but sometimes a little thin, especially in the bridge. I have a great strat so I thought it might be fun to try out some single coil size humbuckers with this guitar.

I am not trying for any specific sound (ie strat, LP, tele etc..) but I would love something close to a '72 two humbucker Tele Custom. I play through various overdrive pedals into a siverface Bassman. Classic/Brittish rock type stuff.(beatles/zep/coldplay/radiohead/U2 etc)

I am thinking of dropping a little '59 in the neck and a JB jr in the bridge. Would this combination be a good match to what I am doing?

Thanks

 

[fuzzyratfarts]

Re: New PU's for Fender Lead II

Beatles (George Harrison's tele)=single coils
Zeppelin (Jimmy Page's tele)=single coils
Coldplay (Jon Buckland's tele)=single coils
Radiohead (Jonny Greenwood's tele)=single coils
U2 (The Edge's tele)=single coils

I wonder how well humbuckers will pull off their tone.........

 

[hopeless_opus]

Re: New PU's for Fender Lead II

thanks for your input. You have a good point although it's not totally acurate.

Johny Greenwood's Tele actually has a a humbucker in the bridge, he also plays a Starcaster (2 HB's), Thom Yourke primarily plays a 2 HB Tele custom as well.

Jon Buckland was mostly playing a 2 HB thinline tele on the last tour.

The Edge has been playing a lot of 335's and Les Pauls lately. (tele is singles)

I'm not so much going for their actual tones, maybe I'll leave the guitar as is but thought I might go for something other than what I have. As it is it sounds like a thin strat. not bad really, but I have a Strat.

Anyone else have any input?

 

[tone4days]

Re: New PU's for Fender Lead II

welcome to the forum

i think your idea is quite reasonable ... you want to get close to the 72 tele with 2 double coils, so your idea will be an updated version of that ... 2 lil 59s might be even closer, but yours might be a bit more versatile ...

those were actually pretty nice guitars ... back in 1980/81 i gave lessons to a girl in my grade 11 english class who had one of those ... played great ...

good luck
t4d

 

[fuzzyratfarts]

Re: New PU's for Fender Lead II

Buckland uses that double humbucker and ones with single coils as much also. But yes, those pickups will improve the sound greatly. Actually a JB Jr may be too bright.

 

[RickGunz]

Re: New PU's for Fender Lead II

Curious of how your fender lead ii turned out cause I’m trying to figure out what pickups I should put in mine?
Thx

 

[Mincer]

Re: New PU's for Fender Lead II

Welcome to the forum!

This was like, 13 years ago, so you might not get an answer. Those are cool guitars, though. What pickups you should get depends on what the current ones aren't doing for you, and what you want them to sound like.