Review of firebiredguy72 custom wound tele bridge pup

[teleblooz]

Below is my post from 03/09/16. A few days turned into 3 months....better late than never, I guess! Anyway, before I go into detail about how freaking awesome this pickup is and how satisfied I am with it, a quick repost of my original 03/09/16 post.

"I'll be doing a full review in a few days, but just wanted to give thanks to firebirdguy1972 for his outstanding work on a tele bridge pickup he wound for me.

From vintage to hot vintage to broadcaster to Nocaster to 1/4 lb to Pre-B to P-90ish to stacked to blade and from cheep to boutique, I've tried quite a few tele bridge pups in the past 15 years. The majority of the pickups I used were excellent, and I can think of 5 of them (off the top of my head) I would be very happy with. However, that particular sound/feel keeps rolling around in my feeble brain.

A post by firebirdguy about winding his own tele pups fired me up and I sent him a PM with a few questions. Next thing, I'm asking if he'd consider winding me a pickup. And he did!

I've had the pickup in my tele for about a month now (er, 4 months!?) and I'm happy to say he nailed it! I'll get into the details when I do the review, but it's unlike any tele bridge pup I've ever used let alone heard. I wanted a very responsive, dynamic pickup with a lot of beef and very little twang....the power of a bucker with the clarity of a single coil. A tall order for sure, but Harrison delivered the goods big time!

I'm excited about this pickup and look forward to doing the review. I've played it through small amps, big amps, solid state, tube, loud, quiet, clean, crunchy, dirty, with pedals and without. I'll attempt to put into words the delicious tones I'm experiencing and the plethora of cool, inspiring tones that live within the tone (and volume) knob. More later!

OK.....just got called away for a bit of Papa duty. My grandson just turned 1 year old today and I have to take care of him for an hour or so. So, bear with me and I'll complete the review of this amazing pickup when I get back. Here's a picture of the little set up I used today. Tele into a 'Dirt Controller' overdrive pedal (Marshall Blues Breaker on one side, Supro style overdrive on other side) into a Roland Cube Street.

 

[teleblooz]

Re: Review of firebiredguy72 custom wound tele bridge pup

This is unlike any tele bridge pickup I've ever tried......perfect for this guitar and what I was after. The response to picking dynamics is eye opening and quite inspiring. It can be immediate and direct, smacking you in the head with it's nasty attitude, or soft, warm and sweet....or pretty much anything and everything in between.

I have always liked using the guitars volume and tone controls while playing and experimented with various nos tone caps to find the proper tone, feel and taper. A few years ago, I was looking for a simple vari-tone like deal and came across a Santellen Sound Tonestyler that was being discontinued. I installed it in place of my tone control. The first 4-5 stops on the Tonestyler are a perfect match for the pickup. For the first time ever, I can get lost on the bridge pup alone as there are so many delicious tones at my beck and call with just a simple twist of the volume and/or tone knob and changing my playing dynamics. Truly a 'touch responsive' pickup.....

With things wide open, it barks like my beautiful, old purebred German Shepard. And (like my dog) if you're not prepared, it will scare the hell out of you! Although I have found out it will spank and twang, it's not a pickup for most tele players. It has an attitude for sure....but it can easily be tamed.

The more I play and experiment with this pickup, the more impressed I am with the incredible wealth of tones it provides. While it has it's own thing going on, it can easily morph into smokey blues, fat jazz, screaming rock lead....whatever.

Right now I have a GFS Gold foil in the neck. It's the 6k, single coil, ferrite magnet model. The pickups are out of phase with each other in the middle position. I was going to fix it, but may leave it as is, or put a mini switch in to go from in phase to out. I have come to love that tone and this one has some balls to it! Between the two pickups and Tonestyler, I have all the tones I need.....and some I've yet to discover.

A huge thanks to Harrison for providing me a pickup that far exceeds my expectations. Every time I play, I find a new favorite tone. The clean tones are huge and luscious.......dirt tones range from rude, crude and lude to sweet, stinging and sassy. I hope to do a few sound samples to show how versatile and toneful it is. Thanks Harrison!

 

[elelpe]

Re: Review of firebiredguy72 custom wound tele bridge pup

Thank you for sharing. Interesting. What are the specs?

 

[teleblooz]

Re: Review of firebiredguy72 custom wound tele bridge pup

It's Alnico 8 slugs wound to around 12.5K. Everything came together just right with this pickup and I'm thrilled!

 

[Demanic]

Re: Review of firebiredguy72 custom wound tele bridge pup

It's Alnico 8 slugs wound to around 12.5K. Everything came together just right with this pickup and I'm thrilled!

Yowzah!

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[Rand-O-Monium]

Re: Review of firebiredguy72 custom wound tele bridge pup

:headtwang:

 

[stratguy23]

Re: Review of firebiredguy72 custom wound tele bridge pup

A8 in a tele bridge - fascinating!

This isn't a humbucker, right? True single coil... so how's the hum, especially when you start applying gain?

And what value pots?

I'm looking for something similar in results, but with no hum.

 

[teleblooz]

Re: Review of firebiredguy72 custom wound tele bridge pup

When Harrison and I were first talking about the pickup, he offered to do it as a humbucker. I opted for a regular old single coil. It's one of the quietest single coils I've used. Little to no hum.

I generally go for low gain overdrive tones, but testing the pup with an OCD clone was a blast! Still very quiet with the gain cranked. I use 250K pots for vol and tone, (even with humbuckers) but have a varitone type deal in place of the tone control. I was going to change it back to a regular tone pot, but it works so well with this pickup, it's staying.

I have another tele bridge pup Harrison wound in a similar fashion, except without a base plate and around 11K. I'm anxious to test it out, but I'm so happy with this one, it may be a while before I do.

I know this pickup will not be the ideal for most tele players, but for me it absolutely nails the tones I've heard in my head for years.

 

[chadd]

Re: Review of firebiredguy72 custom wound tele bridge pup

I bought one that he had posted in the sale section last fall, I want to say that one was 10.5k and it was a damn good pickup. I asked him to wind one to 9-9.k for my thinline but haven't put it in yet. I've been working on a project that doesn't have much use for tele tones right now.

 

[firebirdguy72]

Re: Review of firebiredguy72 custom wound tele bridge pup

Late to the party as usual! All I can say is that i'm incredibly happy that you are enjoying it. You were an absolute delight to work with my friend. And oh so very patient! Thanks so much for everything!

 

[teleblooz]

Re: Review of firebiredguy72 custom wound tele bridge pup

I realize the tele bridge pup is unique in what it does and after years of 'almost, but not quite', I finally realized 'if you're a dog person, don't get a cat and expect it to bark'. My tele is a special instrument and quite likely the last electric guitar I'll have, so I greatly appreciate your willingness to experiment until I was happy with the results. The fact you NAILED IT on the first try is just outstanding.

I don't mean to sound trite here.......it's not whirled peas or rocket surgery. However, it's just so satisfying to finally have a pickup that does what I want it to.....and so much more.

I hope to be chatting with you soon Harrison. In addition to the strat pups, I would like you to wind me a special neck bucker. I loved the one I got from you, but it now resides in a friends SG and I don't think I'll be getting it back!