SH-2 in a '16 AmPro Telecaster

[twlatl]

I recently had the SH-2 Jazz Model Humbucker installed in the neck pickup of a 2016 American Pro Telecaster. It sounds great in this guitar. However, the bridge pickup (the stock Fender pickup that came with it), now sounds a bit thin.

I watched the install of the new pickup and didn't see any modification to the wires that connect the toggle switch to the bridge pickup, so I'm a little lost of why the bridge now sounds like it's out of phase a bit.

Is this a common occurrence when swapping a single pickup out of a normal set?

 

[jeremy]

welcome to the forum!

when swapping a neck pup in, you typically wouldnt mess with the bridge pup. does the bridge sound thin on its own? is it the stock single coil in the bridge?

 

[twlatl]

The bridge sounds thin on its own. The stock single coil that came with the 16' AmPro Tele is what is in the bridge.

 

[jeremy]

i assume the issue is that you now have a more powerful sounding neck pup, which by comparison, makes your bridge pup sound thin. you can try lowering the neck pup to reduce its output, this should also give a relatively brighter/less full tone from the neck pup. you could also have the tone control only wired to the bridge pup so you can roll it back a bit and only darken the bridge pup

 

[hamerfan]

With a humbucker in the neck a Telecaster bridge will certainly sound thin.
With a four conductor version of the Jazz neck i would try a parallel wiring of the Jazz first. I use that frequently with a triple shot frame.

 

[Mincer]

Do both pickups sound out of phase together? I know when you put SD single coils in a Strat, they are out of phase with stock Fenders. I don't know if an SD humbucker, wired normally, is out of phase with a Fender Tele bridge pickup. You can test this by swapping the hot and ground on the SD and see if the sound changes when both pickups are on ("phase" is the relationship of at least 2 pickups on at once).

Now, just putting the Jazz in the guitar won't change the sound of the bridge pickup by itself. But if you suddenly don't like the sound of the bridge pickup now that the Jazz is in there, you might start looking at a bridge pickup with more power and more mids.