Single-sized humbucker Tele bridge pickup? Which one?

[atomheartmother]

I love the Tele sound. However, I don't want to buy any more guitars and I need a dual humbucker guitar. Right now my Tele copy has a Gibson Burstbucker 2 in the neck and some Duncan Designed single coil in the bridge. I'd rather just get a true Tele down the road as this really isn't much of a true Tele (mahogany-like body...kapere?...big frets, rosewood fretboard, super thin neck...etc. I also plan on putting a Bigsby on it).

Anyway, I want the bridge pickup to be voiced similarily to the Burstbucker (or 57 Classic, which is what I might switch to). The number one thing for me is to get a nice middle position sound. I really, really don't like the sound of the Burstbucker and the Duncan mixed together; it's muddy on the low end and too bitey on the top end. I love the middle position on dual hum guitars (such as SG's and LP's). So something that would mix with the neck humbucker to get that creamy, quacky sound would be good.

Right now I'm thinking about a Seymour Duncan Lil '59. Are there any that might be better?

Also, would you use 250K or 500K pots with single-sized humbuckers? They are way too bright with true single coils.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Single-sized humbucker Tele bridge pickup? Which one?

What does each pickup sound like on its own?

 

[atomheartmother]

Re: Single-sized humbucker Tele bridge pickup? Which one?

What does each pickup sound like on its own?

They sound fine on their own. The humbucker is a bit muddy due to having 250K pots, but still sounds good.

 

[More-Gear-Than-Skill]

Re: Single-sized humbucker Tele bridge pickup? Which one?

I have a hotrails for tele, and it is nice. Great if you're not too worried about the "true" tele sound. Very hot. Can be a bit brutal. Best choice I'd say is a nice lil' 59 in there. Adjust height and blend in with existing neck.... Splittable too. Also check out them stacks....

 

[teleblooz]

Re: Single-sized humbucker Tele bridge pickup? Which one?

Keep in mind, no single coil sized bucker is going to sound like a full size bucker. The Lil 59'r will certainly get you in the ballpark, but don't expect it to behave like the burstbucker. I know this is a Duncan forum, but the I found the Dimarzio Tone Zone T to get excellent humbucker tones from a single coil sized tele bridge pickup. The split sound was also a real pleasent surprise. It's been years since I tried the Duncan Hot stack, but I seem to recall I liked it.

 

[Weldon51]

Re: Single-sized humbucker Tele bridge pickup? Which one?

I was quite surprised and impressed by a Tele Hotrail in a friend's Fender.

It's nice and crunchy, and not over-compressed - it sounds OK clean.

The best thing is that when the coils are split, it sounds very close to the usual Tele bridge pickup - twangy and biting.

I was expecting it to be too hot and modern-rockish, but it had a nice dynamic range - versatile.

 

[Mephis]

Re: Single-sized humbucker Tele bridge pickup? Which one?

Hmm, I always suggest rio grande... But they make things called twang buckers, you should look them up.

 

[Merodack]

Re: Single-sized humbucker Tele bridge pickup? Which one?

I tried the Dimarzio Fast Track T for a while in my tele copy. The coil split didn't do it for me in either position (too agressive or too weak), although series/parallel wiring gave some excellent clean tones and a nice crisp sound with moderate distortion. However, I was looking for something warmer, so out it came and in went a full-sized 59 in a HB-cut bridge, which was exactly the sound I wanted. If I'd found a Lil 59 at the right price I'd probably have gone with that from the start, but since I'd heard that the tone wouldn't be quite the same I chose the more drastic solution. I imagine that fitting a bigsby with that would be hard but not impossible.

As for the pots, I swapped the tone pot for a 500K and it made a lot of difference ; could and no doubt should have swapped the volume too, but didn't feel the need.

 

[atomheartmother]

Re: Single-sized humbucker Tele bridge pickup? Which one?

I tried the Dimarzio Fast Track T for a while in my tele copy. The coil split didn't do it for me in either position (too agressive or too weak), although series/parallel wiring gave some excellent clean tones and a nice crisp sound with moderate distortion. However, I was looking for something warmer, so out it came and in went a full-sized 59 in a HB-cut bridge, which was exactly the sound I wanted. If I'd found a Lil 59 at the right price I'd probably have gone with that from the start, but since I'd heard that the tone wouldn't be quite the same I chose the more drastic solution. I imagine that fitting a bigsby with that would be hard but not impossible.

As for the pots, I swapped the tone pot for a 500K and it made a lot of difference ; could and no doubt should have swapped the volume too, but didn't feel the need.

Where did you get the humbucker cut bridge? I'm trying to find one, but they are all quite a bit larger than the bridge that's on the guitar now. They all have slightly different string spacings as well.

Also, I'm assuming that the bridge humbucker isn't F-spaced? So does that mess up the sound at all since the pole pieces aren't exactly lined up with the strings?

 

[51501984]

Re: Single-sized humbucker Tele bridge pickup? Which one?

Keep in mind, no single coil sized bucker is going to sound like a full size bucker. The Lil 59'r will certainly get you in the ballpark, but don't expect it to behave like the burstbucker. I know this is a Duncan forum, but the I found the Dimarzio Tone Zone T to get excellent humbucker tones from a single coil sized tele bridge pickup. The split sound was also a real pleasent surprise. It's been years since I tried the Duncan Hot stack, but I seem to recall I liked it.

+1 , go for the Tone Zone T. It`s sounds thick when distorted and great when split. Great pickup for Classic Rock/Hard Rock.

 

[Merodack]

Re: Single-sized humbucker Tele bridge pickup? Which one?

Where did you get the humbucker cut bridge? I'm trying to find one, but they are all quite a bit larger than the bridge that's on the guitar now. They all have slightly different string spacings as well.

Also, I'm assuming that the bridge humbucker isn't F-spaced? So does that mess up the sound at all since the pole pieces aren't exactly lined up with the strings?

It was my first mod, so I didn't think about all those questions ! It's true that the strings aren't perfectly lined up with the polepieces on the bridge HB (the high e and b are slightly towards the lower edge and the low e and a slightly towards the upper), but I've only just noticed so it doesn't seem to have a major impact on the tone. There's a thread on F-spacing here, though :
https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=45249&highlight=f-spaced+59
and it seems that the 59 is available F-spaced.
HB bridges are necessarily wider than normal Tele bridges, I think, but they still look good.

I got mine from Guitar Parts Resource (http://stores.ebay.fr/GUITAR-PARTS-RESOURCE-LLC) and there are others elsewhere on ebay.
Now for some gratuitous speculation. If I wanted to mount a Bigsby trem with a bridge HB on a tele, I might consider putting the HB in a chrome mounting ring and then cutting the bigsby Bridge plate to fit. Just an idea, not sure if it's a good one.