Tele Bridge pickup Help Please

[p2c]

Good Day,
I own a Fender "AreoDyne Telecaster", which began it's life with a P90 Neck and Tele Bridge. I wanted to make it more "Les Paul" like, by changing pickups, however I've had a few issues.
I tried the tone wizard, emailing the company (still no reply), youtube, sound clips, etc.. I finally took a leap of faith and purchased an Antiquity II mini hum neck and a lil' 59 Tele Bridge. I took the guitar to a local guitar tech and he shielded the cavities with copper, and installed the pickups. The mini humbucker sounds clean and nice, the impedance rating written on it says 6.34. The bridge lil' 59 not so good. We installed a push pull coil splitter as well, just to provide options. The sound from the 59 - well it's hard to describe. Very honky or like an odd eq spike. We adjusted it low to match the output of the neck, however when on the bridge pickup it distorts the amp on a low clean setting. (amp Groove tube Soulo 45, volume on 3)
Yesterday I returned to the tech and we removed the pick-up and replaced the original. The issue now.. The bridge pickup now is out of phase with the neck when the guitar is in the middle position. I'm told because the bridge makes contact with the shielding done, well if we switch the phase, it kills the pickup, no output. So now I have a very messed up middle position sound.

So.. My question(s) for forum users.

1. Did I have a dud pickup in the lil' 59? The online youtube demos I can find sound pretty good, nothing like my experience.
2. Is there a suggestion for a bridge pickup to match up well with the Antiquity II mini humbucker (6.34K)?


Thank you for any info/ help.

Guitar: Tele w/ mini humbucker neck Tele Bridge
Pots: 500k
Amps: 68' Bassman and Groove Tubes Soulo45

 

[Swyse]

Re: Tele Bridge pickup Help Please

I don't have much experience with tele pickups or the lil' 59, so I can't give any advice there. The only advice I can give for the phase issue is to swap the wires on the neck pickup if you cannot swap them on the bridge. Assuming the wiring is done the same way as a regular 4 conductor duncan humbucker you would just swap the black and green wire locations. Another option might be to swap the bridge wires and insulate the pickup or shielding with electrical tape to prevent it shorting out on the shielding. Hope this helps.

 

[p2c]

Re: Tele Bridge pickup Help Please

The issue, I've been told, is that the neck pickup has shielded wires, so... the braid makes contact with the shielding in the cavities. The antiquity II mini bucker, doesn't have 4 wires. So it seems either replace the bridge again, or I don't know, insulate the neck??
Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[chadd]

Re: Tele Bridge pickup Help Please

You could put a piece of heat shrink tubing over the braid to insulate it from the cavity shielding. It's cheap, easy and takes no tools to install.

 

[Matt42]

Re: Tele Bridge pickup Help Please

I've got the Duncan Designed version of the STK3b bridge in a guitar with the DD version of the Vintage Mini Hum and I really like it.

 

[p2c]

Re: Tele Bridge pickup Help Please

You could put a piece of heat shrink tubing over the braid to insulate it from the cavity shielding. It's cheap, easy and takes no tools to install.

Yes, that is the plan with the tech. We just, ran out of time to rip it open again.

 

[p2c]

Re: Tele Bridge pickup Help Please

Thank you, I'll check out the STK3b. What's DD?

 

[Harhash]

Re: Tele Bridge pickup Help Please

Thank you, I'll check out the STK3b. What's DD?

Could stand for"Duncan Designed" or "Duncan Distortion", the guy is talking about a Duncan Designed here, Obviously.

 

[Matt42]

Re: Tele Bridge pickup Help Please

Yup, Duncan Designed.