tele w/ neck humbucker - 59N & '54 tele bridge pickup a good choice?

[appar111]

Putting together a tele w/ a humbucker in the neck. I'm looking for something that gets me a really wide spread of sounds using just the usual 3-way tele switch and volume and tone knobs.

I'm thinking that a 59N in the neck and an STL-1 tele pickup in the bridge should do the trick. Going for a big/deep sounding in the neck and really snappy/twangy traditional tele sound in the bridge. 250K pots and a .047 tone cap. I figure that this should allow for a very useable and distinct middle position sound with both pickups on (very Keith Richards).

Inspiration for this one is Andy Summers' tele, and something that I can use for genres other than rock, which is what I'm usually firmly planted in, but something that can still rock out when needed.

So would this be a good pickup combo?

 

[elelpe]

Re: tele w/ neck humbucker - 59N & '54 tele bridge pickup a good choice?

It will have wide tonal range, if that's what you're looking for. And also volume imbalance, if it doesn't matter to you.

 

[appar111]

Re: tele w/ neck humbucker - 59N & '54 tele bridge pickup a good choice?

I won't mind the volume imbalance necessarily-- I think it allows for a more distinct middle position sound. But it will make it a little trickier going from neck to bridge position sounds with a clean setting on the amp--- with overdrive/distortion, not so much as the compression that comes w/ overdrive tends to even out the volume differences a bit.

 

[elelpe]

Re: tele w/ neck humbucker - 59N & '54 tele bridge pickup a good choice?

I think it allows for a more distinct middle position sound.

Indeed. When you put hot single coil in the bridge, the middle position sounds less chimey/sparkly/funky, IME. Are you sure you'd go with that pots and cap value?

 

[appar111]

Re: tele w/ neck humbucker - 59N & '54 tele bridge pickup a good choice?

at most, I'd probably add a 500K volume pot, but only if the 59N sounds muddy.

 

[AlexR]

Re: tele w/ neck humbucker - 59N & '54 tele bridge pickup a good choice?

The 59n will almost always sound muddy - tried it in a tele with little success until an A3 mag swap. That also helped it match the JD tele pickup in the bridge a bit better.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: tele w/ neck humbucker - 59N & '54 tele bridge pickup a good choice?

pearly gates neck, jerry donahue bridge. Use 500 k pots, .022 tone cap and an extra 510k resistor for the bridge pickup so it thinks it is getting a 250k volume pot.
Both pups are a2, both pups have nicely matching output. Both sound superb on their own and the in between sound is killer.