Tell me about hotter Tele bridge pickups wit TAPS

[Rich_S]

The STL-1 has been my favorite Tele bridge pickup for years, but every once in a while, I want a bit more: more oomph, more mids, kill off enough highs to avoid being shrill. We're talking Marshall medium-gain crunch and/or overdrive pedals here. For cleaner "authentic Tele" parts, I love the STL-1 as-is and don't want to give up its clarity and twang.

I've gone back and forth over the years on the STL-3T tapped Quarter Pound. It always seemed like a good idea, but has a couple problems in my book. While I love the way the full coil drives the hell out of a Marshall or an SD-1, it tends to get muddy and buried in a band mix. Also, though the tap has a thinner and nice, useable sound, I don't think it really comes close to "authentic Tele" tone.

So my question is, is there a hot Tele bridge pickup that, when tapped, will nail a vintage Tele sound ala STL-1? Does the tapped STL-2 fit this bill? How much "more" does the full STL-2 give me? Does it start to roll off the twang a bit for more rock-n-roll kinda sound?

Any others I should consider? Do either of the hot hum-cancelling pickups (Hot Rails and/or Lil 59) do a good vintage Tele imitation when split or switched to parallel?

 

[AlexR]

Re: Tell me about hotter Tele bridge pickups wit TAPS

Talk to Zhangbucker. He has various winds for tele pickups and does taps. His Tar Paper is great - just a hair thicker than a LP but still with tele tones. You then would drop 1.5K give or take and have the lower output there. He also has a Paul Bunyan model too for a '10 foot tall tele'. All of these are wound with 42AWG, so the tapped tone will be vintage flavoured.

 

[DreX]

Re: Tell me about hotter Tele bridge pickups wit TAPS

Check this out http://www.seymourduncan.com/2011products/53-tapped-tele-model-t.php , I'm interested in this set myself.

Any others I should consider? Do either of the hot hum-cancelling pickups (Hot Rails and/or Lil 59) do a good vintage Tele imitation when split or switched to parallel?

If you don't like the tapped STL-3, you'd hate a split/parallel single coil sized HB.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Tell me about hotter Tele bridge pickups with TAPS

Re: Tell me about hotter Tele bridge pickups with TAPS

Is the STL-2 wound with 42AWG or do they go with 43AWG to fit the extra turns?

 

[Agileguy_101]

Re: Tell me about hotter Tele bridge pickups wit TAPS

If the Hot tapped doesn't work for you, I'd get the custom shop to whip something up. I'm sure they've made a pickup like that before.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Tell me about hotter Tele bridge pickups with TAPS

Re: Tell me about hotter Tele bridge pickups with TAPS

I have been using the 53 "JB Guitar Shop" set for 10 years now and love it.

Low to mid 6k on the low tap and mid to high 9k on the hot side.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jeremy]

Re: Tell me about hotter Tele bridge pickups with TAPS

Re: Tell me about hotter Tele bridge pickups with TAPS

Is the STL-2 wound with 42AWG or do they go with 43AWG to fit the extra turns?

its at least #43, not #42 for sure. I like the pup but its not very twangy at all with full output which I think it fine but you may not like. the tapped '53 jb is a fantastic bridge pup but is pricey.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Tell me about hotter Tele bridge pickups wit TAPS

Loss of twang on the full coil is okay - actually preferable - with me. What I really want to know is, how close to the "vintage" sound does the STL-2T get when it's on the tap?

 

[elelpe]

Re: Tell me about hotter Tele bridge pickups wit TAPS

Cavalier pickups offer Twin Lion (2 voices in 1) and The Hydra Lion (3 voices in 1). Maybe one of them suits your need.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Tell me about hotter Tele bridge pickups wit TAPS

I've gone back and forth over the years on the STL-3T tapped Quarter Pound. It always seemed like a good idea, but has a couple problems in my book. While I love the way the full coil drives the hell out of a Marshall or an SD-1, it tends to get muddy and buried in a band mix. Also, though the tap has a thinner and nice, useable sound, I don't think it really comes close to "authentic Tele" tone.

This is so interesting. I've heard this before.

I'm not a Tele guy, but I've got a couple, and it has not been my experience that the quarter pound gets muddy, and the tapped tone sounds very vintage Tele-ish to me. Could be my old ears have lost some of their discrimination.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Tell me about hotter Tele bridge pickups wit TAPS

This baby. http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/custom-shop/telecaster/1953_tapped_jb/

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Tell me about hotter Tele bridge pickups wit TAPS

Yeah, nice but I'm not in a position to put a $200 pickup in a $300 guitar.

No one can tell me how a tapped STL-2 compares to a normal STL-1? I guess I'll have to invest $72 and find out.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Tell me about hotter Tele bridge pickups wit TAPS

Just to let you know, you'd be up for about $70 or $80 for Zhangs winds atm - he's got a sale on.