Thicker/fatter tele bridge pickup for my jazz caster?

[ragamuffin]

About two years ago I built a really nice Warmoth "jazzcaster": currently the pickups are a vintage-y tele bridge pickup and a mini humbucker sized Supro cleartone style neck pickup. I love the neck pickup; it's thick and juicy sort of like an extra fat strat. The bridge pickup however I never bonded with; it just kind of thin and anemic in comparison. Maybe some people would really like it, but to me it's just not what I want.

Any recommendations for a bridge pickup? I'm thinking about a hotter, fatter tele pickup, or maybe even something like a Duncan Lil 59' humbucker.

 

[Mincer]

I'd say a Hot Tele, or for more Twang with Power, the Jerry Donahue.

 

[Artie]

I'll leave the pup recommendations to others . . . but that is a cool project. I love it.

Are you wanting a "jazzy" kind of vibe?

 

[Ewizard]

I second the Jerry Donahue. Hard to find a better hot tele pickup for the price. My favorite thus far.

 

[Securb]

How hot do you want to go. What styles of music do you play?

 

[Juanhanglo]

Harmonic design vintage plus.

More bottom end and mids without sounding overwound
They work well with 500k pots too. A plus for humbucker in the neck guys.

Very quiet too.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

QuarterPound Tele is quite fat, almost P-90ish, with aggressive mids.
Probably a good match for a mini hum, both outputwise and tonewise.
Still has true singlecoil attack - I prefer it to the Lil 59 myself.

Does your jazz caster have two volume controls or two tones?

 

[ragamuffin]

Thanks guys! As far as what I play I play bit of everything; classic rock, modern alternative, post rock, some finger style jazzy stuff, but I mostly use the neck pickup for cleans and bridge with some level of gain. I’m mainly looking for a little more output and more bottom end.

eclecticsynergy it’s actually 1 volume, 1 tone, and a bass cut knob like certain G&L and Reverend guitars have.

 

[Mincer]

Thanks guys! As far as what I play I play bit of everything; classic rock, modern alternative, post rock, some finger style jazzy stuff, but I mostly use the neck pickup for cleans and bridge with some level of gain. I’m mainly looking for a little more output and more bottom end.

eclecticsynergy it’s actually 1 volume, 1 tone, and a bass cut knob like certain G&L and Reverend guitars have.

After this description, I am almost certain of the Jerry Donahue.

 

[Ewizard]

Yup, Jerry Donahue all day with all those styles. It has spank and twang, growls, isn't too bright, but not too dark either, cleans up well, and has medium output. It just sounds good.

 

[JOLLY]

As mentioned by electric synergy, the quarter pound for tele is really fat and almost p90 ish. I have one in a tele and you'd never know it was a tele if you heard it without knowing.

 

[BluesIsBlood12]

The Quarter Pound is very fat. I found it too fat for how I wanted to use that guitar. The EQ did not match well with what I had in the neck.

 

[Mincer]

The Quarter Pound has the power of a P90, but not really the tone. It does have more bottom end, but it also has a whole lot less top end.

 

[Clint 55]

Decide if you want a true single coil, stack, or single coil size humbucker, then ballpark what output you want and go from there. You say you want thicker/fatter so that eliminates vintage output leaving medium or high.

 

[ragamuffin]

Thanks for the recs guys! I decided to stay with a true tele single coil and got very close to ordering a Jerry Donahue, but the folks at TDPRI convinced me to try a Cavalier pickups Fat Lion. I'll give an update on how it goes once I get the pickup and try it out.

 

[Ewizard]

Here is what I can tell you about Cavalier Pickups. I truly appreciate their honesty and applaud them for being transparent and straight up. Having never used their pickups I can't speak directly, but knowing what they use ( having used it myself ) and from what I have heard, they are legit. They use Tone Kraft parts to make their pickups. Tone Kraft is a company that sells kits, parts, and other supplies to make pickups among other things. So you are buying a Tone Kraft pickup that Cavalier then winds however they wind it. I have successfully ( and recently ) made a pickup using Tone Kraft supplies that sounds damn near exactly like a Jerry Donahue. There was another post recently where it was debated about how much magic if any was needed to make a pickup design. I contend that while there are variables, there is no real magic. So that being said, my recipe for a JD sounding pickup was a 50's Vintage Tele kit with A2 magnets. I used 10,000 wraps of 42awg wire. Comparing to Cavalier's description, I can say that his will definitely be fat and may border on dark sounding. I feel the JD and even my rendition of it can do twang convincingly enough but is definitely more rock, blues, jazz and hot country. With an extra 1,000 winds, it will certainly be rounder, darker, and more grunty, or smokey if you will, even with A5 mags. I feel the A5 mags is what gives the Tele it's chirp and twang, A2 just knocks a little of that sharpness off the top and the extra winds fattens up the pickup and rounds it out a little more. You get that twang, some bite, and a solid mid-range growl that makes a Jerry Donahue pickup so famous. I feel 11,000 wraps is heading north of medium output and perhaps quite literally high output, and with 42awg wire, 11,300 wraps is probably a DCR of about 8.5 possibly even 8.7. You have to wind pretty tight to get that many wraps on a bobbin and still leave room for the twine wrapping.

Congrats on your choice and please do get back to us about your thoughts. Supporting the little guys is always commendable!

 

[ragamuffin]

Here is what I can tell you about Cavalier Pickups. I truly appreciate their honesty and applaud them for being transparent and straight up. Having never used their pickups I can't speak directly, but knowing what they use ( having used it myself ) and from what I have heard, they are legit. They use Tone Kraft parts to make their pickups. Tone Kraft is a company that sells kits, parts, and other supplies to make pickups among other things. So you are buying a Tone Kraft pickup that Cavalier then winds however they wind it. I have successfully ( and recently ) made a pickup using Tone Kraft supplies that sounds damn near exactly like a Jerry Donahue. There was another post recently where it was debated about how much magic if any was needed to make a pickup design. I contend that while there are variables, there is no real magic. So that being said, my recipe for a JD sounding pickup was a 50's Vintage Tele kit with A2 magnets. I used 10,000 wraps of 42awg wire. Comparing to Cavalier's description, I can say that his will definitely be fat and may border on dark sounding. I feel the JD and even my rendition of it can do twang convincingly enough but is definitely more rock, blues, jazz and hot country. With an extra 1,000 winds, it will certainly be rounder, darker, and more grunty, or smokey if you will, even with A5 mags. I feel the A5 mags is what gives the Tele it's chirp and twang, A2 just knocks a little of that sharpness off the top and the extra winds fattens up the pickup and rounds it out a little more. You get that twang, some bite, and a solid mid-range growl that makes a Jerry Donahue pickup so famous. I feel 11,000 wraps is heading north of medium output and perhaps quite literally high output, and with 42awg wire, 11,300 wraps is probably a DCR of about 8.5 possibly even 8.7. You have to wind pretty tight to get that many wraps on a bobbin and still leave room for the twine wrapping.

Congrats on your choice and please do get back to us about your thoughts. Supporting the little guys is always commendable!

Very interesting, I hadn't heard of Tone Kraft... I guess everyone has to get their parts from somewhere. USPS says the pickup is out for delivery today.

 

[ragamuffin]

The Fat Lion came this afternoon and I quickly got it wired up. I'm very pleased with the sound! It's definitely got some more thump! Character wise, it still sounds like a tele! It's a little bigger, fatter, and meaner, but it's still got some twang. It's a little less bright but definitely not dull: before I always had to roll the tone knob back a bit and now that's not so necessary. It's very clear and snappy but growls a bit when pushed. All in all just what I needed in this guitar.

I'm still a little curious about trying an A2 bridge pickup, so maybe I'll try out a JD at some point, but for now I'm very satisfied with what I've got.

 

[Ewizard]

Glad to hear!!!! I think the A5 magnet is what is helping maintain that twang and snap, maintaining some of the brightness. The A2 in the JD and my winding is what helps tame that brightness a little while using less winds. The JD is an $80 or so pickup and I think it is worth every penny. By far my favorite retail Tele pickup. I like my rendition just as much, but it's not for sale and I don't have any more Tele's to build another to put in.