What Tele pickup for page tone?

tce44

Member
Any ideas out there for a nice jimmy page/zepplin tone for bridge pickup on telecaster?
Need something full sounding,in your face,not twangy!
Also,need a good match for neck position but with pole pieces not the standard silver pickups on telecasters!
Thanx alot
 
Re: What Tele pickup for page tone?

Any ideas out there for a nice jimmy page/zepplin tone for bridge pickup on telecaster?
Need something full sounding,in your face,not twangy!
Also,need a good match for neck position but with pole pieces not the standard silver pickups on telecasters!
Thanx alot

Page used a rosewood fingerboard Tele with the '55 style bridge pickup.

For the best, go for a set of the Antiquity II alnico 5 Tele pickups....raised and staggered polepieces on the bridge pickup.

Or the Duncan STL-1. The STL-1b is the Broadcaster pickup, which I prefer...it has flat polepieces. The STL-1 has raised and staggered polepieces like the pickup in Page's Tele...assuming he used the original pickup and didn't change it.

Lew
 
Re: What Tele pickup for page tone?

Page used a rosewood fingerboard Tele with the '55 style bridge pickup.

For the best, go for a set of the Antiquity II alnico 5 Tele pickups....raised and staggered polepieces on the bridge pickup.

Or the Duncan STL-1. The STL-1b is the Broadcaster pickup, which I prefer...it has flat polepieces. The STL-1 has raised and staggered polepieces like the pickup in Page's Tele...assuming he used the original pickup and didn't change it.

Lew


Do any of the neck pickups come with the pole pieces not the silver cover?
 
Re: What Tele pickup for page tone?

Do any of the neck pickups come with the pole pieces not the silver cover?

Yes you just have to look or ask for them, I'm not sure if SD offers any (yes I'm ashamed) but I know Rio Grande (again ashamed) has them.
 
Re: What Tele pickup for page tone?

Do any of the neck pickups come with the pole pieces not the silver cover?

The polepieces are there...they're just under the cover.

The best Tele neck pickup I've owned that did not have the cover is the Lindy Fralin Blues Special. Sounds alot like a Strat pickup.

Lew
 
Re: What Tele pickup for page tone?

i get a good pagey sound with the JD. Its got more mids and a thicker sound, which makes it a little easier to cop his kind of tone considering most people do not have a bunch of marshalls and big amps to get a thick sound like he did. You might have to turn up the treble a tad since the JD is a little warmer than a typical vintage tele bridge pickup.
 
Re: What Tele pickup for page tone?

Any ideas out there for a nice jimmy page/zepplin tone for bridge pickup on telecaster?
Need something full sounding,in your face,not twangy!
Also,need a good match for neck position but with pole pieces not the standard silver pickups on telecasters!
Thanx alot

Jimmy's Tele is a 59 (I belive) so the pickup that Duncan sells that would be the closest would be a Vintage 54 or Antiquity 55, the vintage neck or Antiquity II neck would be the "correct" match to those pickups, but both of those pickups have the cover on them. Now, the cover can be removed but it leaves the pickup open to be damaged, if you have to have a neck pickup with no cover I suggest getting one that comes stock w/o a cover, I know of no standard Duncan that comes like that.

Now, with all that out of the way you need to know this...both the Vintage 54 and Antiquity 55 as well as any other vintage style Tele bridge single coil is going to twang...it's just the nature of the beast, Tele's twang...even Jimmy's! If you want to get that fat/in your face sound from the first LZ album get a small wattage vintage style tube amp and a fuzztone then start tweaking things until you get it right.

I have 2 Tele's, one with Custom Shop Duncans (vintage style/low output) and one with a Joe Barden, with either of them plugged into my Twin Reverb they are both twang monsters but either of them plugged into my tweed V Front Super clone and with the help from a fuzztone I an get very close to the tone jimmy got on LZ I.
 
Re: What Tele pickup for page tone?

Jimmy's Tele is a 59 (I belive) so the pickup that Duncan sells that would be the closest would be a Vintage 54 or Antiquity 55, the vintage neck or Antiquity II neck would be the "correct" match to those pickups, but both of those pickups have the cover on them. Now, the cover can be removed but it leaves the pickup open to be damaged, if you have to have a neck pickup with no cover I suggest getting one that comes stock w/o a cover, I know of no standard Duncan that comes like that.

Now, with all that out of the way you need to know this...both the Vintage 54 and Antiquity 55 as well as any other vintage style Tele bridge single coil is going to twang...it's just the nature of the beast, Tele's twang...even Jimmy's! If you want to get that fat/in your face sound from the first LZ album get a small wattage vintage style tube amp and a fuzztone then start tweaking things until you get it right.

I have 2 Tele's, one with Custom Shop Duncans (vintage style/low output) and one with a Joe Barden, with either of them plugged into my Twin Reverb they are both twang monsters but either of them plugged into my tweed V Front Super clone and with the help from a fuzztone I an get very close to the tone jimmy got on LZ I.

Good point! I think that in Jimmy Page's case, more than 50% of his tone on that first Led Zep album is the Supro (Thunderbolt???) amp he used and the room he recorded it in and the microphone and microphone placement he used...MUCH MORE SO than the pickup in his Tele.

lew
 
Re: What Tele pickup for page tone?

Good point! I think that in Jimmy Page's case, more than 50% of his tone on that first Led Zep album is the Supro (Thunderbolt???) amp he used and the room he recorded it in and the microphone and microphone placement he used...MUCH MORE SO than the pickup in his Tele.
lew

Thanks Lew!

I have heard it was a Thunderbolt but I have also heard is was a smaller 1x12 Supro, who really knows these days I guess! Truth is a smallish old style tube amp and a good fuzz will get you pretty close...as for the recorded tone Jimmy was then and is now a master at micing things...the sounds he got out of Bonzo's drums are m ore than enough proof of that! With the mix of the old/small tube ampcranked up, a fuzz tone and some killer micing Jimmy was able to get a HUGE tone from a stock Tele.
 
Re: What Tele pickup for page tone?

Hi Guys,

I have a custom wound OC Duff pickup (slightly staggered, a5 rods, #42 plain enamel - you heard it right, not formwar - hand wound to 8.00K with a zinc baseplate).

Christian is right. With a peavey classic 20 my tele gives them Pagey tones very easily. Love that setup, very simple yet sounds great.

B
 
Re: What Tele pickup for page tone?

Whats happening B?

How ya been?

Thats really what it comes down to is the right match of guitar (that includes a good pickup) and the right amp set up and played in the "right" way to get the sound you are looking for.
 
Re: What Tele pickup for page tone?

Can you guys name me a couple of the songs that JP used the Tele on? I'm curious to give it another listen now that I know what to listen for.

Thanks.
 
Re: What Tele pickup for page tone?

Can you guys name me a couple of the songs that JP used the Tele on? I'm curious to give it another listen now that I know what to listen for.

Thanks.

Hi Artie, Could be wrong, but except for the acoustic tunes, I think the whole first Led Zep album is the Tele and the Supro amp. He also used that Tele on the Yardbirds album Little Games. Later, he got the Les Paul from Joe Walsh but it doesn't turn up on the first Led Zep album...don't think he had it yet.

Lew
 
Re: What Tele pickup for page tone?

I'll just add this ... Christian mentioned using a fuzz. It's well known that JP and Jeff Beck both used Sola Sound Tonebenders in those days. That's an essential part of that early Zep tone, which to me at least doesn't sound like a regular tele at all!
I like the Prescription Yardbox, but there are a bunch of Bender type fuzzes these days, including the Fulltone SoulBender.
 
Re: What Tele pickup for page tone?

Hi Artie, Could be wrong, but except for the acoustic tunes, I think the whole first Led Zep album is the Tele and the Supro amp. He also used that Tele on the Yardbirds album Little Games. Later, he got the Les Paul from Joe Walsh but it doesn't turn up on the first Led Zep album...don't think he had it yet.

Lew

Thanks Lew. Now I just gotta dig out that old vinyl and give another listen. ;)
 
Re: What Tele pickup for page tone?

Hi Artie, Could be wrong, but except for the acoustic tunes, I think the whole first Led Zep album is the Tele and the Supro amp. He also used that Tele on the Yardbirds album Little Games. Later, he got the Les Paul from Joe Walsh but it doesn't turn up on the first Led Zep album...don't think he had it yet.

Lew

I have no doubt that JP could have used a Supro amp. I've also heard that the amp was a Vox Pathfinder.

I've also heard that the amp was a small solid-state, to which either a Supro or Vox could have been.

JP has also been photographed onstage using solid-state Rickenbacker Transonic series amps. I loved those amps... really wish I had one.

But you have to remember, this was back before tube amps were declared the ultimate in tone. Many of the newer amps of the day were solid-state and back then we did not care as much as to how they were made - meaning tube vs solid-state.

Sometimes I long for the good old days. :fingersx:
 
Re: What Tele pickup for page tone?

I'll just add this ... Christian mentioned using a fuzz. It's well known that JP and Jeff Beck both used Sola Sound Tonebenders in those days. That's an essential part of that early Zep tone, which to me at least doesn't sound like a regular tele at all!
I like the Prescription Yardbox, but there are a bunch of Bender type fuzzes these days, including the Fulltone SoulBender.

When I want to rock out and I plug my '54 Tele into my Boss DS-1 and that into my smaller tweed Fenders, like my 5e3 Deluxe or Super, I often feel like I'm getting a Jimmy Page?Led Zep I sort of tone. :)

Lew
 
Re: What Tele pickup for page tone?

Page DID use a Supro, it's just that no one knows for sure which model he used.

Also, the entire forst LZ album is the Tele and Supro set up, FX consisted of the Sola Sound Tone Bender, a Vox wah and an Echoplex. Also, the solo on Stairway to Heaven was the same Tele...FWIW, thats the same Tele that later gopt painted brown and had a B Bender installed in it and turned up again on later LZ tracks, but by that time he had gotten away from the Supro and the fuzz so the Tele was much brighter and cleaner on later recordings. FWIW, the Tele is question was pretty stock, Jimmy had repainted it and put on a new guardplate at some point but the pickups, pots, etc were stick...it is worth mentioning that Jimmy converted it to a top loader.

This video clip is nice early footage of said Tele and there is no doubt that the tone is THICK with fuzz! Also, look at the guitar, there are a few points in the clip where you can clearly see the ball ends of the string behind the bridge plate (during the bow section around 3:40 or so is a good spot), but he flashes the back of it as well and it has string pockets for string through (check out the shots during the "behind the nut/bendy stuff" around 5:45 or so in the clip) so at some point it was converted to top loader.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nehuPOOESuA
 
Re: What Tele pickup for page tone?

I remember hearing the amp was a Supro 16T 1x12
I believe runoffgroove.com has a pretty good emulator. I've e-mailed them about the clip on there and it's supposedly a bit brighter.
That's just what I've heard though.

I have heard several different people claiming to know (or have) the same model Supro amp Page used but the truth is nobody (Page included) know for sure, Jimmy has said several times he can't remember the model number.
 
Back
Top