Best Telecaster Neck Pickup?

[outatune13]

i like Ed Bickert's sound. i saw a video of him playing a tele with a humbucker. i wonder if it was stock?

I'd like opinions on which pickup everyone likes on his Telecaster?

[jasonc]

I'm no expert on Ed's gear but I'm pretty sure it's just an old Gibson Humbucker. I would think a Classic 57 would sound good.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

I agree, but Ed sounded great before, with the stock neck pickup, too.

My ideal would be to choose a favourite single coil and humbucker and mount them both near the neck, and lose the bridge pickup.

[outatune13]

you're right jasonc, you can't go wrong with the classic 57. i heard the lollar, and am considering it, just trying to get a different sound. of course it will be different on a tele. and BigDLH, i love your idea, i have often thought of doing that. do you know any guitar that comes like that? i would do single coil closest to neck then humbucker.

[docbop]

I think Bicket's tele pre-dates Fender putting humbuckers on anything. Also back then there wasn't a million versions of pickups, you bought whatever replacement pickups Gibson sold or got a used one from a thrashed guitar.

You might want to try one of the strat sized humbuckers they sound good and you don't have to route the body to try a humbucker.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Some 3 pickup Teles.

James Burton:


J5 Triple Tele Deluxe:


Blackout Tele:


Nashville:

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Modern Player Tele Plus:



Squier Joe Trohman:

[rpguitar]

I'm sure I'm in the minority here. Everyone seems to think that Teles require mods for jazz. But I disagree. I think there are certain iconic guitars that are perfect in their natural state, and demand that you, the player, embrace them for what they are. The Tele is surely one of these. Bone stock, it is everything it needs to be for all styles: Just add strings of your desired gauge and set up to match.

[jasonc]

There are a couple of clips on youtube of Ed playing his tele with the stock neck pickup and he still sounds awesome. To be honest I think I prefer his sound with the single coil.

[NSJ]

I do not like bridge pups in general, and the bridge pickup on a Tele especially abominable. Twang? No, thanks. Thank god for the ash tray cover!

I have a 52 Reissue---great guitar-great fingerboard-- and I got it wired to normal setting, and replaced the neck pup with a Lollar Charlie Christian. (check out Tim Lerch's videos on youtube on the Lollar CC and the Tele). It's just about a perfect, pristine, clear, bell-like sound, particularly finger-style.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

I'm willing to bet that most folks here talking about playing jazz on a Tele are doing it through the neck pickup only.

That said, I remember a jazz thread on TDPRI that had a number of people saying they like the middle position -- both pickups engaged.

Neck for me!

[ruger9]

"Country (guitar) ain't nothing but jazz played on the bridge pickup of a tele." - Brad Paisley

...while that might be stretching it just a bit, you can sure hear exactly that on Paisley's stuff... it's like twangy bebop thru an AC30, played fast.

[b_goat]

I've only owned Mexican Teles (I'm on my 3rd one), and all but my 2012 could get a decent jazz tone. The new one...no way. So, I ordered pickups from Pete Biltoft (Vintage Vibe): a blade for the neck, and a Vintage T for bridge (I need the axe to cover jazz to rockabilly). Also upgrading the pots, adding a .047 cap, and a 5-way switch.

[Keira Witherkay]

I played an american standard with flat wound 12's and with pickups still stock got great tone for jazz , stock the neck pup is more focussed and in middle position it gives a wider tone but less focussed than just the neck one ,

as for using middle position i found u got good tone only when i lowered the bridge pickup a lot , the middle position also acts as hum cancelling if wiring in the venue is causing single coils to be noisy

however after short while i put a gibson classic 57 in neck btw usa american teles are factory routed for neck humbucker , 57 alone was best jazz tone ever

[nosoyninja]

Cool. I'm pleased by these votes of concurrence with my post. It's kind of ironic that the old Telecaster, slab o' wood with bolt on everything that it is, really was the perfect electric guitar from the get-go. Sure, it's not acoustic and plenty of other aesthetic things are missing, but it's still an amazing tool. If you have one, try to accept the Zen of the Tele for a while before insisting on "fixing" it.

As much as it pains me, I also concurr with this opinion. My 69 MIM thinline sounds great as it is. I wish it didn't! That way I could justify the effort of changing PUPs and switching and so on. I wish the maple fretboard was unplayable, so I could convince myself to change the neck to rosewood... I wish the stock pups sounded like crap so I could change them out and put in humbuckers!

But really, I'm just trying to make the tele sound like "NOT-a-tele"...

[Atticus]

I have a G&L ASAT Special which has unique, jumbo-sized single coils. I don't go for trying to make my Teles do impressions of other guitars, though, so I can only tell you I love it, not that it sounds like somebody else. Rather than changing up a perfectly good Tele, if you want humbuckers, just go pick up a Tele Deluxe.

[BlueInGreen]

I recently acquired a Fender American Deluxe Telecaster. It's two single coils, but it has a switch that allows you to run both pickups in series like a humbucker. I set my Tele to the middle series selection, roll down my tone to taste, and use that for single note playing. For comping, I just switch over to the single coil.

You can do a similar mod by installing a 4-way switch.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Fender should do that 4-way series/parallel switch on all their single coil Teles. A common mod, anyway.

[PTChristopher]

>>> run both pickups in series like a humbucker

The series PU 4th switch position is a great mod for many players. Just note that a given Tele PU pair may not be humbucking.

To be humbucking, the magnet polarity needs to be reversed in one of the PUs. But if both have the south poles up, then you will have a great series sound, but no bucking of the hum when running both PUs.

Chris

[Cunamara]

I put Dimarzio hum-canceling "single coil" pickups in my Tele and they sound great for jazz. Somewhere between Ed Bickert's single coil and humbucking sounds.

[feet]

if you must, maybe consider a mini humbucker in the neck. those are awesome.

[lammie200]

In my endless endeavors to screw up my life I am thinking about a short scale Tele build with a neck pick up only. What pick up would you choose for a decent warmer jazz sound?

[neatomic]

are you talking about a standard sized/looking tele neck pup???

if so i'd recommend using a p90 styled tele neck pup...fralin, the creamery and a few other guys make'm..basically a jr. p90 build...if you sink it a bit into the body, you can adjust the screw poles for best response and have some nice low end..esp with the guitar controls backed off bit

fralin-



creamery (uk)-

[bohemian46]

I use Bill Lawrence "Keystones" and play on the neck pickup the majority of the time.

Excellent sound. Clear, but mellow, and you can still tell you are playing a Telecaster.

[mad dog]

The two best tele neck p/us I've heard:

- Don Mare "Donocaster". Sweet as hell, just as pretty a sound as you could imagine. Not a loud p/u, but worked so well with some rolled off tone. Excellent at lower and medium volumes, held together at high volumes too.

- G&L ASAT Classic neck MFD. The single best ceramic magnet p/u I've heard. Could go from sweet and jazzy to a room filling roar at higher volume.

The two teles in which I had these p/us sounded so good on neck p/u alone, I rarely switched to other positions.

MD