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Hey there everyone,
I have a tele that I am big fan of the single coil neck pickup on but have never been a fan of the bridge after trying a couple different single coils, tried some humbucker equipped telecasters this weekend and thought it might be nice to have one if the bridge, something darker, richer and more focused than the traditional bridge pickup. So what are everybody's favorite single coil sized humbucker sounding pickups in the bridge for a tele? Dimarzio Chopper T? Hot Rails? Lace Sensor Red? Something else? I play clean a lot that is important too.
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02-14-2022 03:21 PM
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Duncan Hot Rails! I had a pair in a Tele that I used for everything from bop to Bar Mitzvahs, and I’ve never been happier with a pickup.
I have Lace Alumitone humbuckers in my current Tele and love them just as much. If Lace makes a SC drop-in Alumitone, that’s what I’d use - but I don’t know if they do.
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Originally Posted by SimplyTH
I ran a Seymour Duncan Lil' '59 in the bridge position of my '66 Custom Telecaster. Terrific tone, and very hot. Loud and proud! 
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Bill Lawrence. Silent but toneful and the most dynamic pickups I have ever tried.
Noisefree Tele Lead – Bill and Becky Wilde Pickups
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Count me as a Bill Lawrence/ Becky Wilde fan as well. I tried most of the and was disappointed,especially Seymour Duncan offerings.
Unlike his regular humbuckers which I like.
But ultimately it’s a personal preference,so try as many as possible until you find what works for you!
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I have these on my Strat, unsure if they would fit a Tele Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
Alumitone Single Coil in Chrome or Gold
– Lace Music Products
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Lace makes a drop-in neck SC sized Alumitone. Fender Japan make a thematic Tele with an “ Alumibucker” bridge pup too. It’d take a little creative crafting to open the stock bridge/TP baseplate and suspend the Lace on its mounting screws as though it were in a standard HB mount ring. If I had a standard Tele, I’d do that - I love my Alumibuckers! Originally Posted by medblues
I haven’t tried it, but I suspect it wouldn’t be too hard to mount a SC Lace at the bridge by location on a stock Fender Tele bridge pup baseplate (sold by Stew-Mac). These pups use standard wiring and pots.Last edited by nevershouldhavesoldit; 02-15-2022 at 12:49 PM.
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I have a Chopper T in the bridge of my MIJ Tele, it's its fine if you want to use the Tele as a Les Paul replacement. I will eventually put a single back in there though, as I just prefer single coils in Fenders.
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Telecaster for jazz neophyte here. But what about just using a 4-way switch? As I've started digging back into jazz (and fighting the GAS for a semi-hollow with HBs), I've been surprised by how nice the one Tele I have with a 4-way switch installed sounds in run in series, and find myself wondering why I don't have 4-way switches on my other two. Juts need to roll back the volume a bit as it definitely gets a major output boost vs running in parallel.
Is there a downside to relying on a 4-way switch instead of swapping in a humbucking neck pickup?
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Hmm, I hadn't thought about that as an option. Originally Posted by Mugnut
As for some of the recs the little '59 seems very interesting.
Also, I have always been very interested in the Lace alumitones, but I never had a place to use one, how would somebody who has used them describe them? Would it be a hard mod to make them fit? Does not sound like it..
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I'm a convert! The "single coil" Alumitones aren't really that different from the "humbuckers" in that both versions are dead silent and have similar sonic characteristics. They put out a very evenly balanced spectrum from the lowest lows to the highest highs. With only one sensor in it, the SC sized Alumitone has a lower impedance and a slightly brighter sound than an Alumibucker. It's not a classic Tele or Strat tone - it sounds more to me like a P-90 in a Fender. Originally Posted by SimplyTH
I don't have a physical explanation for this, but a Fender with Alumitones seems not to have the slightly smeared upper mid and high end that makes for a classic '50s Fender tone just by cranking a tube amp. It'll do a great smooth, modern OD like classic Robben Ford, Larry Carlton, et al. But it won't snarl or shred without effects, and they have to be carefully chosen - not all OD and distortion boxes respond well to Alumitones. My Alumibucker-equipped Tele makes a wonderfully smooth OD tone through my Wampler Tumnus into my Vibrolux and my CS PRRI, and it growls fiercely if I switch the gain to high.
As for fitting, Lace makes a Tele neck Alumitone and also offers a Tele pickguard loaded with it. You can easily put 3 of them in a Strat, but I've never seen one in a Tele bridge position except for a body-mounted 'bucker Alumitone. I think it'd be easy to mount a SC Alumitone to a Tele bridge PU baseplate ($10 at Stew-Mac) by installing it to the plate just as it's installed into a body rout. I don't know if it's long enough to cover both Es on a slant, but it looks to me like it should be. Call Lace and talk to Gabriel (manager) - he's a great resource, and I strongly suspect he'll be very happy to explore this with you.
PS: What's a 4 way switch? I know 3 way and 5 way, but I never heard of a 4.
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On my Kirn T-style, it's wired so all the way forward (#4) runs the neck and bridge p-ups in series; #3 is just the neck, #2 is neck and bridge in parallel (standard in-between tele middle position, and #1 is neck only. That's how Ron Kirn does it. Originally Posted by nevershouldhavesoldit
It can also be set up so #4 is N+B in parallel, and #3 is in series: 4 Way Switching For Telecaster - An Easy Guide | Fralin Pickups
I like the Kirn style because it gives you a pick output boost like stepping on a boost pedal for a solo in a rock context and you just flip the switch all the way forward.
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Originally Posted by Mugnut
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I thought I already posted this but if it shows up twice so sorry in advance if it shows up twice..
So how does running in series compare to a real (or stack/rail) humbucker. I understand that they are similar in theory but does it actual sound the same?
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The two coils in standard humbuckers are wired in series, so there shouldn't be any difference between them and Alumitones based on this alone. Because Alumitones don't use standard coils and magnets, they don't sound quite like any standard pickups I've ever had - they sound bigger, less compressed and more dynamic. But that's because of the way they generate the signal. Originally Posted by SimplyTH
In a humbucker, the north poles are up in one magnet and down in the other, and the coils are wound in the opposite direction. This keeps the signal current generated by the string's vibration in phase from both coils, but any hum induced in the coils by external RFI is "canceled" because it will be 180 degrees opposite in phase from each of the coils. If the coils were reverse wound but the magnets were the same polarity, the guitar's signal would also cancel because it would be out of phase. The magnets have no effect on induced current from RFI - they only affect the signal generated in the coil of wire around them. Alumitones don't have nearly as much wire in them as a standard pickup, and the innards are fully shielded in a tiny "capsule" - so they're inherently silent.
Humbuckers with 4 wires are set up for switching between series and parallel. If you run the coils in parallel, the output drops by about 20% but the tone moves from darker to brighter. If you wire it to be able to split the coils so that you're only using one, output will drop more and the tone will brighten up even more. This is true of both Lace Alumitones and traditional humbuckers, whether rail or pole and whether stacked or standard.
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