Opinions sought: best Tele bridge pickup?

[duhvoodooman***]

Received the compensated brass saddles today & installed. Warmed the tone some, but not sure if it'll be enough. Need to play the guitar for a few days w/ different amps & effects to assess. Definitely moved things in the right direction, though. Photo below....

[markb]

One option

[duhvoodooman***]

Thanks. That Dimarzio model is one that looks very interesting to me. I'll watch that auction closely; if it stays reasonably cheap, I'll make a late bid. They're only $50 new, so hopefully it stays down in the $30 range. Worth a try, at that price. My only concern is the one that is causing the owner to sell it--it's quite a high DC resistance pickup at 14.8K, and may cause imbalance issues with the stock XV820 neck p'up, particularly in combination. I have the guitar wired to be able to put the bridge in series with the neck, as well as the usual parallel arrangement at the middle selector switch position. Those are nice Tele tones, and I wouldn't want to screw them up.

[wingsdad]

...That Dimarzio model is ... quite a high DC resistance pickup at 14.8K...

Holy cow : If you want Tele bridge tones, you want something no more than 1/2 of that. My G&L ASAT Classic Bluesboy's MFD bridge PUP is at 5.6K; pre-92, they were at 4.8K. Even the 'P-90-like' Soapbar MFD bridge PUP on the ASAT Semi-Hollow that's now cb's is in a range of 4.8-5.3K.

[duhvoodooman***]

Holy cow : If you want Tele bridge tones, you want something no more than 1/2 of that. My G&L ASAT Classic Bluesboy's MFD bridge PUP is at 5.6K; pre-92, they were at 4.8K. Even the 'P-90-like' Soapbar MFD bridge PUP on the ASAT Semi-Hollow that's now cb's is in a range of 4.8-5.3K.

Yeah, I hear you loud & clear. Actually, Dimarzio lists the nominal DC resistance at 14.2K, while their two other "standard" Tele bridge p'ups run 7.4 - 8.0K range.....basically a factor of 2. Their description:

There are two kinds of Tele® players: country pickers for whom twang is king (we don't make Twang King™ pickups for nothing, right?), and players of blues and rock who need less high-end snap and more low-end muscle. We're not talking imitation humbucker-sound here. The Pre B-1™ maintains a lot of the basic character of the Tele® bridge position, but the sound is bigger. It can still cut through a mix, but it will fill more space, as well. It also has about 25% more power than a stock Tele® bridge pickup. That means thicker overdrive and more sustain from your favorite tube amp.

Recommended For: Standard Tele bridge position.

Tech Talk: Telecasters may seem very basic, but the differences in maple and rosewood fingerboards, body woods and even bridge and saddle materials mean there are a lot of different-sounding axes around, and some of them are very piercing. Rolling the tone down can turn the sound to mud. The Pre B-1™ attacks the problem by fattening up the highs and boosting the mids and lows. We've left the traditional bottom plate off - the Pre B-1™ was designed to work without it.

Interestingly, the Harmony Central reviews I read, along with some comments in the TDPRI.com forum, do not indicate a marked loss of "typical" Tele tone. The descriptions seem to be very consistent with the Dimarzio description.

Like I said, if the price is right on this used Pre-B1 auction, it would be worth checking out. If it kills the tone or screws up the neck/bridge balance to an unacceptable degree, I can always put it right back up on the 'Bay or just put it in my "bone yard".

[markb]

14.8K? I never noticed that. Some early Broadcaster pickups were in the 10K range but that sounds excessive. The lack of a baseplate makes me wonder too.

[Moshe]

Find one of the Alnico III Tele pickups from the Squier CV Teles. That's the one you want.

I've got a set if someone wants to trade me somethin good.


They were removed by melting the solder..I didn't cut the wires.

[wingsdad]

Yeah, I hear you loud & clear. Actually, Dimarzio lists the nominal DC resistance at 14.2K, while their two other "standard" Tele bridge p'ups run 7.4 - 8.0K range.....basically a factor of 2. ....

That's still on the hot side, dvh...but their description makes sense. My '81 THE STRAT features a 'hotter than standard' (to that point) bridge pup that Fender concocted for this first-ever 'factory hot-rodded' Strat model and branded the "X-1". I've never bothered to put a meter on mine (I wouldn't know how), but the accounts I've found on it say they varied from 6.0-8.5. I do know that while it can 'twang', it doesn't have the 'bite' or 'snap' that my old Teles had, nor that my Bluesboy's bridge pup has. It's hard to put something like this in words...I'd call its sound more like a 'bright bridge humbucker' or P-90.

[Duff49]

Like Spud suggested, I installed recently a 'lil Puncer bridge pup in a friend's MIM tele. He plays heavy metal and loves the pup.

I, however, bought the Fender Custom Shop Texas Special 10.5 k bridge pup that was in there, someone put it in, for thirty five dollars and put it in my walnut stain Squire Std tele. That Texas Special sounds really nice and is Quiet. It's my favorite tele bridge pup so far.

One of those 'lil Punchers is going to naturally be a humbucker and that might give it some warmth that you want, as Spud may have implied. Plus the rails look cool and a lot of guys are putting them in their tele's.

I like the twang of the Texas Special bridge pup though. It's a nice pickup and surprisingly Quiet. Works good with the stock neck pup but I'm on the trail of a Texas Special neck pickup and think I have it rounded up.

Duffy

[duhvoodooman***]

The brass saddles helped, but I'm still looking for a little less twang and a little more warmth. I bid on a couple of p'ups on eBay over the weekend but didn't win either. Don't want to go higher than the very low $30's. Have to be patient, never an easy thing!

[duhvoodooman***]

Well, that didn't take long! I put in a last-second bid on a GFS Fatbody Overwound Tele bridge pickup and got it for the minimum bid price of $26! Not bad--$9 cheaper than the online price of $35, which is very reasonable to begin with! At this price, if I don't like it, I'll just put it back up on eBay and should be able to get close to what I paid for it. The description sounds like an excellent match to what I'm looking for, but you never know until you hear it in the guitar....

[duhvoodooman***]

Well, unfortunately, I got a notice from GFS saying the Fatbody pickup was backordered. I asked for how long and they say 2 - 3 weeks. Why the heck they're auctioning them on eBay when they don't have the stock to fill the order is a freakin' mystery to me. I may ask for my money back; haven't decided yet.

Anyway, I started looking at some others, and I bid on & won one of these Hot Alnico 3 p'ups, used in the Highway 1 Tele. Figured it was worth a try if I could get it under $35. Have read reviews ranging from "best Tele bridge p'up I've ever heard" to "complete crap, sounds terrible", so I'll be interested to hear how it sounds for myself....

[marnold***]

Anyway, I started looking at some others, and I bid on & won one of these Hot Alnico 3 p'ups, used in the Highway 1 Tele. Figured it was worth a try if I could get it under $35. Have read reviews ranging from "best Tele bridge p'up I've ever heard" to "complete crap, sounds terrible", so I'll be interested to hear how it sounds for myself....

Unfortunately, I am one of the people who fall into the latter category. I hope you will disagree.

[duhvoodooman***]

Unfortunately, I am one of the people who fall into the latter category. I hope you will disagree.

I understand that these hot alnico 3 pickups were fairly recently introduced in the Highway 1 (perhaps because of the lackluster p'ups originally used?). I think the change was made after that early 2007 period when you and I both tried a Highway 1 and weren't impressed (as I replied in that thread). But we'll just have to see. I figured at under $35, if I didn't like them, I could always put 'em right back up on eBay and only lose a few bucks, worst case.

I asked GFS for a refund on the b/o'd Fatbody, along with a comment that I thought auctioning an item without stock to fill the sale was a pretty lousy business practice. Probably just a careless mistake, because I've found them excellent to deal with on other items, and very customer-sensitive.

[duhvoodooman***]

I received the Fender hot alnico 3 Tele bridge pickup yesterday and popped it into my Xaviere XV820 last night. Was quite concerned that it would be too hot (measured the DC resistance at a whopping 15.0K!), but it turns out to be exactly what I was looking for.

Country players who want maximum twang/spank will not be interested in this p'up, but I don't play in that style anyway. As a blues/rock player, I wanted more warmth and smoother highs, and a pickup that would work well with overdrive pedals. This one does that in spades. And it's certainly not dull or muddy sounding in the least. It still has plenty of snap and top end, just tamed down from the stock pickup which I found too bright for my tastes, at least in this guitar. And, yes--15K or not, it's still unmistakably Tele-sounding. And the growl it produces when overdriven is a thing of beauty. I'll have to get a short clip posted....

The only problem I see is that it doesn't balance particularly well with the stock neck pickup--not surprising, given its 5.7K DC resistance. So I think I'll look for a neck version of this same pickup!

[duhvoodooman***]

Here's a hastily recorded clip, so don't expect too much! Hopefully will show a bit of the tone of this new pickup. Recorded using Line 6 Gearbox emulation software. Amp model is a '64 Deluxe Reverb, set up clean with a bit of reverb and slapback echo. The tone control on the guitar is set right at halfway. First part is recorded clean--variation on a favorite Peter Green riff. Second part is a blues riff run through my BYOC British Blues OD pedal, gain around two-thirds. Here's the link:

http://www.box.net/shared/3ieisnjhqt

[marnold***]

Sounds a lot better than the one I had tried.

[markb]

Sounds like a tele, just bigger. Cool!

[duhvoodooman***]

I snagged the neck version of this hot alnico 3 pickup from the same eBay seller over the weekend for under $27. Should balance much better with bridge than the GFS vintage-style neck p'up in there now....