Talk to me about Teles and neck humbuckers

pickerg

So what do people think- yay or nay? Does it work well? Do the sounds balance and what about the middle position? Is the best option PAF style or wide range? Switching/ pots issues etc?

Would love to hear people’s experiences.

timmypix

Not a humbucker in the archetypal sense, but I've got a Firefird pickup in the neck of my parts Tele and it's perfect for me. More character than the typical Tele neck pickup, with the warmth and creaminess of a neck humbucker, but still a lot of the clarity and chime of a single coil due to the smaller size. Middle position is great!

bandmaster188

I put a BK stormy Monday on my deluxe tele. Worked well with the scn noiseless bridge pup. Didn’t feel the need to change pots, still bright enough with the 250k’s. Since changed the bridge to a chopper T and they work nicely together too.

SteveRobinson

Gibson mini humbucker in mine, paired with a Texas Special bridge pickup

Johnnyseven

All my Teles (4) have humbuckers in the neck, in all but 1 of them I had harnesses made with 500k pots and a resistor wire to the bridge pup so it sees 250k. Apparently this can affect the middle sound but I didn't tend to use it before so haven't noticed an issue.

The 1 guitar that doesn't has a Firebird and it works really well with 250k pots.

My other 3 have PAF type humbuckers and balance well with the bridge SC but I am running hotter broadcaster/esquire type pickups.

rico

The blues engine in my keefcaster is very muddy - I attribute this to the 250k pots.

lovestrat74

I've got a HB sized WRHB in mine. Need to sort the wiring out though as I cocked it up - both volume are tone are fixed

Bridge pickup is a Broadcaster and I am thinking of hotting it up a little. Maybe an esquire pup...

DarnWeight

I've had really good experiences with mini humbuckers and Filtertrons in the Tele neck position, but have never tried a full-fat man-sized humbucker.  The Filtertron really benefited from a 500k volume pot, and I wired it so both neck and neck+bridge "see" 500k, and the bridge alone "sees" 250k (using an additional resistor).  In this case the bridge pickup was a Fender 60s-voiced  6.7k.  No major issues balancing volumes or anything, and the middle position sounds great.  The mini humucker sounds fine (to me) with a stock 250k vol/tone pot setup, and is paired up with a G&L ASAT Classic bridge.  Again, they mix really, really well in the middle.

Loobs

It needs to be a bright, low-output humbucker. My ASAT Bluesboy has a Seth Lover and that doesn't overpower the bridge single coil. Personally I would just look for a nice Tele neck pickup. Don't see the need for a humbucker. 

mgaw

I have a firebird in mine currently, prior to that twas a mini humbucker, both great imo, prefer the firebird though

Funkfingers

timmypix said:

... the typical Tele neck pickup ...

Herein lies the problem. The typical Telecaster neck/Rhythm position single coil pickup employs A5 magnets. All of my favourite ones are A3. 

Small, Gibson-type humbuckers work well, especially if the bridge position single coil is on the hot side. A genuine Wide Range humbucker is very nice. Another workable option is the Filter'Tron.

munckee

I had a filtertron and a standard tele bridge pickup with 250k pots and sounded great especially the middle position.

JayGee

Happy Graham Coxon sig owner heree!

Neck pickup is a Seymour Duncan ‘59 which is an old fashioned low-to-middling output PAF-a-like. When I originally got the guitar I found the difference in output between the neck and bridge pickups a little hard to work with given the standard telecaster wiring/control layout but something from the pokier end of Ash’s Oil City range (I’m not even sure what it is, my son ordered it up as birthday present on the basis of a conversation with Ash and my stated issues and I believe he actually added a few extra turns of something to one of his standard offerings - this is what I love about bespoke builders!) fixed that. 

The end result is a guitar I reach for more often than things which cost 2-3 times as much, because it’s just so damned versatile and easy to dial in a sound for pretty much any genre on pretty much any rig...

Lebarque

I've never understood how something like a Tele Custom works. The imbalance between the two pickups would drive me bonkers. Maybe you just stick it on the middle position and blend the volumes all the time?

andy1839

JayGee said:

Happy Graham Coxon sig owner heree!

Neck pickup is a Seymour Duncan ‘59 which is an old fashioned low-to-middling output PAF-a-like. When I originally got the guitar I found the difference in output between the neck and bridge pickups a little hard to work with given the standard telecaster wiring/control layout but something from the pokier end of Ash’s Oil City range (I’m not even sure what it is, my son ordered it up as birthday present on the basis of a conversation with Ash and my stated issues and I believe he actually added a few extra turns of something to one of his standard offerings - this is what I love about bespoke builders!) fixed that. 

The end result is a guitar I reach for more often than things which cost 2-3 times as much, because it’s just so damned versatile and easy to dial in a sound for pretty much any genre on pretty much any rig...

I'd echo that.

My Road Worn Player Tele has the same SD 59 in the neck. I swapped out the bridge for a Mojo unit which suits it better.

OilCityPickups

Funkfingers said:

timmypix said:

... the typical Tele neck pickup ...

Herein lies the problem. The typical Telecaster neck/Rhythm position single coil pickup employs A5 magnets. All of my favourite ones are A3. 

Small, Gibson-type humbuckers work well, especially if the bridge position single coil is on the hot side. A genuine Wide Range humbucker is very nice. Another workable option is the Filter'Tron.

I prefer A3 tele neck pickups too.

My own favorite Tele neck position partners in order of preference are

1. Firebird ... chewy and yummy ... fat middle but Tele snarl.

2.P90 ... just super versatile ... sounds more like a PAF equipped Tele than using a PAF

3.Filtertron ... woody and surprisingly aggressive.

4. Strat ... just that, a Strat neck pickup ... one of the best pickup sounds ever conceived.

5.PAF ... suits Keith ... I don't mind it, but there are better things in a Tele neck.

Caffeine_Vampire

It doesn’t matter which humbucker you use in the neck position, the real bliss is in the ‘blend’ wiring mod which allows you to blend the ‘bucker in. 

Funkfingers

JayGee said:

Seymour Duncan ‘59 … difference in output between the neck and bridge pickups

Swapping to an A4 bar magnet will help with this (and the basic humbucker tone).

Lebarque said:

I've never understood how something like a Tele Custom works. The imbalance between the two pickups would drive me bonkers. Maybe you just stick it on the middle position and blend the volumes all the time?

Crank yo’ amp into overdrive saturation. The valve clipping kinda evens things out.

OilCityPickups said:

4. Strat ... just that, a Strat neck pickup ... one of the best pickup sounds ever conceived. 

The taller than standard “Twisted” Tele type pickup does a pretty convincing impersonation of this sound and avoids the need for woodwork. The downside is that it detracts slightly from the traditional both pickups sound. It would be interesting to try one of them in a Jerry Donahue style circuit with the half-out-of-phase option.

chris78

I find a humbucker in a tele muddy so not a fan at all. I actually think a tele neck pickup is an underrated thing

lovestrat74

OilCityPickups said:

I prefer A3 tele neck pickups too.

My own favorite Tele neck position partners in order of preference are

1. Firebird ... chewy and yummy ... fat middle but Tele snarl.

2.P90 ... just super versatile ... sounds more like a PAF equipped Tele than using a PAF

3.Filtertron ... woody and surprisingly aggressive.

4. Strat ... just that, a Strat neck pickup ... one of the best pickup sounds ever conceived.

5.PAF ... suits Keith ... I don't mind it, but there are better things in a Tele neck.

What do you think of the Keith blend mod @OilCityPickups ? And do you use 500k pots with a resistor for the firebird pup?

Roland

Telecaster neck pickups are a very personal thing. It hangs on what type of music you play, and how you play it. So 

pickerg said:

Does it work well? ..

The answer depends on what you want it to do. My personal favourite is an Oil City Californian, which is a Telecasterised version of a Strat neck pickup. I’ve experimented with Firebird and P90 pickups, but realised that I want something that can do really clean, and leave raunch and snarl to use the bridge pickup. So, in my case, a humbucker doesn’t work, but YVMV.