Tele bridge pickup for Mahogany body+Wenge/Ebony neck?

[JDLM]

I did it! Pulled the trigger last night and got myself a Mahogany Telecaster body and an amazing Quartersawn Wenge/Ebony neck from Warmoth.  arty07: I wanted to build something different and, man, I'm psyched about this new build. I went with tele size bridge and Humbucker neck.

Now I'm thinking of what pickup to throw in the bridge. I'm looking for a classic rock or classic rock on steroids tone. I'm indifferent to whether it's a high output tele pickup or a tele-sized humbucker. So far, I've heard good things about the Duncan Lil '59, Pearly Gates Jr., BG 1400 but I'm open to any suggestions. Even though I want some ballsy tone, I want to be able to keep the wood tone and not get too compressed or in a EMG territory (if that makes sense).

So, what do you suggest?

 

[DangerousR6]

Dimarzio air zone... :guitarplayer2:

 

[musicispeace]

I like the Airzone as well, although for my own things I am presently deep in vintage sounding land. DangerousR6 can speak with more authority on this, a good suggestion on the Airzone. And major congratulations on the body and neck. They should be fantastic and you definitely should be stoked. Lotta people here like the Wenge/Ebony combo.

 

[JDLM]

Thanks so much guys! Only thing is that I can't find an Airzone for the bridge. The bridge has to be Telecaster-sized. That is, the vintage single coil that goes in the ashtray bridge. Do you mean Airzone in the neck? Thanks a ton!

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Consider the GFS NeoVin Tele pickups.  Standard sizing, hum cancelling, a variety of output choices, they have clips of them on their website.

 

[Kostas]

... I'm looking for a classic rock or classic rock on steroids tone...

The classic tele bridge pickup is the tone of the telecaster. You can have a HB, P90, strat or tele SC on the neck but the bridge pickup is what the tele is all about. It has balls, you can play anything from country to old school metal. Unless you want to downtune and play with tons of gain I suggest you'd stay with a tele single coil.

I have experience with two different tele bridge pickups (Lollar & Budz) on a thinline and a standard tele, the tele bridge pickup is very versatile. Nowdays there are many good pickups available for every budget. A slightly hot wound single coil (7k-8k) is what I suggest if you want to have the tele sound.

 

[DangerousR6]

The Tone Zone would be close to the Air Zone, I actually have an AZ and a TZ together in a Tele, but they are hums...

 

[JDLM]

kind of in between the Duncan Pearly Gates Jr. or the Lil '59. Also open to any regular telecaster bridge pickup with a higher output. Thoughts?