Tele with a Humbucker

[terlinguart]

Hello,

I am thinking about building my second Warmoth guitar, a telecaster. I have decided I want a humbucker at the neck and a traditional tele pickup at the neck. Can anyone tell me which pots you would use, 250k or 500k ?  Thanks, Tom

 

[jackthehack]

That might depend to some extent upon what pickups you're planning on using; what were you thinking/

 

[-CB-]

I've done this, and the 500k worked best.

 

[terlinguart]

For the neck I was thinking a Seymore Duncan Antiquity or "57.  Then I thought maybe a mini humbucker in case later I wanted a P-90 and the route would work. Not sure on the bridge. There is a guy here in Texas that makes pickups that everybody on another forum have been raving about, Amalfitano Pickups.  Maybe a Barden, Lindy Franlin just not sure.

 

[-CB-]

Let me tell you the issue when you have a Humbucker and a Tele pickup together.

Its that the Hum will overpower the Tele by a huge amount.  You'll find its hard to mix the two in the "middle" position and you'll find that there is a big volume change when you switch from one to the other ... and in the wrong way, as most players prefer a little bit louder bridge than neck.

So, if you're "thinknig" about a minihum, that is a good thing.  P90's are LOUD, and will be as loud as a Hum... so you might want to consider a Fralin pickup - underwound by about 20-25 percent. 

I'm picky on my Tele bridge pickups, and the only one that really does it for me is the 52ri Fender pickup.  It is not an icepick-in-the-ear pickup, but full and warm (warm for a Tele bridge at least).  The 57 Classic will balance with it, but you have to run the bridge pickup very high, and the Hum very low.  But, it does work.  A better choice would be a Burstbucker #1, which is less hot than a 57 Classic.  That would give you a little extra versatility.

 

[terlinguart]

Thanks for all the help guys !!!!!!!!!

 

[jackthehack]

Another idea... Try one of the Seymour Duncan Lil' 59 Humbucker in a Tele bridge form factor and tap it for single coil switching. That'll resolve any loudness mismatching with the SD Antiquity and give you an extra tonal dimension.

I haven't used this setup in a Tele build yet, but have used the SC form factor Lil' 59s in a couple of Strat builds with coil tapping and am pleased with the results, only drawback here is that when tapped to single coil it's probably going to sound more like a Strat bridge PU than a Tele, or at least that's the result when used in an alder and a walnut Strat body. For this config in a Tele I'd use both a 500K vol and tone pots and a .047 orange drop cap.

 

[OzziePete]

I'd also recommend you use 500K Pots.
I have owned a Guild humbucker and an L-series Tele bridge pickup for ages.
They co existed well enough, but as someone else mentioned above, the humbucker was way too loud to mix effectively with the bridge Tele pickup.(Last time they were put in together, they used 250K pots and the tone of the h/b was very rich as a result)
In recent times, I have put the Tele pickup in a Esquire configuartion on some very nice Swamp Ash Tele body and maple/ebony neck.
I'm looking at putting the Guild back in as a neck pikcup, as the selections of the Esquire configuartion are quite limited in range.
Check out the official Fender site, they have schematics for the Fat Tele, which also employs the humbucker in the neck position and the single coil Tele pickup in the bridge. They use a 500K Pot but cut it down using a 270K resistor when you switch over to the bridge pickup, for optimum sounding results.
My Guild humbucker rates low in the output and sounds a fair bit like a PAF. I think the trick is to employ a low powered type of humbucker pickup, and one that generally has a synergy with the Tele pickup (a bit of treble bite).

 

[Soloshchenko]

One thing I'm doing on my tele body is having a little 59 at the bridge and a strat neck pickup. On the SD website they recommend pairing a quarter pounder single coil as its high output and will just about match the humbucker in terms of volume. I've had a QP on my Strat and love it so I'll probably go with that. (or the SSL 3 Hot)

Jackthehat could I ask if I was to coil tap the little 59 would the normal untapped humbucker sound be exactly the same as if it wasn't tapped? I know the single coil sound won't be as full as a normal SC but I'm more concerned that I get an amazing full humbucker sound. 

PS: can I still use 500k pots with a strat single coil?

 

[jackthehack]

There is no difference in the Lil' 59 sound in "untapped" mode than if it was connected only through the main humbucker lead, you don't shut down the other coil unless you tap the pickup.

Sure you can use the 500K pot(s) with that setup; you might want to experiment with the cap value; I'd start with a .022; you can always change that out to a .049/.050 if it doesn't suit you tonally.

 

[Soloshchenko]

Actually last night I had a bit of a change of heart on the issue, from experience using 500k pots with a strat neck pickup isn't going to yield amazing results and I want amazing results from my new tele build.

What I'm actually going to do is pair the bridge little 59 with a SD cool rails SC sized humbucker, while it has the volume of a humbucker its meant to be a bit more punchy like a single coil and hopefully it should provide a bit more balance to the pickups as well as suit the 500k pots better.

 

[stubhead]

I've used concentric tone/volume pots to build both my last Warmoths, a Tele and  a "Mustang" with a humbucking at the bridge and a single coil neck pickup. Being able to control the volumes separately eliminates any power-matching guesswork, and you can forcibly dial in the quack if that's what you want. It doesn't look traditional, but you still only need two holes & a switch. If you're planning on doing the little-finger-volume-swell thing, it's best to wire the top, smaller knob for volume, unless your little fingers are Paul Gilbert-ish 4 inches long.