What kind of pickups should I use?

[sonnymccann]

Hi,
this is my first post on Warmoth, I am thinking of getting a custom built telecaster from Warmoth and haven't decided what kind of pickup routing I should get. I play mainly indie and alternative music with the odd Jimi Hendrix or red hot chili peppers song thrown in. I have already looked at some bare knuckle pickups (not the humbuckers) and I quite like the idea of having them but I am still unsure. I have a  £200 ($327.20) budget for both of the pickups together. Any response would be greatly appreciated.
:glasses10:


https://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/main/index.php  (Bare knuckles webpage)
http://www.seymourduncan.com/  (Seymour Duncan webpage)
http://www.dimarzio.com/  (Di Marzio webpage)
I am not saying these are the only places I want to get the pickups from.

 

[deajo]

Send an email to Tim at Bare Knuckle.  Describe the sound you are trying to get and the details of the guitar you are putting them in.
I have dealt with him twice (Mule in my Semi-hollow, and VHII's in my Tele).  He is a pleasure to deal with.
And, quite honestly...I have never played/heard a better sounding humbucker pickup.  I have no personal experience with his single coils though...
perhaps someone else can chime in...

If you want noiseless pickups, I can personally vouch for the dimarzio area 58's.  Almost sound like a true single coil without the 60 cycle hum...almost.

A last thought, and a lot of people might take issue with this.  I don't use the neck pickup very often, but I have found the traditional tele neck pickup to be quite useless at everything.  If you are building from scratch, think outside the box a little.  You could put a humbucker, or a P90 in there.

My .02...

Good luck, John

 

[bagman67]

Hi, Sonny, and welcome.


I'm not familiar with the BK offerings, but I have played the noiseless Dimarzio Area T's and they are really, really nice.


YOu could also explore Roadhouse Pickups, which are wound by one of our forum brothers, Troubledtreble.  I have a pair of his P90's and they are the most lovely pickups I have ever played.


I agree that there are more useful neck pickups out there if you think outside the standard Telecaster box - a vintage-style mini humbucker is great, as is a P90.


If you want something with a little more hair on it (but not noiseless),  I like the Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound bridge pickup - and you can get it with a coil tap so you can back off the aggressive full-strength wind, and get a more conventional Tele twang.

 

[TroubledTreble]

Thanks for the reference Bagman.

There are a lot of choices to be sure. If you route the neck for humbucker it will give a few more choices since just about anything will fit. If you have a pickguard then it will hide the extra routing.

I don't usually jump in on post like this but I am offering a pickup now that I think would be great in the neck along with a tele bridge pickup. It's a Valco/Supro style pickup made to exact vintage specs only it fits in a humbucker route. It's actually a single coil. It would be great for the Indie / Alt  and it's amazing at bluesy riffs.

I might also suggest seeking some local winders to your area. They would probably be happy to help you find and dial in what you are after.

-Ken

 

[sonnymccann]

Hi,
Thanks for all the replies, I wasn't expecting to get them so fast. I checked out the Di marzio area 58' and they look like good pickups, definitely on the shortlist. Also two of you recommended P90s which is something that never crossed my mind, I'm not really sure what P90s are so an explanation would be great. So after what you have recommended for me, I guess I am after a bright sound with high treble. I think I need to decide which types of pickups I want before deciding which company I want to get them from, I have obviously heard of P90s before but I never considered them a contender, if someone could explain how they sound in comparison to single coils and humbuckers that would be great.
Thanks.

 

[Tony Raven]

YOu could also explore Roadhouse Pickups

Sort of a bummer that the site's registry is (for the moment at least) expired. Here's the only available page, which took some digging:
http://www.roadhousepickups.com/RH_390.html

Not cheap, but hardly outrageous -- nice to see a builder who hasn't gone all "boutique" on us.

 

[DaveT]

I'll do a quick reply - the interweb can give you more mind-numbing detail than you want about pickups!
The P90 is a single coil Gibson pickup, designed before the humbucker, used in Les Pauls and SGs etc.
It is a - what words to use? - more bluesy sounding single coil than typical Fender single coil pickups.

A bright sound with high treble means you probably won't be using P90s or humbuckers!
Be guided by the Seymour Duncan tone charts.
You probably want  a pair of single coil pickups made for a Tele, there are many different 'tweaks' available.

When it comes to pickup switching the Telecaster 4-way switch is a delight.
Position 4 puts the pickups in series to give a bit of 'oomph' when you need it.

 

[sonnymccann]

Thanks Dave T  :glasses10:

 

[sonnymccann]

Thanks for that Tony Raven, I thought it was just me who had that problem.  :glasses10:

 

[ragamuffin]

If you're not sure what type of pickups you'd like, it would probably be best to head down to your local guitar store and try ALL the things. I love P-90s, but if you want bright and clear they might not be for you.

I'll second the idea of not being very fond of the tele neck pickup. (though maybe you are)
My favorite pickup combination I've played on a Telecaster is a tele bridge with a mini-humbucker in then neck. Mini's are a nice compromise between a humbucker and strat/tele sound.

 

[Kostas]

... I play mainly indie and alternative music with the odd Jimi Hendrix or red hot chili peppers song thrown in.

I like this combination a lot, it's very versatile. HB in the bridge but not Gibson style HB and single coil in the neck but not Fender style SC. Excellent cleans, they can take lot's of gain and they blend nicely in the middle position. I suggest you try guitars with Filtertrons and P90 pickups. Both are wonderful pickups but most guitarists use HB, strat & tele pickups.

 

[Tony Raven]

Yeah, the form-factor is almost more a matter of lookin' cool than a limiter on tonal possibilities. There's single-coil "humbuckers" & twin-blade "single coils." Anything can be wound "cool" to "super hot." Just pawing through GFS alone makes my li'l head spin.

Walking through a guitar store, I can try all sorts of things. If a given instrument doesn't sound right or feel right, I move along. Building a custom axe means I somehow have to see into the future & figure out what hardware is going to work best with a guitar that doesn't yet exist.

For years I've wanted a Strat-type with a pair of DeArmond Dynasonics, the originals, just because I know it'll sound great. Someday I'll do a custom build & put one of these at the neck:
http://www.ccpickups.co.uk/pickups.html

Another take on the smaller "modern" version:
http://www.vintagevibeguitars.com/windows/sc_ccWin.html
Same idea, but drop-in HB-size:
http://www.vintagevibeguitars.com/windows/hum_bladeWin.html

A few months back, I borrowed a Squier VM Tele Custom II with Duncan Designed "90s" -- hated the controls, loved the tone, & I'm not an especial fan of P90s or Teles or maple boards.

Truth to tell, though -- it's all a gamble. Get a look you can live with for a thousand hours of playing. If the pickups don't respond as you hoped, swap in a different one every few months. (Either than or get a rig that looks great, & learn how to work with it.)

But if you can, work with a builder, or with a shop that has a good selection of "gently used" pickups, will give you full credit for returns after a test run, & isn't just trying to wring cash out of you.

There's pickups that sounded waaay too glassy (crunchy, boomy, whatevery) in one guitar, but perfectly suited another. I've gotten perfectly good "defective" pickups for cheap because the home modder had more cash than sense. (I sometimes back a guitarist who plays a nice Strat that sounds half-arsed when I try to play it, even though I sound just fine with my Squier Strat.)

For experimenting, a big advantage to a Strat is the "bathtub rout," which fits all sorts of different pickups configs just by getting another pickguard. The Tele has a little less flexibility, but still some options -- like, a single-coil bridgeplate hides an HB-size rout.

 

[jackthehack]

Check out the Rio Grande pickups on this page: http://www.riograndepickups.com/scart/SubCategories.asp?ProductName=For+Strats&SubCatName=SINGLES

My two favorite pickup combinations are the Rio Grande Dual Calibrated set and the pickup combo in my hot-rodded '64 Gibson Melody Maker pictured below, Rio Grande Dirty Harry P-90 in a single coil form factor at neck and Rio Grande BBQ humbucker at bridge position (BBQ is split using push-pull volume pot).

 

[sonnymccann]

Thanks for all the replies,
Here are a few songs I like to listen to,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwlogyj7nFE      Red Hot Chili Peppers - under the bridge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8Xq0Y0dR-Q    Jimi Hendrix - little wing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKyK1Mme9Sc  Two Door Cinema Club - Sun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJDCMth8poM  Two Door Cinema Club - I can talk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWudLhcFdnc    Red Hot Chili Peppers - higher ground
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b7SlJfgpnM      Howler - this one's different
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngzC_8zqInk    Arctic Monkeys - R U mine
I should probably stop now,
Don't expect people to listen to all of them
Also I know it's impossible to get all of those sounds between two pickups,
Bit confused over the P90s now, some of you think it's a good idea, some of you don't.
Also Troubled Treble your website wasn't working so I haven't looked at the pickups.
Thanks,
            Sonny

 

[jackthehack]

Thanks for all the replies,
Here are a few songs I like to listen to,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwlogyj7nFE      Red Hot Chili Peppers - under the bridge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8Xq0Y0dR-Q    Jimi Hendrix - little wing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKyK1Mme9Sc  Two Door Cinema Club - Sun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJDCMth8poM  Two Door Cinema Club - I can talk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWudLhcFdnc    Red Hot Chili Peppers - higher ground
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b7SlJfgpnM      Howler - this one's different
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngzC_8zqInk    Arctic Monkeys - R U mine
I should probably stop now,
Don't expect people to listen to all of them
Also I know it's impossible to get all of those sounds between two pickups,
Bit confused over the P90s now, some of you think it's a good idea, some of you don't.
Also Troubled Treble your website wasn't working so I haven't looked at the pickups.
Thanks,
            Sonny

You can every guitar sound from all your examples with these: http://www.fender.com/guitar-bass-parts/pickups-and-preamps/custom-shop-fat-50s-stratocaster-pickups-set-of-3/

 

[sonnymccann]

Hi,
thanks Kostas and Jackthehack for your replies.
Thanks for the recommendation of the fender pickups Jack but I would like to have more versatility like kostas said.
I searched the filtertrons and most people on the web say they are low output humbuckers that share more similarity to a single coil than a humbucker, is this true? also I really like the tele you showed  :kewlpics:

Also does anyone know what is happening to roadhouse pickups, when I try to get on the websote it says 'domain name has expired', I know it's not just me that is having this issue as other people on this thread have said the same.
Thanks,
          Sonny

 

[TroubledTreble]

Oh brother! This was supposed to be sorted out. I will take care of the domain issue. It was supposed to auto renew.  :-\ :tard:

 

[Tony Raven]

The Filter'Tron family is basically "cooler" underwound HBs. Don't quote me, but as I remember the current TV Jones series has two coils, but there's less wire so the bobbins can be smaller & thus closer-spaced.

Have you gone out & actually TRIED any pickups? I feel a little like I'm trying to help a blind guy choose paint for his house. :icon_scratch: You're clearly motivated, so give us something to work with here:

What pickups have you tried in a Tele in the past week? the past month?

Which of them really appealed strongly to you, based on tone alone?

Which of them really grabbed you... but there was maybe one factor that put you off? How would you describe that factor? (example: the tone was near-perfect, but got tons of 60 Hz)

Of all the Tele pickups you've tried in the past year, which ones came closest to sounding right for most of the tracks on your list?

 

[sonnymccann]

Yes, tonyraven,
I understand what  you mean by "trying to help a blindman paint his house".
My local guitar shop doesn't exactly have the most spectacular collection of guitars, and I highly doubt that they will have any filtertron pickups. The nearest chance I'm gonna get to go might be either wednesday or the weekend. I should probably stop posting until I've been to the shop as I totally understand what you mean.
Thanks,
        Sonny

 

[Cagey]

While it's usually not a great way to get a realistic representation of how something will sound, you might want to just goto "filtertron pickups" on YouTube. There are several pages of examples there. I didn't listen to/watch any of them, but you'll have lotsa choices that might give you some idea of what to expect.