DiMarzio Area T vs Seymour Duncan Vintage Stack Tele

[jeromecovington]

Hello, I am considering upgrading my stock pickups in my Tele-style guitar and as the thread title suggests, I am having trouble deciding between these two options. If it helps, I tend to favor more "pianistic" tones and am not looking to create the ultimate archetypal Tele. Recording (sometimes direct with amp simulators) is also a concern. Can anyone with experience with these two pickup sets offer their thoughts?

[arnie65]

I have a friend who has the Area "T" on his Tele, and he plays anything with those. They sound pretty good without the "ice-picky" tone that many Tele's have.



Cheers,
Arnie..

[jads57]

Really depends on your guitar and your tastes. I prefer DiMarzio for stacked pickups,and SD for traditional Tele pickups.
I ended up going with Becky Wylde (aka Bill Lawrence) Blade pickups.
Regie Young famous studio legend,used them in his Tele and Strat.
And his tone was wonderful. Plus they are really reasonably $ priced!

Bill Lawrence Pickups – Bill and Becky Wilde Pickups

[jeromecovington]

I ended up going with Becky Wylde (aka Bill Lawrence)

Great point. I was looking at their noise free neck and bridge Tele pickups. What can you tell me about the workmanship of the pickups that you bought? From their site and the brief phone call, I couldn't tell if his widow and daughter were winding new pickups or selling old inventory. Interested in any details you can share.

[Hep To The Jive]

I have Area T in all my teles. Needless to say I love it, it's has its own tone, perfect jazz in the neck, and great rocknroll in the bridge. Also yea, it feels very pianistic when I press on the pedal.

[Cunamara]

Great point. I was looking at their noise free neck and bridge Tele pickups. What can you tell me about the workmanship of the pickups that you bought? From their site and the brief phone call, I couldn't tell if his widow and daughter were winding new pickups or selling old inventory. Interested in any details you can share.

Winding new pickups from Bill's designs.

I have their pickups in all three of my solid-ish body guitars. I have the Micro Coil pickups in my Strat and one of my Teles and the L90 blade PAF size humbuckers in my semihollow Tele. They all sound great to my ears. Build quality seems to be very good but the L90s would not be repairable as they are sealed with epoxy. I don't expect there to be any problems with them, but I guess you never really know over the course of a few decades.

I have also had their noiseless Tele pickups which were likewise very good, but the Micro Coils are just a little bit... I'm not exactly sure how to describe it, I just like them a little better. Maybe a little wider signal response to the string or maybe more transparent somehow? Although the noiseless pickups had a little more output; I am partial to the feel of hot pickups, maybe due to my first electric guitar being an Ibanez GB10, and not having to turn the amp up so high. I don't like having the amp loud. There are almost never perfect solutions.

Prior to the Wildes, I had the DiMarzio Area T pickups in my Telecaster. Those were very good for jazz, a little less so if you wanted a traditional Tele tone for country or blues. Midrangey with a roundish top end; the Wilde noiseless have a bit of sparkle and the Micro Coils have more. I damaged the coil of the Area T neck while adjusting it and the screwdriver slipped, so I replaced them with the Wilde noiseless. They sound different from each other but I like both of them very well.

[jads57]

Again it all depends on your ears and actual guitar to how you will like them.
The workmanship was excellent,price was great as well. Definitely worth a try imo.

[Jim Soloway]

Never used the Duncan but I've had the Area T neck in lots of guitars. It's a really nice sounding guitar pickup.

[lammie200]

I have used Area Ts. They are adequate. I didn’t think they chimed, but the tone seemed fairly transparent. They don’t push the tone spectrum very far. I recently changed from Area Ts to Fralin Split Blades. I have found the high output version to be very smooth and more of a fuller humbucking sound.

[ruger9]

I recently had both in a tele.

I far prefer the Dimarzios: the neck Area T is GREAT, and the bridge Area T is good. I liked the bridge Area T HOT even better (it's not that hot, it's like vintage overwound.)

I didn't like ANY Duncans I tried (including the Vintage Stacks: they came in the guitar OEM). It's really hard to explain, but the Duncans have a weird feel to them... almost like I have to fight them (play harder?) to get a tone out of them or something. The Dimarzios didn't have that. It's from the 2 differing technologies and how they achieve noiseless operation. It was explained to me by someone who really understands this stuff (DC resistance, coils, inductance, etc.), but I couldn't repeat it if you paid me. The Duncans sounded fine, but felt... off. To me.

I will add: since this is a jazz forum, the Area T neck would be GREAT for jazzier tones. But almost all tele neck pickups fit that bill. The only ones that don't are the ones designed to sound like a strat neck pickup (like Dimarzio's Twang King).

[joe2758]

It is worth looking into a mod called a 4-way switch. I liked it

https://www.fralinpickups.com

[Bob_Ross]

I'm not sure what a "Vintage Stack Tele" is, but I've had three Seymour Duncan "Vintage Rails" -- which is a Strat/Tele-sized & -voiced pickup that is fully humbucking -- for >25 years* and they've always given me exactly the sound I'm looking for when I reach for a Strat or a Tele. Archetypal Fender tone, crisp and twangy and sizzle-y chime, albeit noiseless.

* they spent the first ~22 or so years in an entry-level Yamaha Strat clone that I won at a raffle...then a couple years sitting in a box on a shelf, and then just this past week I installed them in a new Warmoth build that's kind of a Strat/Tele hybrid.