Neck Pickup for Fender Telecaster

[kris]

APG pick ups single size and humbucker mode.

[Sean65]

I'd stick with the stock pickup in the neck position. Dial out some of the heat with the volume knob.

I replaced mine with Lollar Special T's which are great but the bridge pickup wasn't good for a country tone. The neck pickup was great.

[entresz]

+1 on the stock pickup here.

A regular Telecaster neck pickup gives a great sound for jazz with the tone control backed off a bit. I've tried Telecasters with humbucking pickups fitted and whilst they obviously sound a bit fatter, they still sound like a Tele. Go figure.

I replaced the pickups in my MIJ Telecaster with Bill Lawrence Microcoils and am very happy with them. Great jazz sound but nice glassy bright sounds when wanted too.

[JCD]

Emicad, I have an American deluxe telecaster, it came with samarium cobalt noiseless. I took them out and tried a few different ones. I'm now using a fender custom shop twisted Tele neck pickup and a fender custom shop texas special in the bridge. This is the best combination I've found so far. I stopped looking for tele pickups. But in response to your dilemma you might want to listen to the twisted Tele neck pickup, I use it for jazz and I like it. I think it came stock with recent model years of American Standard teles so you can probably find one to try out at a music store.

[Cunamara]

I have the Dimarzio Area T pickups in one of my Teles and they're great for jazz. Roll off the tone about 50% on the neck pickup and it's jazz.

[medblues]

Wilde Bill Lawrence Microcoils
Joe Barden T Neck (expensive)
DiMarzio Area T

All of the above worked well for my teles. Your tele might accommodate a humbucker in the neck position WITHOUT ROUTING, you might just have to change the pickguard. My American teles all had humbucker neck routing under the pickguard.

[SamBooka]

I'd stick with the stock pickup in the neck position. Dial out some of the heat with the volume knob.

I replaced mine with Lollar Special T's which are great but the bridge pickup wasn't good for a country tone. The neck pickup was great.

I have the special t Tele neck pick up in another guitar at the wonderful jazz pick up.
I have the special t bridge pick up in my telecaster and because I don't want a lot of twang it plays a very nicely with the t top Gibson humbucker in the neck.

Both pick ups together would make a wonderfully balanced set. But I especially love the neck pick up for jazz

[Thumpalumpacus]

I'm a stock-pickup guy too, in this case -- my jazz teacher played on a stock Tele in the neck position and made great sounds.

If you're looking to balance levels between pickups, well, that's why you've got a toolbox. Get your screwdriver, twist a little, and listen. Adjust to taste.

I may be in the minority here, but I think that on a solidbody, a good two out of three sound issues with pickups can be dialed out with sensitive adjustments. Harder to do on Fenders lacking adjustable polepieces, but still can be done without dropping a bill or so into a pickup you don't know how will react with your wood.

[D.G.]

I have a McNelly T-bar in the neck of my Am Standard for just this application. P90 in a tele neck profile. Pricey, but worth it to me!

Another thing to consider is the speaker in your Princeton. I just put a Weber 10f150 -- Jensen c10n 50watt replacement -- and it definitely took some of the high end "zing" off and gave it a bit more midrange support, and definitely helps control the dreaded bass "flub".

[jazzbow]

How about a Bill Lawrence L250 stacked bladed single coil?



I've got an original one on my old beat up Strat. It's beefy.

While you're at it try out a 5 way switch mod

[emicad]

I think my American Special Telecaster is already routed for an humbucker on the neck position. I need to check but I guess the information is reliable.
In this case I think I'll go with a Lollar Charlie Christian which seems the more suitable.

I just need to see if it fits, how much output have compared with my bridge pickup, how it reacts to (low gain) overdrives for blues and a couple of other things.
If you have some experience, please tell me what you think.

I'm still open to other suggestions of course, even semi-humbuckers and humbuckers at this point.

[Thumpalumpacus]

If it's already routed, look into a Seymour Duncan minihumbucker. They're great pickups, touch sensitive and if my ear ain't wrong, a little underwound -- you won't spike your amp too much, you'll just get a deep burnish underneath the basic clarity of it.

[emicad]

I emailed Lollar asking for infos about their CC. I hope they'll reply soon.

[GNAPPI]

I have had better experiences with telecasters with pups extending the classic Fender sound than emulating a Gibson type sound. I cannot abide the "lipstick" pup at all, so it generally has to go.

The neck pup on my fave Frankencaster came out of a junk parts bin in a LGS, it's an unmarked unnamed drop in rail model. It's mounter low, 3/8" + from the strings, I think that's the secret to getting a better tone from the neck pup, a strong pup lowered away from the strings.

[emicad]

I found a guy who sells a Lollar CC neck pickup for 150 euros shipped plus luthier made pickguard matching the pickup.
I'm gonna check my guitar route just to be sure before doing anything.

[Sean65]

I may be in the minority here, but I think that on a solidbody, a good two out of three sound issues with pickups can be dialed out with sensitive adjustments. Harder to do on Fenders lacking adjustable polepieces, but still can be done without dropping a bill or so into a pickup you don't know how will react with your wood.

That's a good point actually. The American Specials have external screws for adjusting the pickup height. Just lowering it a bit might be worth a try. I understand it's probably difficult once you set your mind on something but just worth a try. 1/4 or 1/2 turn of each screw should do it. Make a note of how much you moved the screws just so you can bring it back to where it's at if you don't like the results.

[Greentone]

You will like the Lollars...good pickups. I like Fralins and Rumpelstiltskins more, but Lollars are excellent.

[emicad]

Considering the full range of options I think that the Seymour Duncan Seth Lover would be a good choice, too.
Pretty popular humbucker between Jazz players and largely used by blues and rock players too. I sent an email to Seymour Duncan asking if it's a good match with my Vintage '54 bridge pickup which has low output. Both pickups are in the "vintage" (aka "low output") range of pickups, so I thing it should be fine.
I had many Gibson archtop/Jazz box guitars in the past and I think most of them came out with a Classic 57 pickup in th eneck, which is basically a Seth Lover.
Considering the full range of options I think that the Seymour Duncan Seth Lover would be a good choice, too.
Pretty popular humbucker between Jazz players and largely used by blues and rock players too. I sent an email to Seymour Duncan asking if it's a good match with my Vintage '54 bridge pickup which has low output. Both pickups are in the "vintage" (aka "low output") range of pickups, so I thing it should be fine.
I had many Gibson archtop/Jazz box guitars in the past and I think most of them came out with a Classic 57 pickup in th eneck, which is basically a Seth Lover.

[morroben]

I have Seth Lovers in my PRS Mira semi-hollow and I absolutely love them. I haven't tried them in a tele with a tele bridge pup, but I imagine they would sound fantastic together.
Note that a Classic 57 is potted, a Seth Lover is not. I think that's part of what I like about them, but it's not for everyone.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

I found a guy who sells a Lollar CC neck pickup for 150 euros shipped plus luthier made pickguard matching the pickup.
I'm gonna check my guitar route just to be sure before doing anything.

Will you need more routing that the existing HB rout?

[emicad]

Not at all, I'm just considering other (possibly cheaper) options.

[gary mitchell]

I have a Fender AMS Telecaster it came with Texas Specials, they were way to hot for me and my taste. So I put a set of Fender Pure Vintage 58s in it Vintage I don't know. How many people you know with a 58 tele. But I love them they play everything I want to do very well from Jazz to Blues nice sound. The set cost me $90.00 not bad at all, Oh and I left the Grease Bucket circuit in it very cool.

[bananafist]

Don Mare makes a 'big box' neck pickup, but I haven't tried it. I would love a set of his pickups, but the range of choice is bewildering, so I always put it off.

[emicad]

I went to my local music shop and bought a Seymour Duncan 59 humbucker (chrome cover, 4 conductor version). Not a strictly Jazz pickup but I think it's not so different from a Classic 57 or a Seth Lover. Low output, vintage sound, PAF style.
I'm gonna try this first on my Telecaster neck and report back the results.
Thanks for your help!

EDIT: The experiment worked, I'm pretty happy with the Jazz tones I'm getting with the 59.

[DS71]

Do you guys tend to prefer single coils in the neck or humbuckers for a tele. Mostly for Jazz but other styles too.