Fender Telecaster for Jazz - Humbucker vs Single Coil

[kris]

small differences but be forwarned that a tele is inherently slightly neck heavy so any changes such as chambering, hollow body, tummy cut, heavy tuners, etc., can make for an uncomfortably balanced instrument

+1
I have Tele style with mahogeny body.The neckthrubody construction.
It was heavy.I made it lighter making chambers in the body.
Now I have a little lighter but the neck is now too heavy and guitar is not good balanced after mods.
so be carefull.I need good strap.

[GuyBoden]

I have a 7 string parts Tele, that I screwed together myself, it obviously has a heavier bigger 7 string neck, so I put some lead in the control cavity near the input jack to balance the guitar. Worked very, very well indeed. It's a nice sounding guitar, especially with the good quality vintage style Alnico2 neck pickup.

Guy

[mr. beaumont]

I think a tele has to be a little over 7lbs. To balance. Mine's about 7.5 and it balances fine...i had a thinline that was around 6, and it was neck heavy, although that doesn't bother me too much...good strap and my wide shoulders and beer gut usually help keep the guitar in place

[iim7V7IM7]

I think a tele has to be a little over 7lbs. To balance. Mine's about 7.5 and it balances fine...i had a thinline that was around 6, and it was neck heavy, although that doesn't bother me too much...good strap and my wide shoulders and beer gut usually help keep the guitar in place

Yeah, that feels about right Jeff. Alder and Ash bodies are about 4 lbs. and necks are about 3 lbs. in many Teles.

[Ronstuff]

Back to pickups, I recently installed an AZ-49 Attila Zoller pickup (made by Shadow) in the neck position of my tele.

Great jazz tone IMO. Same pickup used by Jimmy Raney on his But Beautiful album(love his sound on that) and Jim Hall.

[pkirk]

What do you use? Should I buy a tele with a Humbucker or go with stock single coil? something else?Thank you,Daniel

I put a gibson 57 classic in mine and am happy with the result. I have a bunch of clips on youtube if you are interested in hearing (search 'fibrationboy')

[Hyppolyte Bergamotte]

the Pickups on my Tele 40th Anniversary were made by Fred Stuart,when he still worked for the Fender Custom Shop.
There are versatile,especially the neck pick up HB

[Doublea A]

I have put together a video demonstrating various Telecasters

[Doublea A]

I would like to hear this Curtis Novak Jazzmaster pick ups in a Tele. Does anyone know of a sound/video sample ?

[entresz]

I have a MIJ Telecaster '62 Custom Reissue with the stock pickups. It gets a nice jazz sound. I roll the tone control down just before it starts to get 'blanket over amp' sounding, that seems to be the sweet spot.

[Jazz_175]

This is to demonstrate that you can use a stock Tele neck-pickup to play jazz.

and here Larry talks about the story behind his Telecaster (starting at 6:45)

[mad dog]

Have to agree that many pickups sound good in the neck spot of teles. Have two teles currently, one a very light Baja with Rumpelstiltskin Black Rope single coils. Classic tele tones, real warmth and clarity in the neck. The other is a deluxe type partscaster, with what looks like a humbucker in the neck spot. It's actually a minihumbucker in a full size HB case. Maybe the single most versatile p/u I've ever had. Have played entire gigs just on the neck p/u, getting very noticeable tone shifts by rolling off or rolling on tone.

But still, there is something so perfect about a good single coil p/u in the neck spot.

MD

[D.G.]

I have a Lollar Special T in the neck of my FSR Mexi-Tele and a Lollar CC for Hum route in a Short Scale Modern Player chinese tele. They both sound great, but the CC in the little Tele gives me the exact "jazz" sound I've looked for in humbuckers but could never find.

[rio]

I have a Lollar special T too. In one it sounded great, in the other (a Parker P-36, a tele styled guitar) it didn't sound so hot. The stock pickups were fine too. If you put a humbucker in the neck then you are on easy mode (although they sound awesome. I had a MiM telecaster that I put a burstbucker in and it sounded great for jazz).

[r_cc_c]

Don's miss this thread.

APG pickups -the best for jazz Tele

[medblues]

I have two: Seymour Duncan Jazz and Joe Barden dual blade, both are very versatile and well-made and do not make me miss any tonal qualities.

[Teddyfm]

Anyone tried Heritage HRW´s in a Tele? I have a MiM and to me the stock PU sounds very muffled. I am a thumb player, so that is of course something to take into account.

Also, my MIM Tele is prerouted for a humbucker. Was a bit suprised really. Thought only the US standards ones were.

Cheers

[GodinFan]

I have a set of EMG tele pickups with an SPC tone pot. Gives me anything from clean, noiseless single coil, to a thick humbucker sound.

[lessofapaul]

I have the fender noiseless pickups in my mim 69 reissue.
They are nice but still a bit bright. Chrome 11s darkened it a bit and if I use my thumb it gets darker still, though a bit sloppy compared to when I use a pick.

[Campos]

Harmonic Design Z-90 on my Tele.

I decided to try after watching this video from rpguitar from this forum.
Since I installed for years, my tele was very jazzy!

Harmonic Design Custom Pickups

[rpguitar]

Oh yeah... man, that was numerous years ago. My face is fat. But I digress:

The Z-90 is quite a distinctive pickup. They bill it as some sort of hot P90, which I guess it is; it worked very well on that chambered Tele with a solid rosewood neck. I tried other pickups and even another neck in that guitar, and the combos were never as magical as the setup in the video.

[tonedeaf]

I have a stock MIM thinline chambered tele that I tried a bunch of this to get some jazz tone. The thing that made the biggest leap towards jazz was to string it with TI 14s (with the stock PU).

[Neil Collins]

I played jazz and for twenty years on the bridge pup on a Tele. That's a really interesting thick sound and a really involving playing experience. I think the neck pup is a bit weedy.

[Sindre]

I bought a Fender Baja Classic Player Telecaster the other day, after having read numerous rave reviews. I figured I would have to change the stock neck pickup (Twisted Tele) to get a good jazz sound out of it, because of its brighter sound and somewhat higher output. But I found the opposite to be the case. The pickup also has more mids and firmer bass, so when tone is rolled back to around halfway, I get the best Telecaster jazz sound I have ever had. Simultaneously thicker, more responsive and better defined than the SD Alnico II neck pickup (pretty much a high end copy of a vintage Tele neck pickup) on my Light ash Tele, a lot less muddy and much more musical and interesting than the Wide Range Humbucker of my 72 Thinline reissue. Highly recommended.

[D.G.]

My FSR Tele came pickups built like a p-90 but with steel slugs instead steel screws. I thought is was a great sound for jazz but since it didn't humbuck with the bridge pup I swapped them out for Lollar's. I don't regret the swap cause that Tele now sounds like the best classic Tele you could want. It's a very nice jazz sound with the tone rolled back about 1/2 way, but it does drop the volume somewhat as well. I like to practice with that tone but I find in a live situation I need the extra brightness to cut through correctly. YMMV.