Telecaster - Single Coil or Humbucker?

[BreckerFan]

I like the wide range HB in my mim tele deluxe. The original was just a normal humbucker in a bigger case, but I swapped it for a mojotone which is true to the original design. It's not one of my main guitars but I always enjoy it when I pick it up.

[Prof Silverhair]

I have to agree. The SD Minibucker on the right is simply perfect. Tight lows, articulate highs - but not harsh or tinny, and great mids. I had the 'this is what I've been searching for' moment for maybe the first time with this guitar. Now I need to sort out the silly bridge pup situation, but that's a different thread. LOL.

In the neck of my swamp ash Tele, I've tried a traditional Tele pup, a Seth Lover humbucker, a Vintage Vibe HB sized Charlie Christian style, and a Duncan SM1 minibucker. The SM 1 minibucker was the best sounding. Clear and articulate like a single coil but full. Almost like a Strat neck pup without hum and louder. Not muddy, not trebly. Perfect.

[Bazlen]

Single coil for me. CS Nocaster is my favorite so far.

[Cunamara]

As for HB neck pickups vs single coil (in a tele or anything else), almost without exception I find neck humbuckers to be too wooly. That's not to say you can't simply EQ the amp to fix that: but I use the bridge pickup ALL the time. If the amp is EQ'ed so the bridge pickup sounds good, the neck pickup will be too woofy. If the amp is EQ'ed so the neck HB sounds good, the bridge single coil will be a blizzard of nails.

That's addressable by putting a resistor between the hot lead of the bridge pickup and ground. If using 500k pots, a value for the resistor can be chosen so that the bridge thinks it's seeing 250k pots and the neck thinks it's seeing 500k pots. All of my Teles and my Strat have this mod to tame the shrill on the bridge pickup regardless of the neck pickup choice. I hate bright, biting bridge pickups.

Lindy Fralin and also Bill Lawrence have info on this on their websites. Lindy's is more comprehensive. Scroll down until you see the humbucker and Tele bridge picture:

Fralin Partial Split Resistor: Get A Stronger Single Coil Tone

[Doug B]

Ed Bickert used the single coil and then later a humbucker.

[Cunamara]

Yep, at least part of that was about getting better string balance by having adjustable pole pieces. To my ears he really didn't sound all that different with either pickup.

[ruger9]

That's addressable by putting a resistor between the hot lead of the bridge pickup and ground. If using 500k pots, a value for the resistor can be chosen so that the bridge thinks it's seeing 250k pots and the neck thinks it's seeing 500k pots. All of my Teles and my Strat have this mod to tame the shrill on the bridge pickup regardless of the neck pickup choice. I hate bright, biting bridge pickups.

Lindy Fralin and also Bill Lawrence have info on this on their websites. Lindy's is more comprehensive. Scroll down until you see the humbucker and Tele bridge picture:

Fralin Partial Split Resistor: Get A Stronger Single Coil Tone

I've done the "de-mud mod" to many neck humbuckers, it's a capacitor in series on the hot lead (not to ground). It works pretty well. But I'll still always prefer a single coil... my view is, if the guitar HAS a humbucker, I'll do the de-mud mod, but if I'm CHOOSING which pickup to have put in, I'll go with a single coil, and for jazz, a P90.

Actually, I have 2 guitars now with de-mud mods on their neck humbuckers. Both sound really good. But on one of them, I'd still prefer a single coil tone. So I purchased a humbucker-sized P90 for it.

I have always used the resisitor-to-ground trick to reduce HIGH end on a pickup, not low end.

Seymour Duncan Mod Squad: Muddy sounding neck pickup? - Seymour Duncan

[DRS]

I have to agree. The SD Minibucker on the right is simply perfect. Tight lows, articulate highs - but not harsh or tinny, and great mids. I had the 'this is what I've been searching for' moment for maybe the first time with this guitar. Now I need to sort out the silly bridge pup situation, but that's a different thread. LOL.

Forgot about this thread. Try a SD Jerry Donahue in the bridge. Bit of girth but still very twangy. No icepick.

[BillB]

My Tele was made in 1952. So I'm not going to be routing it for a humbucker anytime soon.

The interesting thing is there is some funky wiring thing going on, that even my luthier couldn't figure out. But one of the side-effects is that the front pickup sounds something like on an acoustic guitar.

I like that problem enough that I don't plan to fix it.