Putting a humbucker in the neck position?

[ShawnRT]

Well I pulled the trigger on that trade and now have a new American Series Tele in Olympic White and Rosewood fretboard. I'm thinking that it might be a bit more versatile with a HB in the neck. It definitely sounds different than a vintage tele already, not bad at all, just a different vibe to it. I actually kinda like it. So anyway, does anyone out there have any suggestions for a good HB to drop in the neck? I have a SD 59 around here someplace. Thats what I was thinking, but I'm open to suggestions.

[Phil Jacoby]

I did the 59 in my first Tele. It is a dark, smokey tone great for jazz, blues, Duane/Dickey stuff. There is a marked contrast between the tone of the neck and the bridge. The neck will cut thru with mids and bass, the bridge with snappy highs. The middle pos is still very cool, great for rhythms.

I prefer a miniHB in the neck slot. I find that I can still get a great blues and jazz tone, but that the balance with the bridge PU is much better. Sometimes playing blues, the mini reminds me of a hotter than stock Strat neck PU, almost SRV like. For jazz, its a little more articulate, which I like instead of mudding out completely. The mid sound is still wonderful, great for rhythms, country, Curtis Mayfield type stuff and funk. The miniHB isn't as compressed and dark, yet still firmer in the mids than a stock or strat SC.

My current fav combo is an old Gibson miniHB with pole pieces ala a LP Deluxe and a Duncan Jerry Donahue bridge. Its balanced yet versatile, not ice picky at all yet still cast iron twang and spank. I love it!

Maybe you would consider trying a miniHB up front first as you could always enlarge the PG route later if you wanted a darker tone.
Congrats on the Tele. Once I got my first I shyed off from strats completely. Best wishes!

[professor]

Harmonic Design's Vintage Plus is a great drop-in tele-style neck replacement pickup with much more punch, clarity and roundness than your garden-variety neck pickup...

http://www.harmonicdesign.net/allpages/teles.html

I likes 'em...!

[pc]

I put a Duncan Jazz in the neck of a 52RI I had, and it was an amazing Jazz/trad Blues sound.

Judging from some of your other posts (about music preferences, etc.) though, Shawn, I think the '59 might be a better choice for you.

I have to agree with Phil J a bit too--there is a pretty big contrast between the neck hummer and the bridge single, but with something slightly meatier in the bridge like a Nocaster or a stacked sc, the difference is much less, and the tonal spectrum is much greater, to my ears.

I absolutely love the Tele shape and vibe, therefore I have a few of 'em with different pup configurations, one of which is very much like yours--ash body, rw board, '59 in bridge and SD hot rails in the bridge. Very Classic Rock.

Having said that, though, I still most frequently reach for my AmSe with Kinman AVN-60s to do Classic Rock, Fusion/Jazz, Blues, R&B/Funk, and what have you. YMMV.

[ShawnRT]

Thanks for the interesting suggestions everyone. Maybe I'll throw the 59 in for a bit and then rotate it out with a new pup every couple of weeks until I find what I'm after.....

[greentone]

dude, try a 4 way swich so you can get all of you current combinations plus the neck and bridge in series. If you have good pickups it gets a very sweet blues tone, and if you are good with you volume and tone pots it gets a good jazz tone too. try it before hacking up your guitar.

[ShawnRT]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind before I do any "hacking" :tw59

[Dale]

Other great neck pups are Alnico Pro II and Seth Lover.

[James Tonguet]

You might want to consider one of the humbucker sized P-90's .

I have a P-94 gibson .. clean and strong , barks when overdriven
and a Z-90 harmonic design that is WAY killer if you like a higher output.

for PAF's I love the Benedetto .. it's warmer and clearer than my stock LP 's neck pickup

[Dale]

Another option is the SD Alnico Pro II as it is a sweet jazzy-blues vibe and can be split. The Seth Lover is good int he neck as well as the Antiquity, at least to my ears.

Dale