Telecaster type bridge PU to match P-90 neck PU

[Blast9]

USA

Have a look at Harmonic Design S90 - great sounding Alnico Tele single coil with a P90 flavour - very articulate and lively... Nice and fat but the mids are not cloudy or overly-honky( a common problem with over-wound pickups)

Lollar are worth looking at

I wonder if Lindy Fralin has something similar?

UK

As you're in Europe, maybe have a word with Matt at Monty's Guitars (London UK) - he can do a custom wind for you according to your tastes.

Bare Knuckle have a wide range of Alnico pickups

You might want to consider a slightly over-wound Broadcaster style pickup

[Ngr]

Custom Handwound Telecaster Replacement Pickups

check those, they make wonderful pickups...

[nedorama]

Go to seymour duncan and lindyfralin.com - both have phone numbers and you can call them up and discuss in person.

What kind of music?

[bonne]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. Much appreciated! I'll look into those.

The old P-90 is fat and warm on this all mahogany body, the ESP bridge PU thin and unbalanced with both PU's engaged and more so on it's own. Need a better match.

I play mainly blues with r&b and r&r flavour.

JB

[TurboJets]

I played a tele for a few years that I'd put a Duncan Lil' 59 in the bridge spot, and I really enjoyed it. It actually helped change my playing style a bit and sort of nudged me to be a bit more aggressive with my leads. Excellent output, fantastic tone, nothing thin or anemic about it. Installed a coil tap switch as well so I could have that single coil sound when I wanted.

What really made a huge difference on top of that was placing a tube pre between the tele and my amp (a Fender Princeton 2x10 solid state at that time). The sound was amazing just going straight into the amp. Guitar>pre>amp.

Granted the pre was a Tubester CL-1 which is a monster pedal, but I was totally in love with the lil' 59 pup.

Another pickup I adore is the noisless replacements made by Bill Lawrence. Twice as heavy as most replacement pups out there. This guy uses some serious magnets. As a result you get really decent output, fantastic clarity and the true character of your guitar comes to life; especially when plugged into a tube driven amp.

[nightscope]

I concur. A belter.

Seymour Duncan Little 59 Bridge Humbucker for Tele - ST59-1



Peach Guitars - Guitars > Guitar Pickups > Seymour Duncan Little 59 Bridge Humbucker for Tele

ns

[bonne]

I wonder if the Lil' 59 will match the old Gibson P-90 level-wise. Or will it be too loud?

JB

[nedorama]

Best way would be to measure the DC resistance in your current neck P90 and compare it to the outputs of the other pickups. If you have an ohmmeter that goes to 20K, you can do this at home. Otherwise, may be worth a trip to a repair shop to find out. That way, you can compare the DC resistance of your P90 with others. The Little 59 measures 17K, so it's a hot pickup. By comparison, a Duncan Antiquities P90 measures 7.9K. Would be worth measuring your ESP single coil so you know what you need to have at least.

I believe you'd want to have the pickups in the same ballpark vs. a 2:1 ratio if you're looking for balance between the two.

DC resistance is only part of the story, so if you like the tone and balance, let that be your guide.

[bonne]

Thanks for the Lil' 59 DC resistance spec, nedorama. Reckon it will be too strong with the P90 then? 17K indicates a very strong output.

In comparison my 50's P90 weighs in at 7.5K and the ESP bridge PU 6K. With both PU's switched in the resistance drops to 3.7K.

Had a look at the Harmonic Design S90 but couldn't find it's DC resistance on the site. Will have to take a closer look.

My present PU's seem to be magnetically compatible and in phase. When tapping on the respective polepieces with a screwdriver the meter needle jumps in the same direction, with meter set to 50 microamps. But even so the ESP hollows out and weakens the P90 signal dramatically when switched in. Can't seem to figure out why?

JB

[Hot Vibrato]

Originally Posted by bonne

Thanks for the Lil' 59 DC resistance spec, nedorama. Reckon it will be too strong with the P90 then? 17K indicates a very strong output.

In comparison my 50's P90 weighs in at 7.5K and the ESP bridge PU 6K. With both PU's switched in the resistance drops to 3.7K.

Had a look at the Harmonic Design S90 but couldn't find it's DC resistance on the site. Will have to take a closer look.

My present PU's seem to be magnetically compatible and in phase. When tapping on the respective polepieces with a srewdriver the meter needle jumps in the same direction, with meter set to 50 microamps. But even so the ESP hollows out and weakens the P90 signal dramatically when switched in. Can't seem to figure out why?

From your description, it sounds like they're wired in parallel, which is standard wiring for a tele. You might consider adding a switch to accommodate series wiring, which would yield a fatter sound when using both pickups.

In order to achieve good balance, you'll need a bridge pickup with a DC resistance of at least 8 or 9K (the bridge pickup needs to be slightly hotter, since the strings' oscillation pattern is smaller closer to the bridge). This rules out any vintage style tele bridge pickup. There's plenty of pickups that will fit that have a high enough DC resistance to balance well with the P90. Let us know what you decide.

[Grant Ransom]

Just a couple of alternatives...
How about either the Lace tele, which is roughly comparable to the Lace Blue aparently, or the Dimarzio Area Hot T, which is above vintage strength, but responds a lot to height adjustments.

EDIT: Oh yes... Also, the Duncan Quarter Pounder Tele is pretty popular, superb in the right axe.

[nedorama]

Seymour Duncan

Unless you tap it, the quarter pounder has about the same resistance as the Li'l 59. Great pickup, but may not be a good match for your P90.

I'd call them up and ask.

[Grant Ransom]

Yeah, possibly...
That said - The JB is 16.4k and a favourite pairing is with the 7.7k Jazz model.
I used to find the bridge could be *pretty* hot compared to the neck before I got back into more "stock" output models again. I guess it depends on the nature of the pickups and the desired sounds.

I used to like my neck unit tones to be much tighter and clearer, relatively.

[nedorama]

Now that I think about it...
In my Tele-Paul, I have a JB and a Jazz neck and the middle tone does sound great to me.

I'd pick up the phone, call Duncan, and explain what you have and what sound you want. It's what I did for both of my Teles.