What Pickups?

pinksoir

So.

I'm currently building a guitar. It's a lovely mahogany telecaster, I got the body made by frusciantefan (fellow boardsie) and the rest of the bits I got from eBay.

Now, I'm in a bit of a pickle. I just don't know what pickups to put on it. I can't decide between a humbucker or P90 for the neck. I'm leaning towards a P90, but then I'm not sure which one to go for. I don't really want a soapbar or dogear style one, so that leaves me with a humbucker size retro fit.

I've been looking at the Tonerider Rebel 90s on this page. I haven't read a bad review of them anywhere, and a few people are raving about them. Apparently they are very well made and sound great. They are cheap though, which is, maybe unjustifiably, ringing alarm bells.

Then there are the Phat Cats from SD (bottom of the page). They have very mixed reviews and they're 2x more expensive. I don't care too much about price (within reason), but I've heard they can be a bit hot.

Another alternative is Gibson's P94. Same as with the SDs some love them, some hate them.

Obviously there are more opinions, hence more variation of opinions, with the latter two cos they are more popular brands. Can anyone offer me any advice here?

What about humbuckers? Should I consider them more? I'm afraid that they would be too dull as the body is mahogany and therefore mellow and warm to begin with. Also, the sound difference between a single coil and humbucker might be too much. Or am I wrong here?

Also, for the bridge I want to keep it a single coil, traditional tele sound. What would be the best pickup for this? Again, the Toneriders have a few fans that swear by them. Then there are the SDs - I think there are 3 options there - vintage broadcaster, vintage 54 and five-two. I quite like the broadcaster... I think there's a Wilkinson pup that claims to be a ringer for it at half the price. Again, i don't mind paying extra if the difference is easily noticeable.

I'll post picks as I put it together...

damonjewel

I think first of all you should consider your style of playing and the sound you are looking for, e.g. country, blues, jazz etc. And do some digging around on other forums for opinions. www.tdpri.com would be ideal for you. With your idea in place it should be easier to decide what to buy.

I like clean clarity and warm jazz tones, and have bought several pickups to suit my idea, however I can only comment on these pickups I have bought but hopefully they might give you an idea

In my tele project, I used a similar configuration (traditional bridge pickup, Humbucker pickup in the neck)

For the bridge I have a SD quarter pounder STL-3, its got a great output and matches the humbucker perfectly but probably lacks the distinctive twang of the traditional tele bridge pickup. The dimarzio twang king looks interesting if this is what you are going for

In the neck I used the SD Jazz humbucker pickup, its got great clarity and works well for me.

I have also used a p94 in the bridge position of a Epiphone les paul jr and I love it. But I dont how the neck version would sound.

Finally I have also bought a Charlie Christian humbucker sized pickup from www.vintagevibeguitars.com which is just so warm and beautiful to play with. they also do a humbucker sized P90.

I was very tempted to mimic Rory Gallagher's telecaster which also has this configuration. I have found no detail on the humbucker so I am assuming it is a fender stock humbucker, but I have found a reference that he used a seymour duncan single coil in the bridge. Which one I dont know but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a broadcaster or a vintage 54.

68 lost souls

The other option you have if you cant decide what to use is a SD Prails. It is switchable between humbucker, single coil, and p90 with an extra switch

Seziertisch

Fralin P-92s are well worth checking out, not as raw as a real P-90, humbucking, but beautifully detailed and sweet.

boycey

I had the Phat Cats on my ES333, I wasn't overly keen on them. They just weren't P90 enough!! I've played with the Gibson P94s too and again wasn't overly impressed.

I currently have a set of (soap bar) Bare Knuckles in my old SG and love them, likewise the (again soap bar) Seymour Duncans in my recently sold Hamer were really nice. Fingers McGinty had a set of Bare Knuckle Mississippi Queens (humbucker sized) in his Super Axe and swears by them too. A phone call to Tim at Bareknuckles might be a good idea, see what he could come up with for you?

Out of curiosity why no soap bars or dog ears - is it a routing issue or purely cosmetic?

Fingers Mcginty

boycey wrote: »

I had the Phat Cats on my ES333, I wasn't overly keen on them. They just weren't P90 enough!!

I have a phat cat bridge pickup in a strat copy and it sounds killer

pinksoir

Cheers for the replies guys. But I'm still confused!

Damonjewel, cheers for that info. With regards to what music I play, I used a nylon string acoustic for my first record, and I'm in the middle of writing my second and it's pretty much all electric. I try to be as eclectic as I can, so the sounds I'll be going for will be varied, so the pickups will need to be versatile. I like from warm and jazzy through to crunchy and thin, through to Brian May style heavily saturated leads. And everything in between. I will be using pedals and stuff.

Seziertisch, I had a look at those Fralin P92's there, and they sound like a beautiful pickup and pretty much what I'm looking for, and at 130 dollars, not too dear. Hum cancelling too...

But again, I'm seeing the Toneriders pop up in discussion quite a bit, with favourable reviews. They're often described as a sweet spot between GFS's Mean 90s and SD Phat Cats. So I went ahead and bought one. At 27 pounds if I don't like them (I hope I will), it's not so much of a big deal. I do like the sound and look of those Fralin dealys though. So I'm pretty sure if these don't work out that'll be my next port of call...

And Boycey, it's purely cosmetic!