Premier Rock Forum

VaticanShotglass wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2023 11:40 am I'm inexperienced with single coils beyond liking telecasters. Has anyone thrown a tele bridge pickup in a different guitar and had much success? I imagine the different placement of the pickup to have some effect. Thought about doing a traditional Mustang SS, but I've never liked mustang or strat bridge pickups very much.

I've got some slightly overwound Fralin Strat pickups that sound nice. You can get the bridge pickups with a copper baseplate which helps bring it into Tele territory (which I have on mine). Get's pretty close, definitely helps the mids, but part of a Tele's magic is also that the bridge pickup is mounted in that bridge. I still bet it would sound nice in a Mustang (but I'm a single coil guy).

Despite being a single coil guy I've never bonded with P90s. They're too dark and have a harsh breakup in the high end that they do have. Other people make them sound great so maybe it's my inability to dial an amp in for them.

VaticanShotglass wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2023 11:40 am I'm interested in ideas about new budget pickups for my cheap but genuinely fun Bullet Mustang HH.

The factory humbuckers are pretty blegh. Far more usable than I expected for a $150 guitar, but since I've decided I really like playing this guitar I want something I'll like a bit more. Not looking to spend a lot but I'm back to playing guitar nearly every night with this little thing. I play it on the couch, I grab it to go hang out at a friend's, it's small and comfortable, yada, yada.

I was toying with some sort of Humbucker format single coil, but after putting some budget GFS Surf 90s in a strat I feel less curious about that. I was considering these Bootstrap H-90s, however.

I'm inexperienced with single coils beyond liking telecasters. Has anyone thrown a tele bridge pickup in a different guitar and had much success? I imagine the different placement of the pickup to have some effect. Thought about doing a traditional Mustang SS, but I've never liked mustang or strat bridge pickups very much.

I might just say fuck it and stick with my comfort zone and get some used humbuckers. C Jury is rocking a SD 59 in his Bullet Mustang, If I recall.

Check out TVJones. I know I know, your mind goes straight to rockabilly, but they're more versatile than that, and they make a standard humbucker mount version of practically everything they make. I like the T-Armond and Starwood tele single coils, bought a starwood humbucker but haven't installed it yet...itching to. Anyway I've been happy with them so far.

The Dimarzio Bluesbucker is their humbucker-sized P90, I put one in the bridge of one of my guitars and it's just killer, I love the snarly grind.

Fralin makes 2 versions of their Big Single, a humbucker-sized single coil, I love both of those as well. Those are more than you spent on the guitar, but...

A set of TV Jones powertrons are my next pickup purchase. I want a set of Lollar gold foils too but yikes, SPENDY.

VaticanShotglass wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2023 11:40 am I'm interested in ideas about new budget pickups for my cheap but genuinely fun Bullet Mustang HH.

The factory humbuckers are pretty blegh. Far more usable than I expected for a $150 guitar, but since I've decided I really like playing this guitar I want something I'll like a bit more. Not looking to spend a lot but I'm back to playing guitar nearly every night with this little thing. I play it on the couch, I grab it to go hang out at a friend's, it's small and comfortable, yada, yada.

I was toying with some sort of Humbucker format single coil, but after putting some budget GFS Surf 90s in a strat I feel less curious about that. I was considering these Bootstrap H-90s, however.

I'm inexperienced with single coils beyond liking telecasters. Has anyone thrown a tele bridge pickup in a different guitar and had much success? I imagine the different placement of the pickup to have some effect. Thought about doing a traditional Mustang SS, but I've never liked mustang or strat bridge pickups very much.

I might just say fuck it and stick with my comfort zone and get some used humbuckers. C Jury is rocking a SD 59 in his Bullet Mustang, If I recall.

Just so you know that this is an option...

Dylan Carlson was playing a Les Paul copy with some sort of tele bridge pickup in a humbucker size at some point maybe in the last 5-10 years.

MoreSpaceEcho wrote: Fri Feb 03, 2023 3:13 pm . I want a set of Lollar gold foils too but yikes, SPENDY.

I haven't compared the prices directly, but I have two sets of JM-sized goldfoils from gemini and they were not-terribly expensive by boutique standards. Super happy with them, they're in my main guitar.

Lots of cool ideas above, but most of them miss out on that budget part of the question. I just can't drop $150 per pickup on a $150 guitar. I'm thinking used Duncan/Dimarzio or new Tonrider price range. Not really shooting for a holy grail. It is pretty easy to get a replacement pickguard for this model set up for different pickup configurations. I've also toyed with getting some G&L MFD pickups, the strat sized ones, but I don't know those suit my tastes these days.

I'm pulling it apart tomorrow to polish the frets and tweak some things. I might try swapping the magnets in the factory units. They are just way too hot for my tastes, despite lowering them a lot, and are a bit mushy and unclear. It kinda sounds better acoustically than plugged in clean.

If I were dropping real coin, I'd throw some lollar or fralin firebird pickups in there or something like that. I really like wide range humbuckers and firebird humbuckers. Kinda has what I like about humbuckers and single coils together. Someone out there makes full humbucker sized firebird style pickups (forget who at the moment), and I've been tempted to put some in my Burny les paul, but the original PAF style pickups just sound too good to swap. (I guess I could mod the les paul and then move it's pickups over to the mustang... I don't know.

Blegh. I'm really just trying to experiment with this guitar. If unexpected expenses ever stop popping up regularly, I'm going to get nutty and put together a tele partscaster. Been saying that for 5 years now.

Regarding tele pickups in other guitars, I imagine if the guitar body has a big swimming pool route like this mustang, then you could probably use a steel plate under (or over) the pickguard. I'm not sure how much those plates really make a difference, but I've always read they do.

numberthirty wrote: Just so you know that this is an option...

Oh shit, that sounds good.

This is maybe missing the mark as they are all very standard, classic reproduction options, but the Stewmac made pickups are great sounding and excellent bang for the buck.

mdc wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2023 9:23 pm I haven't compared the prices directly, but I have two sets of JM-sized goldfoils from gemini and they were not-terribly expensive by boutique standards. Super happy with them, they're in my main guitar.

Nice, thank you! $85 is a whole lot friendlier than $225!

So, I got to thinking on this one...

If the "Budget..." component is 50/50 with the Telecaster pickup part?

GFS does make these -

Bridge - https://www.guitarfetish.com/Humbucker- ... _4350.html
Neck - https://www.guitarfetish.com/Humbucker- ... _4351.html

The obvious question mark is if you can get a mounting ring into the pickguard route without it being another sizable problem