Comparison between humbucker neck position on a Baja Tele vs real humbucker or wide range pup?

lovestrat74

Anyone seen any vids on this or maybe even done your own comparison?

Looking to see how close the series(?) wiring on a 4-way switch Tele comes to getting that humbucking tone/sound.

chris78

It’s not the same as a humbucker, but it’s very useable to do the 4 way and will get you a long way there, while making the guitar more flexible than chucking a humbucker in the neck. I’ve got a tele with a humbucker and a 4 way switch and you’re welcome to try both if you’re close to Kent

noisepolluter

To me it sounds like a fat version of the normal in-between tele sound, and a bit like the in-between sound on a humbucker guitar at a pinch, but not very much like a neck humbucker.

If you want a fatter neck sound which still has plenty of bite, then an Alnico 5 Mini humbucker balances very well against the standard tele bridge pickup and works fine with a 250k volume control.  

Alternatively you you could go for a tapped tele neck pickup. 

Funkfingers

What they said.

Series interconnection of two Telecaster single coils is a bit meatier than the traditional parallel combination but it is still definitely two single coils, some distance apart.

The Seymour Duncan SM-1n balances nicely with a Tele bridge position single coil pickup for output. Filter’Tron clones are worth considering.

To beef up any Telecaster or Esquire, the tapped Telecaster bridge pickup is the simplest solution. Low output mode for twang. Full output for harder Rock racket.

lovestrat74

Thanks for the offer @chris78 ;

Mini HB would be an interesting option 

noisepolluter

Funkfingers said:

The Seymour Duncan SM-1n balances nicely with a Tele bridge position single coil pickup for output. Filter’Tron clones are worth considering.

To beef up any Telecaster or Esquire, the tapped Telecaster bridge pickup is the simplest solution. Low output mode for twang. Full output for harder Rock racket.

I forgot about filtertrons! They sound great too. A tapped tele bridge and a filtertron or mini HB neck would give you a great range of sounds. Oil City Diesel Tap (60’s) or Wapping Wharf (50’s) are excellent tapped bridge pickups. P90 is another good tele neck option.

lovestrat74

noisepolluter said:

Funkfingers said:

The Seymour Duncan SM-1n balances nicely with a Tele bridge position single coil pickup for output. Filter’Tron clones are worth considering.

To beef up any Telecaster or Esquire, the tapped Telecaster bridge pickup is the simplest solution. Low output mode for twang. Full output for harder Rock racket.

I forgot about filtertrons! They sound great too. A tapped tele bridge and a filtertron or mini HB neck would give you a great range of sounds. Oil City Diesel Tap (60’s) or Wapping Wharf (50’s) are excellent tapped bridge pickups. P90 is another good tele neck option.

Okay so tapped bridges also sound interesting. Would either of the above give you that PAF tone or are they miles away from that type of sound?

midlifecrisis

i had a baja and found the fourth position not bad but still not like a humbucker. if you want a les paul type humbucker sound its miles away. I found the out of phase sounds on the S1 switch totally unusuable, too thin and week.

noisepolluter

lovestrat74 said:

noisepolluter said:

Funkfingers said:

The Seymour Duncan SM-1n balances nicely with a Tele bridge position single coil pickup for output. Filter’Tron clones are worth considering.

To beef up any Telecaster or Esquire, the tapped Telecaster bridge pickup is the simplest solution. Low output mode for twang. Full output for harder Rock racket.

I forgot about filtertrons! They sound great too. A tapped tele bridge and a filtertron or mini HB neck would give you a great range of sounds. Oil City Diesel Tap (60’s) or Wapping Wharf (50’s) are excellent tapped bridge pickups. P90 is another good tele neck option.

Okay so tapped bridges also sound interesting. Would either of the above give you that PAF tone or are they miles away from that type of sound?

Mostly just fattens up the sound to give a bit more crunch on driven sounds, rather than being significantly louder. Still recognisably tele. 
With some amp/pedal crunch, pickup at full output and the tone rolled back a bit it may not be an ‘accurate’ PAF sound, but it IS a bloody good, fat singlecoil sound.

springhead

I put a mini humbucker in the neck position of my partscaster tele.  Also have 4 way switch, coil split on the bucker and phase reverse.  I like the humbucker, gives a nice bit of punch and works well in series mode withe the bridge.  Bit like normal middle position but more oomph.  Phase reverse in series mode is very usable, into Peter Green territory.

munckee

I have filtertron in the neck and creamery red 79 in the bridge which is single coil. Love both pickups and particularly in between sound. 

Noticeably less powerful than the duncan vintage blues in my 335 copy.  

Funkfingers

lovestrat74 said:
tapped bridges also sound interesting. Would either of the above give you that PAF tone or are they miles away from that type of sound?

Nothing like a P.A.F.

Even an actual P.A.F. installed in a Telecaster is not going to sound exactly as you would expect it to in a Gibson guitar.