Has anyone here had any experience with seymour duncan "little 59's " for stratocaster. They are the single coil size hum buckers.

thanks

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I remember when we were free!

What would you like to know?

Do they sound like a "PAFish" type pickup? No. Do they rival the power of a full sized HB? VERY close.

The best way I could explain them tonally is that they make a Strat sound like an SG with a Soapbar pickup and this is certainly not a bad thing by any means. The only drawback of course is that your Strat will no longer sound like a Strat.

As always, this is merely IMO where YMMV.

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You dig?

Martin hit the nail on the head. I have used these several times in the neck position on a Tele, and it was really a nice touch, especially for playing blues or anything you wanted a little fatter sound for. On a Strat, in the neck, they have the same affect and you can split these so you can still get some of the quacky tones when mixed with the middle pickup. If you use it in the bridge however, which is what a lot of guys do, you really loose that chime Strat tone with mixed with the middle pickup, and that is, even if it is split. this is one of the draw backs as far as I am concerned as I love those quacks and chimes!

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Xhefri's Guitars
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I always wanted to do this on a Tele (when I'll finally get a proper one). Can you tell me more about it? how well does it balance with a standard Tele bridge pickup?

I really like the Seymour Duncan Little 59 (SL591-N) in the neck of a Tele, but I usually beef up the bridge pickup as well. But even if you don't replace the bridge pickup, a Tele will have usually have enough bite in the bridge to keep up pretty well with one of these little 59s. I have used the coil splitting feature, with a push/pull pot, to get more traditional Tele neck tone, if desired. Cramming the custom wiring into a Tele like this can be quite a feat. Below is a MIJ Tele Deluxe set up this way. The middle pickup is a Van Zant Vintage Blues single coil reverse wound/reverse polarity and the bridge pickup is a Fender 50’s Tele Custom Shop.



Here is another example of a MIJ DX Tele set up in a similar way. This one has the Little 59 in the neck, a DiMarzio Virtual Vintage Blues (DP 402) in the middle and a DiMarizo Pre-B1 (DP 112) in the bridge. These are really great Tele bridge pickups and this combo makes a very nice set-up for a Tele.

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Xhefri's Guitars
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Xhefri, thanks - it's fun to get replies that say more or less what you were hopping to hear.

It also looks great... much better than full size humbuckers look in a Tele.

One thing I forgot to mention is, these DX Teles have Strat routes in the neck and middle. A standard Tele route in the neck is a bit smaller which means if you put a Little 59 in the neck you have to first have a pickguard that has a Strat pickup cut, and then you have to take the pickup and grind the edge of it off so it will fit down in the route. It is a very tight fit but one can do it. If you have the newer Americans Teles, they will often have a swimming pool route in the neck/middle area so that is not problem.

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Xhefri's Guitars
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