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Post subject: 'Little 59' in my Telecaster
Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 6:12 pm
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Just put a Seymour Duncan Little Tele 59 in the bridge position of my '93 American Tele. I removed a Fender/Lace gold sensor that had been in there probably too long, since the mid-90s. I left in a neck gold sensor, which I really like.

I believe it takes time to really understand what pickups can and can't do in a variety of situations. So these impressions are preliminary.

But so far: I like it. I feel like I have my low E string back. The E and A strings sound louder. The new pickup drives my tube amps (slightly) more, but it still retains that essential Tele character, especially with my Fender amps.

Forum-members at the Seymour Duncan forum told me some time ago that the Little 59 was too dark or dispensed with the Tele's traditional sound. It really doesn't. No, this isn't the bridge pickup you want if you're in a Buck Owens and Buckaroos cover band, but you can still get away with twanging, if that's your inclination (it's not mine). I'm really not a country player, and I don't aspire to be. I play blues, jazz (on the neck pickup), classic rock, etc.

Still, the icepick is gone, even though a certain Tele brightness is still there. This pickup lets you rock, handling distortion and overdrive with far greater aplomb than the sensor did (at least to my ears). But the rock character is closer to classic, not death metal or suicide-goth or whatever.

More later. Cool pickup. :!:


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Post subject: Re: 'Little 59' in my Telecaster
Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 8:58 pm
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I've got one sitting on my desk right now that I'm getting rid of. Pulled it out of my Tele because it made it sound like a Les Paul. That's great if you want that tone, but I didn't. Good pickup, just doesn't sound like a Tele bridge to me.

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Post subject: Re: 'Little 59' in my Telecaster
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 1:57 am
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I've just put one in a strat bridge position. Good pup. Meaty but not muddy.


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Post subject: Re: 'Little 59' in my Telecaster
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 5:22 am
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Powdered Toast Man wrote:
I've got one sitting on my desk right now that I'm getting rid of. Pulled it out of my Tele because it made it sound like a Les Paul. That's great if you want that tone, but I didn't. Good pickup, just doesn't sound like a Tele bridge to me.


There's no pickup on earth that can make a Telecaster "sound" like a Paul. The Tele still has its 25.5-in scale length, a strings-through-body bridge, the bolt-on neck and its woods are different than a Les Paul's woods. Very different guitars.

It's fine if you didn't like the way the pickup sounded -- I've swapped out my share of pickups -- but even if you put a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the body, you can't make a Telecaster sound like a Les Paul. To me, it still sounds like a Tele -- an arguably more muscular, robust Tele, without the single-coil hum.


Last edited by InkStained on Tue Feb 07, 2012 5:30 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Post subject: Re: 'Little 59' in my Telecaster
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 5:24 am
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Dave C63 wrote:
I've just put one in a strat bridge position. Good pup. Meaty but not muddy.


Exactly. If anything, it's a tad more articulate, thanks to the ceramic magnet.

I've kept the guitar's original pickups, plus the bridge sensor. But I think I'm staying with the SD.


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Post subject: Re: 'Little 59' in my Telecaster
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 5:33 am
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For those on either side of the fence here, an easy solution where one can have the best of both worlds is to replace one of the Tele's pots with a push/pull pot. The Duncan can then be wired where at the flip of the pot's switch, the pickup can be operating in single coil or parallel mode (depending on how its wired), thus restoring a 'traditional' tonality to the pickup. Of note is the fact that this is a non-invasive, 100% reversible mod.

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Post subject: Re: 'Little 59' in my Telecaster
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 7:25 am
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Given that your experience for the last 15 years is with a Lace Sensor pickup in there, I'm not sure if you're exactly familiar with a traditional Tele sound. Traditional Tele is single coil - bright and snappy. That doesn't mean we're all country chicken pickers. I play exacty what you said you play in your other thread - blues, classic rock. I found the lil'59 to be too dark and muted sounding for a Tele. Like I said before, great if you don't want a traditional Tele sound. I have 3 Telecasters all with vintage style pickups in the bridge position. "Traditional Tele" is brash and bright - the lil'59 is not those things.

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Post subject: Re: 'Little 59' in my Telecaster
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 7:39 am
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Powdered Toast Man wrote:
Given that your experience for the last 15 years is with a Lace Sensor pickup in there, I'm not sure if you're exactly familiar with a traditional Tele sound. Traditional Tele is single coil - bright and snappy. That doesn't mean we're all country chicken pickers. I play exacty what you said you play in your other thread - blues, classic rock. I found the lil'59 to be too dark and muted sounding for a Tele. Like I said before, great if you don't want a traditional Tele sound. I have 3 Telecasters all with vintage style pickups in the bridge position. "Traditional Tele" is brash and bright - the lil'59 is not those things.


Given that you think a pickup can make a Tele sound like a Les Paul, I'm afraid it's your judgment in question here. It was ridiculous when you first tried to make the case; it's still absurd.

By the way, a gold Lace sensor is a single-coil pickup. One-coil, that's it. It was voiced by Fender, which knows a thing or two about Telecasters. And I've played Teles, most of them unaltered, for 34 years.

I made clear that the '59 is not the pickup for Tele purists and narrow-definition types, like you. Apparently, you're not only a purist, you're a purist with bad ears.


Last edited by InkStained on Tue Feb 07, 2012 9:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject: Re: 'Little 59' in my Telecaster
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 7:45 am
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Martian wrote:
For those on either side of the fence here, an easy solution where one can have the best of both worlds is to replace one of the Tele's pots with a push/pull pot. The Duncan can then be wired where at the flip of the pot's switch, the pickup can be operating in single coil or parallel mode (depending on how its wired), thus restoring a 'traditional' tonality to the pickup. Of note is the fact that this is a non-invasive, 100% reversible mod.


Right. I like that you don't have to alter the guitar's body. For now, at least, I'm leaving the pickup's coils wired in series. Due to its width, it still picks up a "single-coil-sized" chunk of the string/magnetic field. But SD is good at giving players options.


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Post subject: Re: 'Little 59' in my Telecaster
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 8:40 am
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Well, they're the only ears I've got so you'll have to bear with me.

You posted on the SD forum and solicited opinions - which people gave you. Then you proceeded to ignore everything that people with experience with this pickup told you because you had already decided what you were going to do anyway. Then you post a follow up where you basically say (and I'm paraphrasing) that everyone who gave you opinions doesn't know what they're talking about and you were right all along.

I hope you and your superior ears enjoy your pickup.


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Post subject: Re: 'Little 59' in my Telecaster
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 9:04 am
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Powdered Toast Man wrote:
Well, they're the only ears I've got so you'll have to bear with me.

You posted on the SD forum and solicited opinions - which people gave you. Then you proceeded to ignore everything that people with experience with this pickup told you because you had already decided what you were going to do anyway. Then you post a follow up where you basically say (and I'm paraphrasing) that everyone who gave you opinions doesn't know what they're talking about and you were right all along.

I hope you and your superior ears enjoy your pickup.


Look, you don't like the pickup. I get that. That's fine. In fact, swapping out pickups (or shielding body cavities, which you seem to like to do) is part of the joy of electric guitars. We're all chasing a sound. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here.

Not everyone on the SD forum didn't like the Little 59. In fact, that was a minority opinion. In any case, I'm not in the habit of deferring to Internet mavens. I'll try something. If I don't like it, I'll try something else. Are you any different?

If you really think the Little 59 made a Telecaster sound like a Les Paul, I gotta disagree -- strenuously, as the lawyers say. It's one pickup, not a magical device that alters the physics and severe geometries of each instrument.

When it comes to my 'superior' ears, like you said, they're the only ones I have. I'm good with them.


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Post subject: Re: 'Little 59' in my Telecaster
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 9:35 am
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InkStained wrote:
It's one pickup, not a magical device that alters the physics and severe geometries of each instrument.


May be a silly question, but how does the pickup know in which guitar it is installed? Sorry if the question is loaded. The pickup "sees" a moving string through a magnetic field, that's it. Of course a pickup can bring a Tele into LP ballpark. Listen to a Cabronita and don't think Gretsch. Hard to do.

Cheers

David

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Post subject: Re: 'Little 59' in my Telecaster
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 9:46 am
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Amerigo wrote:
InkStained wrote:
The pickup "sees" a moving string through a magnetic field, that's it. Of course a pickup can bring a Tele into LP ballpark.


Guitar construction affects sound. That's the simplest way to explain it. The way guitars are made affect/produce sound differently. And one player's 'ballpark' may be well outside another player's zip code.

Les Pauls and Telecasters have different scale lengths, woods, body-neck joinments, headstock angles, bridge-to-nut angles, densities, weights and much more. Strings on a Tele run straight. On a Paul, they're pulled away and down from the nut to the tuners.

And those are just the differences between guitar construction. The Little 59 itself is very different than a conventional, dual-coil humbucker. It fits in a single-coil slot. Conventional humbuckers, of course, pick up far more of a string. It's twice the "size" of a single-coil pickup.

Do you think those things don't affect sound?

Look down at a Paul when you play it. The bridge pickup is positioned far higher than a neck pickup. The strings don't play flat from bridge to nut. The geometry is completely different.

Anyone who puts this pickup into his American Standard Telecaster and thinks, 'Great. Now I have a '59 Les Paul,' doesn't know Les Pauls. Or Telecasters.

But it's fine not to like the pickup or Les Pauls.


Last edited by InkStained on Tue Feb 07, 2012 4:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject: Re: 'Little 59' in my Telecaster
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 10:03 am
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InkStained wrote:
And one player's 'ballpark' may be well outside another player's zip code.


There is quite some wisdom in this quote.

Cheers

David

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Post subject: Re: 'Little 59' in my Telecaster
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 10:10 am
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Amerigo wrote:
InkStained wrote:
And one player's 'ballpark' may be well outside another player's zip code.


There is quite some wisdom in this quote.

Cheers

David


I'd doff my hat to you sir, had I a hat to doff. :lol:


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