country boys, blackguard staggered or yardbirds tele?

[daisy]

I want to replace the kinman avn60 pick ups in my japanese `62 reissue tele.Looks wise,i`m going for an andy summers tribute so i`ve replaced the neck for a maple one and now want to route the body to incorporate a neck humbucker.
Sound wise as well as summers,i love the steve cropper /memphis/stax sound-also love the guitar tone on early aretha franklin(think chain of fools+preacher man).However,might be a paradox with the above but i also love the sound on johnny cash`s walk the line.Can 1 pick up set get me these sounds?I`m not sure whether to go with a bare knuckle neck pick up (if so would prob be the stormy monday) as i love the demos i hear of lollars low wind imperial or could the s.m get me this sound(just worrying about it being too dark and hot compared to lollar).

Bridge pick up i reckon is a choice between the blackguard stagger, country boy and yardbird but need help on this.I`ve had a blackguard 50 flat in the past on a baja tele and it was a little too "thick" sounding for my tastes so no recommendations for this please--would the staggered blackguard be that different?
Also has anyone got experience with neck humbuckers in teles and in particular to use 250 or 500k pots

[AndyR]

I've voted for Blackguard staggered, but I also think the Yardbird might do you.

I've got the Flat 50s and Yardbirds sets.

Now, I would go for Flat 50 for Johnny Cash and some of the memphis/stax, but Yardbird for Andy Summers and the rest of the memphis/stax :roll:

However! I understand that Staggered 55 BG is slightly less winds and therefore not quite as thick as the Flat 50. I've not heard/tried it, but that makes me think it would do a better compromise on Andy Summers, and would definitely be in a better ballpark for your other needs if the Flat 50 is too thick.

Country Boy I don't really know much about, but I think it could well be a possibility too.

So my 1st choice would be Blackguard staggered, followed close by the Yardbird (I understand this might be the closest "spec" to what Mr Cropper was using in the 60s? Don't quote me though :lol:). And I would also be open to someone convincing me that Country Boys was a nice middle ground :D

Can't help on the humbucker, or the pots, not had to cross that bridge yet myself - but I have heard people talk about 350 pots?

I'd be wondering about the capacitors too - I like my .047 on fender singles, but I imagine that would make a humbucker pretty dark on tone half-rolled off! I have tried .022, and it works with fender singles, but not enough tonal difference for me personally. You can also get .033, I used them in my Baja for ages, and it was OK, but I've recently switched back to .047

Hope that helps :D

And welcome to the forum!!

[Plexi Ken]

Hi, welcome to the forum  :)

I have a Country Boys set and they are warm and sweet, excellent for Soul music. You can reed my mini-review by following the link,
http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=19843.0

You could drop Tim an email (or phone) and see what he recommends for pickups and electronics,
tim@bareknucklepickups.co.uk

Let us know now you get on  :)

[Philly Q]

Also has anyone got experience with neck humbuckers in teles and in particular to use 250 or 500k pots

Personally I'd probably try 250k because I like a dark neck humbucker, but I'll quote one of my own posts from elsewhere:

Here's a tip I got from HTH on this forum:

If you're using a single pot shared between a humbucker (or P-90) and a single-coil you can use a 500k volume pot and add a 500k resistor from the "hot" end of the single coil to ground.  That way the single-coil effectively "sees" a 250k pot when it's selected (I guess you'd still have to decide on 500k or 250K for the tone).

[tomjackson]

Another idea would be to get a Fender 'No Load' Tone pot which will get a bit more top end.

I don't think the SM would be dark btw though but I'm sure you could ask for a few less winds if you were worried.
I don't know much about the Lollars, there doesn't seem to be much info on them but the SM is definitely Sweet 50's PAF!

[daisy]

Thanks for everyone's input,what a great forum!Still not sure what to get,keep changing my mind.
Didn't mention that I play in 2 groups--1 with a female vocalist doing the soul+motown stuff(joe messina also a big influence) and the other doing pop/rock stuff like the police, the clash + quo.
I reckon the yardbird might be a bit hot for what I want(wish I could find some clips of these on you tube etc) and turning into a choice between 55 staggered+c. Boy.Please keep suggestions coming!

[38thBeatle]

I can't compare my Country Boy pups with any other set as I simply dont have them.All I can say is that the CB's are sweet and very traditional old school Tele pups. I love the tones I get -it turned a basically good MIM Tele into a great sounding guitar.

[daisy]

Has anypne got any experience of using the same pick ups in different telecsater bodies (i.e alder/ash )

As stated before, i had blackguard flat 50`s in an ash baja and found them too thick sounding---not only do the 55 staggered have less winds but i would be hoping that this coupled with the fact it`s an alder tele they`d be going in could make enough of a differece in tone from the flat 50`s to give me the sound i want.Really difficult to pin down the exact bridge sound in my head, kind of a cross between 50`s broadcaster and 60`s bakersfield

[PhilKing]

There is also a 52 blackguard set which I put into my 62 MIJ Tele custom and love but I am a fan of bluesy Tele tones, so it may not be what you want.  The blackguard stagger would be my choice to match a humbucker, I have had tele's with HB necks, and liked them, but my current favourite like that at the moment is with a mini-humbucker in the neck (I have a Brown Sugar/vintage Silvertone Chris Issack combination in my 59 esquire and they sound great together).   If you get a Stormy Monday, you can tell Tim to match it to the bridge pickup.  For pure early 60's tele sound, the Yardbird is very close to my real 62 tele with original Fender pickups.