telecaster zeppelin pickups (sc/hb)

[Tuco]

I'm looking for the best pickups for zeppelin.  These are going into a telecaster.  I would like the bridge to cover the early zep I sounds and a humbucker for the neck to cover the later zep live tone (song remains same/how west was won).

I am thinking the yardboy or brown sugars for the bridge and blackdogs, mules, or riff raff for the neck.  I'm thinking unpotted since I only play at home home at low-med volumes.  I don't care about twang or traditional tele sounds.  I have other guitars but this is a zeppelin project so that is the only goal.  I know a les paul may be better suited to some of this music and I have one but I'm going to give this a try.

A few questions besides the obvious which pickup is best are:

1.  Do I use a neck or bridge humbucker in my neck?  On my les paul most of my zep sounds come from the bridge or middle positions and I'm afraid that if I get a neck humbucker it will be to weak/bright in my tele so maybe I should get a a more powerful bridge humbucker for my neck.

2.  Can this combo (single coil / humbucker) sound good in the middle position or not.  If so I will try to get (as much as possible) a balanced set, if not I will just get the pickups that will sound the best by themselves.

Let me know your experiences, thanks

[Plexi Ken]

Hi, welcome to the forum  :)


[snip] I don't care about twang or traditional tele sounds [/snip]

How about the Piledriver? You can hear one (paired with a Mississippi Queen) in the link below,
http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=18715.0

[FELINEGUITARS]

Piledriver would be good or a Boss - would give a bit more oomph - good for LZ 2 sounds too

But Yardbird would be cool

[Andrew W]

If you're specifically after Zeppelin tones and nothing more modern I think I'd hesitate to suggest the Piledriver.  It's a great pickup, and I love mine, but to my ears it sounds a little too compressed to do Jimmy Page's tones.  I think the Piledriver does 80s ZZ Top really well (hence the style of that demo track) but I play all my cr@p Page impersonations with a Blackguard Flat 50 equipped Telemaster/Jazzsquire and that sounds closer to me.  Your mileage may vary of course; the Jazzsquire is heavier than a standard Tele and that might beef things up a bit.

Piledrivers and Blackguards are my only BKP Tele pickups and when ordering for the Jazzsquire one of my key tones I asked Tim for was Zeppelin (along with AC/DC and perhaps a little Danny Gatton) and he unhesitatingly recommended the Blackguard Flat 50 and I love it. There's a demo here.

[gwEm]

hate to disagree with jonathan etc, but i think the boss/piledriver might have a bit too much push.

[Prawnik]

I hate to break it to you, and maybe I misunderstand, but you are not going to get bridge pickup-type sounds from a bridge pickup mounted in the neck. Any pickup will sound different mounted in the neck position than in the bridge.

If it were me, I'd focus on getting a Tele bridge pickup, and not to get too "hot" with the neck pickup to avoid overpowering the bridge.

Or, as Jimmy Page put it: as a producer, he could make a Tele sound like other guitars, but he could not make other guitars sound like a Tele. So start there.

I'm looking for the best pickups for zeppelin.  These are going into a telecaster.  I would like the bridge to cover the early zep I sounds and a humbucker for the neck to cover the later zep live tone (song remains same/how west was won).

I am thinking the yardboy or brown sugars for the bridge and blackdogs, mules, or riff raff for the neck.  I'm thinking unpotted since I only play at home home at low-med volumes.  I don't care about twang or traditional tele sounds.  I have other guitars but this is a zeppelin project so that is the only goal.  I know a les paul may be better suited to some of this music and I have one but I'm going to give this a try.

A few questions besides the obvious which pickup is best are:

1.  Do I use a neck or bridge humbucker in my neck?  On my les paul most of my zep sounds come from the bridge or middle positions and I'm afraid that if I get a neck humbucker it will be to weak/bright in my tele so maybe I should get a a more powerful bridge humbucker for my neck.

2.  Can this combo (single coil / humbucker) sound good in the middle position or not.  If so I will try to get (as much as possible) a balanced set, if not I will just get the pickups that will sound the best by themselves.

Let me know your experiences, thanks

[Twinfan]

I think a Blackguard 50 in the bridge, and a neck Riff Raff humbucker would be a great combo in a tele.  Quite bright and punchy, which you can always roll off the tone pot to 'fatten' in the traditional Tele style......

[Tuco]

Seems blackguard 50's are being recommend for the single coil.  I would have thought the yardbird or brown sugars would have been a better fit.

[Tuco]

Alright, halfway there.  I'm forgoing the neck humbucker and just getting a tele set.  The blackguard 50's seems to fit the bill and was recommended by Tim and pretty much everyone else.  Now which neck pickup?  The bridge will probably fill my jimmy page sound requirement but I haven't heard much about the BG50's neck?  The yardbird neck seems highly recommended would that be a good fit?

[Twinfan]

I'd get a Blackguard set  :)

[BigB]

Alright, halfway there.  I'm forgoing the neck humbucker and just getting a tele set.  The blackguard 50's seems to fit the bill and was recommended by Tim and pretty much everyone else.  Now which neck pickup?  The bridge will probably fill my jimmy page sound requirement but I haven't heard much about the BG50's neck?  The yardbird neck seems highly recommended would that be a good fit?

If you go for the BGF50s bridge, I really think you should get the whole set - and a 4-way switch. 

The BG50's neck is just awesome. Perhaps not the most "canonical" Tele neck, but you can get a very wide range of different tones just playing with the pup's height, from very woody, stratty, almost acoustical cleans to warm yet bity fluid blues & rock leads. 

In combination with a 4-way switch wiring (which gives an additional neck+bridge series position, really fat & powerfull yet still tele-ish tones here), you can indeed cover a whole lot of tones from the same guitar - including really great early hard rock tones à la Dazed&Confused.

[99_not_out]

^^^^ +1 to all that!
I have a BG50 set and a 4-way S1 switch, its extremely versatile.

[MrBump]

^^^^ +1 to all that!
I have a BG50 set and a 4-way S1 switch, its extremely versatile.

Me too.

It rocks!  And rocks!!!