Suggestions for HS Telecaster

[sincspecv]

 I currently have a tele with a set of piledrivers in it. When I got this set I was playing rhythm in a hard rock band, usually both pups in series. Now I play lead in a ambient rock band and I use the neck pup almost exclusively. There are a few songs that are pretty rocking and mostly chords. When playing in series I get totally lost in the mix and the bridge is just too brittle sounding. The neck pup works but I feel I need a little more oomph. So I've decided to build a new guitar with a hb in the bridge and a piledriver in the neck. Problem is I have no idea which one to get. My ears want me to buy a nailbomb, but I fear that's not going to mesh well with the piledriver. Any suggestions?

TL;DR

I'm building a tele with a hb in the bridge and a piledriver in the neck looking for suggestions for which hb to use.

[Kiichi]

First idea: Add a push pull to change the middle from series to parallel and see how that goes.

Besides that there are some options. For a tele I might actually throw in something a bit off beat. Crawler (or perhaps abraxxas if you want it a tad brighter). Big, warm, growly. Hard rock. Rounded in a musical way so that even the full HB by itself works better clean than any other IŽve seen. That with a push pull to split it gives you so much. Best split HB I ever had (the split has a tele like character). That would give you a great HB by itself, a proper SC bridge sound still. Plus you can mix either with the neck, to which it should hold up nicely, as the bridge is properly hot vintage.

IŽd give it a thought in a guitar as bright as a tele. Could easily give you more versatility than you would dream of. Abraxxas would be similar, but less full and warm.

[sincspecv]

I actually have a 4-way switch so I have parallel and series. I just never found parallel pleasing in any situation that I've played the guitar. I honestly overlooked the crawler completely; I'll explore that option for sure. I did look at the abraxxas and thought it would be too bright.

Thank you for your suggestions.

[Dave Sloven]

Actually my suggestion would be to put a humbucker style pickup mounting in and then fit a Stockholm P-90.  I think you will find that gives you the balls you need while meshing very well sonically with the Piledriver neck pickup.  I have a Stockholm in an SG Junior (a single pickup guitar, no bridge pickup) and that thing is a beast.  It's a humbucker size pickup so you just use the bridge with the plate suited to a humbucker.  You might want to consider upgrading to something like a Babicz FCH bridge, I hear they have amazing sustain.

See this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geVjMQDqxjM

That bridge I mentioned:

http://www.fullcontacthardware.com/fch-tele-humbucker-bfg-model.htm

[sincspecv]

The Stockholm is pretty tempting. I originally threw out the p90 option because I wanted to be able to coil split if the need arose. Also, I like to stack overdrives into an overdriven amp wich causes crazy feedback and I was hoping to tone that down a bit with a humbucker.

[Dave Sloven]

If you want output and a pickup that splits well maybe consider the alnico Warpig.  It will definitely split well and when you want output that will definitely be there.  Another possibility for a bright guitar is the Holy Diver, which I think should split okay.  A Crawler could work well too

[darkbluemurder]

I have never played a Piledriver but my experience is that pickups in the tele neck style format tend to be on the weak and hollow side - certainly good for some things but not for all, and difficult to match with anything but a very low output pickup in the bridge. My preferred choices for neck pickups in a tele would be a Firebird, a mini humbucker or a P90. For clean tones a Filtertron style pickup would also be a ggod choice. Insofar the best option is to build a tele with a humbucker neck route so you only need to replace pickguards to go to a different pickup format.

Cheers Stephan

[Dave Sloven]

I still tend to think a Stockholm would be best.  It is a single coil and when you want less output you could try something really high-tech like rolling off the volume a wee bit 

[Telerocker]

The Stockholm is ferocious, lot of agression, mids and good bite. They get a bit more hum than from a humbucker.
The Crawler would be a more vintage oriënted, mellower sounding humbucker, which cleans and splits wonderful. You get a huge tone, big mids, thick solonotes (also higher upon the neck) and a unique growl. Yes, Crawlers have a rounder topend, but still good bite (but never annoying bright topend).
I have a Crawler in a swampashstrat and that's my pickup for all purposes (together with two Irish Tours).

I would pair a Crawler with a Piledriver- or a Boss-neck.

[sincspecv]

The more I listen to clips the more I think the Stockholm is the one for the job. If I need a tele bridge sound I can just play my other tele.

[Telerocker]

The more I listen to clips the more I think the Stockholm is the one for the job. If I need a tele bridge sound I can just play my other tele.

Prepare for the ultimate hotrod tele. 

[Dave Sloven]

As you are building it from scratch I will suggest this:

paint all of the pickup cavities and control cavity with conductive shielding paint.  Ensure that the shield is complete and grounded to the jack via the back of one of your pots.  This will do a lot to reduce 60 cycle hum.  You can put the shielding paint under the finish paint if you want but just check the continuity of the paint shield first with a multimeter.  When you screw the grounding wire into the painted wood paint over the top of the whole screw to make sure.  Shield the underside of your pickguard with copper tape and solder a ground wire to that tape and ground that to the rest of the shield.  If you have continuity issues on the pickguard where the joins are you can probably fix those with a bit of the paint along the join.

If you follow these tips and shield your cavities the output of the Stockholm should not be a big issue.  The HSP-90 version also has a nickel cover so that helps too with shielding (I have the regular P-90 with a plastic cover).

You might also want to consider whether you like the Telecaster selector switch.  A lot of people find that the knob falls off and they end up with the sharp switch cutting their hand at some point.  Alternatives are to use a control plate with a Gibson style toggle or have one of those toggles in the Les Paul type position like on the '72 Deluxe or the John 5 signature Telecaster.  You might also want to consider the big '70s headstock design if you plan to keep it on a hanger.

[darkbluemurder]

Alternatives are to use a control plate with a Gibson style toggle

A suggestion which I fully support.

Cheers Stephan