What's the hottest, most metal Tele bridge pickup?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rex Rocker
  • Start date Start date
Hot Rails is exactly that - hot! But I prefer the Chopper T - more articulate, and complex in tone. Never had a JB Jr, which has always been on the radar as well.
 
Alright, back to the drawing board. Please suggest me more pickups.

Got the Tele Hot Rails. Was defective. Didn't read anything in the multimetermeter, and it was thin as hell.

Got the Super Distortion T. Is defective. Sounds good, but it's microphonic.

So the search goes on. I'm sure I could be happy with either of those pickups if they weren't defective, but I take it as a message from the metal gods to keep searching for something more unique.

So what else is out there?

How does the Piledriver, Brute Force, and Cobra T compare from BKP? Any experience? Which of those is the least traditional Tele-like?

How about the Quarter Pound?
 
Honestly, I wouldn’t have at all recommended any of the pickups mentioned in this thread. Most pickups in this specific category leave much to be desired imho. The only great one (and it is really great imo) is the vintage Bill Lawrence L250T, but it’s rare. It’s basically a stacked ceramic blade humbucker like his 500 series stuff, but housed as a tele Bridge pickup. You’ll be hard pressed to find many high output humbuckers period that sound as good. I can count one hand how many others I’ve had that are as good or better to me. It one was of these things I kept a secret, but what the hell, if you can find one you can then throw many other pickups away in the trash. He also had the same for strat and p90’s that were equally great back then
 
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Steinmetzify said:
Chuck it up and tag me when you’re done sir, love to see some Telemasters.
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I learnt my lesson on Nitro finishing with the previous guitar to this one. It's a pita! I'm not fucking wet sanding anymore! So I just sprayed it...and assembled it. Not one lick of wetsanding or polishing. Sounds killer but really low output, super twangy, lots of air, but with some lean muscle. Like an old Tele which is what I wanted. Pine body and Lollar 52s.

97966816-FB78-417-E-B493-8-CCB3497-A856.jpg
 
I have a lil pearly gates in one strats and a SD1 mini in the other.
I sure like the lil pearly gates it covers quite a bit of ground very articulate.
 
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FWIW, I ended up going for another (non-defective) Duncan Hot Rails, and I liked it for a while, but I realized it's way too dark.
I'm using a Duncan Quarter Pound now. It's not as hot, but it's more toneful, IMO.
 
I had a BKP Piledriver in a tele for awhile, and that thing is absolutely ballsy.
 
Another vote for the BKP piledriver. I put a set in an MJT tele build like 10 years ago, and never looked back for a second.
 
The Dimarzio Hot Area T keeps the Tele tone but more raunch and no hum. Again, not the heaviest and maybe not even metal but it’s a great, toneful, hot Tele pickup.
 
ners said:
Does it keep the tele tone well? Get a tighter low end than stock pickups?
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I don't know what you mean by stock pickups, but the Piledriver reminds me of a very hot P90 more than a humbucker, so it definitely has a lighter bottom than most humbuckers, which is a good thing IMO. If you dial the guitar volume knob back, you can still get a bit of that tele snap and high-end, but at full volume it definitely doesn't really sound like a tele. That was one thing I liked about the Piledriver, being able to dial back the volume to get a more typical tele tone compared to the single coil sized humbuckers I've tried.
 
braintheory said:
Honestly, I wouldn’t have at all recommended any of the pickups mentioned in this thread. Most pickups in this specific category leave much to be desired imho. The only great one (and it is really great imo) is the vintage Bill Lawrence L250T, but it’s rare. It’s basically a stacked ceramic blade humbucker like his 500 series stuff, but housed as a tele Bridge pickup. You’ll be hard pressed to find many high output humbuckers period that sound as good. I can count one hand how many others I’ve had that are as good or better to me. It one was of these things I kept a secret, but what the hell, if you can find one you can then throw many other pickups away in the trash. He also had the same for strat and p90’s that were equally great back then
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Here ya go, Rex. Expensive, but if Sam says it’s that good, I’d believe him. He’s very, very gear wise, has literally tried everything, and has never steered me wrong.
https://reverb.com/item/60832757-bi...are&utm_campaign=listing&utm_content=60832757
 
SpiderWars said:
I learnt my lesson on Nitro finishing with the previous guitar to this one. It's a pita! I'm not fucking wet sanding anymore! So I just sprayed it...and assembled it. Not one lick of wetsanding or polishing. Sounds killer but really low output, super twangy, lots of air, but with some lean muscle. Like an old Tele which is what I wanted. Pine body and Lollar 52s.
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Sweet rig you built there! Looks like you used a Rutters Bridge too...and since you’ve already gone down the Lollar rabbit hole...

Mutts are a crapshoot as we all know, this relative bargain basement one is a true lightning in a bottle guitar. All Rutters hardware, $100 Rutters pine body, $99 neck from USACG, Lollar Special T bridge / Vintage T neck. Shot the body in the driveway and flat sanded only. I can’t say enough about the Lollar Special T, it rocks. Same goes for the Rutters bridge, this one is his heavy duty version, gotta have his angled switch plate too haha. I’ve got another mutt going together w Rutters hardware but going for the Lollar J Street bridge. I’m 100% sold on pine bodies for Telecasters too
D82B29E3-3C81-4E05-B921-4190AFA7588C.jpeg


Back to Lollars, it starts with the Special T if you want to rock with a good dose of Tele still in there. The J Street is a full rocker leaning towards P90 realm. The 52s are a killer vintage style but don’t do what the above sound like
 
Really happy with the Zhangbauckers in my Carter custom T-style. Twang Smoker in the neck and Super Paul Bunyan in the bridge. They‘re both around 10.5K and the 1/4” rods in the bridge help hit the front end of the amp.

1669605747099.jpeg
 
Rex Rocker said:
FWIW, I ended up going for another (non-defective) Duncan Hot Rails, and I liked it for a while, but I realized it's way too dark.
I'm using a Duncan Quarter Pound now. It's not as hot, but it's more toneful, IMO.
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the QP is where i landed as well - i wish they made a "QP plus"

im never happy with my tele. probably 10 sets of pups in the 16+ years ive had it

ill be keeping the bkp on my radar though
 
QP is a good choice, while not the usual selection for players who want their Tele to lean more towards heavier tones compared to say the Hot Rails, I think the QP provides a really good balance of keeping some traditional Tele tone elements while also providing a nice kick up the backside and some thickness.
I also was using the SD Hot Stack in the bridge of one of my Teles for a while, was able to get a good aggressive tone that wasn't too dark, had plenty of mids and high end without being shrill. I had to adjust my amp settings a bit more than usual to make this one work but when I did I was pretty happy with it.
 
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