Somewhat advanced guitar question: Can you help me out?

Question

If a person plays two distinct styles on a guitar, is it possible to have one pickup for a very clean style (almost country-like) and another for a dirtier, grungier sound (Nirvana-like)?

I want a tele, and the bridge pickup is perfect: agressive and angry-sounding, lol. But the neck seems normal at best, and I wouldn't be upset someday replacing. I would like to replace it with something a bit more...heavy to match my dirtier side, but I don't want to have two pickups that fight with each other.

Is there any way to find a neck pickup on a tele that would more closely resemble that of a humbucking bridge pickup? I'm not looking for something crazy similar, I just don't know guitars all that well and was wanting to know if I could get a lead hard rock/metal, bridge humbucker sound out of a single-coil neck pickup. And if I did that and kept that tele bridge pickup, would it just sound...wrong?

Is it weird to have a single at the bridge and a humbucker at the neck? I'm a noob so I don't know these sorts of things.

Answer 1

I recently bought a Parker PM24V on Ebay for $410 brand new. It has 2 Parker Stinger humbuckers with independent coil taps on each (allows single coil like sound), and Fishman piezo bridge pickups for more acoustic sound. You can combine them in almost infinite combinations to get a ton of sounds. I love it and it sounds amazing and the neck and action are incredibly fast. The only complaint I have is that it would be better with a locking tremolo. I don't used the whammy bar because it goes out of tune every time. Without the tremolo it stays in tune fine. Parker also has a P36 which is a Tele style but doesn't have the humbuckers.



If you have more money, the Parker Fly and NiteFly are top of the line and really amazing instruments.



I've also had a Schecter C1 E/A guitar which is similar with the piezo bridge and humbuckers but doesn't have the coil tap and has Duncan Designed pickups which are nowhere near as good as the Parker Stingers.



There are also some guitars with HSH pickup configuration that might fit your needs:

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Ibanez-GRG170DX-Electric-Guitar-103942389-i1147802.gc

Answer 2

Although there are humbuckers that fit in a single coil slot, I don't think they'll give you that true fat or dirty sound. It might be easier to go the other way: Start with a true humbucker on the neck and wire a coil tap to make it sound twangier. The '72 Deluxe has 2 humbuckers. http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=0137702392



You can buy a Telecaster with a single coil bridge and humbucker neck pickup, the Classic Series '72 Custom: http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=0137500306 The Fender "Wide Range" humbuckers aren't wound particularly 'hot' but it would be easy to swap it out for something dirtier....at least the guitar is routed out to take a humbucker. Would it satisfy your needs as an all-in-one guitar? I don't know....but it's a starting point. Why don't you go to a music store and try one out?



We both know that nothing else will sound exactly like a Tele bridge pickup. If you truly won't settle for anything less, you're going to have to resign yourself to 2 guitars. The closest you can come with to all-in-one guitar is to use humbuckers with coil taps and reverse phase. This means you don't have to limit your search to just Telecasters. Any guitar with humbuckers will be a platform for you to start customizing from. Happy hunting!

Answer 3

There are a few humbucking pickups that for fender single coil slots...they'll run a few bucks but should do the trick for you.



During installation you can ask them to run a coil tap to the humbucker. That will allow you to use it a single coil when you want to for that 'tele' sound.



Here's an example of what you're looking for... http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Seymour-Duncan-SHR1-Hot-Rail-Stacked-Single-Coil-Pickup?sku=300300

Answer 4

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