Humbucker Soup
What Are The Best Telecaster Bridge Pickups?
Treat your Tele to the best bridge pickup possible
Although Telecaster bridge pickups are best known for their famous “Twang”, more and more, guitarists are looking to coax an increased array of sounds out of their instrument. If you need to extend what your Telecaster can do, you’ll need to consider upgrading your bridge and neck pickups. Even if you simply want to improve the quality of your existing sound, an upgrade is usually the best bet. Below are links for the best Telecaster Bridge pickups on the market. Which one is right for you depends mostly on your needs as well as taste.
Noiseless / Hum-Canceling
Dimarzio Area Hot T™ Bridge DP421
This pickup offers a great blend of PAF humbucker warmth and traditional Tele Twang. This is a fairly high-output pickup, so consider this with regards to balance with your neck pickup.
Dimarzio Super Distortion® T DP318
If you are a fan of the Dimarzio Super Distortion, you will love this one. It has four-conductor wiring, so you can tap it to get at a more traditional sound as well. Lots of thick creamy mids, lots of ‘em.
Dimarzio Chopper T™ Bridge DP384
With less twang and more balls, the DP384 is prefect if you want to tighten up and brighten up the bottom end and get more emphasis in the mids.
Dimarzio Fast Track T™ DP381
Designed to maintain the traditional Tele bridge sound, but provide a bigger sound with more volume and of course, zero hum.
Seymour DuncanLittle ‘59™ for Tele ST59-1b
Duncan set out to provide a Telecaster bridge pickup that cold duplicate the warmth and tone of the original 1959 PAF Gibson humbucker. They pretty much nail it here. This is not a super high-output screamer, you’ve got an even-tempered pickup what is warm and of course noise canceling. The two rows of flat-head screw pole-pieces allow you to really tweak the output vs string-put balance just right. It does come with a four-conductor lead, so with a mini toggle-switch, you can also get a more snappy sound out of it. For this we recommend a DPDT (double pole / double throw).
Seymour Duncan Hot Lead Stack STK-T2b
A hum-canceling Tele bridge pickup on steroids; not a drastically different tone, just seriously higher output than a vintage Tele bridge pickup.
Seymour Duncan Vintage Stack® Tele (lead) STK-T3b
A vintage-voiced, hum-canceling Tele bridge pickup. Classic vintage Telecaster bridge pickup tone, but no 60-cycle hum or buzz.
Vintage Style (non hum-canceling)
Lindy Fralin Stock Tele® Replacement Style Bridge
These pickups come in three different configurations. The Broadcaster has flat poles, the Hybrid model’s poles are flat with a raised D magnet, or you can choose stock stagger. There is also a Steele-pole version. The output is in the neighborhood of 6.6k (8,800 turns), using 42 gauge Plain Enamel wire. You can also choose to have your pickup slightly overwound with 2% over-stock (approx 6.8k output) or 5% over-stock (approx 7.2k output).
Lindy Fralin Blues Special Tele® Replacement Style Bridge
These pickups come in three different configurations. The Broadcaster has flat poles, the Hybrid model’s poles are flat with a raised D magnet, or you can choose stock stagger. There is also a Steele-pole version. The output is in the neighborhood of 7.3k , which is 5% hotter than stock and has a slightly darker sound; wound with 42 gauge Polynylon wire.
Lindy Fralin Tele Replacement High Output Style Bridge
Wound using 43 gauge wire, these Tele bridge pickups come in three different configurations. The Broadcaster has flat poles, the Hybrid model’s poles are flat with a raised D magnet, or you can choose stock stagger. There is also a Steele-pole version. The output is in the neighborhood of 9.5k , which is 10% hotter than stock and has a darker sound, 15% over-stock is available as well.
Lindy Fralin Steel Poled Tele® Style BRIDGE (42)
These are pretty special pickups. The physical construction is more like a P-90 in that a row of screws straddle two magnets. It’s great to be able to adjust the pole-pieces of a Telecaster pickup. While non-hum-canceling, these are reasonably quiet in most situations. Thy are wound to 4.5k for a 20% hotter sound, or can be wound to 10k for a 25% hotter sound.
Dimarzio Pre B-1™ DP112
A traditional Telecaster bridge pickup, but designed to flatten out the high end, and pump up the mids and lows.
Dimarzio True Velvet™ T DP178
Vintage sound, but a bigger more dynamic output that combines the best of the Broadcaster and Telecaster bridge pickups. Also double wax potted to keep squeals to a minimum.
Dimarzio Twang King™ DP173
Vintage Telecaster bridge pickup sound with more attack. There is a base plate installed and it it wax potted.
Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound® for Tele (lead) STL-3
This pickup offers a bizzarely high output for a vintage Telecaster bridge model. There is a surprising amount of punch and attack.
Seymour Duncan Vintage Broadcaster® Lead STL-1b
Faithful recreation of the original with a slightly higher output and edge.
Seymour Duncan Vintage ‘54 Lead STL-1
Vintage voiced, with emphasis on the high end. The pole pieces under the D and G strings are raised.
