Telecaster pickups for hard rock and metal?

[pfizer]

Hi there lovely people, hoping for some advice.

A friend of mine got her dad's old Fender American Elite Telecaster for her birthday and she's thinking of replacing the stock pickups with a set that's more suited for modern rock and metal (Mastodon, Coheed and Cambria, Stone Sour Slipknot, Deftones).

I only know of the Seymour Duncan Hot Rails Set, but not much else. I've played guitars with humbuckers most of my life and her only other electric guitar is a Schecter also with humbuckers. She's not particularly taken with that classic twangy Telecaster sound, but she doesn't want any big mods that will permanently alter the guitar i.e. no carving out bigger holes for full-sized humbuckers.

Any advice for pickups to turn a Telecaster into a hard-rock and metal machine?

 

[budda]

First of all, what amp is she using?

 

[thraxil]

I have a Parker Southern NiteFly (their old Tele-style model) with Bare Knuckle Piledrivers in it. They're still single coil, so you need to be careful about noise but holy hell are they mean sounding. They will also still do the regular tele thing if you roll back the volume a bit.

 

[pfizer]

First of all, what amp is she using?

She's using a Peavey 6505 Mini Head with 2x12 Cab, with just a noise gate, a tubescreamer and a looper for effects.

I have a Parker Southern NiteFly (their old Tele-style model) with Bare Knuckle Piledrivers in it. They're still single coil, so you need to be careful about noise but holy hell are they mean sounding. They will also still do the regular tele thing if you roll back the volume a bit.

The noise is one of the main things she and I are concerned about, although I'm hoping a noise gate might take care of the hum.

 

[diagrammatiks]

Bkp piledrivers or anderson stacked singles.
Rio grande if you just want a single coil sized humbucker.

 

[pfizer]

Bkp piledrivers or anderson stacked singles.
Rio grande if you just want a single coil sized humbucker.

Is there any major difference in sound between the single-coil sized humbuckers and the stacked singles?

 

[diagrammatiks]

stacked singles split better.
single coil sized hum buckers will sound more like hum buckers. stacked singles sound more like really hot singles. But they are essentially hum buckers. But they do split a lot better.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I use the standard ceramic EMG Tele set in my Bari-Tele and it's awesome.
In fact, I often use it for recording secondary rhythm tracks agains my 7 string just for some added bite & chime. Works quite well in high gain settings as well as vintage voicings.

 

[wedge_destroyer]

Uh maybe a Dimarzio Super Distortion T or Tone Zone T?

 

[AkiraSpectrum]

I'd look into a Dimarzio Super Distortion T Bridge+ Area T Neck
or a Duncan Hot Rails set.

 

[pfizer]

Appreciate the suggestions guys. So far, we keep coming across these three pickup sets:
1) SD Hotrails
2) BKP Piledrivers
3) Dimarzio Humcanceling Tele sets

Also heard about the SD Quarterpounder Tele set.

Which of these would be the quietest?

 

[PFlynn]

I have the quarter pounders in my Tele and I love them. I did shield the cavity and replaced all the pots and cap at the same time as it was pretty noisy with the stock ones. (I have a used 92 MIM standard.)

They sound great and pretty aggressive for a single coil and come very close to a humbucker, but still retains the Tele twang with a bit more "spank". If she's going for more of a metal tone, then she may want to go with a single-sized humbucker.

TL;DR QP's not too noisy, good for hard rock/heavy punk. Close to, but not quite HB tones.

 

[Defmelonn]

Seymour duncan makes some single coil sized humbuckers. JB Jr., Little ’59, Li’l Screamin’ Demon, Duckbuckers, Hot Rails, Cool Rails, Vintage Rails. My friend has a lil 59 in his bridge of a tele and it sounded good.

 

[DudeManBrother]

Teles do metal surprisingly well. I have a dimarzio area T 615 in one; which is a noiseless single and it sings. I bought it for traditional tele sounds but messed around for band practice (tech death metal) with it a couple times and liked it enough to play a show with it. I had a lil 59 in the bridge before the area T and think it’s an improvement for all styles. I did keep the lil 59 in the neck though.
My other tele has Texas Specials and sounds great as well, but does have 60 cycle hum at certain angles.

 

[op1e]

Had a Quarter Pound in the neck my GFS build tele and it ruled.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

quarter pounders are great.

 

[Matsunaga3]

I put a Dimarzio Super Distortion T in my Ibanez Talman Prestige, which is basically a modern telecaster. It sounds great for metal stuff.

 

[indreku]

BKP Cobra

 

[Strobe]

Honestly, I would give the stock pickups a chance. Teles can do metal pretty well, and they cut through well in a mix. They have a very crisp, barky attack. My former bandmate used a telecaster for progressive to death metal. I would recommend not changing them unless you are chasing a very specific tone it is not giving. Telecasters are total serviceable for metal.

 

[goobaba]

I had the SD Hot Rails in my tele for a year or so but it had really bad noise issues and harmonic overtones. I ended up routing the guitar for a standard sized humbucker. I would not personally recommend the Hot Rails.