Originally Posted by
Simon Barden
Personally I like a hotter neck pickup. Most standard Tele bridge pickups are pretty loud anyway, but a classic neck pickup can be a rather underpowered in comparison. This has often been mentioned in magazine reviews of Teles. An overwound neck (in comparison to the Bridge) gives a better overall balance IMO.
The more powerful Tele bridge pickups generally knock off a fair bit of the top-end so they aren't as bright, so less of a Classic Tele sound. I've got a Seymour Duncan 'Hot' bridge pickup in one of my Teles, and it is quite powerful, but it is less of a Tele sound and more like a Strat bridge sound.
The sound of Tele pickups has varied over the years. Some have been very bright (over-bright IMO) to give that standard 'country' sound, whilst others have been thicker and rockier sounding. My own suggestion would be for a Vintage Plus bridge, plus a Hot Classic neck combination which (should) give (what is for me) a nice balanced combination. But in the end it's what you'd like.
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