i've got a late 80's American Standard Tele, and i've gone through a few pickups in the bridge position.
I currently have a Duncan Little '59 (stacked humbucker) in the bridge position. it's not bad. it's gainy, and a bit more hot than the stock PUP. unfortunately, it's "thin" sounding and doesn't sound anything at all like the humbuckers in my Charvette or my Ibanez Artcore hollowbody (both of which are a lot warmer, fatter and smoother sounding). The Little '59 also sounds nothing like a traditional tele, which may be a good or bad thing depending on your tastes. i liked it at first......not so much these days.
prior to that, i had a Quarter Pound Tele Lead in there. it wasn't a bad PUP.....it was hotter than the stock, and was a pretty decent "rock and roll" pickup......but it was a little vanilla sounding. it was as if it tried to bridge the gap between single coil and humbucker and didn't do either overly well. i replaced it with the Little 59 b/c i wanted more of that humbucker sound.
I would put both the Quarter Pound and the Little 59 in the "hot rodded" category rather than the "vintage" category.
to be honest, these days i'm leaning more towards making my tele sound like a traditional/classic tele. i'm leaning towards the Vintage Broadcaster. that might be a little too "ice picky" for you, as most vintage tele sounding pups may be.
you also might want to put
a texmex in your neck position and give that a whirl--it'll be meatier than the standard neck pup, but not as "ice picky" as a more "vintage sounding" bridge pup would be.
mostly these days, i'm tired of trying to make my tele into something it's not, and i'm embracing it for what it is.......i finally got over trying to make it sound like a humbucker-driven distortion monster and bought something that excelled a lot better at it......and now i'm looking at turning my tele back into the clean tone giant that it used to be. not that this is your goal, but a tele will never sound like a Les Paul no matter what you drop in it......and sometimes you've gotta learn that for yourself like i did......
cheers,
wade
