Best Seymour Duncan Pickups for a Squier Affinity Telecaster???

hnia6

hnia6

Member
Picked up a new lefty Affinity Tele for silly cheap. Action and construction is actually really good. Set up out of the box was not far off at all. I heard a lot of this very outcome and decided to buy. It was no mistake.

The pickups sound good, but the output is a little low.

I would like higher output where I can get nice clean tone without too much favor toward twang. I understand that's the nature of the guitar in general.

I have my eye on a set of SD Alnico II Pro's. Is this the right direction?

I understand anything stacked won't fit on the Affinity.

I went to SD's site and listened to samples - but that's just being on a site. I did rule out the 59 Humbucker for the bridge, however - too dark and low output.
 
Not sure what the routing is like in the body of that particular tele but I have an FMT HH tele with a pair of duncan humbuckers in it. '59 in the neck (you're right, wouldn't want that in the bridge) and a Pearly Gates in the bridge. The Pearly Gates is pretty hot - not stupid though. I love it.
 
I also got a righty bullet strat (the gold one) and reversed the nut - strung left handed. putting the pearly gates on the bridge and two Alnico SSL-5's (left hand staggered) on the neck and middle. All hot and bright, but not stupid as you note. Can't wait to do the install. Putting sperzel trim-lok tuners on the headstock. That guitar has an Okume body and mapel/rosewood neck. Same body wood as this $3700 Strat:

Fender Custom Shop Double Bound Okoume Slab Body Stratocaster Electric Guitar | GuitarCenter

I might be wrong, but my understanding is that the Aztec Gold HSS Bullets are the only "cheap" Strats with that wood type. All others, I'm told, are Basswood. Had to get one and experiment! My mods will make the total investment only $290. It will sound better than any Mexican Strat (pricing around $500 plus). EXcited!

I went with the SD Quarter Pounder set for the Tele, which came lefty (Alder body) - got both for $80 plus tax. Trim-Loks on the headstock there too. Total investment is also $280. Not bad at all!
 
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I hate to piss on your bag of chips but Okoume is commonly called Gabon and is the go to timber for plywood. It is occasionally used as a solid timber on musical instruments and furniture but is nothing special.
 
It sure sounds like you're trying to mutt, but I'm not holding a bag of chips, honey....

Slab and plywood are apples and oranges even if the same wood source. Okoume is often compared to Alder; balanced in the middle between bright and warm. I played an alder Strat and my "cheap" Okoume Strat. They are not too far apart and when I change the pickups, I'm convinced the Bullet will sound better than the Alder one. If you are more focused on all relevant variables over "piss," you'll note that everything goes together - rig, pedals, pickups, cables, player skill level.

No one's denying the bullet is a "cheap" guitar, but the wood is solid and the action is pretty impressive for the money. It's a project guitar. For what you pay - "special" or not, minor mods make this budget guitar sound great through any decent tube amp. I have several guitars that are much more serious but I'm intrigued by this Bullet. I'm convinced I will have both of my project guitars sounding very nice for the investment.

If anyone's done something similar with a cheap Bullet, please reply - tell me how it went and your result!!
 
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I didn't see where you mentioned what the configuration is on the tele. Regular tele SS, or HS, SH, HH?

You want 'not twangy', so does that mean you don't really care about it sounding like a traditional tele? And the twangy part has nothing to do with it being a tele, it's just that that's what a traditional tele bridge pickup is meant to sound like. Put any non-tele pickup in it and it won't sound like a tele, if that's what you want.
 
BTW, I have 2 Affinity teles. One has Fender custom shop somethings, the other has Fender Texas Specials. Both are the traditional tele-style pickups. Both sound great.
 
Cool! My Tele is SS. For now, I got the quarter pounders becuase they're higher output and I got a really good deal on them. Down the road, I will consider routing out the tele for HH - we'll see. My interest in Seymours began with the JB HH on one of my Strats. It just sounds really good - great for harmonic feedback, warm, not too dark. It's purely a curiosity thing.

Thanks for commenting.

Has anyone done anything cool with a bullet?
 
Go on, hack the body to death and go for a real Frankentele with a pair of humbuckers in it. Oh, another thing I love about my tele is that there's a coil tap on the humbuckers so you can get a decent approximation of a tele sound.
 
hnia6 said:
It sure sounds like you're trying to mutt, but I'm not holding a bag of chips, honey....

Slab and plywood are apples and oranges even if the same wood source. Okoume is often compared to Alder; balanced in the middle between bright and warm. I played an alder Strat and my "cheap" Okoume Strat. They are not too far apart and when I change the pickups, I'm convinced the Bullet will sound better than the Alder one. If you are more focused on all relevant variables over "piss," you'll note that everything goes together - rig, pedals, pickups, cables, player skill level.

No one's denying the bullet is a "cheap" guitar, but the wood is solid and the action is pretty impressive for the money. It's a project guitar. For what you pay - "special" or not, minor mods make this budget guitar sound great through any decent tube amp. I have several guitars that are much more serious but I'm intrigued by this Bullet. I'm convinced I will have both of my project guitars sounding very nice for the investment.

If anyone's done something similar with a cheap Bullet, please reply - tell me how it went and your result!!
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I'm not the one selling it's virtues and refering to 3K priced guitars pal..... My main job here is to interrupt the flow of snake oil and the passing on of industry marketing bullshit.

Like I said it's OK but nothing special. It's light, damages easily compared to similar and is mildly toxic. Less stable than other mahogany substitutes and certainly dimensionally inferior to basswood/poplar.

Carry on and enjoy.
 
Are you married to SDs? I put Rio Grandes in everything - especially Teles. I prefer playing Strats but like Les Paul sounds better for most of what I play, so beefing up the low end of a Strat or Tele with some Muy Grandes usually makes me happy.
 
I just saw a 98 Squier MIM for only $100 in my local GC - Left Hand!!!! I'm thinking of grabbing that too. Anyone know anything about the wood and quality of these Strats? It's much heavier than the current bullets - seems to be the same quality as the current Fender MIM strats selling between 500 and 600. Anyone have anything on these?

(Your "job" is to work on that anger... mutt.)
 
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hnia6 said:
I just saw a 98 Squier MIM for only $100 in my local GC - Left Hand!!!! I'm thinking of grabbing that too. Anyone know anything about the wood and quality of these Strats? It's much heavier than the current bullets - seems to be the same quality as the current Fender MIM strats selling between 500 and 600. Anyone have anything on these?

(Your "job" is to work on that anger... mutt.)
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lol...

The one person who knows EXACTLY what you want to know is obviously now too angry to answer you....:laughings:

Here have one of these instead...:facepalm:

Pro tip. Learn to read and then learn to comprehend what is written.

Once you have done that you can do a little search and discover that there is a very cool thread in which a very angry person takes one of those strats that is in tiny bits and rebuilds it.. From that you will be able to see exactly what it's construction is like. There are lots of pictures as well so you won't need reading or comprehension skills..

Have a superior day.:)
 
OK, not to disregard anything mutt has said, I'll give you the short answer from my limited perspective.

I've got a MIM Squier strat and I like it. Is it as 'good' as current MIM Fenders? Don't know, but then I don't really care. I would like it just as well if it were a Chinese Squier. That's because I like what I like, with little regard to construction or resale value. It's good enough for me. Someone else will have a different set of criteria, and they may actually hate the way it plays. I seem to have an affinity (hey, I just made a funny) for cheap weird guitars. Maybe because I'm a cheap weird guy and we go together.

Anyway, for that price for a MIM, and being a lefty, I'd say jump on it. I would jump on it myself, but I'm broke, and I'm not a lefty.
 
notCardio said:
OK, not to disregard anything mutt has said, I'll give you the short answer from my limited perspective.

I've got a MIM Squier strat and I like it. Is it as 'good' as current MIM Fenders? Don't know, but then I don't really care. I would like it just as well if it were a Chinese Squier. That's because I like what I like, with little regard to construction or resale value. It's good enough for me. Someone else will have a different set of criteria, and they may actually hate the way it plays. I seem to have an affinity (hey, I just made a funny) for cheap weird guitars. Maybe because I'm a cheap weird guy and we go together.

Anyway, for that price for a MIM, and being a lefty, I'd say jump on it.
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;)

Right on.

The deal is that you cant make a 3000dollar guitar out of a 100 dollar guitar by putting 2000 dollars of hardware on it. What you then have is a 100 dollar guitar with 2000 dollars of hardware on it.

The deal with wood is that there are many options. The same species are used on expensive and cheap guitars with a few exceptions. There are two main reason on piece goes on a 100 dollar guitar and another piece goes on a 3000 dollar guitar. Grading and selection for quality against a long known set of criteria and second industry snake oil. I choose each piece of timber I use by hand, I know what I'm after and even amongst master grade stuff I will choose maybe 2% or 3% of what I see. Often others will have slightly differant criteria or selection methods or simply go to the cheaper pile. Thats how it works.

Fender buy 10's of thousands of board foot of timber each year. They grade and select it themselves. They buy it and ship based on grade and then further select and grade it when it reaches the factory. The selection criteria for a US Strat will be way more focused than for a Squire or a MIM. The exception to that rule is the old made in Japan Strats amongst which are some real pearls. Worth far more than they command IMHO... Everything about them was good including materials and build. There are lemons among them too....

That is not to say that any of those instruments are bad instruments. Think cooking... I have had meals out at fine restaurants that claim to use the finest ingredients and I have been unimpressed. I have also eaten at some roadside cafes and been thoroughly impressed. I guess from that we can take it that it is our personal perceptions, the chef and flat out luck that play a big part. Sure you are likely to have a better chance if the parts/ingredients are top notch but at the end of the day as long as it does the job and you are happy then all is well.

I love all guitars and that includes the cheap. I do lol when some one starts telling us that they can turn a 100 dollar guitar into a 1000 dollar guitar cos you cant. All you can do is turn it into a top end guitar for you...


That thread I was alluding to was this one.. In it I take fucked old squire strat and breath new life into it. That guitar is still with me and the kids use it a lot. It now has new pickups and a new bridge block but at the end of the day it is still a Squire Strat all be it one with an interesting past.

https://homerecording.com/bbs/equipment-forums/guitars-and-basses/i-know-im-good-but-344891/?highlight=I+know+I%27m+good
 
mutt needs to work on his sensitivity and his anger... funny how a young female gets under his skin enough to lodge weak reading comp insults paralleled with tacky emocons... surprised you're not checking spelling yet. get the last word and then please find another bag of chips to piss on somewhere else. sad, cause without your cheap shots and smug tone, you'd be interesting.

im definitely a cheap, wierd girl! cheap out of necessity. my first fender was a righty squier strat which i strung lefty. didnt appeciate it as much as i do now.

Turns out the aztec bullet may actually be basswood. gc says their site is wrong. i suppose no noteworthy difference? im told the 98 lefty is alder. the 98 is much heavier than all the bullets in the store. i'm not trying to increase a cheap guitar's value. I'm interested in tinkering with cheap gear and making it sound better with low dollar mods. i love most all guitars. i love a cheap fender with good action. i want some beater fenders and develop myself as a student of repairs and mods.

i have til tomorrow to buy the 98 lefty. flying home thursday.

i do appreciate the constructive input very much!
 
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In mutt's defense (sort of):

I guess I missed the part where you identified yourself as a young female. I personally don't find that relevant but you're the one who brought it up.

Anyone who's supposedly been around here for four years ought to know by now that if you're looking for sensitivity A) you're in the wrong place and B) if you're talking to mutt you're really in the wrong place. He's got a lot of good info, real firsthand knowledge, and a buttload of opinions about life that mostly should remain there, but Mr. Sensitivity he ain't.
 
member for four years. ocassional poster at best. knowlede in any area never warrants being a butthead to the less experienced who show interest in a subject area. i dont kiss butt. im not seeking sensitivity. reread my reply. i can move on. can you?
 
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