Seymour Duncan ST59-1 Little '59 Bridge Humbucker Tele Pickup - Black

I bought this pickup to throw in my 94 blender telecaster. Bridge position pickup. Wasn't worried about losing my country tones cause I have been playing more of a variety of pop and rock recently. Started playing it through my AC 30 and was shocked to find that it maintained its tele twang perfect but fattened the sound clean. Flipped on my keeley oxblood and nailed Brian may queen tones. This pickup is perfect for what I do and the quality Magnets seymour duncan uses is obvious. This pickup is really the Holy grail for the country player all the way up to the hard Rock and metal player. If you play it all, it will do it all.

I started out with a Squier Telecaster. For a guy starting out, it was ok, but it sounded like a loud fart. So I got to the point where the sound was just so empty. I mean, you know what I mean. This was a long time ago so I don't remember how I chose these bad boys. But I got the 59 for the neck and the little 59 for the bridge. The sound coming from that little 59 was tremendous. It was powerful and can handle distortion. Not a messy distorted sound but a powerful growl with each note defined and cut squarely and perfectly. I'd get this again and again for a Telecaster.

Excellent upgrade for Telecaster bridge pickup. If your Tele sounds too thin for you, this is the answer. I tried the bridge first. It has a stronger output that the Vmod neck, so ordered the Duncan neck pup as well.

Classic late '50s/early '60s Gibson Les Paul sound. Split, sounds more like a Gibson soap bar single coil plus a hint of that Tele twang. I anticipated hum, so I put copper shielding tape in all of my cavities. Very little hum from stock or lil 57 pickups. Playing open G chord with standard tuning, like Honky Tonk Woman, the Tele develops this shimmery, but not microphonic, tone like a finger callus string slide, but from my palm. Never had that, so the Lil 57 is picking some minute string harmonic up in G adding it to the note, amplifying it, probably a pickup resonant frequency, and passing that to the amp. I have a Lee Jackson Ampeg through a Marshall 1960Lead. The Ampeg is basically an '80s Lee Jackson Modded Marshall JCM 800 that Ampeg built. The high gain amp system may build a specific feedback with the Lil 57 resonating the open G to make that harmonic. Don't know, but it is definitely there after strumming open G a few times. That is why I gave the pickup 4 stars.

I ordered the little 59 for the bridge of my Sherwood Green American Special Tele. I went into this new to me mini version of the classic 59 humbucker. First thing I noticed about it when I had it put in is holy SMOKES this little 59 is one HOT mini humbucker. I am talking Slayer hot. Just keep that in mind if you have not tried one of Seymour's mini humbuckers that they have very different characteristics vs their full size versions. But wait there's more! Thankfully the little 59 does indeed clean up well. It is more than capable of many shades of overdrive. From barely breaking up all the way to flamethrower. I am pleasantly surprised at how capable the Little 59 is.

I've used 59's for years in Paul's, Strats, and pointy guitars of 90's. Always consistent for a plethora of styles and a great tone.