Are you looking for the best humbucker for Telecaster neck? Then, we will help you find all the essential information in this short article.
When Telecasters and humbuckers get together, they take various configurations, and generally, the common configuration is HH with a humbucker at neck and bridge position. This is also known as a dual humbucker setup. A Telecaster can also make use of a single humbucker either in neck or bridge positions.
Whatever tone you want, the Telecasters are versatile. Here we have compiled some of the best humbuckers for Telecaster neck perfect for bite, vintage-voiced chimes, and heavy modern tones.
The 4 Best Humbuckers for Tele Neck (Reviews)
| Image | Model | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Seymour Duncan SH2N Jazz (Top Pick) | Check Price |
 | Seymour Duncan SHPG1 Pearly Gates (Close Runner-Up) | Check Price |
 | Seymour Duncan SH-55n Seth Lover | Check Price |
 | Fender Telecaster Neck Humbucker | Check Price |
Seymour Duncan SH2N Jazz (Editor’s Choice)
The Seymour Duncan SH2N jazz pickup is designed for those who want a clear and accurate tone for bright jazz runs. The bright sound is a perfect match with several pickups, and it has slightly lesser output.
It offers a clear and articulate tone making it adequate for fast runs. The tone is bright and full when distorted and smooth sustain.
In addition, it has a more detailed treble response. SH2N Jazz comes with a four-conductor hookup cable.
This neck position version is paired with SH-5 Duncan Custom or SH-4 JB in the bridge position for diverse tones. It works excellent with rosewood fingerboards and mahogany bodies. These are perfect to work with semi-hollow and hollow-body guitars.
This Jazz model is versatile and works perfectly for different music styles. The unique coil winding and an Alnico 5 bar magnet give a glassy treble response to the model and tight and full bass. Even at high speed and high gain, the scooped mids assist every note to sing.
SH-2 Jazz model is an ideal fit for more articulate and cleaner tones. The classic humbucker tones are offered at the neck position, and these tones reach beyond the Jazz moniker, including heavy rock, funk, blues, country, etc.
The model works excellently on runs up and down the neck. In addition, it matches up to any bridge pickup due to its natural tone.
Guitarists like this humbucker due to the sheer amount of tones.
Pros
- Smooth
- Warm
- Clear
Cons
- None
Seymour Duncan SHPG1 Pearly Gates (Close Runner-Up)
Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates pickups were designed for the rebellious solid, raw sound of Texas blues-rock. Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates offer a sweet tone with great sustain and are slightly rude. These humbuckers have bright tops making harmonics jump out of the instrument.
The incredible tones are greatly balanced between dirty and clean. You get a bell-like and clear tone on the clean channel and throaty, dynamic on the dirty channel. You can play it anywhere you want.
It is smooth and gritty, so it meets the metal expectations. These are great pickups and are very responsive to tone and volume. The response is dynamic with powerful, tasteful variations of tones.
The SH-PG Pearly Gates pickup was designed to meet the tones similar to that found in Les Paul Standard. It gives life to your amp with an ideal blend of harmonics and sustains with a bright and nice top end.
This versatile pickup can be paired for several tonal options. The pearly pickup has warm and slight hot output when compared to a humbucker. The key to the success of this pickup is its versatility, and you can hear everything from classic to blues, modern to southern rock.
These are often used in bridge and neck positions. In addition, it comes with a four-conductor hookup cable to allow various pickup switching options.
A Pearly Gates in the neck works well for a heavy rock sound. It is excellent for bright-tone instruments and works effectively with ebony and maple fingerboards. The pickup works perfectly with semi-hollow and hollow guitars.
Seymour Duncan has worked for a lifetime to create great pickups. It is dedicated to getting the best tone possible from the pickup. As a result, Seymour Duncan pickups offer the tone you want.
Pros
- High-quality pickup
- Powerful sound
- Single coil characteristics
Cons
- None
Seymour Duncan SH-55n Seth Lover
Seymour Duncan has developed an SH-55 humbucking pickup with the assistance of Seth Lover, who is the inventor of a humbucker. The result is an iconic, pure and recognizable humbucker tone.
It is not wax potted and is true to vintage designs. The tone is close to PAF humbucker. The models are available for neck or bridge positions. The SH-55 pickups sound like an ax, and it is transported from the late 50s.
Seymour Duncan SH-55 humbucker can be matched with several excellent pickups. It opens the world of tone.
You can choose this humbucker for Telecaster, and it is one of the best in the market. You can play several tones as it responds quickly and carries out different playing styles. The well-combined qualities result in fantastic musical output. These work without the hum and have a wide frequency range with a traditional appearance.
If you are keen to get the humbucker with more thump and bang with increased clarity, punch and sustain. It is noise-free, so that you can buy this pickup without any doubt. Once you install this humbucker, you will enjoy playing the guitar more than before.
This is durable and sturdy, with a wide tonal range and balanced output. This is a well-made product bought on the market after extensive research so that your guitar can sound terrific.
It offers aggression making this versatile pickup the best one on the list. The product strives to offer value and quality and perform at the highest levels. Seymour Duncan respects customer’s investment and assures them to provide a quality product.
Choosing this pickup is one of the wisest decisions you can make. You can upgrade the instrument in no time with this quality pickup.
Pros
- Great sound
- Affordable
- Excellent pickups
Cons
- None
Fender Telecaster Neck Humbucker
The Fender Telecaster Neck humbucker is Formvar coated magnet wire in the neck pickup. For even string response, it has flush mount pole pieces. This neck humbucker delivers a warm tone and high output. The excellent harmonics and great headroom make your guitar playing amazing.
It is ideal for an aggressive sound, and the pickup has a thick aluminum base plate. The base plate made from aluminum decreases magnetic field interference. This is a moderate output product.
However, it is one of the best matches for Fender. It does not produce the same quack, unlike single-coils produce.
When you want to change the pickup type in the neck position of Telecaster, then humbucker will perform the best. You get lots of options of pickups to choose from and getting the vintage output tone. The Fender in the neck of a telecaster will give a perfect and balanced output tone.
This humbucker offers high levels of output and subtle tones. It sounds brighter in a Telecaster than in a Les Paul because of its construction, scale length, and wood. It is the proper pickup and very close to a standard telecaster sound. You will get a serious boost when using the humbucker.
The neck position humbucker will transform your instrument entirely without any effort. So make the wise decision and get this humbucker for a fantastic performance in no time.
Pros
- Huge sound
- Not muddy
- High output
Cons
- Large
Pros/Cons of Humbucker in Tele Neck Position
String movement above the guitar pickups in neck and bridge positions is essential for the sound difference. When using a pickup in the bridge position, you can easily observe that treble content increases when the volume decreases. This is because strings stiffen, and they are less mobile when they are near a bridge.
You may observe that strings are more elastic as they move away from the bridge’s anchor point. As a result, strings have the potential for more movement, and there is an increase in bass and volume. This is the reason that every pickup needs to be designed for its correct position. Changing positions can result in different outputs, like using bridge pickups in the neck can give a much loud output than you desire.
Many people argue that single pickup guitar sounds better than an electric guitar with more pickups. Theoretically, this is because having one more miniature magnet allows strings to vibrate freely.
The body resonates better when there is a lack of wiring space or cavity for the second pickup. These are important points to consider as the instrument’s tone is affected by the type of tone controls and their presence.
The neck pickup is perfect for a classic jazz tone and offers a warm musical sound. The neck pickups produce essential guitar sounds, and players use them for playing solos as the tone will be less shrill. In addition, the pickups in perfect position can add musicality and dynamics to the performance.
Advantages of Using Humbucker in Tele Neck Position
Lesser Interference of Noise
Humbuckers are designed in a way to muffle sound vibrations from outside. As a result, there is no distracting distortion or hum in the mid of notes which is extremely important if the equipment is not that good at handling that.
Warm Sound
Humbuckers are famous for the full warm sound, which is achieved by picking up the string vibrations when they resonate. This is the reason why humbuckers are commonly present on the hollow body. It makes notes fuller and round with tiny harmonics on the folded tone. This deep tone reach is liked by heavy metal and jazz guitarists.
In addition, the midrange emphasis makes humbuckers on Tele neck a good choice for non-distortion-based effects.
Volume Control
Humbucker allows you to adjust high output, so you have more sound control. Electric guitars have volume controls in the neck bridge and middle of a guitar body. Humbuckers on Telecaster neck offer more volume change range which means you have more control over the input mix you can use.
Cons of Using Humbucker in Tele Neck
Sound Clarity
Sound clarity and tone bite is muffled on a humbucker used in Tele neck position. These keep the unwanted feedback away, but many guitarists do not like humbucker because of decreased sound clarity.
The notes will not be swallowed whole, but the sounding will not be clear because of its construction. Also, humbuckers do not give that chime effect like the single-coil pickup. So if you like harmonics in playing then, humbuckers are not a good choice for you.
So, the Best Humbucker to Use for Tele Neck Is…
The best humbuckers for Telecaster must be versatile with a vintage tone profile. In addition, a good quality humbucker should be hum canceling with the noise-reducing property. Humbuckers listed above perform these tasks very well, and there are many other options too that perform well.
Our favorite is Seymour Duncan SH2N Jazz from the above list, as these are versatile and ideally work for different music styles. It is an ideal choice for more articulate and cleaner tones. In addition, it’s the best humbucker set for Tele neck you can find on the market at the moment.