This is one of the best and most thorough pickup comparisons I've ever seen , clears up all the forum miss conceptions .. Hats off for your effort .. Chopper for my taste ..
Yep, I hear exactly the same thing -- better articulation from the Chopper T. But the 59 is good too. I guess this is why it's good to have 20 or so guitars :-)
Great way to compare pickups, from the choice of playing riffs, licks etc…to the pot variable, this is how to do a proper comparison.Thanks for taking the time to do this comparison, it’s exactly what I was looking for. Keep up the good work!
+1 for chopper. You can roll tone back on the chopper and get closer to the sound of the 59 easier than you would be able to get the sound of the chopper from the 59.
Anytime I watch a Dimarzio vs Duncan video, I usually pick the Duncan. Seymour Duncan, no matter what pickup, always has a more polished sound, to my ears. This was the first video that went against this. The Chopper T with 250K pot sounded amazing on the Tele style guitar.
Superb video. Exactly what I was looking for. And I can absolutely confirm what you said at the end about the 59 in a band context. I now ordered the chopper for a test😊. Thank you!
Got a new tele and it sound muddier and thinner than I expected, so I’m looking for new pickups. Great video! Very clear comparison. The chopper sounds very good.
Best Tele pick up demo hands down, I play pop and skate punk music and I have a stock Squire Classic Vibe 50's model which sounds pretty good through my Marshall but I now want to throw something in that will really make that guitar shine. I've used a little 59' in a G&L Asat and it sounded really sweet so I was looking for 59's demos with hi gain that was playing chords and it's almost non existent until I found your channel again because I've stumbled upon it before. I'm glad you also did the Chopper T because I had not even thought about that pick up, I believe to my ears the Chopper has a smidge more clarity but they are just about the same and I'm sure a little more treble or presence on the amp would fix that. Again thanks for a good demo that I can appreciate 👍👊
Chopper T for me... Way more punch and attack than the Little 59. Also work well with both 500k and 250k pots. The Little 59 sounded too Humbucker like and not clear with the 250k pot. Amazing A/B test 👌
My money's on the Chopper T which seemed to have better definition, brighter and more clear except for during the mid gain portion. It would be interesting to hear a comparison of the Chopper T against some full size production humbucker. Nice video Sir!
Thank you! Yes the chopper T is what I would leave in. With gain the 59 also sounded good, but far too dark and either mid or high-scooped. Comparing the chopper T with a full humbucker would be interesting, especially the spilt coil tones. Cheers!
@@AlexisGuitars someday I'm going try a split coil config... I've want to hear what actually sounds like up close, so yea ditto on the split coil idea. L8r and thanks
Chipper T sounds really good. Preferred 250K, personally. The Duncan wasn't bad either, but a close 2nd place for me. Thanks for doing both 250k and 500k values with different gain settings! This really helps.
Glad you found it helpful! Yes chopper T for me too. The SD sounded increasingly better as the gain increased, especially for leads, but it's the chopper T going into my spare Tele partscaster. Thanks for watching
@@AlexisGuitars super helpful. I just bought the Chopper T this morning after watching. Again, much appreciated 👍👍👍👍👍 Update: I now have the Chopper T in the bridge of my Tele with a 250K pot and it sounds glorious! I like the tone that Richie Kotzen gets with his Tele, which uses this pickup. I get that same tone now (minus the talent.) 😁😁😁😁
Wondering if the Chopper was designed with 250k in mind, as a straight swap to your average Tele, whereas to my ears the 59 greatly benefited from the brightness of a 500k pot, as you'd usually have in a conventional humbucker equipped guitar.
Very good demonstration it really gives me an idea between these two pickups that makes me decide to go for choper t thanks to you Alex God bless you for this.
Excellent side by side comparison and nice playing! I liked both pickups and agree with your final notes. I think I'd prefer the Chopper T for my kind of playing but they both have their place. Interesting comparison and thanks for doing this as I had never heard the Chopper T and was curious about it. I used a DiMarzio Pre-B1 long ago and really liked it.
Coming back to this video to say this comparison is what convinced me to buy a Chopper T for a Tele I recently got that has a Jazzmaster pickup in the neck. The pickups will be wired to a CTS 250k/500k volume pot (Chopper T will be 500k) and a CTS 250k audio taper tone pot that’s push-pull to run the Chopper T in either series or parallel. I’m so excited to turn this Tele into an absolute beast.
Added the SD Little 59 for my Tele Bridge in my Squier. Chose it because it carries a slightly softer tone than a full size Humbucker yet still gives you an amazingly good mid-range that balanced VERY WELL with the SD Vintage Tele neck pickup that was also added. Also, included 5 way switch so series AND parallel are available at any time.
I prefer the 59 but the T definitely has a wider range and I can totally see why more people are choosing that. I typically, almost always, go lower on my tone knob on my bridge and neck pickups. It's just preference, I think.
This was a really well thought out comparison. Thanks for taking the time to try different pots. It made a noticeable difference. Just a thought.... you could have used a switched push-pull pot and switched a 500k resistor in parallel with the 500k pot to get 250k. It would slightly change the taper, but is effectively the same.
Nice shootout. I've been playing a Squire Esquire and I've been thinking of changing out the stock pickup to a Duncan Little'59. In comparison to the Dimarzio Chopper T, the Dimarzio does sound a little brighter, but overall I like the Little '59 better. I pretty much play with a slightly dirty tone and the Little '59 just seems to fit better with what I'd be going for tone wise. As far as pots go, I'm still not sure. I might have to give your video another listen to see which will be a better fit. Thanks for the great video.
Also side note, it changes the sound when you remove the tone pot, even when you have the tone pot at 10 (unless it’s one of those tone pots that take it self out the circuit when at full) with out a tone pot you get more out put and treble (useful when wiring a metal guitar to take the tone pot out)
Yes you're right. I often mod my guitars with a bypass switch to take both pots out of the circuit for more treble. I've not experimented to see how much difference just the tone pot makes, though. Sounds like a good idea for a (very geeky, but interesting) video haha
It's easy to fit a no-load tone pot instead of a standard one to do this (no bypass switch required). The difference is the change in tone when moving from the full 10 position, to the 9 position where the wiper starts to make contact with the resistive track. Going from 9 to 10, there's a definite jump in the amount of treble. You can do a similar thing by fitting a Fender TBX tone control, which above the centre detent position connects in a 1 Meg pot on top of the standard 250k pot. The extra 1 meg of resistance gives you enough reduction in treble bleed through the tone cap so that almost no high frequency signal is bled off, and when turned fully up, there's no real audible difference in sound between that and a no-load pot. It does allow you to add a bit of extra brightness rather than the on/off selection a no-load pot gives. You pay your money and take your choice. However, the suggested Fender wiring scheme for this makes the basic pickups sound really dull (they still supply a wiring diagram intended for use with a low-impedance active preamp), so I use my own wiring method and fixed resistor value. The original TBX pots are different to the current ones, and in my opinion, were a much better design, with no disconnection of the 250k pot track in the detent position. But you can configure the current ones to be a combined treble roll off (below 5.5 on the dial) and bass roll off control (above 5.5 on the dial), which could work well on say a humbucker or P90 equipped guitar where the sound can do with thinning out at times.
Really interesting! The TBX pots are definitely something I want to look into and try out. I might even have one somewhere... I once installed the Eric Clapton mid boost circuit on a strat. Need to see if I still have the parts lying around. On the topic of both high and low pass filter tone knobs, I think Reverend guitars use separate bass and treble tone knobs on their guitars. I need to check out a wiring diagram.
G&L guitars and bases have often used both high and low pass filters. They call it their passive treble and bass circuit. So if you look up "G&L PTB diagram", you'll find a circuit diagram. The high pass filter need to be in series with the pickup signal, so often requires some rearrangement from the normal arrangement. Note that the low pass (standard tone) part of the circuit always needs to be before the high pass circuit, as the 'R' part of the low pass RC circuit is the pickup coil resistance. Put the low pass circuit after the high pass and the 'R' part of the RC circuit becomes the high pass filter's impedance and the filter cut-off point is very different and it just doesn't work. Two knobs gives more flexibility in tone shaping, but if you've only got space for one tone knob, then the TBX pot comes in handy. I know the G&L diagrams indicate a 500k low pass tone pot, but I prefer and fit 250k tone pots to all my guitar builds, including those with humbucker and P90s as I prefer the tone response being spread over more of the pot's travel range, so the dual gang 250k + 1Meg TBX pot suits me fine. And with each filter operating over 50% of the overall travel, you don't want all the tone action squeezed up at one end of the pot's travel.
@@AlexisGuitars I have a high and low pass filter on my SG. It’s very simple to do, there’s some guitar articles about mostly comparing to the Yamaha dry switch. It’s super useful for high gain and mid gain stuff
I use the chopper T with a 250k and I love it, I will say the ‘59 sounds a little more authentically humbucker like, where the Chopper retains a bit more tele bridge feel but with way less noise and more low end and mids than a single coil.
This was an excellent comparison demo even though it was with a Tele. I am setting up a Peavey Predator (Strat) to be a dedicated slide guitar, kept in open E tuning. I need more bridge warmth and output. Not concerned about quack or Stratty tones. Initially I thought I'd just drop a Little 59 in. However, thanks to your review, I am now going to go with the Chopper for a few reasons: - A bit brighter, so I can just use the 250 pot - I liked how the Chopper sounded with the 250 pot. - The Little 59 is a bit too hot for me. - I like the twin blade design. More than any other factor, I like how it looks. - Dimarzio offers a lot of color options. I can get a cream color, which fits well with my vintage white guitar. Again, well done! Many thanks!
Wow, that Seymour Duncan 59 is the darkest single coil I have ever heard in a Tele. Conversely, the Chopper T sounds more like a standard Tele bridge pickup than most humbucking pickups do.
Yes I've tried the little 59 in another Tele and had the same results. It's the inherent characteristic of the pickup. The chopper T has enough brightness to pull off nice cleans and higher gain. Thanks for watching mate!
Thank you very much! I'm hoping to do more comparisons but it'll be a while before I record something for the channel. Stay tuned and thanks for the support!
Weirdly so was mine... the 500k sounded too bright but the 250k was the perfect balance, even for a humbucker. Loved that tone/sound... could really work with it.
The internet swears by 500k pots with single coil humbuckers, but in a bright Telecaster, I think the 250k pots are bright enough! Thanks for this video! ❤
I just installed a Chopper T in my tele.I can say it's not overly bright.It's warm but not dark.More sparkly than most humbuckers,less so than a single coil.Just right imho.It's balanced in a guitar tone way (IE not sterile)No scoop nor mid hump.Maybe slightly mid oriented - slightly.It just sounds full and good,no ear fatigue. I need to boost the treble just a bit,it definitely cuts through if you do that(has enough highs in case you don't want warm)..can turn treble up wo harshness too.does both overdrive and cleans well
Love the Chopper. I have a chopper in my telecaster since 2007. Before i tried the lil59. Didn't liked it. It not only sounds better in my opinion, it also responds better to my playing. Sometimes pickup demo's are nog always a sound thing, but also a feel thing.
Yes I know what you mean. All the demos in the world won't show you how a pickup will sound in your guitar with you playing it. Thanks for watching mate
59 really sounds muddy and lacks definition and clarity. Chopper T kills it in every possible way. Note to note separation and overall presence is night and day difference.
Very little difference between the two in mid or high gain. I give the Dimarzio a huge advantage clean because of its brightness. Love getting that tele twang of a good single coil and the awesome tight rythm and screaming leads from a humbucker.
For those who play blues and rock and roll, you can definitely go with the Chopper. I suggest using a switch to change the coil connection on the Chopper. . I also suggest two volume pots, one for the neck pickup and one for the bridge (Chopper), which allows for more timbre options.
Good demo thankyou. The chopper sounder better. more crisp but still fat and chunky. Im impressed with the Chopper T. I thought the lil 59 would crush it due to being more output.
The coil impedance and output level of pickups are two completely different things, just one of a group of aspects that determine output level. Charlie Christian pickups, G&L and Fender Lace Sensors can be VERY low coil impedance, right around 4K and still pack a wallop.
Cool! I wired in a mini switch in place of the tone knob, so switching it one way engages the 250 and the other way engages the 500. If you need that flexibility it's a decent option
Yeah I have the Chopper T in my Tele, great pickup. Check out Richie Kotzen for how this sounds as it's in his signature Fender Telecaster for the bridge with a Dimarzio Twang King in the neck.
If you're used to Humbuckers (though these might be dualcoil pickups anyway if memory serves) you might have to dial in tones a little differently, but Teles sound phenomenal playing gainy rock and are responsible for so many of the great rock tones in history (including so many I'd originally assumed were Les Pauls like the solo to Stairway to Heaven).
@@BkBk-gy6vrthe 59 sounds like straight mud. I love my 59 in my tele, but I think I am about to buy a Chopper T. Power and clarity is so much better than the 59.
@Bk Bk I put chopper on my strat instead of single coil. Far from being sharp. Compared to single coil the tone is much fatter and much less highs, not harsh enough on cleans I would say :) Starts to sound great from crunch and above.
I’ve played a tele most of the time for just about 35 years now. I’ve had more bridge pickups in and out of my guitar than I can count or remember honestly. That said, this comment is easy to say with confidence . I prefer the DiMarzio Chopper T. Ohm resistance doesn’t cover Gauss power (magnetic pull) and frequency response. The chopper is louder, more defined and clear. The Duncan is the worst case scenario of bad tone for a tele bridge. Buried in 200k and muddy. The chopper is louder by virtue of its Gauss level and the the ‘59 is overdriving in the lower frequency range. Not overall power. It’s like a low frequency boost OD! Yuck!
I wasn’t expecting to like the 59 better but to my surprise I do. In every comparison except the high gain one. But if I intended to play with that much gain I wouldn’t bother reaching for my Tele anyway
Thank you, i want to upgrade my tele Squier Affinity pickup, from this video i think im gonna choose the Chopper T. Sound more alive to me, the Seymour too dark and warm
While I applaud the idea to address pot value using a single volume control potentiometer using just a volume potentiometer has a different impact on the circuit than the usual volume and tone using two pots in the circuit. The resistance of two pots yields a total value of half their individual value (if they share values). Your setup mimics a vol/tone comparison between setups with two 500k pots and two 1meg pots or circuits without tone pots like your test setup.
I have been a DiMarzio player for Decades and i had heard great things about the little 59 and I am glad you did this comparison because many just use it in a blues or country type setting and it is hard to hear what you need when you play heavier like you said. I will give you credit , you're not that old but I haven't heard the talk of a 1 meg pot in a very long time we use to use them on P.A.F Pro or something heavier back in the late 80's but it would be interesting to hear a 59 on a 1 Meg pot I think it might add something to push it the little extra it appears to miss in the high gain area.. However I have decided to stay with my Chopper T because of the Clarity in all positions but for fun in my other Tele I used a Fast Track T to give me higher gain output and using in any drop tuning like tuning to D or C# it is fire , however for those who don't know the Fast Track T was the original base for the Chopper T and they are great but using the Twang King with the Chopper T really gives in more to talk about both musically AND physically ,,, Again thank you very much for your video I do think I will change my Volume knob to the dual and really get the full use of my Chopper T and Twang King set up but actually I was looking at a push pull to clip a bit of the highs on rhythm parts and push it back for leads.. But who knows anything is possible ... Cheers
Damn how many experiences would you like to share , I have been in this since 83 and as A Real player since 87 so I am sure I can tell you alot of what many have missed over the years. Lol
Huh. I had a Tele years ago with SD stacked SC in the neck and a lil 59 in the bridge. Oddly, I have found the opposite to be true - the lil 59 rips in a band setting. Maybe its just how I dial my amp eq, I dunno. I loved how they both sounded, but for me the 59 with 500k pots had the tone I want. Crazy how each set of ears hears it differently. 🤘🤷♂️
Great to see comments like this showing other experiences with the sd 59. Yes I'm sure how the amp is dialled and the amp itself has an impact. I think a lot of comments agree that 59 with gain sounded great.
SD sounded too dark, and postively muffled when run thru the 250K pot! Not quite so bad with a bit of dirt but the DM still sounded brighter and clearer regardless! Nicely played! \m/
Yes I didn't expect to have such a clear favourite. The little 59 for bluesy lead playing sounds fantastic, but I prefer having the brightness of the chopper T
The 250k seems to really muddy the 59. I used 500k with my hot and cool rail setup on my mexi Duo Sonic and really like the tone. Really clear with good high and lows while highlighting those gorgeous mids and crunch when driven.
Chopper T dominated the clean tones in both values, but I feel like it was a closer contest with the different gain levels at 500k. Ultimately the Chopper T is the more well-rounded pickup of the two. Also, this is totally off topic, but I’ll never understand SD’s marketing for the Lil 59 when they say it sounds like a “well-balanced PAF”. It doesn’t sound like a PAF at all to my ears. That’d be a cool idea for a shootout. The Lil 59 against various PAF-style pickups.
I would have preferred to hear the little 59 with only the 500k pot and the chopper with only the 250k pot. Both pickups sound great so I would opt for two guitars, one for each pickup. However, if I were going to have two teles one would house a chopper and the other would house an Area Hot T. If I want the tone of a Duncan 59 I’ll use the full-sized humbucker. On pots, remember that a volume and tone knob are in parallel. With 500k pots the pickup is loaded with 250k at the high frequencies (where it matters). With 250k pots the pickup is loaded with 125k. 1M or no-load tone pots are a great idea.
Lil 59 with 500 and DiMarzio with 250. The DiMarzio had a bunch more mids. Useful to cut through aggressively but hard to cleanup when it is just you playing. I think with the 59's, you could sit back when needed and kick on a mid boost for a stand out moment.
I’m not hearing any output in volume difference between the two, despite the 59 claim to be twice the output shopper tea sounded a little more clearer and brighter and more pleasant to my ears
I put 1Meg pots = no filtering, it's like having no pot when you let everything go thru... The best way to go is to have a pre-preamp + post-preamp EQ... I use an analog programmable 2x30 bands from Klark Teknik😈(Gibbons does the same but he uses two Digitech MEQ28) Since it's a studio EQ, I can use it as an overdrive too, as well as keeping what reaches the amp's input as totally clean and change the distortion's colour at will, as well as emulating any PU's frequency curbs, and same for the speakers, especially since I use the EVM12Ls
@@AlexisGuitars You won't regret going 1Meg/log, even for tones, and the must is using sealed pots with conductive plastic taper, e.g. the Bourns ones. These will never scratch. The big piss-off is when you want a duplo in 1Meg and even worse, with a push-pull: you have to order custom pots and they're very expensive. Up to 500M you have MEC duplo+push-pull ones which are very expensive too (over €50 per pot!). Whe you use custom hybrid PUs (e.g. doing both a PAF'57 and a P-90 at once) and you wan't a LesPaul or Strat-like like pot system while you only have two pots and you don't want to drill holes in your guitar made with a 1905-cut Honduras mahogany or a 1940/1950-cut royal walnut, your options are limited: you need such things as well as the Freeway selectors (these replace the 5 and 3 posn with a 10 and 6 posns one : the lever flips between two circuits, so you have 2x5 or 2x3 that fit instead of traditional selectors...
@@AlexisGuitars BTW, there is very lttle difference, if any, between the Choper and the Little'59, except the Choper is overpriced and the Little'59 even more, but, I'd need to listen to 24-96 on the Dynaudios, not with YT compression on the laptopUsually, SDs tend to be "sweeter" than DMs, any way, they're all on the off-ramp for me : I found a mad PU-maker which does only handwound PUs and a set of three SCs or two HBs is cheaper than a single Little'59 in Europe... And he also makes rails and even hybrid PUs like e.g. a twin rails with a PAF-alnico2 "SC" or a Strat PU: he found a way to magnetically shield one from the other... The problem with all these industrially made PUs is that nonetheless, they're way too expensive compared to production costs, but they also lack the grit of handwound ones, machine wound ones are all too smooth, no matter if SD, DM, Fender, Gibson, PRS, Lace Sensors, EMG, etc... And SD tends to be the smoother, in fact, the only ones I really like from 'em are the Antiquity PAFs (didn't tried the SCs) but at €588 the set on Thomann's, err, my PU maker does the same thing for €130...
Think the Chopper would be sweet for playing like punk type stuff like Ramones? My buddy’s in a cover band, and wanted something like a JB, but I was thinking of recommending this to him.
For me, the Chopper T sounds better in the 'clean' and high gain areas, whilst the Little '59 is a bit better sounding at medium gain. That's probably because the higher output is pushing the amp a bit more, so there's a bit more distortion to the drive, whilst the Chopper T could do with a bit more gain to flesh out the sound. And always 500k pots for me. At the higher gains, the overdrive's distortion adds back in a lot of high frequencies you miss with the 250k pot, so it's not quite as as important there, but when playing cleaner it makes a lot of difference. I did feel there was a bit more note definition on both pickups at higher gain with the 500k pots. I don't know what wire gauge was used to wind them, so I expect the SD was 44AWG to get that 17.7k DCR in a single-coil size pickup, whilst the DiMarzio was probably 43AWG for its 9.19k (I think they'd struggle to get that much wire round two blades if it was a more standard 42AWG). As going up a wire gauge number adds about 27% extra resistance (due to the thinner wire) compared to the same length of the original wire gauge, a better rough comparison allowing for this, is nearer to 13.9k for the Little '59 compared to the Chopper T's 9.19k. So about 50% more relative output. Given that both pickups have 4-conductor winding, it would have been interesting to see what they sounded like in a split coil mode. I expect the Chopper T would have sounded relatively weak in comparison to the Little '59, which may have got much closer to a standard Tele bridge sound.
Really interesting points, thanks Simon! Yes I did consider coil splitting, but couldn't figure out how to test both pot values and have a split coil in one wiring schematic. I'm sure there's a way haha. I very rarely split coils so often forget that it is something people are particularly interested in. I'll try and think of a way to incorporate that into another video without replicating this one. Really appreciate the points made :)
There's certainly a way to do it, but it all depends on how you've wired up the concentric pots in the first place. On the 500k/250k volume pot selection, if you've got a standard Tele neck pickup and a humbucker bridge, you can fit a 500k volume pot and then wire in a resistor with a resistance around 500k between the neck signal connection and ground on the 3-way switch. Then, when that's selected, the parallel connection gives an equivalent 250k path to ground, so the neck pickup sounds like it should do (though on some vintage-style Tele neck pickups I think they could do with a 500k pot to brighten them up). You do then get the 250k equivalence in the 'both pickups on' position, but I find this less of an issue as that position is naturally quite bright to start with. It's not a perfect solution but better than some others. With a dual ganged volume pot, so one pickup has a 500k pot and the other 250k, the 'both pickups' on position results in an equivalent 166k path to ground, which is going to knock even more treble off.
Interesting! I've got it wired up with a mini DPDT switch to select between the 250k and 500k. I wouldn't recommend this for any reason other than an A/B comparison but I could also in theory (using a makeshift plastic/wooden control plate) drill another hole for a push pull tone pot. That's easier to wrap my head around 😅
I’m a Les Paul guy for my primary and just got a 52 classic tele for my 2nd guitar for gigs. Think I’m gonna put a 58 in it to give it a bit more of a full punching feel when I play some of the harder rocking stuff
This is a helpful comparison! I wonder whether the Little 59 brightens up much when split? (With 17KΩ resistance, one of its coils should still provide reasonable output.)
@@AlexisGuitars yeah the best combo I got so far was the super distortion t with the single coil sounding mini humbucker in the neck from dimarzio 😅 regret selling that guitar
I have a Chopper T with a concentric 250/500 pot (wired to the 500k) and on-on-on switch for series/parallel/split on the ChopperT. (It was a squeeze getting that into a Tele control cavity!). I've also tried a Lil59 in another Tele and a Pearly Gates for Tele in another one. For me the Chopper T has that ceramic crispness which I find a little too aggressive, the 59 has a more organic softer more vintage attack and the PG is my personal fave. It's saggy and earthy but also in parallel, it has massive Tele spank.
Ooh I think I need to try that wiring at some stage! Yes the 59 is definitely softer. Great with gain for warm lead tones but I often favour brighter, crisp tones for a bridge pickup. I have a pearly gates lying around. Awesome pickup. Waiting for the right guitar to put it in - that's my excuse for wanting another guitar anyway!
@@AlexisGuitars Is that a full size PG or the PG for Tele? I love the PG for Tele. This is that pickup in parallel. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VXlk6B5gB-E.html
@@alexwong7 I meant the full size. I had no idea it was available as a Tele pickup. It sounds great. Still got that twang like you say. Great playing btw 🤘
Chopper T and it was not even close. I have have had these pickups in the past. SD pickups tend to sound sterile and muffled with couple of exceptions, like Full shred, JG and Black Winter which all have a great sound. However none of their dual rail pickups thai I tried sounded good compared to Dimarzio counterparts.
I always found it strange that they named it the lil 59. The 59 humbucker is supposed to be a paf style, but the lil 59 tele sounds closer to a JB. I have a lil 59 in a tele and have a switch to put the 2 coils in parallel. A great option.
Nice demo but I'm a little confused.. your clean tones don't sound clean to me. They sound clean-ish, but for a clean tone there's quite a lot of soft breakup. I'm wondering why that is.
Hi Matthew, thanks for the feedback! I'm always looking into how to improve my recording technique. It could be that I had the volume on the amp set very high and attenuated the volume, so humbuckers might push it to break up easier. It might be with how I set up the recording software (Two Notes). I don't think it's the pickup height, because I recorded the demo twice - once with low pickups and one (which made it to the video) with more conventional pickup heights and actually noticed more clarity in the Chopper T in particular. So, long story short - still working on it haha But I appreciate you bringing it up!
I'm going to take a guess. You plugged in and set the amp up for the little 59 as it's the least clearest? The Chopper can take a lot more bass and mid range whilst staying clear. You can hear how it's hinted at in the chords. But the chopper can be super FAT too. However I would prefer to use either of these pickups in the neck position than the bridge. But being super honest, I think the Chopper is the greatest neck pickup of all time. It can also take a 1 meg pot for the neck and sounds pretty lush. 2/3rds Yngwie on steroids 1/3 PAF butteriness. Plus you can actually match the output of the chopper with any high gain pickup you can think of when in the bridge complementing it.
@@AlexisGuitars there isn't a neck version. Just the same pup in the neck. As for dialing in your amp, you would have used a guitar to dial those settings in to the tone your ear likes. Plug in a different guitar and you might need to achieve a similar tone by messing with the settings. But whether it's low end, mid range body or shrieking treble frequencies you dial the amp in for each guitar to get the most out of it. This might be the brightest version of the chopper I've ever heard. Yet the 59 is mad dark. Lower that treble and there's more than enough already in the chopper. Whereas the 59 sounds like a neck pickup in the bridge and compensated with extra treble. Personally I've never seen a guitar played or in a shop with a 59 not in the neck. You somehow make the chopper sounds like a dimarzio fast track 1 with no low end on the separate notes and much more shrill.
I get what you're saying about amp settings and I obviously do change them when jamming around. Changing amp settings to favour one or having different settings for each pickup would make the comparison pointless, though
