It never ceases to amaze me how, when I want some specific and niche info... there's someone who has put HOURS into making that info available on RU-vid. Incredible. Thank you for this!
And I'm seriously considering Special (B) and Vintage (N) combo now because of this video. Was pretty much set on J Street (B) and Royal T (N) but might do the Special (B) and Royal T (N) combo instead, and meet halfway, it was different sound but a bit more refined and cool./
Good review thanks. Royal T’s do sound great but as Jason L himself said they are basically a Strat pickup for a Tele body sooo... Vintage neck and Special bridge is the ultimate Lollar combo for mine. I made the mistake of buying the Special set. The Special Neck is great but does not play well with others, even with the Special bridge: it is creamy, jazzy, bluesy and loud but if you EQ for the neck (which lacks top end comparatively), the Special T bridge (treble) will cut your ears off. The vintage is a lot more suited to the toppy Special bridge and the mid switch position is a marriage made in heaven. PS. If you don’t have a series switch (4 position or S-1 in my case), you are seriously missing out on a seriously killer (humbucker-like) lead sound. Google Tele Series or Tele 4 Way. G’day PPS. Although if I had the money, I’d love to try a Vintage (or 52) neck with a J-Street bridge
Great choice! I was floored by how awesome that middle position is with the special b/vintage n. I had a series switch for a while but ultimately never really used it for the stuff I'd play my tele on. Curious about the J-street with 52 neck. Kinda wish I had tried that! cheers!
I really appreciate the format and playing in this demo. You were very thorough and the riffs/songs you played were practical. It wasn’t just some guy country twanging or a kid djenting through the whole demo and I thank you for that!
Brilliant review. Really appreciate it. I’ve had a MIJ Tele with lollar royal pickup in neck and bridge sitting in my reverb watch list for a week and been looking for some sound comparisons. Getting some great Paul Simon Graceland vibes in there.
hey Scott, WOW. Just subscribed. Well done! What a stunning shootout! Swapping PU's alone is quite a task, but playing all those styles back-to-back with such superb even attack and clean playing is challenging, and you nailed it. I have paired a J Street bridge with a Royal T neck in a few tele's. It is always impressive, but I never tried the Special Bridge PU or the Vintage neck. I agree the Special (B) with a Vintage (N) or Royal T neck sounds excellent! Thank you for all your hard work ..including the superb video editing. That must have taken some time as well.
I have the Special T set in a Rust, was looking for a little more clarity in the neck position. Decided to go with the Royal T after watching this. Thanks.
Trying to pick between a Special and Vintage to pare with a Royal neck. This comment is for me to go back and forth. Middle, 3:13 3:38 clean 9:12 9:35 fing picked 12:23 13:05 OD Bridge 4:20 4:32 clean 10:14 10:25 fing picked 14:14 14:35
@@landontillema2253 went with both 😂 put the vintage in one guitar and the special in the guitar with the Royal T. Honestly you can’t go wrong with either
@@haskitt haven’t tried the 52 set but I do have Klein 52s in another tele (I admit to having a problem). Had the chance to try out a pre-CBS tele recently and to my ear it sounded damn close to the Special. A lot more grisly and midrangy than most vintage reproductions
OK so I put the Nash set in which (according to Lollar themselves) is a Vintage neck and a Special bridge BUT OMG I missed that MAGICAL Special Neck, the single best and most commented on (live) pickup I’ve ever used, sooooo, I messaged Lollar about my conundrum and they said to get the J-Street to match the SpecialNeck. Holy Moleey...after tooo many $$$$ I struck gold. Shut the front door! THE best pickup combo in any Tele for mine.
I also put the J-Street and Special Neck into my FGN Tele to replace the stock Seymour Duncans. Honestly I'm not an experienced guitar player (rather an advanced beginner so take this with a grain of salt 🙂) but the result really blew me away. I couldn't think of a much better Tele sound than this.
@@Manfish154 hear hear. For the first two weeks I would come home after gigging with this combo, raving to my wife about the sound and feel (once in tears).
@@Manfish154How have those pickups worked out? I've also got an FGN Illiad and want some medium output pickups. I keep going back and forth with the Vintage neck and the Royal. You are suggesting I check out something different- thank you!
You make fantastic videos Scott. Incredibly helpful, short consistent licks and a huge effort. I just put Special Ts in my 2012 Deluxe and after 2 gigs am LOVING that neck. Need to adjust the bridge a bit higher. Q: What pickup heights to you go with? (usually measured from bottom of sting to pole pieces with finger on last frett)
I'll have to measure what my heights are. They're really different for everything, but when I did this comparison I measured so I'd at least start from a baseline for each set. Thanks for the kind words!
Thank you for this video! I’m building a parts Tele and want a neck pup that’s slightly less output and brighter than the bridge. Going to go with a special t bridge and vintage neck. I’ve got a special t set in my other Tele. Probably going to replace that neck pup as well.
Excellent presentation and you worked hard for us my friend. My preference would be the J street bridge and special neck. Of course it’s all subjective . Thank you for your hard work.
Your pickup comparisons are really good. If you ever get the urge, it would be great to complement them with measurements (DCR, inductance, capacitance, magnet strength), which are rarely provided by manufacturers. We need to learn how to correlate them with what we hear. So pickup choice can become more objective. Good LCR meters are the DE-5000 or Hantek 1833C. Magnetometers include the WT10A and TD8620. Not too expensive. The blinded tests are a great idea too.
Thanks V W! I've been considering getting a magnetometer, hadn't really looked into LCR but that's a great idea too. Everyone focuses so much on resistance but it's such a small slice of what matters. Makes me wanna hold on to the Tele pups I have until I can measure them. Many winders don't even say what magnet types their pickups have. I know that my obsession with A2 is mostly just a correlation to the strength of the magnet, but it's a good starting place. Cheers!
I wish I could give this 100 thumbs up. Far and away the best video for Lollar Tele pickup comparisons. Nay, I say BRILLIANT. It nailed my decisions to go with the Royal T and a Vintage bridge.
Great video man!! My favourite is special bridge and vintage neck ( which works everytime for my tele). In Lollar website all nash using those modified combo as well. But i am very surprised those A3 sounds amazing too. Will definetly buy it in the future. Thank you for such an awesome video!
Vintage pickups and the royalty T are awfully close. I think it's the kind of thing that you have to play the guitar to get the feel of those particular pickups because they sound so close. But they might feel vastly different.
yeah they really feel vastly different, and honestly I hear the royal as having way more high end definition than the vintage. the vintage has a smokiness in the highs/mids that the royal doesn't have.
After watching both comparison videos, I’m probably going to go 52 Neck and Special Bridge. A3 is a close second in the neck though. Great videos thanks a lot!
Not sure if anyone has tried the lollar mini humbucker in the neck position? Looking to pair it with a bridge. What tele bridge goes well with it? I was thinking the special T bridge since it was a bit louder. Any suggestions?
I would say special or J Street… I have the lollar mini humbucker in the neck of another guitar and it is significantly louder than most Tele bridges. It gives the lollar high wind imperial Bridge a run for it’s money in output (have them both in the same guitar)
Hey, using 10-46 DR pure blues (round core, pure nickel wrap). My action is fairly low, but a bit higher than I like it on some guitars because I prefer it a bit higher on teles. I don't have a measurement for you... I go by feel, always tweaking as i go and the guitar is actually gone!
I may in the future sometime but I've already re-sold all the lollar tele pickups! I do have some antiquities to pit against some other duncans coming up though.
Wonderful pickups, all of them - and my poor old ears could hardly tell any difference! The vintage sounded pherhaps a little soft and polite, the street and royals more ”in your face”. The royals sounded very nuanced, demands a good player to ”tame” them. Or, am I making all this up?
I still prefer the 52s. That Special/Vintage middle is great, but I'm not reliant enough on the middle position that I'd sacrifice what I like about the neck/bridge sounds in the 52s.
I recently got the Pro II...and now have two CV50's...one with Fralin Blues Special, the other with Lollar Special T's... Lollars are my favorite...even in a budget Squier. Neck is amazing as this vid shows.
Thanks! I sold this to a student a while back… It’s a partscaster I built with a BloomDoom finished swamp ash guitar mill body, Warmoth roasted maple neck 59 roundback in vintage modern construction, 9.5 Radius, Callaham Bridge
I have a Nash T63 that I believe comes with a Lollar hybrid pickup set - a Vintage T neck and the equivalent of a Special T bridge. I love the way it sounds but my buddy's partscaster with Lollars has a little more juice from the neck...I suspect his has a Special T set...a little more neck volume, compresses a little more, buttery smooth top end. I think I'm going to replace the neck pickup with a Special T...
Hehe well since I posted that comment I tried a special T in the neck and the next day put the vintage T back in. In my guitar the special neck was a little TOO compressed, not enough clarity. Go figure.
@@haskitt My amp has no negative feedback and is cathode biased so that slight output bump with the special was a hair too much. Thankfully the Firebird I bought about a few weeks ago came with Lollar Firebird pickups already in it. Absolute heaven. I'm not touching it.
Thanks for making this video series. It’s been very helpful. Question: do you think a 52 in the neck and an A3 in the bridge would work well together? I generally like A2 pickups, but found myself really liking that focused quality you pointed out in the A3 bridge.
