Seymour Duncan APTL-3JD Jerry Donahue Model Tele Bridge Pickup

The A2 pole pieces give a softer pick attack than A5, similar to A3. Coupled with the high turn count, you get output and tone similar to a hot Broadcaster type pickup. If you like the tone of the early '50s type Tele pickups, and you want a little more output and warmth, this is it. I've tried it in two different Teles now, one with brass saddles, and one with steel. I definitely prefer the steel saddles. It gives you a little more bite.So here's the bad. It's a standard vintage size Tele bobbin that is just about maxed out with 42awg wire. This makes the black string wrap stick out a bit and difficult to fit through a vintage style stamped bridge plate. In my case, the wrap got caught on the bridge plate, and pulled it down, exposing part of the coil. I had to scrape away some of the excess wax, remelt it, and press the string back into place.I also don't care for the raised D and G poles, even with a straight 9.5" radius. The G especially is noticeably louder than my other flat pole Tele pickups.

Holy crap what a difference this made. I bought this for an aftermarket conversion of a Squier Telecaster into an Esquire, just as a fun project. The Squier pickup did not sound all that bad, honestly. It was vintage voiced, 6.9K, and had exactly the sort of twang you expect from a Telecaster. This one is a bit warmer, 7.7K, and also has CONSIDERABLY more bass response than the stock and a lot of other bridge pickups available for Telecasters. I was worried that since I was only going to have one pickup to work with that I needed something with a wide range of available tones, and this fit the bill better than I expected. The tonal complexity I can get out of this guitar is pretty astonishing, despite only having a single pickup, single volume, and single tone. I can switch it down to tone bypass and get the classic Telecaster lead tone, but then switch it into the middle position, dial the tone back, and get P90 jazz sort of sounds out of it. I want to say that this is ~the~ choice for aftermarket Esquire conversions, just because of its versatility and excellent tone.

Love these pickups. They make my partscaster sound better than any other tele-style guitar I have. I've heard arguments that pickups don't matter, but they sure do.The only reason I'm giving it 4 stars for "easy to install" is that the neck pickup only comes with wood screws. Not everyone wants to mount the neck pickup that way. I wanted to mount it to the pickguard, and I did, because I have extra screws. But you'd think a company like Seymour Duncan would include both kinds and let people make up their own minds.

This is a wonderfully balanced Tele pickup. For reference, I put it in a Classic Vibe 50s Tele (butterscotch blonde with Alnico V pickups). It has as much bass in it as the stock neck pickup in this guitar, which is great for me. But it still retains the searing, stabbing biting quality of a Tele bridge pickup (the really high "ice pick" frequencies are a attenuated a bit, but the spirit of the Tele tone is unmistakeably there).Overall, a great upgrade for the guitar as the stock bridge pickup had practically no bass even with height adjustments.

Great sounding pickup. Would recommend to anyone wanting a slightly more rounded bridge tele pickup sound. Shipping with USPS was a nightmare. Finally delivered 10 days late and the online tracking showed the package sitting in California (original location) being “processed” the entire time until the day it spontaneously arrived. Bought for a customer’s guitar...but kept for myself after they cancelled due to the delay.

Are you kidding?! It's Seymour Duncan, shut up and give them your money!

My Tele sounded good, but this was definitely an improvement in the richness of the sound. Installation was pretty simple if you know how to solder a few simple connections. I replaced both pickups with Seymour Duncan units. Keep your old pickups if you ever think of selling, as some people really value "original" stuff even if it isn't as good.

I have this pickup in 2 Telecasters. It is my all time favorite bridge pickup for a Tele. It doesn't have that Ice picky tone that can be annoying with Teles. It's bright but not overly bright. It has just the right amount of midrange and it's a bit hotter then the neck but that's a good thing. This was purchased to pair it with. SD firebird pickup in the neck and I am very happy with it. It sounds great both clean and with drive. It works really well