rio grande big bottoms + '72 tele deluxe MIM RI?

[airbags]

i've done the research, scoured threads on forums from all different sites, yet one question remains: what is the output like on the rio grande big bottoms?

 

my mim hss fat strat, for example, has a seymour duncan distortion trembucker, which is considered a high output pup. the other two pups are the vintage rails (mid) and cool rails (neck), both considered by seymour duncan to be moderate output.

 

does anyone know how would the RG bottoms would compare? i can't seem to find that anywhere.

[GAS Man]

Don't know about the rio grande but thought I mention that your neighbor over there on Vashon Island, Jason Lollar, has made a direct drop in (proper sized) replacement for the Fender WR pickup. His is 10.7k dc resistance.

 

http://www.lollarguitars.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=LGP&Product_Code=269&Category_Code=humbucker-pickups#mp3

 

Quite pricey though.

[airbags]

this will show my inexperience on the matter - i had to do a quick read on dc resistance. i love being a musician: there's still so much to learn!

 

anyway, the seymour duncan distortion trembucker is 16.6k dc resistance (bridge), the cool rails is 9.4k (neck), and the vintage is 2.31k (neck/middle).

 

lollar's are 10.7k in both the neck and bridge spots.

 

the rio grandes are:

 

PICKUP *DC Resistance +/-

Crunchbox 16

Punchbox 12.2

 

so, you may have inadvertently answered my question. of course, i'd feel much better if someone had some definitive experience with these pups, but all things considered, it seems like a gamble worth taking. of course, being a texas-to-seattle transplant, i don't feel so bad about supporting either rio grande or lollar, as either would be supporting a "local" business.

[GAS Man]

Yeah, the resistance going through the pickup is often used to judge the power of the output, but it's not always a perfect correlation, but does serve as a rough guide. DiMarzio is about the only pickup manufacturer that I've found that will also state their "output". They show it as measured by millivolts and they will also show DC resistance. http://www.dimarzio.com/site/#/pickups/

[airbags]

... but it's not always a perfect correlation...

 

heh, so i've gathered it still gives me a better idea than i had before i posted!

 

interesting notes on the dimarzio site. when i sought to replace the pups in my strat, i had no prior experience with dimarzio or duncan, but i got swayed to duncan because their site was more comprehensive with tone samples; dimarzio's samples are way overproduced tracks, which gives you even less idea what a pup might sound like.

 

eventually, i elected to play the billy corgan strat (http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=0115002806 ) at a huge chain near where i live (no free advertising for them), and the one thing those corgan pups had in common with some of the other dimarzios was the same nasally sounding whine to them. i'm sure it may have just been some of the pups i reviewed, and not all dimarzios, but it was enough to sway me to duncan.

 

the only reason duncan's losing this battle is because having to order a custom pickguard for my tele would just add to the expense, and there's still no guarantee that everything would fit right. if i make one mistake in the ordering process, and i'm so, so screwed, and stuck with a pickguard that i can't use... then i'd still have to order the right pups.

 

from everything i've read about the rio grandes, they won't sound like the cunife pups in the original 72s, but they'll still be telecaster pups, and i'm perfectly all right with that. i'm not exactly what you'd call "traditional", anyway