Telecaster Bridge for Seymour Duncan Hot Rails

[Linde]

Hello, everyone, my first post here.
Just for fun, I'm trying to get some answer to a weird incompatibility I found.
I'd love, one day, to buy a cheap telecaster replica to upgrade. The pickups I would like to mount are a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails set, but I find that at least the bridge pickup doesn't fit in the Fender Telecaster Mexico bridge (not sure what models) doesn't allow to mount it because the size of the mount hole. I never consider it!
I think it probably depends not strictly by the largeness and the length of the pickup hole in the bridge, but by the angle of the border of the hole. Maybe a regular single coil round side will fit good.
Though I found the measurement of some bridges like Gotoh and Wilkinson, and the pickup's size, I still don't know when it fits and when it's not.

This is what I found:

Hot Rail pickup measurement: 72,9mm x 17,3mm
https://www.seymourduncan.com/wp-conten ... THR-1b.pdf

Gotoh Modern Tele Bridge hole size: 74,17mm x 19,66mm
Wilkinson Adjustable Compensated Tele Bridge hole size: 75,69mm x 19,91mm

It's hard to find detailed measurement of Fender Mexico and USA bridges, in case I need.

Can someone give me some details about it?

Thank you.

[mistermikev]

I'm really surpised that that pickup wouldn't fit in a mexican tele bridge.  r u saying you have a mexican tele and this seymour pickup and you tried and it doesn't fit?  is it an issue with the 'wood' more than the bridge?  that I'd be much more inclined to accept but... i guess it's possible mexican tele bridge is different/smaller?  I have no info on mexican but I know most aftermarket mfg try to make their bridges to match fender specs as they are supposed to be replacements.  I suggest you take a dimensions doc like the one you pointed to above and print it out... see if it actually fits.

[Linde]

I agree with you, this thing sounds weird, but it's true.

But I don't have any telecaster style guitar, I would like buy one day a cheap one, but this issue confused me, so I would like to know something more about it. Even in case I need to help some friend of mine.

I read about this issue around.

Is the third review here:
https://www.thomann.de/it/seymour_dunca ... tstyle.htm
«Watch out for you bridge!
[...] I really like Seymour Duncan pickups but with these I had one big issue.
The bridge pickup doesn't fit to Fender MIM tele standard bridge.
For that reason I had to send them back. You need vintage bridge to get them installed.»

https://www.tdpri.com/threads/my-black- ... ls.607267/
«When I got the new Seymour Duncan Hot Rails the bridge pickup would not fit through the original bridge's pickup hole. I did actually try to do this when I was having trouble refitting the Wilkinson bridge and I actually damaged the pickup tape trying to push the pickup through.»

And here there's more than a case of this issue.
https://www.tdpri.com/threads/bridge-fo ... le.989737/
(In that page someone talk about feedback and squeal problem with the SD Hot Rail pickup, but that is another problem.)

The bridge with this problem seems to be the «Mexican Standard / Player Series».

I say that is the roundness of the shorter side of the pickup. Humbuckers single coil sized are not too much shorter than regular single coil, but neither the corners are so round, and they need more space in some bridge.

I guess the bridge hole should have a bit longer and larger or have corner less round without sacrifice space to get that kind of pickup fitted fine.

[mistermikev]

34 minutes ago, Linde said:

I agree with you, this thing sounds weird, but it's true.

But I don't have any telecaster style guitar, I would like buy one day a cheap one, but this issue confused me, so I would like to know something more about it. Even in case I need to help some friend of mine.

I read about this issue around.

Is the third review here:
https://www.thomann.de/it/seymour_dunca ... tstyle.htm
«Watch out for you bridge!
[...] I really like Seymour Duncan pickups but with these I had one big issue.
The bridge pickup doesn't fit to Fender MIM tele standard bridge.
For that reason I had to send them back. You need vintage bridge to get them installed.»

https://www.tdpri.com/threads/my-black- ... ls.607267/
«When I got the new Seymour Duncan Hot Rails the bridge pickup would not fit through the original bridge's pickup hole. I did actually try to do this when I was having trouble refitting the Wilkinson bridge and I actually damaged the pickup tape trying to push the pickup through.»

And here there's more than a case of this issue.
https://www.tdpri.com/threads/bridge-fo ... le.989737/
(In that page someone talk about feedback and squeal problem with the SD Hot Rail pickup, but that is another problem.)

The bridge with this problem seems to be the «Mexican Standard / Player Series».

I say that is the roundness of the shorter side of the pickup. Humbuckers single coil sized are not too much shorter than regular single coil, but neither the corners are so round, and they need more space in some bridge.

I guess the bridge hole should have a bit longer and larger or have corner less round without sacrifice space to get that kind of pickup fitted fine.

hmm... well sounds like you'd need to get an after market bridge for it then.  

could always "make it work" by taking a file and expanding the hole.

in addition, might want to ask your question over on the seymour duncan forum cause if it's a common problem... they will def know about it there.  

[Linde]

I'm not a professional. Do you think it's easy work sand the metal of the bridge? What's the material of the various telecaster bridge high and low quality? Brass, steel...

I could do it on my guitar of mine, maybe. Probably not for a friend, especially if that is the first time for me.

Actually, I really could write to Seymour Duncan to get some information about it.

[mistermikev]

32 minutes ago, Linde said:

I'm not a professional. Do you think it's easy work sand the metal of the bridge? What's the material of the various telecaster bridge high and low quality? Brass, steel...

I could do it on my guitar of mine, maybe. Probably not for a friend, especially if that is the first time for me.

Actually, I really could write to Seymour Duncan to get some information about it.

well, that would all depend on you.  I wouldn't call myself a professional either, but I know if I had to I'd just grab some files with a less aggressive edge (diamond needle files come to mind) and keep the file straight up and down to prevent ruining the finish around the area.    it would take a bit of work as generally speaking there is approx a heavy 1/32 of metal.  i believe they are typically brass with a coating that can easily flake off if you used an aggressive file.  I do believe there are some that are steel but I don't think the gotoh is.  I have no idea on the MIM bridge.  

just go to the seymour forum... those folks will no doubt have all the specific as they are a wealth of seymour centric info.

[curtisa]

I think the issue is more that the Hot Rails pickup shape, with its skinny bobbins sitting side by side, makes the corners of the pickup closer to a rectangular profile which naturally struggles to fit through the semi-circular ends of the mounting window in the Tele baseplate:

Although why that problem appears to be only on the MIM bridge plate is a bit odd. Is the MIM string spacing slightly narrower than the USA version, and hence has a slightly narrower bridge pickup with a slightly shorter mounting hole to match perhaps?

[Linde]

Thank you, that image explains perfectly the problem.

In theory, a larger and longer bridge hole will not have problem with that kind of pickup.

Edited November 30, 2021 by Linde