Budz Guitars Purebred Tele Bridge Pickup

Single coil, enamel wire wrapped, alnico magnet pickup.

I installed this pickup in the bridge position on my old Japanese Squier Tele (now don't laugh too hard! The wood, hardware and manufacture of these older Japanese Squires often beats out the U.S. made Fenders...but the pickups are pretty sad). The neck pickup is a Seymour Duncan. Previously I had had a Fender 50s reissue in the bridge, and thought it OK, but I had heard Dave Budzinski's guitars played live by local guitarists, and by Dave himself, and I was interested in trying them out as they sounded so good.

The output on this pickup is a little hotter than average, although I think Dave carves out his specs to emulate old classic 50s and 60s Tele pickups, so that may be subjective on my part. They are NOT overwound monsters at all, much more of a good retro vibe really. They are hand-wound and I think that makes a big difference. The sound is very organic and warm, and the top end is very sweet and singing, unlike some botique pickups (read - Barden's) that I have played through. It feels much more "live" and interactive, too...it's made this axe very responsive indeed. Very well balanced sound with a nice low end as well as that nice high end I spoke of before. I play a lot of Blues and Jazz, and this pickup shines on that a lot, but I also play in a RetroRock/JanglePop band and it sounds great on that too. Metalheads might want to find something else, although I think these pickups could pull it off. I should mention that I have a studio, and many of my clients use this guitar instead of their own after trying it out. Records GREAT!

I've been playing Guitar and Bass for 35 years, toured through the U.S. and Europe a good bit for many years, and I do studio playing and production as well. These days I play through smaller amps, the Fender Deluxe Reissue, a Gibson Falcon, Silvertone, a Fender DeVille and occationaly clients Marshalls when they want to cart them over. This guitar now sounds wonderful through all of these. I have a good little pile of Fender and Gibson guitars as well as some cool and obscure axes, but thanks to this pickup this little guitar usually gets picked first for most jobs. It's a lot of fun to play now. Bud (Dave Budzinski) is a great guy too, very responsive to player's needs and ideas. I'm looking forward to his P-90s and Humbuckers, which he says will be out soon. Really, these are great Pickups, well worth trying.