Please tell me about your Barden Tele pickups.

[gear007]

I have a very nice light weight '52 reissue Fender Tele (6.6 lbs).
I gig regularly and cannot stand the buzz the stock pups make.
Esp. when using overdrive or compression in venues w/ poor grounds.
Which is about 100 percent of the places I play. I am leaning
Toward a set of the modern T that Barden is offering. I did a Barden
Search here and there is not much recent talk of them. So what do
you think of your Tele Bardens? Please help me decide. Thanks
in advance.

[gtrnstuff]

Tried Bardens. Prefer Kinmans. Better string to string balance, more versatile.
DiMarzio Areas have good reviews as well.

[gear007]

I thought about the area T option but they sound very "hi-fi"
in most of the sound clips that I have heard. Can anyone confirm?
Kinman is a newer name to me. Seen them mentioned here and
There but don't know much about them. Bill lawrence also comes
often. I'd like to find noiseless that comes as close as possible to
Single coil sound.

[Bro.Twang]

Noiseless pickups are really my thang but bill makes a good pickup and inexpensive too.

[oldtelefart]

Had 'em a few years and totally love the neck p/u. I'd like to try the new bridge Modern T. Stock bridge is a bit sharp for my ears.

[Wayne Alexander]

Barden pickups make a wider range of sounds than stock singlecoils. You absolutely have to use the volume and tone controls on your guitar with Bardens in it, if you do there are many tonal options. They can sound a lot like stock Tele pickups, or not, depending on how you set the tone controls, your attack, etc. I'd suggest the Modern Wind bridge pickup over the Gatton, it's a bit darker/midrangier, the Gatton is very, very bright. The Barden tele neck pickup is as good as a tele can sound.

I've also got Kinman Broadcaster pickups in one guitar. They sound almost exactly like a good set of 50's style alnico singlecoil tele pickups, maybe slightly less raw and slightly more balanced. They're very, very good if you want the guitar to sound stock, but noiseless.

[gear007]

The online consensus seems to be that
Gatton bridge can be very treble heavy, but
the neck is top notch. So perhaps the new
Modern bridge is the ticket. Any other thoughts
on Barden t pickups?

[teleluvver]

Hey 007,

I don't have a newer Barton, but I've got one (bridge only) from the 90's. I am very picky, and I have played literally hundreds of gigs with it and have never been dissatisfied. I use mine in a 90's '52 RI Tele, and currently play 60+ gigs a year in a classic rock/country band. I played through mostly Fender black faces and tweeds, but this year I switched to a Matchless Lightning. I have been very happy with it through all those amps and various pedals. I play everything from ZZ Top to Alan Jackson. I am a huge chicken pickin' fan, and I get that wonderfully. But I also get more beef for the rock and blues stuff. I'm not sure if any of this is helpful, because it's not a new design, but I find it to be both toneful and diverse.

Phil (teleluvver)