Vintage spec set offers round top end, full but tight lows and plenty of snap and, of course, twang
Brad Paisley has teamed up with Seymour Duncan on a new electric guitar pickup design, the Brad Paisley Signature La Brea Telecaster Set.
The La Brea’s bridge pickup features alnico IV rod magnets, vintage-correct cloth push-back wire, a vintage output of 7.44k and grey forbon flatwork. The neck pickup, meanwhile, uses alnico II rod magnets alongside an output of 7.55k, with the same period-correct wire and flatwork.
The combined result, according to Seymour Duncan, is plenty of Paisley-approved snap and twang, with a round top end and full but tight lows.
As for why the set is named La Brea? Funny you should ask.
(Image credit: Seymour Duncan)
The pickups were designed to complement Paisley’s 1968 Telecaster of the same name. Paisley first acquired this guitar in 2017, and at the time it had been refinished in a black acrylic paint that he said reminded him of the La Brea tar pits in Southern California.
Looking to refinish the Tele, Paisely brought it to veteran luthier and paisley paper expert, Bill Crook, to have the black paint stripped away and a classic ’68 paisley pattern applied instead. Removing the black paint, however, revealed the guitar’s true finish - wouldn't you know it? - an original ‘68 paisley pattern.
Paisely then contacted Seymour Duncan to create vintage accurate matched pickups for the guitar, which are now available as the Brad Paisley Signature La Brea Telecaster Set.
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The La Brea pickup set is available now for $169. For more information, head to Seymour Duncan.
Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.
