Seymour Duncan Vintage Stack Tele Bridge, STK-T3b

From the manufacturer:

application

Vintage-voiced Hum-cancelling pickup. Perfect for traditional country, country pop, chicken pickin', rockabilly, blues, and classic rock.

description
Vintage-voiced hum-cancelling pickup. Perfect for traditional country, country pop, chicken pickin', rockabilly, blues, and classic rock.

complete setup
Available for both rhythm (neck) and lead (bridge) positions.

guitars
For all well-balanced instruments. Works equally well with maple and rosewood fingerboards.

players
Brent Mason, Pete Anderson / Dwight Yoakam, Dale Oliver / Blackhawk & Reba McIntire, Ronnie Montrose, Matt Bellamy / Muse, Matt Hocking / Edgar Winter Band, Geoffrey Whitehorn / Roger Daltry Band 

Seth's picks for best videos/sound-clips:

This is a great demo video, because this guy plays really well, and we get to hear the guitar alone through the amp without a lot of effects on it. He's playing his 80's Korean Fender Tele with the STK-T3b in the bridge (obviously), and the STK-T1n in the neck (obviously). He starts in the neck position, playing some cool "Hendrixy" chordal stuff before switching to the middle position at 0:38. He plays some more nice country open-string lines and chordal patterns until 0:46, when he switches to the STK-T3b alone, again playing some really interesting jangly open-string sequences and chords, including a cool pedal-steel type bent string lick. At 1:18, we're back in the neck position and he plays some really tasty and soulful stuff here. These pickups sound to me like a cool vintage set with a hair more output, and no 60 cycle hum, of course. He switches into the middle position again at 1:38, playing some sustained open chords a bit more. At 2:00, we hear the STK-T3b by itself again, and after some rhythmic open chords, he lets loose with some great chicken pickin' at 2:18, and this pickup sounds amazing for this. I was worried the stacked humbucking sound would make the STK-T3b sound unlike a Tele, but this video proved that I didn't need to worry at all. At 2:27 he plays some amazing cascading jazz lines before ending with a really badass jazz chordal figure from 2:37 to the end. Great playing, great demo of the sounds possible with the STK-T1n and STK-T3b.

This video is cool for lots of reasons: first, the STK-T1n and STK-T3b equipped Fender Squier Affinity Telecaster STK-T1n and STK-T3b this lady is playing has been outfitted with a special 4-way switch. This means that in addition to the normal Telecaster sounds, it has a position that allows the pickups to be wired in series, so it sounds much more like a traditional humbucking pickup than the normal Telecaster's middle position. This guitar has another trick up it's sleeve. The tone pot is a push/pull pot that grounds the hum-cancelling coils, giving a huge amount of tonal colors to a seemingly simple two pickup guitar. One more reason this video is cool is that she plays each position of her four way switch first with the tone all the way up, then with the tone rolled off in four steps until the tone is all the way off. Also, after playing with the pickup in a particular position, she pulls the push/pull pot up and coil-taps the pickups. Then she does the same tone roll off routine with the push/pull pot in the tapped position. If you don't know how a 4-way switch works in a Telecaster, here are the positions, from closest to the lower bout (what we would think of as the normal Tele bridge position)to closest to the neck (what we would think of as a normal Tele neck position): 1. Bridge pickup alone 2. Bridge and neck pickups together in parallel (what we would think of as the normal Tele middle position sound) 3. Neck pickup alone and 4. Bridge and neck pickups together in series. So starting from the beginning of the video, from 0:00 until 6:15, she goes methodically through the pickup and tone control possibilities playing a clean strummed rhythm, starting in position 1 and moving through position 5. After she finishes with each pickup, she plays through it again, this time with the coil tap engaged. At 6:15, she does the same thing all over again, this time changing her rhythm to a fingerpicked figure. This video is great. Makes me want to make one of my Tele's a "Swiss Army Knife" like this!

This one is super staightforward, just a dude playing some Stones on his Tele copy with a STK-T3b in the bridge. He's playing through a MXR Distortion III and into a 70's Fender Music Master bass amp...and...he really pulls off the "Keef" tone! I like that the guitar doesn't buzz at all, but sounds just like the record!  

I like this one because it starts with the guy recording a two chord loop, with his 1983 Fender American Telecaster through his Brugera V22 amplifier...then he solos for 5 minutes. He has the STK-T3b in the bridge, and a STL-1n in the neck, so for our purposes, we first hear the STK-T3b at 1:03 in conjunction with the neck pickup. At 1:21, he flips to the STK-T3b alone, and at 1:45, ups the overdrive a bit, still playing the bridge pickup. He puts the guitar's pickup switch back in the middle position at 2:03, continuing until 2:23, when he switches to the neck pickup. He keeps the overdrive on and returns to the middle position at 3:05, switching to the STK-T3b alone at 3:15. At 3:47, we hear the combination of the pickups again until he switches to the neck pickup at 4:05. We're back in the middle again at 4;35, and the video ends with the STK-T3b alone from 4:47 to the end. Again, I am so used to vintage style single coils being hum festivals...but these STK-T3b's, with the reverse wound stacked coil are super quiet and sound great!

This demo is pretty amazing. This is a great guitat player from Thailand named Vinai Trinateepakdee and he's playing a custom Thanakorn guitar with and interesting pickup arrangement. The neck and bridge pickups are the STK-T1n and STK-T3b, as you'd expect, but it also has an additional STK-T1n in the middle position, allowing for some cool wiring options. Vinai starts by playing a tune with a backing track. The guitar's pickup selector is in the middle position, but in this case, the 5 way switch has been wired so that the neck and bridge pickup are together just like a normal Tele in the middle position. After some tasty playing, he switches to what I would call position "4" on his 5-way switch, which is the STK-T3b played in conjunction with the middle STK-T1n. At 1:06, he switches to the neck STK-T1n alone, and plays some really great lines. He switches to the STK-T3b at 1:22 and plays a beautiful climbing lead, shredding it up with a cool descending sextuplet run at 1:34. At 2:00 in, he goes through each position of his switch alone, without the backing track, so we can get a better idea about the sound of these pickups. So, in order, it goes like this: 2:00 is the neck STK-T1n alone; 2:59 is the neck STK-T1n and the middle STK-T1n played in conjunction; 3:40 is the neck STK-T1n and STK-T3b together; 4:12 is the middle STK-T1n and the STK-T3b together; 4:30 is the STK-T3b alone. After that, he goes through each pickup selector position again quickly, playing some really great stuff from 6:24 to the end. Although these pickups are "Vintage" stacks, they really hold their own in a modern context. So tasty!

 This video features both the STK-T1n and the STK-T3b in a custom made "parts-caster" with parts made by MusiKraft played through a BlackStar HT-1 Amplifier. He begins in by playing with the STK-T3b, and there's some great playing from 0:25 to 0:49. At 0:49, he switches to the middle position and we hear the nice buzz-free vintage Telecaster sound. Listen for good stuff at 1:15. Finally, at 1:37, we hear the STK-T1n alone. He plays some amazing stuff at 1:45. Great feel and technique!