Tele pickups

Dave Zirbel · Post by **Dave Zirbel** » 29 May 2009 7:43 pm

I should probably join a Tele forum but until then, what's the hot tip for Tele replacement single coils? It seems a lot of manufacturer's are offering a lot of varieties of pickups and I don't even know where to start. Not even sure what I want.

I lean more towards a bluesy rock style when I play standard guitar.

Dave

Joel DeGarmo · Post by **Joel DeGarmo** » 29 May 2009 8:11 pm

The Lindy Fralin blues specials are pretty cool pickups. Just slightly overwound from stock. The last time I was on the phone with Lindy, he said Brad Paisley had just ordered 9 more of them. I have a these, the seymour duncan antiquity's and the seymour duncan broadcaster bridge and like them all pretty well.

Tom Pettingill · Post by **Tom Pettingill** » 30 May 2009 3:11 am

Give Bryan over at BG-Pups a shout, he hand winds some fantastic pickups at very reasonable prices.
Either one of his stock winds or tell him what your looking for and he will dial you in.
http://www.bg-pups.com/sc.html

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 30 May 2009 3:56 am

Personally I stay with the Fender Vintage series , I am so adjusted to the sound that I can't find may way sometimes with alternative pups.

I recently put a new set of Fender 'original vintage' on my 1989 /52RI, the neck pup started to squeal, imagine that , after 20 years it went bad !

The tone and response seem to be identical to the original pups that came on the axe. I have had several others on the guitar but always came back to the originals, there was just too much shift in tone, mostly the mids. Vintage Fralins are really good but I can't tell the difference other than $100 !

t

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 30 May 2009 5:35 am

Bill Lawrence makes really, really good pickups too, and sells them cheap because he gets a few cents off of every (legitimate) guitar made, because of some manufacturing patents. He designed the recent Fender series, but his own line is the latest - Keystones are true singles, and his "Wilde" series are noise-free. He has a way with inductance that reduces magnetic string pull. He taught Seymour Duncan, Larry DiMarzio, Kent Armstrong and George L how to make pickups, but the orig is still kickin'. I like his twin blade pickups, though they're not traditional.

http://wildepickups.com/

However, I will say (heretic!) that I think that the pickup marketing hype is 90% hallucinogenic foo-fooism, all the differences between the top 10 different pickups can be adjusted for by turning your treble & midrange knobs from "3" to "4". There's not really any way to substitute money for learning how to play and how tone works. I don't bother saying this on TDPRI....

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/just-pickups/

Nathan Golub · Post by **Nathan Golub** » 30 May 2009 6:08 am

Don Mare makes some great tele pickups too-

http://www.donmarepickups.com/

I have the lap steel model in the bridge of my esquire, love it.

Though it's hard to go wrong with any of the pickups mentioned here.

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 30 May 2009 6:25 am

I love the Lollar Special Tele pickups. Currently in my Tele, I've got a Lollar Special neck pickup and a Fender No-Caster bridge pickup. I also have a Duncan Jerry Donahue bridge pickup which is nice and fat and a bit darker. The Fender No-Caster neck pickup is nice, but not as strong as I wanted.

But all of these recommendations I see listed here on this thread are good. There are so many options. Go on over to:

http://www.tdpri.com/

to find lots of opinions. If you're specifically after a certain sound, you can search there and find some guidance.

Some people want modern Nashville tones, Brent Mason, etc. Some want Clarence White. Some want Don Rich. Some want Roy Buchannan, and on and on.

The Roy Buchannan freaks love the Don Mare stuff. All around the Lollar's get high praise. Some of the Fenders are good. Fralin, Duncan, Rio Grande, Callaham, Kinman and more. The world is rich with great pickups these days.

Brad

Darvin Willhoite · Post by **Darvin Willhoite** » 30 May 2009 7:59 am

I just put a set of active EMG's in a Tele I put together and really like them so far. I haven't played it with the band yet though, that will tell the tale. Anybody else use these?

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 30 May 2009 10:14 am

Anything made by Lollar will be great. The Seymo Jerry D pickup is also one of my favorites.

Ulf Edlund · Post by **Ulf Edlund** » 30 May 2009 12:44 pm

I have tried a lot of Tele-pickups and there are many good ones. I while ago i relaced a S.Duncan '54 bridge for a rather low priced Tonerider Hot Classic. I had heard good things about it but i didn't expect it to be as good as is actually was. Wonderful mids, great separation, good output and lots of tele twang.
I also put a set of Toneriders in a Tokai that i restored and it sounds sooo good now.

Brick Spieth · Post by **Brick Spieth** » 30 May 2009 2:07 pm

The holy grail for me is Don Mare pickups. He makes all kinds but his 2324s float my boat if you want that Roy Buchanan sound. I also have as set of Fralins, which are also real good, especially the neck PU. Less raw than the Don Mares. These are the Pus I go to for a cleaner tele tone.

If you do not want to break the bank, it's hard to go wrong with Duncan Broadcasters. I have only tried Lollar P90s, but would not hesitate to buy any of his PUs either. So much to choose from.....

Almost forgot Van Zandt flatpoles, another fave. I'm in San Jose if you are ever down this way you can try them all.

Jerry H. Moore · Post by **Jerry H. Moore** » 31 May 2009 5:23 pm

I have two teles with the 52 custom shop bridge pu and they are the sound you expect from a tele. Nice crunchy twang with a lot of pop. thats my pick!

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 31 May 2009 6:02 pm

I put Custom Shop Nocasters in my Classic 60s Tele, and they really sound different.....pretty low-output, not that hot at all. I really like it for what I'm doing, which is old-school Tele stuff. When you dig in, they sort of dip down and compress. Interesting and unique compared to the typical in-your-face Tele sounds that a lot of players prefer these days, a la Brad Paisley, etc.

For blusey-rock, I'd try Fralins. I had them in a Tele a few years ago, and they were hot and rockin'!

Michael Haselman · Post by **Michael Haselman** » 31 May 2009 6:15 pm

Can't believe no mention of Bardens. Though they're technically a humbucker, hands down the best pups I've ever used. I've actually got a couple comments to the effect that I was getting a nice Danny Gatton sound. Yeah, right...

Jack Stanton · Post by **Jack Stanton** » 31 May 2009 6:43 pm

+1 for Don Mare

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 31 May 2009 7:25 pm

I think I've tried all of these except the Don Mare and BG pickups. I'm surprised nobody has suggested digging up an old Fender Tele pickup - they can be had sometimes, although they're obviously getting harder and harder to find.

Everything here has been suggested between and old Broadcaster/Nocaster repros to EMGs. That's a very wide spectrum, and subject to individual taste and what you're trying to sound like.

For a bluesy-rock sound, I tend to like the Fender Texas Specials, Bardens, and slightly overwound Fralins. For a more classic twangin' Tele tone, I prefer the various Broadcaster/Nocaster type pickups (the Duncan Broadcaster type is good and reasonably priced), a classic-wound Fralin, the standard Fender '52 reissue, a faithful-wind Lollar, or dig around for an old Fender Tele pickup or something off one of their '63 or '67 Relic Teles - those things are magic, to my ears. For something that is its own sound, I like the Bill Lawrence pickups - they do most anything, but have their own thing, to my ears. Not that it's my thing, but I think the EMGs are used by quite a few modern country pickers - very clean, evenly balanced, low-noise, and drive effects well.

To me, it all depends on what you want.

Dave Zirbel · Post by **Dave Zirbel** » 31 May 2009 7:38 pm

Lots of great feed back from everyone. Thanks! Well, I have the original pickups that came with the guitar. It's a 1967 Tele. I bought it in 82 and I'm assuming the pickups are original because they look old. The neck pup failed on me and the bridge pup reads a little low for a '67.I ended up taking the guitar in to a local repair guy and stuck with the Bill Lawrence noise canceling replacements I had in there. I think they're called the TL280 and TN280. Every picker that's played my guitar has been blown away by those little guys. They were only $40 a piece. I thought that since I had to get the guitar repaired that it would be a good time to get some good single coils in there, since I've been enjoying the Texas Special in my MIM strat. But like I said, I get lot's of compliments on my tone. I may get another less expensive Tele with single coils. I'm looking at a G & L semi hollow with P90 stylte pickups. Anyone play one of those?
BTW, I was looking a guitar magazine and there was an article on 5 top pickup manufactere's, some I've never heard of. It's crazy how many people are making Fender and Gibson replacements. How much different can they really be?

Dave

Stephan Miller · Post by **Stephan Miller** » 31 May 2009 7:39 pm

I haven't tried most of these by any means, but I really like Bardens and Lollars. And I agree with Dave M. about what each does best.

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 1 Jun 2009 9:19 am

Dave, I have a G&L ASAT semi-hollow with the P-90 looking - they call them MFD - pickups (my old guitar store had a special run with an S-500 pickup in the middle, called the ASAT-Cat). I also have an ASAT Z3 (with the Z-style pickups, which are the 3+3 pickups that resemble a guitar version of the P-Bass pickup). They're both very fine and good-sounding guitars, but not the same as a real Telecaster to my ears. Very versatile, but not quite the quack of the real thing.

Those bigger ASAT pickups have more body to them than traditional Tele pickups, and I'll also say tend to be a bit more noisy. I have always viewed them as a nice cross between a Tele pickup and a P-90, which is a good thing, but not exactly a Tele sound. Just not the same clank. I've owned a bunch over the years, starting with a G&L Broadcaster in the 80s, and then on through several ASATs. My fave is the ASAT-Cat I have now, but it doesn't replace my Teles.

Brick Spieth · Post by **Brick Spieth** » 1 Jun 2009 1:42 pm

Since you have a 67 tele, I'd send the PUs to Fralin for a rewind.

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 1 Jun 2009 5:22 pm

The neck pup failed on me and the bridge pup reads a little low for a '67.

Meant to say something about this. If the neck pickup winding is really shot, I agree on rewinding it. Sometimes, if one is lucky, a good pickup rewinder like Lindy can find the break in winding by unwinding a few coils and put it back together without a full rewind. If that doesn't work, then I would rewind the pickup, but to original specs.

On the bridge '67 Tele pickup - if it ain't broke, don't rewind it. I would emphatically not rewind an old Tele pickup to get a particular sound - one can get that with replacement pickups, as you have done with the Lawrences. A lot of people love those slightly underwound late-60s pickups (me included). I think they're super-twang city.

Just my take.

Cliff Kane · Post by **Cliff Kane** » 1 Jun 2009 6:03 pm

fwiw, the Fender pickups that are in the Muddy Waters Tele are great. I have one of those guitars, and it has great twang and tones for country, blues, jazz. I'm really impressed. They are some of the Fender vintage pickups (not sure of the exact model). Someone was selling a set of these pickups on the forum recently, or I'm sure they can be bought cheap. The guitar has a rosewood fingerboard and ash body, so that may help with the sound of these pickups.

Dave Zirbel · Post by **Dave Zirbel** » 1 Jun 2009 6:23 pm

I"m not sending anything out to get rewound yet. I know those Lawrence pickups will get the job done like they have been for the last few years. Like I said, I'm not even sure what I want. I just need something that works and sounds good, and that's why I decided to roll with them.

BTW Dave, I was hoping the G & L would actually sound a little fatter than a Tele. I play a lot of psycadelic hippy blues rock type stuff. I'm a terrible country tele picker!

Thanks again.

Andrew Buhler · Post by **Andrew Buhler** » 1 Jun 2009 7:12 pm

Call Don Mare and talk to him about what sound your after. Don does Tele pickups like no one else.

John Gould · Post by **John Gould** » 2 Jun 2009 6:40 am

I think it depends on how deep your pockets are.
If you have lots of money go Joe Barden if you want
a reasonable price go Lindy Fralin.