Anyone Familiar With Upgrading Pickups On A Fender Telecaster?

[A Theist]

Buzz-free single coils aren't going to happen unless you find some stacked p'ups. Jason Lollar makes great Tele drop-ins that are relatively low-hum, from what I've read. I've never owned a Tele, so I'm only going off what I've read on my favorite guitar forum. Now, it also depends on what Tele tones you like -- the jazzy neck tones, or the spanky bridge tones. There's a trade-off between high-end and hum-free sounds.

I can certainly ask around and PM you some links to guys I know who know their shit, if you'd like.

Thanks Thump. That would be great. The tones I want to try and achieve are the old Luther Perkins style Rock A Billy, although mostly he played a Fender Squire. Later on he also played a Jazz Master and a Jaguar before going back again to a Squire. But yeah, if you could get some info on it I'd appreciate that. I was also wondering about converting my Tele to a Squire. I really like that sound.

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I used to be an avid and obsessive guitar player 20 years ago. I owned Fender Jap Strats rather than teles. Replacing pickups aren't too difficult if you know how to use a soldering iron. Seymour Duncans and Dimarzio were the two main makes when I used to play, but Kent Armstrong also make good replacements. I have owned pickups from all three manufacturers.

One thing I found is that the sound absolutely rocks if you bypass all the controls and directly connect a single pickup to a jack socket but it does severely limit your guitar!

Thanks. I'll look up those manufacturers. It shouldn't be too awfully hard to convert this Tele to a single pickup Squire, should it? If that's the route I choose to go.