Anyone Familiar With Upgrading Pickups On A Fender Telecaster?

[A Theist]

[brewer]

Upgrading from playing a few fast notes followed by a "yo mama, how you doin?"?

[johan]

Disclaimers: I own and use several guitars and basses but I'm a keyboard player by trade. As such I do not consider myself a guitar player nor would I ever want to be.

Asking for pickup recommendations is often fraught with peril. The answers tend to be very subjective and the terminology often vague at best. So one person's idea of 'fat crunchy tone' is another persons idea of sonic dog shit. In addition, you will find that a very common limitation among guitarists, even incredibly talented guitarists, is that they develop 'guitarists ear' where they are no longer able to hear music and guitar from the perspective of a non-guitarist. Which means they will hear things which only 'guitarists' can hear. Which means that they will hear how one brand of strings sounds 'fat and funky' while another brand sounds like an HIV infected cow farting through an unwashed sweat sock while everyone else on the planet couldn't tell the difference if you put a gun to their head.

So all that being said, when I built my parts tele, I read all the forums and asked friends for advice when picking the pickups. I wanted it to be able to produce that trademark tele sound. But I was also going to primarily recording with it so it was critical that it be as noise free as possible. I ended up going with Lace Sensor Tele pickups and I've been very happy with them. Do they accurately reproduce that signature 'tele tone'? I dunno. I can get it to sound like a tele when I want it to and that's good enough for me. And even in a room full of computers and monitors and lights with dimmers, it is absolutely silent until you play a note.

Of course if minimizing noise is your primary goal, there is a lot you can do regardless of pickup choices. The cavities on all of my guitars are completely shielded and I did most of them myself. I did some with copper foil tape and others with metallic shielding paint. Either option is easy to apply and works great.

[A Theist]

Disclaimers: I own and use several guitars and basses but I'm a keyboard player by trade. As such I do not consider myself a guitar player nor would I ever want to be.

Asking for pickup recommendations is often fraught with peril. The answers tend to be very subjective and the terminology often vague at best. So one person's idea of 'fat crunchy tone' is another persons idea of sonic dog shit. In addition, you will find that a very common limitation among guitarists, even incredibly talented guitarists, is that they develop 'guitarists ear' where they are no longer able to hear music and guitar from the perspective of a non-guitarist. Which means they will hear things which only 'guitarists' can hear. Which means that they will hear how one brand of strings sounds 'fat and funky' while another brand sounds like an HIV infected cow farting through an unwashed sweat sock while everyone else on the planet couldn't tell the difference if you put a gun to their head.

So all that being said, when I built my parts tele, I read all the forums and asked friends for advice when picking the pickups. I wanted it to be able to produce that trademark tele sound. But I was also going to primarily recording with it so it was critical that it be as noise free as possible. I ended up going with Lace Sensor Tele pickups and I've been very happy with them. Do they accurately reproduce that signature 'tele tone'? I dunno. I can get it to sound like a tele when I want it to and that's good enough for me. And even in a room full of computers and monitors and lights with dimmers, it is absolutely silent until you play a note.

Of course if minimizing noise is your primary goal, there is a lot you can do regardless of pickup choices. The cavities on all of my guitars are completely shielded and I did most of them myself. I did some with copper foil tape and others with metallic shielding paint. Either option is easy to apply and works great.

Thank you, Johan.

[I_am_not_mafia]

That's a good point Johan about the guitarists ears. I certainly was able to tell what kind of guitar and amp was being used quite often when listening to songs.

i didn't really get that into pickups to be honest. I found amps were more interesting.. But really, it's the whole combination that is important.

For example i went into a guitar shop in the early noughties with the idea of buying a second hand all valve practice amp. I was planning on a Fender Champ. I plugged into it with my Fender HM strat but wasn't very keen on the sound. Then the shop owner suggested I try this really beat up shitty amp from the front window which was a completely unknown make. I was sceptical but tried anyway. It was a vast improvement but still didn't quite grab me. He then grabbed a customised Jap 62 reissue strat with Seymour Duncan pickups. I was even more sceptical because I could see that he was trying to get me to buy more than I had intended. But I plugged in and the sound became The sound that I had been looking for for years. I ended up buying that package instead of the Fender Champ and was much happier.

It took a long time to research the amp but it turns out that the wiring diagram was basically nicked to create the first Vox AC30s.

So ideally you just need to go into the shops and try the complete packages.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Very true ... the entire rig is the instrument.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I keep seeing this and thinking about my cousins who is looking for fenders for a 1969 International Harvester pickup truck.

[A Theist]

Hey, Thump. Lotta good info on that site. I've been hanging out in the MIM Tele thread. From what everyone's saying, the MIM Teles are pretty good.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Yeah, I like MiM Fenders -- had an MiM Strat back in the 90s, and I'll probably be buying one in the coming year.

[Jackie]

I don't know if this is the right place to ask the question, but I guess it deals with technology in a way. I have a Tex Mex Fender Telecaster that I bought back in the '90s. I'd like to upgrade my original pickups to something better. I know there were a couple members sometime back who were knowledgeable with this sort of thing. Anybody have experience with something like this?

When a journalists plays an electric guitar their favorite brand is "Broadcaster"......... HA, I made a funny!