SOT: Tele Deluxe's, and Pickups.

[roaring20's]

So, I have a RI '72 Tele Deluxe, and I'm really unhappy with the pickups but being the wide-ranging buckers they're bigger than regular humbuckers leaving issues with replacing them. I've been looking around for solutions to the issue, and it seems most people add mounting rings inside the guard routing, but that's not something I'd really like to do. Instead, I've been considering a Warmoth guard to replace it, cut for regular humbuckers. Would this work out? I'm mostly asking due to the Warmoth disclaimer that their guards are not meant to retrofit any guitars. I'm relatively certain that is simply a legal statement, but I'm curious if anyone's used one of their guards like this?

 

Which leads to another question. I'm considering P90's as replacements, as I'm looking for something smooth, with nicer, warmer cleans and more balanced highs and lows. What would you guys recommend looking at as far as pickups go? What would work best with the alder body of the Tele?

 

Thanks for any and all help.

 

tl;dr: warmoth guard work? pickup suggestions?

[iodine74]

Have you thought about having those pickups modded? I believe Curtis Novak will mod them http://curtisnovak.com/ not sure how much the charge is. I think there might be others that do it as well.

[Poltergeist]

have you changed the 500k pots? that makes a world of difference.

[tele0507]

http://cgi.ebay.com/LINDY-FRALIN-P-92-PICKGUARD-FENDER-TELE-DELUXE-/390155984059?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item5ad71bdcbb


http://cgi.ebay.com/LINDY-FRALIN-P-92-PICKGUARD-FENDER-TELE-DELUXE-/360281729444?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item53e276e9a4

150.00 more

http://cgi.ebay.com/LOADED-Vintage-72-RI-Fender-DELUXE-P-90-Tele-BODY-/200442306656?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item2eab4ae060

sell the body

[marchofflames]

This thread is relevant to my interests.

[HazeFX]

have you changed the pots to 500k ones? that makes a world of difference.

 

 

They come with 500k pots stock, replace them with 1MEG pots like the original Deluxe's, you can send your pickups to Novak and he'll rewind them to vintage spescs including CuNiFe pole pieces for $140 a piece.

http://curtisnovak.com/pickups/repairs/WRHB-ri/

 

WD Music will do a $10 upcharge to route the pickguard for regular humbuckers instead HRHB's

http://www.wdmusic.com/pickguard_te_2600.html

[Poltergeist]

crap, edit

[HazeFX]

you were on the right track, decreasing the load of the potentiometers will brighten things up and add that "chime"

[Poltergeist]

yeah, i have a friend of mine who changed his to 250K or 300K i believe and it sounded like a whole different guitar.

still could use better pickups, but it sounds alot better.

[Fendert]

I have a vintage 74 deluxe and the pups on that thing sound awesome, so I would recommend making them to vintage specs.

[ollenorin]

wasnt there a forumite here that made replicas for 1000 bucks....

lol

[ponch]

i have the tele custom version, with 1 wide range humbucker.

 

ive recently been speaking to bare knuckle pickups and they do the spacing big enough (53mm) to fit in that space.

 

i am going to be getting them sorted out in the next month aswell, seem like a bunch of good guys

[ArrMatey]

def interested in that as I really want to get one with proper WR humbuckers, I know the TDRPI forum had a guy that could wound the pickups to vintage specs but I really wanna hear those curtis novak ones!

[linusâ„¢]

Rio makes these giant things: http://www.riograndepickups.com/scart/SubCategories.asp?ProductName=For+Tele&SubCatName=SETS--2+HUMBUCKINGS+for+TELE

 

or there is http://www.telenator.com/, he is legit, but i can't stand his website..

 

novak sounds like the way i would go.. or i would pester BG to have a hand at them..

[Loobs]

Novak doesn't change them to CuNiFe mags, he does however change the pickup back to the correct sort of design.

 

Fralin Twangmasters apparently sound closest to the old WRHBs.