Members Saint Frank Posted November 7, 2009 Members Share Posted November 7, 2009 If I'm pulling out a telecaster to play, I'm looking for a telecaster sound.I don't see the sense of a telecaster with P-90's or humbuckers or a stacked humbucker in there or whatever. Seems kind of like adding a trailer hitch to your Porsche so you can haul a camper or something.That said I don't like an overly-twangy country sound for what I do. I'll mainly use mine for blues and rock. Two pickup brands I like a lot are lindy Fralin Blues Specials and Tonerider Vintage Plus pickups.Telecasters are so simple in construction, I have to say that a lot of pickups out there will sound great through one. They are a very forgiving and acommodating guitar design. I see where you're coming from but will say that when I pull out a Tele I'm looking for a range of sounds. I'm finding that different pups, even different single coils, can sound pretty different in the same guit. An example would be my 80s ESP. The original pups sounded very twangy and handled gain all the way up to AC/DC levels great but beyond that the pups went microphonic (I was playing covers and needed to be at that level of gain occasionally, even if I really don't care for it). Enter the Dimarzio Pre B1. VERY hot bridge SC, very middy and cut like a knife. So hot, in fact, that I had to get a SC sized HB for the neck (Duncan Designed Rails). That turned the ESP into a fire breathing monster with just enough spank left to cover country if needed. Nowdays, I have enough guits to cover the harder rock stuff and decided to put the ESP back to its original country twangy goodness. I don't use the neck pup much so just have a generic ceramic pup in there, does a pretty good job covering the generic Tele neck sounds, and I have a GFS 50s Alnico in the bridge. Back to twang city (and, unfortunately, microphonic at extremely high gain/ volume). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaveAronow Posted November 7, 2009 Members Share Posted November 7, 2009 They are stock, they are pieces of crap, and they sound AWESOME!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Uncle Bastard Posted November 7, 2009 Members Share Posted November 7, 2009 I have a stock Squier pickup in the bridge of my Affinity, and have just put a GFS Alnico Fatbody in the neck. A very good pairing, and it produces the exact Tele sound I wanted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jamdogg Posted November 7, 2009 Members Share Posted November 7, 2009 CV tele with stock pups - sounds wonderful. I plan to put an old Gibson HB in the neck at some point. the butterscotch affinity I had also had stock pups and sounded good to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Shiny_Surface Posted November 7, 2009 Members Share Posted November 7, 2009 Duncan JB, sounds great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vintage55 Posted November 7, 2009 Members Share Posted November 7, 2009 I've got a set of CS Texas Specials in one of my tele's, but I'm not totally happy with them. Better than what was in it stock, but still not there yet. Got 'em for $99 for the set, new, so it was more the price than anything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thecornman Posted November 7, 2009 Members Share Posted November 7, 2009 I am using Dimarzio Area T in the bridge and neck in my cheapo Squier Affinity Tele and love them. I also routed to add a middle pickup and was using a Lace Blue there but, now have thrown a Dimarzio Area 61 strat pickup up in there. These pickups sound fantastic. I had tried a bunch of other pickup that sounded pretty decent but these ones are it for me. They cover the single coil Tele sounds I wanted a Tele for great. The bridge cuts through a mix with lots of bite and clarity. The neck is smooth and warm, but doesn't muddy up too bad when playing full chords or riffs. As good as they sound for clean blues and funk they also work great for rock and grunge. The bridge pickup works great with the tone rolled back and some dirt added for some big bucker kind of sounds. The in between sounds with the Area 61 in the middle are so good for clean fast chordy funk that I don't even have to add the Q-Tron. When every I am jamming and I have a hard time figuring out which of my 4 electrics to play to cover a certain sound I grab this one, because it does them all well. Here is a picture of it when it still had the Lace blue in the middle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members McHale Posted November 7, 2009 Members Share Posted November 7, 2009 Rio Grande Muy Grande set. The neck pickup is the best neck pickup I have. The bridge pickup has the Tele sound with balls behind it. http://www.riograndepickups.com/scart/ProductPage.asp?ImageLink=MGTSB&ProductName=For+Tele I also wired it with a 5 way super strat switch. There's nothing my Tele can't do... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Citizen Cain Posted November 7, 2009 Members Share Posted November 7, 2009 I put a Rio Grande Vintage Tallboy in the neck of this Tele copy. It's a great pickup that straddles the line between Tele and Strat very nicely. In the bridge I kept the stock ceramic pickup because it just sounds right. It can cut in a rock band, twang in country and spank through the surf like nobody's business Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Angry Tele Posted November 7, 2009 Members Share Posted November 7, 2009 Just email Jason at Virtual Vintage and tell him what you want. Since they rewound pickups for Keefs blackguards and matched the neck with a PAF style bucker they will be able to hook you up too. At a cost of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fabstrat Posted November 7, 2009 Members Share Posted November 7, 2009 i have some really good, fairly expensive, winders i could recommend, most likely to no avail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jamdogg Posted November 7, 2009 Members Share Posted November 7, 2009 i have some really good, fairly expensive, winders i could recommend, most likely to no avail.lets hear about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fabstrat Posted November 7, 2009 Members Share Posted November 7, 2009 Curtis Novak, Don Mare, J.M. Rolph Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Karma1 Posted November 8, 2009 Members Share Posted November 8, 2009 Fender Lace Sensor Gold/neck & Duncan Little 59 w/ series-parallel switching/bridge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fusion1 Posted November 10, 2009 Members Share Posted November 10, 2009 Duncan Tele Hot Rails set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Howard VA Posted November 10, 2009 Members Share Posted November 10, 2009 Red Lace Sensor (Bridge) and Texas Special (Neck) in my Fender '90's Custom and Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups in my Fender Thinline Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Howard VA Posted November 10, 2009 Members Share Posted November 10, 2009 Stock Gold Lace Sensors in both of my Fender Tele Pluses. The middle PU is a Strat Gold Lace Sensor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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