IMHO the Wilde/Bill and Becky Lawrence L280 noiseless pick ups are the best drop-in replacements for the sake of fat tone and clarity.
The Dimarzio Area T pickups are a close second. They might get you closer to the classic Ed Bickert pre-PAF tone, if that's what you're looking for, than the Wildes. Having used both extensively, I prefer the Wilde pickups.
Both of those have a bit of humbucker compression; if you really like the true single coil sound, the Wilde Microcoil pickups for the Telecaster are outstanding. While they are a true single coil, they pick up less noise due to the smaller coil not offering as much antenna. There are two versions, one with I presume a ceramic bar magnet and one with alnico polepiece magnets; I prefer the sound of the ceramics (the alnicos are a little too Stratty for my tastes).
In my case, I have found that I like adding a resistor in parallel between the hot output of the bridge pickup and ground to sweeten/round off the highs just a little bit and make it less spiky. There are wiring diagrams on the Wilde website and also Lindy Fralin's website has a very nice page on this. Basically, this makes the bridge pickup think it is seeing a lower resistance pot, say 100K, while the neck pick up thinks it's seeing 250K. Folks who belong to the icepick school of Telecaster bridge pickups would probably hate it.
Thought I would share. Aerodyne Telecaster. Stock pickup replaced with CC in P-90 case and upgraded bridge pickup. Both by Pete Biloft at Vintage Vibe pickups.
This one's really interesting. I hear no consistent difference between rosewood and maple. The maple does sound a bit richer in some of the snippets, but the rosewood sounds a bit fuller in others....
I will check that video out, but they are not that similar, the Empress has a lot more bells and whistles. I especially like the high and low shelves on that unit along with using just one para band...
Great post! All that attention to detail would never occur to me. (Possibly because I'm concerned with just surviving)
That's a good insight into what makes good players sound good.
Thanks...
Thanks! It's one of the newer Kingpin P90 Jumbo guitars. It's 4 1/8" deep at it's max depth, and the extra air makes a big difference in oomph. (I believe that is the proper technical term.)
Aer compact 60/4 $1,450.CAD
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