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There's a lot of love for stock tele pickups. I wanted some jazzier pickups for my Partscaster without going down the Humbucker road and ended up trying several sets including Fralin and Fender before scoring a set of Fred Stuart Blackguard Alnico 3's second hand.
This is the Partscaster neck p/u from that set - they out-jazz my other teles (with H/B's and mini HB's in the neck) hands down. Most of the comping is fingerstyle. Yes the tone is wound off a bit - around 3 or 4 - but I never have it opened up full anyway.
I dont know what the availability of these pickups is like now - but they are really good! (Bridge has that classic growl)
On the street where you live
The loveliest night ? Michelle Nicolle
The amp is a Rivera R100 so plenty of beef in the sound even though its running on very low gain.
I did the whole album of standards (except one tune on my PRS Hollowbody I) with that Tele strung 11-52.
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08-14-2016 11:05 PM
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I had Fender Noiseless in both the neck and the bridge. I replaced the neck with an Area T because the Fender Noiseless was a kinda gritty clean, not a very smooth clean.
Originally Posted by 0zoro
Of course, the amp makes a difference too.
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I think I get great jazz tone from the stock alnico single coil neck pup in my tele, and I wouldn't change a thing.
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Yep. Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo
Yet people continue to ruin perfectly good teles by putting humbucker in them.
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I regard the Tele as an "anything" guitar. Humbuckers? P-90s? CCs? Singles? Whatever you want - throw it in there.
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I would not "ruin" a Tele by routing in a HB
but the OP is building from scratch, so if you want you could start with a HB routed body anyways. Thats what I didLast edited by fws6; 08-15-2016 at 09:35 AM.
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Lol, I'm just being provocative.
but when folks do ask me, what's the best neck pickup for a tele, I tell them the one that came with it.
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Yeah, I had an ASAT and I found the larger MFD pickups a little to bright, but with the smaller classics it is different. Maybe it is in my head, but to me they sound beefier and with more mids and fatter overall. The bridge pickup has a hard time keeping up even though the MFD is like 3k ohms.
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I always thought Tim Lerch got a great sound with Lollar Charlie Christian pickups, but then he sounds good with anything. Here's a pickup shootout he did:
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^^ Beat me to it. For a HB I would go for a Gibson Classic 57.
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I like the Duncan 5/2 for a direct replacement tele neck pup.
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First, remove the pickguard and see how the body is routed.
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Had Pete Biltoff build me a CC and used it for about a year, then put stock Tele pickup back in and can tell little, if any, difference. Just put a $15 Mighty Might neck PU in the single PU Tele I just built and it sounds wonderful tuned down a 1/2 step. Don't like humbuckers or P90's at all but the CC and stock Tele do it for me. YMMV
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My knowledge on tele pickups is not comprehensive, but if you like teles for jazz, you likely find vintage sounding neck pickups attractive?! I find the either the bareknuckle flat 50 broadcaster or the fender 51 nocaster neck pickups sound great. Both of them are speced to be more even across the frequeny range and are not trebly and shrill. Both have moderate output which also helps. Good luck!
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I have a custom build Tele so I'm relectant to start routing out wood. It sounds like something vintage/trad might work. SD knows their stuff.
Thanks.
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Yeah, you can't go too wrong with Seymour Duncan if you stay away from the super hot models. I bet the Broadcaster or 52 are just fine.
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I really like the Dimarzio Area T pickups. Noiseless and the tone is great for jazz.
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SD Alnico II Pro Tele it is.
Lovin' my Tele these days.
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I like traditional Tele neck pickups. I think too many of the modern ones try to be Strat pickups in Tele clothing. I've tried a bunch and my absolute favorite is the Don Mare '53 with a brass cover. I also have a guitar with a Don Mare '54, which has a slightly brighter sound. If you look at the Ed Bickert videos on Youtube, you can see that he gets a great sound out of both a traditional Tele pickup and a humbucker. That convinced me to never route a Tele for a humbucker.
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Good point! I think he sounds the same with ither the stock tele pickup or the humbucker. For my taste his sound tends to be way too dark though. However, we had that doscussion here a couple of times and somebody pointed me to fabulous sounding recordings too. In any case, a humbucker is not needed to make a tele sound good for jazz. I think Julian Lage sounds great on his tele (or any other guitar for that matter) with stock pickups.
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Part of the popularity of telecasters is how great the stock neck pickup sounds....
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I think that is correct. Tele neck pickups do only appear to be popular with jazzers. On the tdpri many people flat out hate the tele neck sound. They find it too muffled. We like it for its mellowness and sweetness ... funny.
also +1 on the Strat. I cannot figure out how you have two tone knobs and the icepicky bridge cannot be controlled - really?. First mod I would always do on a Strat is to wire the second tone pot to the bridge pickup.
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Talking of Tele neck pickups there's a video some where in which Bill Lawrence uses the neck pickup as a tone capacitor on one of his marvellous guitar circuits.
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Yes, Tim sounds great with anything! Originally Posted by Jonathan0996
Everybody has a right answer to this but I have to remind You that telecaster is a merciless instrument. Long Fender scale, no extra bling, You have to really know how how to play to sound good with it.
And all the CC versions I have had (Lollar and some else) have been quite merciless instruments too. Kinda hard, sensitive to dynamics and no compression to help Your fingers with the notes when the concentration of the player starts to wander in the middle of the gig thru last meal, phone bills, hair of the waitress and the birthday call to Your mother You forgot.
Together these can be ultra-merciless pair. So prepare to practice!
I found my thrill in Seymour Duncan Antiquity II Tele pickups. Good for my guitar.
But the Lollar Gold foils in Tim's Tele are great too! Had them in a parts mustang I have and they were just fabulous! Nothing compare with them!
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If you want to stay with a traditionally sized tele neck pickup, I like the Bill Lawrence Microcoil tele set. They are not totally hum free, but they hum a lot less, and they have the direct, focused sound of single coils while also having adustable pole pieces. They have a wider range than traditional tele neck pickups, e.g more lows and highs. Completely unique design, and inexpensive.
I've also liked the Barden tele neck pickup a lot. It has a big smooth sound that's not quite a single coil sound, but isn't as, what's the word, "broad" as a larger humbucker. Compared to the Microcoil its got less "character."
stock tele neck pickups are often great
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