Telecaster pickups, need some advices

[Robitok]

Hi Everyone,

I bought a Telecaster Vintage '62 Japan a few month ago and plan to replace the pickups. I first thought to go for a Seymour Duncan Antiquity set but a friend of mine told me that it wasn't that good. I also consider the Lollar Vintage T set but I think it's quite more expensive and I don't know which one is better.

I play mainly jazz and, since I can't test either one, I would like to have your opinion on these two choices, in order to help me choose between these two options.

Thank you for your help!

[marcwhy]

Congrats on the new guitar -- fun!

There are dozens if not hundreds of great replacement pickups for teles out there, and prices range from $50 - $500 or more! As with any gear recommendations, your actual budget would be helpful for us to consider, unless your "only" choices are these two.

Is your "friend" a trusted musician? Lots of people here like SD pickups ... Are the Lollars "too" expensive, and therefore out of your price range? If that's the case, go with the SD's. Both, however, are fine pickups.

Good luck!

Marc

[73Fender]

Fender makes some nice sets. The ones that came with the 52 reissues are nice (OVs or something) Or the ones that came with the next generation 52 pure vintage Teles. Really there are so many and it depends on what your goal is.

When I had time to tinker I would always buy used pickups. If they didn’t work out they are easy to flip and get your money back.

[Robitok]

Thanks four your answers.

My friend is a trustable musician - but he's a rock, not jazz, musician - and have also some knowledges in guitar electronic.

As for the price, I don't want an extremely expensive set but I have the budget for the SD or for the Lollar. There's aren't necessarily my only choices but after some researchs, there are those I consider to go for. I want a warm clean tone, but with the traditional more "opened" sound of the single coils.

My question was if someone can provide some comparison elements between the two sets, the Seymour Duncan Antiquity and the Lollar Vintage T?

[powerwagonjohn]

Check out the Bill and Becky Lawrence keystone pick ups. They are great sounding pick ups and are very quite for single coils. I have been very happy with them in my MIM tele. They are rather inexpensive and USA made.
Thanks John

[Cunamara]

There have been many perhaps dozens of threads about Telecaster pickups in the forum here and hopefully a little searching would turn some of those up. You will get a huge variety of opinions about this, however, what it really boils down to is (1) personal preference and (2) whether or not you think you can hear the often very subtle differences between different pickups. And what you can hear in your living room will usually be lost at a gig once the other instruments are also playing.

If you want a classic Telecaster type tone, either the Seymour Duncans or the Lollars will do fine. They are high-quality pick ups with excellent reputations. However, almost nothing will get you into princess-and-the-pea cork sniffing territory faster than talking about the tone of telecaster or Gibson PAF pick ups. And if you decide you don't like them, you can easily resell them and get most of your money back.

Personally I don't want any twang in the guitar, so I went with Dimarzio Area Ts. These are single coil sized humbucking pick ups. They are slightly rounder and more "solid" sounding than the traditional Telecaster single coil. I thought they sounded absolutely great for jazz and absolutely zero hum; ironically enough, my Telecaster is my quietest guitar and as such one I most often used on gigs where there was likely to be fluorescent lighting, buzzy powerlines, etc. Unfortunately with some ham-handed screwdriver adjustment on my guitar, I killed the neck pickup. I replaced it with a Wilde (Bill and Becky Lawrence) L280TN. This is also an excellent pick up for jazz and other forms of music; it's a little more open sounding than the Dimarzio was with a little bit of growl hinting towards the P90, and I like it very much- enough that I have put an L280 in the neck position on my Stratocaster, as well. The Telecaster version of this does not come with a cover, so it does look a little different than the stock pickup. I have not tried the Wilde Keystone or Microcoil telecaster pickups, but they have their devotees and the demos on YouTube mostly sound great.

But to be perfectly honest, the original pick ups that came in my Squier Affinity Telecaster (which cost less than a set of some of the pickups we're talking about here) also sounded just fine for jazz. A little buzzy, which drove me nuts as I really hate buzz, but in terms of tone were fine. If it was not for the hum problem, I probably would not have switched the pickups out. Ed Bickert played for 10-15 years on his dead-stock early 60s Telecaster and sounded magnificent; in the mid 70s he had a Gibson humbucking neck pickup installed and frankly didn't sound that different.

This can be a real rabbit hole to go down. As long as the pickups and electronics that came with your guitar work, my first thought would be to play around with pickup height, tone knob tweaks on the guitar and the amp, etc. to see if you can't find a good sound without changing any hardware. It's cheaper and simpler. If the guitar does not have a treble bleed circuit on the volume pot (if you don't know what that means you can look it up easily), experiment with rolling off the volume slightly at the guitar and turning it up at the amp to make the tone a little darker and thicker. If it does have a treble bleed circuit, which is pretty common, that will defeat this technique. I don't use/will remove these on my guitars.

[citizenk74]

Hi Everyone,

I bought a Telecaster Vintage '62 Japan a few month ago and plan to replace the pickups. I first thought to go for a Seymour Duncan Antiquity set but a friend of mine told me that it wasn't that good. I also consider the Lollar Vintage T set but I think it's quite more expensive and I don't know which one is better.

I play mainly jazz and, since I can't test either one, I would like to have your opinion on these two choices, in order to help me choose between these two options.

Thank you for your help!

For what it's worth, I have never been disappointed with any of the several SD pups I've had. And certainly Jason Lollar has a reputation for excellence.
perhaps a deeper study of whatever online details you can get from these makers (as opposed to OP's opinions) will clarify things for you. Good luck!

[mad dog]

So many great tele p/us out there. My favorites are a "Joel Foy" set from Don Mare. He's so backed up with work, I wouldn't even try to get another set. The Lollar Vintage Ts are excellent too. Had them in a thinline tele I sold to a buddy. I'd go for another pair of those Lollars anytime.

[conchmusic]

I have the Analogman Jim Weider set, which is made by Lindy Fralin. Highly recommended. Neck pickup in particular is more articulate and Strat-ish (but still Tele) than others I've tried.

[Jimmy Mack]

I had the AnalogueMan/JW neck p/up made by Lindy. Yes - quality, but it sounded too much like a Strat neck p/up for me. I have a Strat for that, and it lost the "Tele" character. Moved on.

[Rhythmisking]

...or you could do this...

[Little Jay]

Let me save you some money…..

I just assembled a tele and put two Chinese FLEOR alnico 5 pickups in….. they are very cheap at $20 a pickup but they sound absolutely gorgeous and I love the neck pickup for jazz. I have guitars with SD Antiquity pickups and SD59 and other models and SD’s sound great…… but so do these cheapo’s!

https://www.amazon.com/FLEOR-Vintage...916?th=1&psc=1

I’ll try to record some sounds for you.

[D.G.]

I use a Fender Texas Special in the neck of my BP Sig Tele. I tried a Fralin Steel Pole that I really loved the tone of, but it’s one of the noisiest pups I’ve ever had, even more noise than a standard p90. Maybe could’ve gotten it to work with a bunch of shielding, but I couldn’t be bothered The Texas Special works for me, thicker than a trad pup, but still Tele.

[0zoro]

Agreeing with Cunamara above I too will put in a good word for the Dimarzio Area T pickup in the neck. Great sound and no buzz. Good luck!

[Herbie]

Congrats for the git!

I too had once a tele sound quest on. Tested over a dozen pups. Lollars didn’t stay but the Antiquities stayed. There is two Ants: kinda ’50s and kinda ’60s version. I liked the ’60s kinda version, they have more meat over the bones so to speak.

How are they different than f.ex. Lollars? That’s a hard question. I like all Antiquity pups, they are more musical, touch sensitive, three-dimensional etc normal pickup adjectives – but no, I did not use the word ’woody’.

[jim777]

Teles are such great guitars, they're the ones I keep next to my desk in my office. As others have said, there are sooooo many great sets out there. I've had very good luck with the 2/5 set from Tone Hatch, which costs about $85 bucks for the set right now (2|5 Union T Telecaster™ Set
– Tone Hatch Pickups) but I also love the set that came stock with the Baja Teles (Twisted Tele neck, Broadcaster bridge). My next Tele will get Fender's "Pure '64" set which sounds gorgeous with a rosewood board (haven't heard them with a maple board yet). Those are also under $100 for the set. If your '62 has the rosewood, those would definitely sound great in her.

Whatever you do, congrats on a Nice Tele, and how 'bout some pics of her?

[Jonathan0996]

I don't know about the Duncan Antiquities, but I played a Nash tele with Lollars and it sounded like the "60s Telecasters I've played. I keep thinking I should go back and buy that sucker.