# Telecaster single coil pickups



## DaddyShred (Aug 11, 2019)

I just wanted to start a thread for tele players (owners or not) to talk about pickups. 

I'm looking to upgrade my kit pickups and, being so new to the building/modding game, there's a HELL of a lot of options. I could play it safe and buy some fender noiseless. I could go big and get some Tone Specific pickups. Or maybe you guys have a suggestion I haven't heard of.

I'm looking to stray away from a "country" style pickup. My semi hollow twangs a bunch as it is. It's a nice sound, but not what I'm aiming for. I'm looking for a full clean sound. Almost jazz type sound?

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## markxander (Oct 24, 2009)

This is the first of many recommendations you'll get to check out Vineham. Small Canadian company doing fantastic boutique style pickups 

I have a Vineham Nocaster pickup in the bridge of my thinline telemaster and it's wonderful. Not really twangy at all, but still tons of top end available. 

It sounds like a Nocaster or Broadcaster style might be a good place to start if you're not really interested in traditional twangy country sounds


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## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

Noiseless work very well.


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## nnieman (Jun 19, 2013)

I really like
Pickup wizard - his broadcaster pickup is a mix of a tele and p90 - my favorite tele pickup.
Mcnelley pickups - He offers a couple of different ones and they are all great.
I think Im going to put a T bar into my next esquire build.
MJS pickups - he can pretty much wind anything you can dream up, Smitty is The Guy.
Vineham - His broadcaster is excellent, a close second to the pickup wizard.

All canadian winders, the first three are in ontario.

Nathan


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## JBFairthorne (Oct 11, 2014)

If you’re looking for a jazz type sound then a Tele may not be the best platform regardless of the pickups. Love a Tele for what it is rather than trying to make it into something else. If you want a jazz sound then get a guitar that is better suited to it in general.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

JBFairthorne said:


> If you want a jazz sound then get a guitar that is better suited to it in general.


Teles are actually VERY popular in the Jazz Guitar Forum
Telecaster Love Thread, No Archtops Allowed

That is partly why I tried this...


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## DaddyShred (Aug 11, 2019)

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. 

@JBFairthorne I totally get where you're coming from. If I was aiming for a pure jazz sound, I'd probably pick up a strat, for instance. But I'm just looking for my twang to lessen lol. 

The reason I said jazz was I was watching a YouTube vid where he went over Tone Specific tele jazz pickups. Obviously sound in a YouTube video isn't perfect and there's amps and effects to consider but the overall tone (I guess you'd call it) was something I thought I would aim for. 

Plus, you folks have suggested brands and companies I've never heard about before, and that's perfect!

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## DaddyShred (Aug 11, 2019)

greco said:


> Teles are actually VERY popular in the Jazz Guitar Forum
> Telecaster Love Thread, No Archtops Allowed
> 
> That is partly why I tried this...
> View attachment 316546


Love the look of that axe!!

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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

Coming from a 'not a Tele fan', I'm on my fifth Tele, just to have on in my coral.
Sold/traded the prior four. So far my keeper has a great twang sound.
Lollar Vintage neck, Special bridge.


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## DaddyShred (Aug 11, 2019)

laristotle said:


> Coming from a 'not a Tele fan', I'm on my fifth Tele, just to have on in my coral.
> Sold/traded the prior four. So far my keeper has a great twang sound.
> Lollar Vintage neck, Special bridge.


I myself started with a strat (which was a Jay turser, so not a good benchmark) but the tele always spoke to me. Not sure what it was. 

I'd love to know the specs on the pickups that came with my kit. The neck sounds ok (I'll be saving both pickups for another project) but the bridge is SO twangy. Its snappy and punchy. Which is a great sound, just what I'm aiming for. 

I'll check out Lollar as well. Everybody's personal experience is the only thing I really have to go off of. Not like I can buy pickups, install then, decide, and then bring them back to a store lol

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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

DaddyShred said:


> Not like I can buy pickups, install then, decide, and then bring them back to a store lol


Don't solder them. Use jumper cables with alligator clips?


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## DaddyShred (Aug 11, 2019)

laristotle said:


> Don't solder them. Use jumper cables with alligator clips?


Good tip!

My lack of experience is showing lol

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## Okay Player (May 24, 2020)

I put a set of Fender Custom Shop Texas Specials in mine a couple weeks ago. Very warm, really happy with them. I'm in the early process of collecting bits for a partscaster and I've got a set of Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounds on the way, we'll see how that goes.


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## DaddyShred (Aug 11, 2019)

Okay Player said:


> I put a set of Fender Custom Shop Texas Specials in mine a couple weeks ago. Very warm, really happy with them. I'm in the early process of collecting bits for a partscaster and I've got a set of Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounds on the way, we'll see how that goes.


Please keep me posted how you like the quarter pounds compared to the Texas. Seymour Duncan were on my list to check out

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## JBFairthorne (Oct 11, 2014)

A twin Humbucker Tele?. Plenty of vintage style HBs available. I’m not sure if your current Tele would accommodate twin HBs though.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

I made a lot of clips of my vineham broadcaster set, the thread should be somewhere.

If you want less twang and more jazz, the tone knob is your new best friend.


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## DaddyShred (Aug 11, 2019)

I think it would if I went that route. But single coils are what I'm gonna keep trying. Is it because I mentioned the quarter pounders? Maybe I was thinking of the hot rails....hmm

@Budda I tried with my tone knob to no avail lol. It doesn't get muddy (treble bleed and grease bucket for the win) but she's still super punchy. Maybe I haven't gotten into the habit of moving the tone knob around mid song/jam. Usually I pick a spot and stick with it

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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

JBFairthorne said:


> I’m not sure if your current Tele would accommodate twin HBs though





DaddyShred said:


> Maybe I was thinking of the hot rails....hmm


I was going to suggest them too.
Couldn't tell you about the Tele set, but they sound great in my Strat.


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## JBFairthorne (Oct 11, 2014)

Quite a while ago I had a Japanese Tele Plus with dual red lace sensor bridge and blue lace sensor neck pups. The noiseless laces always sounded good but they seemed to lack that traditional single coil sound. Maybe that missing chime is right up your alley.

I haven’t used lace sensors in 20 years but perhaps some combination of single coil laces might suit your needs.


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

Whatever is stock in my 2016 Mag Seven sounds pretty to me through a 57 Deluxe.


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## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

Budda said:


> I made a lot of clips of my vineham broadcaster set, the thread should be somewhere.
> 
> If you want less twang and more jazz, the tone knob is your new best friend.


You can't really live the Tele life without becoming best friends with the tone knob. It is the key to the entire dynamic range of a Tele.


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## MarkM (May 23, 2019)

DaddyShred said:


> I think it would if I went that route. But single coils are what I'm gonna keep trying. Is it because I mentioned the quarter pounders? Maybe I was thinking of the hot rails....hmm
> 
> @Budda I tried with my tone knob to no avail lol. It doesn't get muddy (treble bleed and grease bucket for the win) but she's still super punchy. Maybe I haven't gotten into the habit of moving the tone knob around mid song/jam. Usually I pick a spot and stick with it
> 
> Sent from my SM-N960W using Tapatalk


I have a quarter pounder in the neck position on my MIJ early 80's strat, I never owned a Tele but I think that would be far from a Tele sound? I used it to play Black Sabbath songs in bands in the 80's, there wasn't as many pickups to choose from back then!


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## alwaysflat (Feb 14, 2016)

I picked up a set of Alnico 5 DTN51 & DTB52 Donlis tele model PU's based on some pickup testing work reported in tdpri. These are quite nice in a partscaster I threw together this spring and I'm very pleased with them so far. For the price they are so much greater than I expected !! 
There is a member there that did some fairly interesting comparative testing of a large range of pickups . 
For the price I couldn't resist giving them a shot. 
Donlis Telecaster Pickups, Analysis and Review
A broadcaster type bridge and a good discussion of the brass pu cover on the neck softening the tone . Look for the link "according to my records" buried in the tester's post for graphic info. While I experienced what I thought was a balance issue was mostly resolved with PU height setup. 
Tho it may not help here, when you have no reference, the comparative data might be of interest if you've got a set that are defined there, and looking for some change or comparative data of other models. 
Certain listening is the ultimate test with your regular gear. Good luck !


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## Doug Gifford (Jun 8, 2019)

Budda said:


> …
> If you want less twang and more jazz, the tone knob is your new best friend.


This.


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## John Reilly (Apr 7, 2018)

On my Tele build I used Pickup Wizard 53 spec. tele set with a 4 way switch for 1 year as planned and love them. Then I went for the middle pickup and asked Peter at Pickup Wizard to build a hum canceling pickup that would complement the 53 spec, and I had it in my hand 3 days later. I wired them with a freeway 10 pos. switch and I`m very happy with the way it turned out. There is a wide range of sounds with even level output between the many tones.


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## mrfiftyfour (Jun 29, 2008)

I just installed a hot Broadcaster from Pickup Wizard.
Excellent rock tele bridge pup.
It holds up against my P90 equipped Jr and Special.
Can't go wrong with Pickup Wizard.



DaddyShred said:


> I just wanted to start a thread for tele players (owners or not) to talk about pickups.
> 
> I'm looking to upgrade my kit pickups and, being so new to the building/modding game, there's a HELL of a lot of options. I could play it safe and buy some fender noiseless. I could go big and get some Tone Specific pickups. Or maybe you guys have a suggestion I haven't heard of.
> 
> ...


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## Roots-Picker (Dec 29, 2017)

FWIW, I have found *Dawgtown* pickups hand-made scatter-wound pickups made by a fellow named John Galep in Wisconsin to be outstanding. I have John’s A5/2 set on my Neville Tele style guitar, and a set of his ‘62 SRV pups on my Fender US Strat; both are stellar IMHO. John sells mostly through eBay, is super passionate about tone, and will custom wind pretty much anything you need, for a reasonable price. There are some online reviews and forums if you google ‘Dawgtown pickups’. (Never tried Vineham pups as of yet, but they’re on my list!...)

Last thing, I also was a ‘set & forget’ volume & tone control guy for the longest time but I’ve since had to admit that there are a myriad of other “Tele tones” to be had through experimentation. (Especially if one tweaks the settings on OD pedals and your amp as well!)

my 2 cents....


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