Fender Vintage Noiseless vs. Player Plus Noiseless Pickups

[Butch Snyder]

I have a Fender Deluxe Nashville Telecaster from 2019. It has Vintage Noiseless pickups and 1Meg ohm pots. I was reading where the Player Plus Nashville Teles have Player Plus Noiseless pickups with 500k ohm pots. My thought is there is really difference and it's just marketing hype. If I'm wring, please let me know. Also, is there much difference in tone, between the 1Meg ohm and 500k ohm pots?

 

[jeremy]

i think there is a difference between 500k and 1m, not usually a fan of 1m. cant speak about the pups since i havent tried the player plus models. not a huge fan of the vintage noiseless

 

[beaubrummels]

1M is noticeably brighter compared to 500k to my ear.

I thought there were like at least 4 different Fender Noiseless series pickups? I don't have any familiarity with any of them, though, as I haven't owned any Plus / Vintage / Custom / Artist Fenders.

 

[freefrog]

My thought is there is really difference and it's just marketing hype. If I'm wring, please let me know. Also, is there much difference in tone, between the 1Meg ohm and 500k ohm pots?

Pots resistance is just a way to adjust the resonant peak of passive pickups. 1M pots make it higher and narrower than 500k and lower values. Pickups consequently become brighter and thinner sounding when pots are full up (all other factors being equal).

Noiseless pickups often require pots of higher resistance than real single coils because they are naturally duller with less dynamics. It's due to how they're built. The choice of 1M or 500k pots makes sense on this basis.

 

[Butch Snyder]

Hey guys, thanks so much for your replies. I'm kind of old school. 250k pots with single coils and 500k pots for humbuckers. Since I'm mainly a Tele player, it's usually 250k. That said, I have a 2019 Fender Deluxe Nashville Tele. It has the Vintage Noiseless pickups and 1M ohm pots. Fender first started using these pickups back in the early 2000s maybe? They were putting them in their American Deluxe Strats and Teles. This series was brand new then. I believe they were also using 250k Pots. Now, the new Player Plus Series uses the same pickups, but calls them a different name and uses 500k pots. Maybe Fender finally found what works best for these pickups?

 

[Mincer]

Hey guys, thanks so much for your replies. I'm kind of old school. 250k pots with single coils and 500k pots for humbuckers. Since I'm mainly a Tele player, it's usually 250k. That said, I have a 2019 Fender Deluxe Nashville Tele. It has the Vintage Noiseless pickups and 1M ohm pots. Fender first started using these pickups back in the early 2000s maybe? They were putting them in their American Deluxe Strats and Teles. This series was brand new then. I believe they were also using 250k Pots. Now, the new Player Plus Series uses the same pickups, but calls them a different name and uses 500k pots. Maybe Fender finally found what works best for these pickups?

That's my guess. Old school 'rules' might not work with new pickup designs. They also might be compensating for pickups that are darker than other noise-cancelling designs, so they are designed to be part of a system rather than just the pickups themselves.

 

[Butch Snyder]

That's my guess. Old school 'rules' might not work with new pickup designs. They also might be compensating for pickups that are darker than other noise-cancelling designs, so they are designed to be part of a system rather than just the pickups themselves.

Understand that. I noticed that my Vintage Noiseless pickup can be a little shrill and glassy; too much for my taste. I like a warmer Tele pickup tone. Maybe just switching to 500k pots will solve my problem.

 

[Mincer]

Understand that. I noticed that my Vintage Noiseless pickup can be a little shrill and glassy; too much for my taste. I like a warmer Tele pickup tone. Maybe just switching to 500k pots will solve my problem.

It is probably the cheapest solution, other than using the tone control on the guitar, or the EQ on the amp.

 

[dotsdad]

I have a Player Plus Telecaster with Player Noiseless pickups. I have tried both 250k and 500k and, to me, it sounds best with 250k volume and tone pots. To keep the neck pickup from sounding dull, hook the tone knob to the bridge pickup, not to the master volume. That let's the neck pickup shine while keeping the bridge from getting shrill.

As a side note, I have a Strat with Vintage Noiseless pickups and another with Player Noiseless. The two pickup types look the same, but they are not the same. The VN's have beveled Alnico 2 magnets, while the Player Noiseless have taller, non-beveled A5's. The VN's have fat 50's kind of sound, while the PN's seem to have more of a spanky 70's kind of sound to me.

The VN's are much warmer as a result of the softer magnets. The pickups sound pretty good by themselves, but sound choked in the in-between positions. After a lot of tinkering, I found they work best with a 1MEG volume and 500k tones. (I tried 1k tones, like originally supplied on the American Deluxe, but found the taper completely useless. 500k tone pots actually work.)

The Players sound like they have much stronger magnets and a lot less wire. Very bright and spanky...the neck & middle sound is killer! They sound best with 250k pots all around. Too bright with 500k's.