Got Me a New Tele and The Pickups are Meh....

Re: Got Me a New Tele and The Pickups are Meh....

I know you already ordered the Broadcaster set, but since you originally expressed interest in the Antiquity Tapped "Guitar Shop" set, but didn't want to drop Antiquity prices, you might also consider the STL-2T Hot for Tele, Tapped in the bridge position along with the STR-1 Vintage in the neck--with a 5-way switch. I've used that setup in a partscaster (ash body, maple board) and really loved it.
 
Re: Got Me a New Tele and The Pickups are Meh....

Evan Skopp said:
I know you already ordered the Broadcaster set, but since you originally expressed interest in the Antiquity Tapped "Guitar Shop" set, but didn't want to drop Antiquity prices, you might also consider the STL-2T Hot for Tele, Tapped in the bridge position along with the STR-1 Vintage in the neck--with a 5-way switch. I've used that setup in a partscaster (ash body, maple board) and really loved it.
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I think I will stay with the Broadcaster set. I have head a few videos and they sound very nice. It will just be nice to be back in the Duncan family once again.:bigok:
 
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Re: Got Me a New Tele and The Pickups are Meh....

Broadcaster set is installed. Wilkinson Compensated Tele Bridge w/Brass Saddles is installed. Baja Tele control plate removed and replaced with original James Burton Std control plate. Most everything has been setup and adjusted. Since I did all this at midnight last night, I couldn't test tones. I will test tonight and report back. Looking forward to this.
 
Re: Got Me a New Tele and The Pickups are Meh....

Cool, especially looking forward to comparison to the Texas Specials (since that's what my Tele has!) :)

Also, what's the difference between the control plates?
 
Re: Got Me a New Tele and The Pickups are Meh....

PFDarkside said:
Cool, especially looking forward to comparison to the Texas Specials (since that's what my Tele has!) :)

Also, what's the difference between the control plates?
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Control plate differences:

Standard control plate is just that - a Telecaster control plate with a 3-way blade switch, 2x250k pots and a .05uF cap.

The CS (Custom Shop) Baka control plate is as follows:
1. Heavy steel plate
2. 4-way blade switch for the following pickup selections:
a. Pos1 - Bridge pickup
b. Pos2 - Bridge/Neck pickups in parallel (standard Tele middle position)
c. Pos3 - Neck pickup
d. Pos4 - Bridge/Neck pickups in series (louder/fuller sound)
3. S1 switch up - non-active
4. S1 switch down - puts Pos2/4 out-of-phase. There is a .01uF cap on the S1. It kind of takes the out-of-phase and tames a bit so that Pos2 actually sounds a little like the pos2 of a Strat (bridge/middle pickups together).
 
Re: Got Me a New Tele and The Pickups are Meh....

Butch Snyder said:
I bought a new Fender James Burton Standard Tele. The guitar itself is absolutely killer. The only thing I might change is the vintage ashtray bridge with 6 steel saddles. I might install a 3-brass saddle ashtray bridge. Don't know yet. Anyway, that model of guitar comes stock with a set of Fender Custom Shop Texas Special pickups. Are they nice? Yes, but I think I can do better; especially when I play my partscaster (my avatar) which has a set of Fender Tex Mex pickups and everybody, including me, likes their tone better. They really do sound good though.

So, I'm trying to think of what Duncan set I might want to replace them with. I'd love the '53 Tapped Tele® Model T "Guitar Shop" Set; but I can't swing $300 for that. So, I was thinking about either the Vintage Broadcaster set or a set like maybe the APTL-3JD with an APTR-1 in the neck. The APTR-1 can be really soft though.

The tone I'm going for is kind of on the border of vintage meets modern. I don't want a 1/4 lber or a Little 59. I want a tone that is genuine Tele but a little more....
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Butch, You bought a tele???? Wow, there is a surprise! LOL! Sorry bro, just had to....

eclecticsynergy said:
My general take on Bill Lawrence pickups is that in general they favor accuracy over enhancement, if that makes sense. Bill's philosophy and goal was to build pickups that delivered the guitar's natural tone uncolored rather than having a personality of their own. He did this very well and the whole industry owes him a debt of gratitude I think, for advancing the frontiers of pickup design. Yet the result of this accuracy was a sort of clinical dryness that has to be taken into account when choosing. Great pickups for an axe with really good wood, but not the best choice to make a just-OK guitar sound larger than life. That said, the Wilde Keystones are dirt cheap for the quality of sound they deliver, and the ones I bought certainly do sound 100% Tele. Plus you can get the neck with a white cover which I really dig. (White pickguard on my green sparkle Tele Custom.)

I wouldn't be so quick to write off the QP if you're looking for vintage-meets-modern. Despite the fact that it's way hot it is a genuine singlecoil, and I think the big poles save it from sounding overwound. Girth? Yes, absolutely. Dark? Nope, and it cleans up quite well when you roll back the volume. Maybe not the best choice for old school twang, but it can snarl & spit as well as any. And better than some. A very different animal from the Li'l59 by all reports.

Have heard nothing but good things about the Duncan Broadcaster, but don't have one so I can't speak from experience.

If you're willing to spend more you might check out the Harmonic Design Vintage Plus or the Klein Broadcaster. Those are the two I'm looking at as eventual replacements for the Keystone bridge.
Click to expand...

I have keystones in my strat and dig em
 
Re: Got Me a New Tele and The Pickups are Meh....

And the moral of the story?

You need more teles to house all the cool pups mentioned:friday:

Why ditch the Baja controls? Very usefull sounds there
 
Re: Got Me a New Tele and The Pickups are Meh....

Will S-T said:
And the moral of the story?

You need more teles to house all the cool pups mentioned:friday:

Why ditch the Baja controls? Very usefull sounds there
Click to expand...

With the Baja control plate, I wasn't using the out-of-phase and series positions, so, why have them.....
 
Re: Got Me a New Tele and The Pickups are Meh....

i used the series position on the 4 way for slide and some other things but out of phase without independent volumes is pretty useless to me
 
Re: Got Me a New Tele and The Pickups are Meh....

jeremy said:
i used the series position on the 4 way for slide and some other things but out of phase without independent volumes is pretty useless to me
Click to expand...

The series option is cool; but since I use a compressor all the time, it squashes the volume increase. The thicker tone is cool, but I get by with 3 positions.
 
Re: Got Me a New Tele and The Pickups are Meh....

Ok, I see you have the Broadcasters up for sale, what was your impression and why do you prefer the Texas Specials?
 
Re: Got Me a New Tele and The Pickups are Meh....

PFDarkside said:
Ok, I see you have the Broadcasters up for sale, what was your impression and why do you prefer the Texas Specials?
Click to expand...

The STR-1 is a great neck pickup. I have no complaints about it. The STL-1b Broadcaster bridge pickup is also very nice; however, I like Tele pickups that have a little more output and have more mids and a little less twang.
 
Re: Got Me a New Tele and The Pickups are Meh....

For the more output/less twang thing, I go for the Jerry Donahue or the Five Two. These are still squarely in the Tele camp, but not so piercing to my ears. The JD has a little more mids than the Five Two, if that is your thing.
 
Re: Got Me a New Tele and The Pickups are Meh....

Mincer said:
For the more output/less twang thing, I go for the Jerry Donahue or the Five Two. These are still squarely in the Tele camp, but not so piercing to my ears. The JD has a little more mids than the Five Two, if that is your thing.
Click to expand...

I'm keeping the guitar totally stock. The Texas Specials have a sweet spot height. You just have to find it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Re: Got Me a New Tele and The Pickups are Meh....

I have a Wilkinson in my ash Tele. It is a nice sounding bridge and much cheaper than a Glendale. The Broadcaster set is a nice vintage set with an attitude. The 5-2 and the Donahue sets are nice too.
 
Re: Got Me a New Tele and The Pickups are Meh....

Butch Snyder said:
So, I was thinking about the APTL-3JD with an APTR-1 in the neck. The APTR-1 can be really soft though.

....
Click to expand...


Without delay I would order the above mentioned Alnico II Pro neck and the Alnico II Pro "Jerry Donahue" bridge pickup. I will say that the standard Alnico II Pro bridge pickups are a great set of pickups.

I have a set of each in two different tele's, one in my Nashville Tele, with the Jerry Donahue. I dig the regular two pickup tele with the regular AIIPro's probably slightly better but both are remarkable and sound like I think a great tele should sound - to each their own here though.

I think a lot of stressing out goes on over any particular set of pickups, although I will admit that some pickups just don't sound good to me. For instance I definitely didn't like the Tex Mex pickups in my Nashville Tele and I had a custom made set of Alnico II Seymour Duncan's made for it and it now sounds great, and, the middle pickup is black like the bridge one, which is a relief.

I don't know if you made your final decision yet but this is what I would go with without hesitation and overstressing the situation. You will wind up with some super great sounding tele pickups.
 
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Re: Got Me a New Tele and The Pickups are Meh....

Noticing that you made your decision to leave the Texas Specials in there, I think that this was a great idea.

I have Custom Shop Texas Specials in three of my strats and dig them. They are great strat pickups.


When you buy a nice new guitar, I think there is something to be said for leaving in the stock pickups, unless the stock ones sound totally ridiculous. I recently bought a brand new '15 black Fender MIM Standard strat. I put on a black white black pickguard, Fender brushed nickel tuners, and put black pickup covers on the stock hot ceramic single coi strat pickups. I also put an American string tree on it, along with chrome Fender knurled barrel dome top control knobs. It is a great looking maple fretboarded guitar. My initial plan was to replace the stock pickups with some nice Seymour Duncan single coils. After playing it for a while I dig the often disdained stock pickups. I like the bright bridge pickup and the other pickups sound great. I think the stock pickups sound a lot like my Texas Specials. So they are staying in there. I doubt I will later decide to change them out.

I want to get another new MIM strat and I might change the pickups in that. I have a great set of Seymour Duncan noiseless/humbucking pickups on hand that I could put in it, sss size. I have the JB Jr. bridge, the Little '59 middle, and the Hot Rail neck. It sounds great in a cheap Squier Affinity that I built up. I am now moving the high end parts to nicer guitars, like I probably should have done to begin with.

When it comes to upgrading a guitar I think it is, in my opinion, best to start with a base guitar that is really nice (in your opinion) to begin with. In my case this MIM was perfect. I'm leaving my American strat alone.

Good luck on knocking out this project and best of luck with the guitar and future efforts.

I think you are going to really dig this guitar.

I might try a set of Alnico II Pro's in my next strat.

I think my next guitar will be a strat, but it already has great pickups in it. I'm not exactly sure what it is called but it is sold only in Sonic Blue and is a '60s something, with a two point trem and nice pickups. I don't think they are noise cancelling but a new middle RWRP pickup would probably fix that right up. Actually I like it noisy, as is. Being really nice pickups the noise level is low except when you hit them with a lot of gain. I have other guitars that handle that well. No one guitar, in my opinion, needs to be able to do everything - if it does, it probably won't do one thing well.
 
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