Which vintage-style Tele pickups for my MIJ?

[ratherdashing]

What I have:

1986 MIJ Fender 62 RI Tele that has a rosewood fretboard, a double-bound basswood (most likely, not 100% sure) body, old style bridge with Barden compensated brass saddles, and vintage slot-head tuners. It's a great guitar with excellent build quality and plenty of Tele character, in spite of it's not-so-traditional specs - a little smoother in the highs than a blackguard perhaps.

What I want:

A set of pickups to really bring out the vintage Tele tone in this fine instrument. I'm thinking Keith Richards, Andy Summers, and Led Zeppelin 1 as my Tele tone inspirations. Noiseless is not necessary. Bridge is most critical, but neck should be a good match with its own clarity and depth.

Possible options:

- Antiquity (which ones?)
- Broadcaster Lead or '54 Lead?
- Which neck pickup?

What do you think?

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Which vintage-style Tele pickups for my MIJ?

I'd go with the SD Five-Two. Wiry wrapped strings, nice attack on the plains.

Summers' Tele bridge pickup is abnormally hot. For Page, check out the Bare Knuckles Yardbird pair.

For my absolute, money no object, favourite, the SD Custom Shop '53 Tapped Tele.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Which vintage-style Tele pickups for my MIJ?

I'm a big fan of the Duncan alnico 2 Jerry Donahue bridge pickup and a 6K alnico 5 Strat neck pickup.

I especially like the Duncan Custom Shop version of the JD - it's a little less dense and a little more transparent sounding than the stock version.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Which vintage-style Tele pickups for my MIJ?

Interesting stuff guys.

Not really into a tapped pickup - just want a basic Tele tone for this one. I have plenty of other guitars that will give me the juicier lead tones. In fact, the pickup I'm taking out of this guy is a QP tapped - awesome pickup, but a really long way from what I'm going for.

The best Tele I've played recently was a 2013 American Standard, which now comes with the Fender CS Broadcaster/Twisted Tele set. My instinct is almost to just get those, but I want to see what else is out there along those lines.

 

[Scott Olson]

Re: Which vintage-style Tele pickups for my MIJ?

I really like the STR-1/STL-1 combo. The bridge gives you that bright vintage Twang, while the neck is quite a bit smoother and open. They balance each other out really well.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Which vintage-style Tele pickups for my MIJ?

if you want bright snappy tele tones look at the antiquity II tele pup

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Which vintage-style Tele pickups for my MIJ?

if you want bright snappy tele tones look at the antiquity II tele pup

This leads me to a question I had: what's the tone difference between the Ant II's and the original Ants?

 

[jeremy]

Re: Which vintage-style Tele pickups for my MIJ?

i use an ant I in the bridge and its a great sounding tele pup. a little more chewy than a typical fender pup but that suits me perfectly. still bright but more mids and a softer attack. mines in a swamp ash rw board guitar. your basswood axe is a different beast but it still might be nice. the ant II will be more traditional fender

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Which vintage-style Tele pickups for my MIJ?

The diff, to me, is the diff between alnico 2 (Ant I) and alnico 5 (Ant II).

Like Jeremy said, the Ant I will have a slightly softer attack, slightly more mids and a chewier tone. Bright but not as sharp an edge as the Ant II.

The Ant II will be a little brighter and snappier - more of a traditional, sharp edged Tele tone.

The Jerry Donahue I recommended is an alnico 2 pickup. The regular production version is thick and powerful...the CS version has a little more "space" to the tone. It's thick but has a little more "air" mixed into the tone and I prefer it.

"Space", "air", "transparent"...all describing the same quality.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Which vintage-style Tele pickups for my MIJ?

Hmm...tough place to be...early Zep, thats a mid/late 50's lowish wind staggered magnet, alnico 5 pickup to me...something like the vintage 54 lead.

Keef...for years he's been using rewound vintage Tele pickups...flat pole, alnico III and his are wound high...around 10k. Beefy, crunchy and still semi edgy...

Summers...similar pickup to what Page had in his old Tele but a tad weaker and slightly more scooped...

If I were you I'd go for the Page/Summers style pickup and just boost that up for Keef style tones. If you want a DUncan the Vintage 54 is a great pickup and the Antiquity 55 is very good too.

Neck pickup...vintage rhythm or Antiquity to match the bridge.