Can anyone recommend me some Tele PUPS?

[marT]

I know search is probably my friend on this matter but to be honest there is so much choice out there I don't really know what to go for.

I am building a Warmoth Tele. This is going to be my my first "true" fender style guitar and should be a great compliment to my Les Paul.

I want a set of pickups that will be quite fat sounding but still let all the great Tele qualities through. Something that will be great for blues/rock.

The woods will be maple neck and swamp ash body if that makes a difference to pickup choice.

So can anyone here help me out and make my Tele experience an enjoyable one?

[pseudocat]

I recently finished a tele for a friend, and I put a GFS '50s Repro bridge pickup in it, and I love the tone. It has good edginess, twang, and good bass response. Lots of bang for the buck, too.

My tele has a Duncan Antiquity in the neck postion, and I'm really fond of it, too -- really great neck pickup vibe.

[marT]

Thanks for that.

Another thing. I was just familiarising myself with the tele wiring and it seems like they don't use a grounding wire to the bridge? Is this correct or does the bridge get grounded another way, through the bridge pickup or something?

[chuckocaster]

you are correct, no ground wire. the strings are grounded through the saddles which sit on the bridge, the bridge is then grounded to the pup through the screws, the screws contact the baseplate, the baseplate is grounded into the ground of the pup, and then the ground from the pup is ran to the back of the pots, which are grounded together through the control plate. this all works works assuming that you are using the old school 3 barrel bridge.

does that make sense?

[Don]

If you use a pickup without a metal base plate you'll need to run a ground wire.

There's a huge selection of pickups out there and many of them are probebly right for you.

I have a Fralin Blues Special bridge pickup (overwound 5%) and a Fralin Stock neck pickup with cover (also overwound about 5%) in my swamp ash bodied, maple necked USACG T-Style and it's about as good as a Tele gets.

I play all styles of music with this guitar. It's bright and twangy for country, tears it up for the blues and, with a little delay and fuzz, it does a far better Jimmy Page impersonation than my Les Paul.

[marT]

I was thinking about those fralins. Is unpotted the way to go in the same way as an LP or is some potting required.

[Don]

Fender type pickups are usually at least partially potted thogh Fender didn't pot them for a while in the '60s and '70s.

My Les Paul's pickups are not potted and don't need to be.

[marT]

I think I will go with the blues special bridge and stock neck with cover slightly overwound. I was going to get the full set of blues specials but I saw that the neck doesn't come with a cover. Stupid I know but I really like the cover on a tele neck pickup!

I wouldn't expect the stock overwound with cover to sound dramatically different anyway right?

EDIT: I am a little confused by the pole options with the single coils. You can get steel poles, flat poles, flat with raised D and stock stagger. I am guessing the flat poles are the way to go?

[Don]

Even though my UASCG T-Style is modeled after an early '50s Tele, I went with the stock stagger pickups for more volume balance from string to string.

I like the cover on the neck pickup both for looks and tone. It darkens the tone a bit and prevents it from sounding like a Strat pickup.

If you want more of a Strat like tone from the neck pickup choose one without a cover.

[kcwm]

If you're still looking for pickup suggestions...

I suggest a rio grande halfbreed in neck and muy grande in the bridge. I also have a Fishman VT Powerbridge with the powerchip.

The rio grande pickups are heads and shoulders above the stock pickups.

[Don]

When I built my guitar, I bought used pickups until I found What I liked.

I bought them on forums and eBay. When I was done with them, I flipped them for about what I paid.

My guitar has even had a Duncan Hot Stack and a set of Kinman Broadcasters in it.

Everything I tried sounded good. The Fralins nailed what I was after.

[marT]

Thanks guys.

I'm guessing the stock stagger is with the poles radius'd with the B a but lower? Hows hybrid like with just the D raised? According to the Australian distributor they can only do stock/hybrid but I might email them about that.

[marT]

I can't decide between 5% overwind or 2% for the neck PUP. Fralin recommends not going higher than 2% but there is an option for 5%.

Would it get too muddy at 5%?

[pseudocat]

If it were my choice, I'd go with normal to even slightly underwound for the neck pickup. I like my neck pickups glassy, clean, and clear. Overwound pickups can sometimes be muddy, sometims harsh or shrill.

2% overwound might get you more gain than you want on the front end.

You might take a look at these threads:

http://www.thefenderforum.com/forum/...ghlight=unwind
http://www.thefenderforum.com/forum/...ght=underwound

[Don]

My neck p/u is overwound 5% and sounds great, though it can occasionally get a tad muddy with my tweed Deluxe (it's never muddy with my Princeton Reverb).

There's a very fine line between warm and muddy. Amps, playing style, effects, etc.. make a very big difference.

I wouldn't go overwound next time but I'm using a different amp now.

Also, keep in mind that it's easier to unwind an overwound pikcup that it is to add winds to an underwound pickup!

[marT]

Thanks for that.

I emailed the Aussie distributor and they said 5% doesn't come with a cover but 2% does because Fralin doesn't recommend it as I was saying. So I might go 2% since I like my covers :P

[Don]

My neck pickup might be what Fralin calls 2% overwound. In reality, it's 5%.

[refin]

The Lawrence Keystones are incredible for about $80 a pair.