Is that pickup really that much hotter?

So last night I'm jamming with a piano playing friend and i'm using my 50's classic thru a champ, doing some bluesy stuff when i break a string...no biggie, so i grab my thinline...

wow. is the neck pickup on the MIM '69 thinline really got that much more output? i never realized how much louder that guitar is!

anyone own both of these guitars and check the rating on them? i always thought they were pretty similar, but back to back, obviously not.

and oh yeah, i checked, pickup height is the same when compared to the strings...

So last night I'm jamming with a piano playing friend and i'm using my 50's classic thru a champ, doing some bluesy stuff when i break a string...no biggie, so i grab my thinline...

wow. is the neck pickup on the MIM '69 thinline really got that much more output? i never realized how much louder that guitar is!

anyone own both of these guitars and check the rating on them? i always thought they were pretty similar, but back to back, obviously not.

and oh yeah, i checked, pickup height is the same when compared to the strings...


a few things will cause one pup to have more output then another

1- is Design - not all are equal -
2- wire tension on the coil - Tighter is louder on the Fender Singles - Strats + Teles -
(Tight coils on a Humbucker may not be true.)
3-magnets - Gauss levels / grades
4- pots / DC Ohm loads = 250k vs. 500k.vs 1-meg vs. no load or by passed... (the less load the louder)

hope that helps
Don

Fender specs for these Classic Series (http://www.fender.com/products//search.php?section=guitars&cat=telecaster&subcat=classic) Teles, the '50s Tele (http://www.fender.com/products//search.php?partno=0131202303) and the '69 Thinline Tele (http://www.fender.com/products//search.php?partno=0136902300); have the same neck pickup part number, 005-3678-000. The Fender parts lists for them showing this are here ('50s) (http://www.fender.com/support/diagrams/pdf_temp1/telecaster/0131202B/SD0131202BPg3.pdf) and here ('69 Thinline) (http://www.fender.com/support/diagrams/pdf_temp1/telecaster/0136902B/SD0136902BPg3.pdf). I have one of each of these Teles that had their stock pickups when I got them, plus I have a few other pickups that came from Teles spec'ed with the same part number. They all measure around or just slightly higher than 8k, and they sound essentially the same to me.

Do you reckon these two Teles in question still have their original pickups?

Try adjusting the pickup height.

Check them on an ohmeter.

Their stock pots are 250k on the '50s Tele and 1M on the Thinline. I put 250k pots in my Thinline because I like the range of tonal control better with 250k pots.

thanks for the replies guys.

yeah, yegbert, that's what i was figuring--that they were the same pickup. The pots thing that don brought up might be what's going on here...

the pickups are adjusted to the same height already (whenever i buy a guitar i start by getting the pickups to fender spec and then tweak from there--on both of these guitars i set it and forgot it--they sounded good right where fender says they "should be.")

i'm A-B-ing them again now, and the difference isn't as noticable as i thought last night...i went from blending nicely with my bud to really overpowering him...but i think it might be the overall brighter sound of the thinline (with the 1 meg. pots.) i may have been mistaking "cut" for volume...

in the end, there's so much that goes into tone, and i like how both guitars sound, so it's hard to say...but i thank you both for some food for thought.

I picked up a new "69" Thinline last week and I really dig it!

Now that I've played on it for a few days, It was time to make a few adjustments. I had to cut a channel at the back of the neck pocket for truss rod adjusting. I thought it was odd that it didn't come stock with this notch. While I had it opened up I noticed it was wired with 1-meg pots. It took allot of restraint to not install a brand new set of Tonerider "Vintage plus" pickups that I have had sitting around for a couple of months.:twisted:
Instead I installed a new set of 250K CTS pots, a .02 tone cap and a 0.001 treble bypass on the volume pot. I also restrung it with 10's.

I'm glad that i went this route and changed only the pots. The guitar's sound warmed up nicely and I have allot more control over the volume and tone with the 250's.


these pickups aren't spectacular but they are keepers.

It's odd, my "72" Thinline came with 250K pots and of course the wide range humbuckers. I changed those pots to 500K with a .03 tone cap, and that guitar's sound, opened up real nice!