Need advice for pickups

Hello,
So I have a Squier Standard Telecaster and I want to change the pickups in it, because not only they started to not work properly, but I also want to reach a sound I wasn't able to with the stock ones.

I won a R$400 (about $160~) at a local guitar shop to buy anything I want, and so I am looking for the best tele pickup (single-coil) to buy so I can play, mostly:
Cream; Jimi Hendrix; Pink Floyd; John Mayer; Eric Clapton...

So I want to be able to play Cream/Jimi Hendrix, but also still play songs like Gravity from John Mayer and the more "calm" ones from Eric Clapton...So, blues and classic rock...

I want to get more of a strat sound in my tele and play blues/classic rock/blues rock, etc...

Which would be the best single-coil pickup to choose ?

Thanks !!

Strangely it is Fender telecaster pickups that all the others try to emulate in some way - you have fairly good pickupses in your Squier already.

You will have some difficulty getting Cream/Hendrix/PF sounds on a tele because these were ES335 (Clapton) or strat (Hendrix/Gilmour) sounds.

Strat-like tele pickups are the Twisted-tele neck pickup and the "American Tele" bridge pickup from the American Series (AmSer/Std)Telecaster.

Strangely it is Fender telecaster pickups that all the others try to emulate in some way - you have fairly good pickupses in your Squier already.

You will have some difficulty getting Cream/Hendrix/PF sounds on a tele because these were ES335 (Clapton) or strat (Hendrix/Gilmour) sounds.

Strat-like tele pickups are the Twisted-tele neck pickup and the "American Tele" bridge pickup from the American Series (AmSer/Std)Telecaster.

The thing is they are starting to break...too much hum, sound "fading away", etc... so I thought I would just change for another pair of pickups.

So, I did some research and I saw a lot of recommendations for the Twisted-Tele pickup for strat-like sound, would that be a good option for neck ?

Thanks !!

Why don't you just go for an actual Strat neck pickup and the "American Tele" bridge as Jefrs suggested. You could also do a Jerry Donohue wiring.

The Strat neck pickup will fit without the cover or go to Guitar Fetish and order a pickguard for Tele to fit a Strat pickup.

Or...since this isn't a vintage instrument, why don't you turn it into a "Nashville" type Tele. Strat neck/middle pickups and a Tele bridge. It would require some routing, but will get you closer in the "Strat" ballpark.

Or...why don't you just get a Strat? They make Tele-voiced bridge pickups for the Strat. You probably like playing the Tele and I don't blame you.

Even if you only change pickups I would go through the electronics. Maybe do a 4way switch also.

If you want to hear Clapton with a good Tele tone. Look up the Hyde Park stuff with Blind Faith.

Good luck no matter what you decide!

PUP's starting to break, sound fading? Unless you you held a strong magnet up to them, that just doesn't happen. PUP's don't really "die" over time. AliNiCo magnets loose about 0.5% strength every 100 years. Perhaps your pots need cleaning, or replacing, or a ground wire is loose.

The thing about the PUP types you mention is that they are different. Hendrix/Cream are early, or late 60's AlNiCo V. Late 60's are lower wind count. Mayer are mid 50's AlNiCo II with "scooped" mids and a softer attack. If you want to do both, use some decent 60's type PUP with ~0.025" of aluminum tape under the pick guard and/or PUP's to soften the upper-mids. There are plenty of those types to choose from.

PUP's starting to break, sound fading? Unless you you held a strong magnet up to them, that just doesn't happen. PUP's don't really "die" over time. AliNiCo magnets loose about 0.5% strength every 100 years. Perhaps your pots need cleaning, or replacing, or a ground wire is loose.

The thing about the PUP types you mention is that they are different. Hendrix/Cream are early, or late 60's AlNiCo V. Late 60's are lower wind count. Mayer are mid 50's AlNiCo II with "scooped" mids and a softer attack. If you want to do both, use some decent 60's type PUP with ~0.025" of aluminum tape under the pick guard and/or PUP's to soften the upper-mids. There are plenty of those types to choose from.

Yeah, I don't really know if the problems are really the pickups, but since I got basically a free pickup I thought I would already change it.

I'm taking my guitar to a luthier tomorrow so he can do a complete check-up and fix/clean everything, then, if there is no problem on the pickups I might change it later.

I'll search more for pickups later today and see the one that best fits what I am looking for, if the p'ups are really the problem.

Thanks!!

Why don't you just go for an actual Strat neck pickup and the "American Tele" bridge as Jefrs suggested. You could also do a Jerry Donohue wiring.

The Strat neck pickup will fit without the cover or go to Guitar Fetish and order a pickguard for Tele to fit a Strat pickup.

Or...since this isn't a vintage instrument, why don't you turn it into a "Nashville" type Tele. Strat neck/middle pickups and a Tele bridge. It would require some routing, but will get you closer in the "Strat" ballpark.

Or...why don't you just get a Strat? They make Tele-voiced bridge pickups for the Strat. You probably like playing the Tele and I don't blame you.

Even if you only change pickups I would go through the electronics. Maybe do a 4way switch also.

If you want to hear Clapton with a good Tele tone. Look up the Hyde Park stuff with Blind Faith.

Good luck no matter what you decide!

My next guitar will be, 250% sure, a strat. This tele is my first guitar, and we got such a good deal in it that, for a first guitar, was the best deal ever.

Here in brazil a basic fender strat is around $1600, while in USA it's $700 (both for the most basic fender type), so I'll wait a bit so next time I travel to USA I'll bring one from there.

But, meanwhile, while I can get p'ups for free and not have a strat yet, I'll try to emulate the strat sound on my tele.

Thanks!

If you are going to Nashville it, don't bother unless it already has a middle rout.
Time & expense = buy a Nashville or a strat.

You can actually spend more money doing-up your Squier than on buying a guitar that does it for you, and ruining a perfectly good telecaster into the bargain.

Otoh if you get pickups for free then try several out until you get there.

Btw - that Hendrix sound from a strat is rare, I've only ever found one strat that was instant Jimi, and it was an US Strat Plus Deluxe in a hideously vile candy apple green with lace pickups (and its matching US Tele Plus in white was possibly the worst tele ever, sounded like stuffed with cotton wool). Much of the sound is "in the wood" not the pickups. That and a 100W Marshall Super Lead into 8x12 G12H-30 bass speakers, with a full 1000W WEM back line sound reinforcement.

If you are going to Nashville it, don't bother unless it already has a middle rout.
Time & expense = buy a Nashville or a strat.

You can actually spend more money doing-up your Squier than on buying a guitar that does it for you, and ruining a perfectly good telecaster into the bargain.

Otoh if you get pickups for free then try several out until you get there.

Btw - that Hendrix sound from a strat is rare, I've only ever found one strat that was instant Jimi, and it was an US Strat Plus Deluxe in a hideously vile candy apple green with lace pickups (and its matching US Tele Plus in white was possibly the worst tele ever, sounded like stuffed with cotton wool). Much of the sound is "in the wood" not the pickups. That and a 100W Marshall Super Lead into 8x12 G12H-30 bass speakers, with a full 1000W WEM back line sound reinforcement.

I'm buying my next guitar probably next year only, which is when I am traveling to the USA, where the guitars are almost 1/3 the price.

Meanwhile, I'll do a really small upgrade in my tele, which is basically changing the p'ups (if it's actually necessary).

For now, all I am going to do is take it to a luthier so he can do a check-up on my guitar, and fix/clean everything. And if he tells me there is a problem on the p'up, then I'll change it.

The thing is, since I've been playing guitar for only 1 year, I don't the need 100% Hendrix/Cream sound, but just something that won't sound nothing like it. I can get both sounds like Hendrix/Cream and Mayer/Calm clapton stuff in my tele, but since I got the option to get free p'ups, I thought there would be some p'ups that would do a better job than those.

I don't usually play live, and mostly with headphones (because I live in an old apartment so I use a pair of good headphones to play guitar). But when I get to play live (about 1 time/2months) I would like a good sound, which I can already get from the stock p'ups (well, until now that my guitar starting to have those issues).

Thanks for the reply, and sorry for my confusing english, it's not my native language.

Seems to me that if you get the flavor of clapton, hendrix, floyd that should be good enough, then you can focus on your own sound. If the current pups aren't working right or if there is some other problem in the controls deal with that first then see where you are. If it aint broke don't fix it.

Try a set of pickups from a Squier Classic Vibe 50's bsb. Those are pretty inexpensive, and sound great.

If you are going to Nashville it, don't bother unless it already has a middle rout.
Time & expense = buy a Nashville or a strat.

You can actually spend more money doing-up your Squier than on buying a guitar that does it for you, and ruining a perfectly good telecaster into the bargain. .


Must be more expensive to rout and add a middle pickup to a non-collectable guitar in the UK?

The OP was looking for suggestions to acheive what he was looking for in his first post. At least he participated and let us know that he's basically happy with the Tele as is and only wants to possibly upgrade the pickups that he can get for free. Plus he's going to buy a Strat soon, so problem solved.

So what you suggested, the Twisted Tele and the American Tele bridge, should work fine for him.

Hello,
So I have a Squier Standard Telecaster and I want to change the pickups in it, because not only they started to not work properly, but I also want to reach a sound I wasn't able to with the stock ones.

I won a R$400 (about $160~) at a local guitar shop to buy anything I want, and so I am looking for the best tele pickup (single-coil) to buy so I can play, mostly:
Cream; Jimi Hendrix; Pink Floyd; John Mayer; Eric Clapton...

So I want to be able to play Cream/Jimi Hendrix, but also still play songs like Gravity from John Mayer and the more "calm" ones from Eric Clapton...So, blues and classic rock...

I want to get more of a strat sound in my tele and play blues/classic rock/blues rock, etc...

Which would be the best single-coil pickup to choose ?

Thanks !!

look at your question from a real world pragmatic angle - the BEST single coil is the one *I* prefer - why in the world would i care what YOU prefer? :roll: :cool: :mrgreen:

Any vintage wound, or slightly overwound pickup will get you those sounds, provided the rest of the equation is there - amp, effects, chops!

TBH I think a lot of people put too much store in how a pickup will affect their tone. Yes an EMG humbucker will sound very different to a vintage wound single coil, but pickups are not like modelling amps - you can't buy a "patch" to sound like a particular player.

There'll be at best about 1% difference in tone between any two quality pickups with the same basic spec in your guitar.

There'll be a 99% difference in tone between identical pickups played in your guitar, through your rig, by you and the same played by John Mayer in his guitar, through his rig, by him (or any other player for that matter).

Just get a good pickup - SD, DiMarzio, Lollar etc - all will do the same job. The difference between them all is so minimal compared to all the other factors involved in your tone that you can ignore it.

Same goes for "Tonewood" in an electric - but that's a whole other thread ;-)

I put a set of Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro's on the Tele I just built and it is the best sounding guitar I own. I sold a real nice Gretsch electromatic last night sine that guitar got knocked off it's pedestal. As has been said your amp and your playing should be able to get close to the tones you suggest with almost anything. I also Love the sound of my MIM with Alnico V's in it and even the stock pups on my Squier sound fantastic. The amp has an aweful lot to do with it really in my humble opinion. Personally I would not spend a lot of money on pickups. The Seymour Duncan ALnico II Pro's are 62 bucks a piece at guitar parts resource online.
Guitar Parts Resource SD Alnico Pro II neck pickup Aptr-1 $61.95
Guitar Parts Resource SD Alnico Pro II bridge pickup Aptl-1 $61.95
There is certainly no guarentee that they are going to make YOU sound like Hendrix
I don't have that much experience with any of those overpriced promise the world they can play like a bandshee. I have some guitars with some very shrill pickups which takes a bit of tone knob adjusting to get down but all in all with a good amp and some knob twisting the guitar can be capable of anything in the right hands. Personally I wouldn't break the bank on pickups but that's just me. One thing about those SD's is that they are polarized one north and one south which probably has some benefits. I note that my Squier is north south as well. Oddly my MIM isn't but they all sound fantastic. None of my guitars hum on my good amp and everything hums on another particular amp. It does sound like you have an electrical problem though. There are many experts in here that can help you with that.
I had a great guitar player here last night buying my beautiful Gretsch which he loved and bought immediately. Then I handed him the one with the Seymour Duncans. Oh man he made that thing sound amazing and when he finished humbling me for life shaming me in my own mind for my lack of skill, he turned to me and said "What a perfect guitar." Same guitar but in a million years I could never sound like him. The bottom line as always however is to do what makes YOU happy.

Must be more expensive to rout and add a middle pickup to a non-collectable guitar in the UK?

The OP was looking for suggestions to acheive what he was looking for in his first post. At least he participated and let us know that he's basically happy with the Tele as is and only wants to possibly upgrade the pickups that he can get for free. Plus he's going to buy a Strat soon, so problem solved.

So what you suggested, the Twisted Tele and the American Tele bridge, should work fine for him.

Would you spend £200 upgrading a £100 guitar? - you can easily do that. At the end of the project you still have a guitar worth £100 at resale.

Or you can put that money towards a guitar that will do what you want from the get-go.

Any vintage wound, or slightly overwound pickup will get you those sounds, provided the rest of the equation is there - amp, effects, chops!

TBH I think a lot of people put too much store in how a pickup will affect their tone. Yes an EMG humbucker will sound very different to a vintage wound single coil, but pickups are not like modelling amps - you can't buy a "patch" to sound like a particular player.

There'll be at best about 1% difference in tone between any two quality pickups with the same basic spec in your guitar.

There'll be a 99% difference in tone between identical pickups played in your guitar, through your rig, by you and the same played by John Mayer in his guitar, through his rig, by him (or any other player for that matter).

Just get a good pickup - SD, DiMarzio, Lollar etc - all will do the same job. The difference between them all is so minimal compared to all the other factors involved in your tone that you can ignore it.

Same goes for "Tonewood" in an electric - but that's a whole other thread ;-)

Those are some excellent points, sir h. There are just a few caveats. Just so the impression isn't given that there is no tone difference. All else being equal, an over-wound PUP of the same design will generally have more bass and mids than a "vintage" wound. You can make lots of changes post guitar. A balanced, clear, sensitive, low-noise (or noiseless) PUP will provide the most options.

Everything on the guitar contributes to the response reflected in the string, therefore is sent to the amp. The material contacting the string is most significant. Generally speaking the further away from the contact points, the less material matters -- but it still matters. The neck material is probably more important than the body, but if your body wood causes a lot of damping, it will be reflected in the string. If it has a lot of resonance, the same will reflect in the string. I'd wager that the neck takes precedence, because it's both thinner and longer. Think about it. It would require some 4X the rigidity of the body to equal the level of resonance. As you say, discussion for another topic. Check out some of Ken Parker's interviews. Very illuminating: http://kenparkerarchtops.com/kenparkerarchtoz.html

Like I said: Must be more expensive to rout and add a middle pickup to a non-collectable guitar in the UK.

Like I said: Must be more expensive to rout and add a middle pickup to a non-collectable guitar in the UK.

Price, I don't really know, but it costs about £200 for a re-fret, so I'd expect middle rout, pickguard, pickup, 5-way selector and re-wire to cost about the same.

Why would you pay out this kind of money on a cheap guitar when you can buy one with all the fixings done, for the same kind of money or less.

Would you spend £200 upgrading a £100 guitar? - you can easily do that. At the end of the project you still have a guitar worth £100 at resale.

Or you can put that money towards a guitar that will do what you want from the get-go.

Well if he keeps the original pickups he can always pull the upgrades out and use them in something else if the sells his current guitar.

Two simple and straightforward suggestions for you OP. IMHO the two best sounding pickups Fender makes are Nocasters for a more 50's vintage tonality and Texas Specials for a more modern hotter wound pickup. There are also many pickups from other sources that are great sounding but that store may not carry them If they sell Fender they can get these.

My suggestion is to go to the store and play a Tele equipt with NoCasters and a different one with Texas Specials. See which one YOU prefer and that's which one you get. We aren't gonna know what your ears will tell you.

Well if we read the OP's original post, the sound he is after is that of a strat ...

And the best pickups for that are strat pickups, in a strat ...

And you can pick up an Aria STG-3 for as little as £75, and it is one of the best budget strat copies.
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/attachments/stratocaster-discussion-forum/104651d1323110299-do-you-use-your-strat-trem-stratoclone-jpg
But this is what happens to it if you fit over a £150 worth of bits to it. The only original bits are the neck, tuners, jack plate and body.
Body is alder, neck is maple/rosewood (no skunk) and bi-flex truss rod. Headstock is a funny shape though.

How do I know those tele pickups sound like a strat? - Twisted neck, "American Tele" (AmSer) bridge (no base plate), Kent-Armstrong "Vintage" neck pickup (modified poles) in the middle (RWRP) - it is one very powerful strat.

Wired neck, neck+bridge (tele), bridge, bridge+middle (quack), middle.
Wilkinson "Vintage Big Block" trem/bridge (modified to float cleanly). CTS pots. Aged white (cream) strat pickguard. Bone nut.

Two Hundred Pounds British, at the current rate, equals about $320.00 USD. I just thought that was kind of steep for a pickup, pickguard, rout and a switch, that's all.

About the only thing I go to a shop for is a re-fret. And I believe your probably pretty close on price of a good quality shop fret job. Give or take a few dollars/pounds, whatever.

My initial post was just aimed at suggestions, food for thought if you will. Anytime I look at gear/guitar mods, I always wonder if the cost will be justified.

Now that we know he's budgeting for a Strat, your Twisted Tele and American Tele combo would be a great suggestion for him. He also should look at electronics upgrades.

Jefrs, no harm no foul. It's all good. Take care!:smile:

Do you have any clips of that guitar?

Have you tried Gfs'? They priced really low and are great value imho.

Me, I've got a router and a workshop, so I would rout for the pickup, but when you have to pay someone else it starts getting expensive. Yes £200 for a re-fret and setup, but fret wire is cheap and just requires a little patience and a few special tools. Routers are a lot cheaper than they used to be, but you have to learn how to.

That Aria STG3 of mine probably costs less than a decent router and a set of tools for it. Most of the upgrades came from my bits boxes. I did have to use the Dremel (more money/overhead outlay) in the cavity to get the full size pots in. The Aria is well made, and although the body is a trifle thin, it took a stock strat scratchplate and all but one of the screw holes lined up.

I do not have clips of the Aria stratoclone.
You will appreciate that a tele bridge pickup is more powerful than that on a strat, this allows the middle and neck pickups to be raised higher than you would on a strat, into more powerful positions.

I am looking for ways to upload music that do not involve money or video, or require a lot of silly registration. I do have a file sharing facility but it's probably not compatible with most browser player plugins (needs file download).

Any suggestions?



Re Gfs - I always found girlfriends to be fairly expensive, besides the wife would object.

Double

Since you're still starting out, I wouldn't worry too much about achieving a certain sound. A set of plain vanilla vintage style pickups that won't break the bank will be a great place to start.

Point - the OP has a Squire Standard Tele, which comes with "plain vanilla" tele pickups