Replace '62 pickups in Redwood?

Hi, everyone. I am fortunate enough to be the owner of a Telebration Old Growth Redwood. In very nearly every respect, it is the ideal guitar for me. The neck is perfectly sized, the satin back is wonderful, the body is lightweight and gorgeous, and I love the '50s styling. The six-saddle bridge is also a plus in my book, but that is a topic for a different discussion. :lol:

The only two mods so far are a 4-way switch (for series wiring) and a switch to block saddles (since the strings were sliding over the strat saddles and making a metallic ZING! sound).

Now then, the pickups. I can tell that they are great, and I want to love them wholeheartedly, but I don't. Plenty of brightness available, but somehow too thin and hi-fi. The guitar almost sounds like an acoustic at times.

I did an A/B with my Baja last night and realized that I like the Baja pickups quite a bit more. There's a bit more output, yes, but I find that I also like a nice, sparkly neck pickup paired with a slightly throaty bridge pickup. That way, you avoid mud in the neck AND icepick in the bridge. I also like what this pairing does for the parallel position. YMMV, of course.

For various reasons, I may ultimately choose to part with the Baja, but I haven't decided yet. (The neck may be too thick for me, for one thing).

Background: Guitar is a hobby for me; my main instrument is the drums. I am therefore using the guitar for my own amusement and home recording (and occasional jams with similarly amateurish friends). I mainly use the neck pickup for pretty, sustaining, Bill Frisell sorts of things, while the bridge pick up gets called into duty for Ryan Adams-ish rock and heavy metal in a pinch. I do like to keep the output of the two pickups roughly even, though, so I can switch between them without major adjustments at the amp.

Keeping that in mind, are there any pickup pairings that I should consider dropping in the Redwood? I am looking at the Texas Specials and the Nocasters.

Specific questions:
1) I'm pretty sure that the overwound bridge on the TS would be pretty satisfying to me, but would I find the overwound neck too dull (remembering that I am one of those people that likes the Twisted Tele)?
2) How about the Nocasters? People describe those as having a very clear neck and a slightly darker bridge. That sounds to me like a description of the Twisted/Broadcaster combination. How different are the two sets?
3) What are typical resistance readings for the four sets of pickups I've mentioned here ('62, Twisted/Broadcaster, TS, and Nocaster)? Other relevant specs?

I'm open to other suggestions as well, but please keep in mind that A) I want them to look like telecaster pickups should, and B) some of the lesser-known brands might be expensive or unavailable here in Japan.

Ah, one last question: The Twisted/Broadcaster pair is not RW/RP. This means that I get noise in all 6 positions on my Baja. What happens when you use a RW/RP pair in a Baja arrangement? I am assuming that both parallel and series in phase are hum-cancelling, but what happens in the out-of-phase positions? Do you pay a noise penalty?

Thanks in advance for those who persevered to the end of this rambling missive and are willing to share their thoughts!

You know what you like. Why not just get a used set of Baja pickups?

RW\RP will be noise cancelling in all the combined-in-phase positions, not in the out of phase phase positions.

I replaced my Telebration hot rod bridge with a Fralin Stock Hybrid +2% & couldn't be happier. I like Alnico V pups better anyways.

You know what you like. Why not just get a used set of Baja pickups?

RW\RP will be noise cancelling in all the combined-in-phase positions, not in the out of phase phase positions.

Thanks, I had considered getting the same pickups (there is a twisted tele up on the auctions right now, although I'm not sure where I would get the bridge pup). My thinking, though, is that it would be redundant to have two guitars with the same pickups (assuming I do decide to keep the Baja, which I might, mainly because I love having the out-of-phase options).

Also, I had assumed that the out-of-phase positions would not be hum-cancelling even with RW/RP pickups, but I was wondering if the noise was somehow *worse* than it would be with pickups that aren't RW/RP. I'm still fairly ignorant about these things (trying to learn).

Thanks for the reply!

I replaced my Telebration hot rod bridge with a Fralin Stock Hybrid +2% & couldn't be happier. I like Alnico V pups better anyways.

I'm assuming that that is 2% over '50s spec? I was just looking at the Lindy Fralin site on your recommendation. Some interesting ideas there. In looking elsewhere, I found a site selling a Lindy Fralin Broadcaster set that isn't listed on the Lindy Fralin website. Do you know anything about those?

...
Also, I had assumed that the out-of-phase positions would not be hum-cancelling even with RW/RP pickups, but I was wondering if the noise was somehow *worse* than it would be with pickups that aren't RW/RP. I'm still fairly ignorant about these things (trying to learn).

Thanks for the reply!

The noise won't be worse.

RW/RP pair = signal in phase with noise out of phase.
Non-RW/RP pair = signal in phase with noise in phase

When one pickup of a pair is RW/RP (reverse wind/reverse polarity), it cancels noise because the reversed winding puts the noise from one out of phase with the noise from the other. The signal is in phase because the reversed polarity of the magnets flips the phase again - but just for the signal.

The amount of noise to be cancelled is the same in both pairs if you have the same amount of wire on both pairs.

Thanks for the reply, Ricky D!