Replacement p/u's for a AV '69 Thinline

Hey guys,

I've had my 2011 '69 Thinline for a few months, and I find myself not like the pickups (Fender American vintage single coils).Overall the output feels a little weak and thin, and the bridge is too ice-picky. is there anything special I need to factor in because it's a Thinline?

I know there's a lot of great pickups out there and taste is subjective....I've been looking at Rio Grandes...the vintage tallboys. Any thoughts on that set?

Welcome to the forum!

I have always found Thinlines to be the most difficult Teles to get sounding right.

Personally, I like weaker pickups in a Thinline because they have better bite than a hotter set. I like that because Thinlines can be a little weak in the context of a band. (imo)

For me, the trick to getting a Thinline to really sound right is putting it through the right amp. A lower ohm pickup is going to have great clarity or "ice pick" as some refer to it. A guitar with great clarity through something like a Twin Reverb can have a real bite to it.

Thinlines, in my experience, sound best through smaller amps that break up sooner than bigger amps.

I know your question is about pickups, but I think Thinlines present a unique situation that is not as readily addressed as it might be with other models.

Hey guys,

I've had my 2011 '69 Thinline for a few months, and I find myself not like the pickups (Fender American vintage single coils).Overall the output feels a little weak and thin, and the bridge is too ice-picky. is there anything special I need to factor in because it's a Thinline?

Unless you just got to have booteek pickups i'd try a a couple simple things first If the pots are 1M ohm, as they should be if faithful to the originals, switch them out for 250k--a less than $15 fix. This will significantly lessen the ice-pickiness.

Also, try raising the pups a bit if they seem to weak to you . You'll be surprise how much difference a few turns of the mounting screws can make.

+1 for 250k pots and raise the pups. That plus correct use of tone control should suffice to tame the ice !

By the way what amp and what kind of music do you play ?

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone!

I like to consider myself multi-genre, so at home and the studio I play blues, jazz, alt. rock but live I mainly play alternative rock and P+W in a live setting. I have an AC15 that I play through live usually and have a few different amps I use in the studio. My main gigging axe before this was a Gretsch 6128-TDS with the Dynasonics, so I like my pickups with some bite, but they were extremely noisy and the guitar in general needed a lot of attention constantly to stay happy.

I may have just been a bit impatient and spontaneous: I had a gig last night where I got really frustrated with the stock pickups on the (based on what I was saying in my original post, plus because I don't believe they are RWRP, they are noisy as heck too). Anyway, in a fit of frustration and pickup research, I bought a pair of Lollar Special T's. (haha...)

I only read good things about Lollars and so many great players that I like seem to use them, I figured it was a safe bet...what do you guys think? should I still tell my luthier to change some of the pot values? I also considered having him switch the selector to a 4-way...thoughts?

I think the Lollars will sound fantastic in that guitar.
Yes, you should absolutely change the pots to 250k (though you could get away with 500k and turn down the tone control to taste, or even the 1megs that are in there already and again turn down the tone control to taste), at least if it were my guitar the very first thing I would've done was to change the pots to 250k.
I also think a 4 way switch is a fantastic idea and you should definitely do it to it!

I have custom shop texas specials in my MIM 69 thinline reissue and 250k pots and those sound really good in that guitar with the pickups set down a little lower. The next electronics mod I make to it will be a 4 way switch.

Let us know how those Lollars work out!

In my Thinlines, I swapped the pots to 250K and got a set of Alnico II Pros from Duncan. Worked wonders to tame that ice-pick.

I had a Lollar special T set in a MIM mahogany 69RI thinline and these sounded fantastic for rock and heavy blues. They add a lot of mids compared to more traditional pups. The bridge pup is a class on its own, raw and nasty, almost P90ish. No more ice pick with those ;)

I ended up removing them after 1 year because I was looking for a more traditional tele tone but I still remember the glorious rock tones they could achieve. You'll love them !