2009 TDPRI Giveaway Winners List is available HERE

Stuco · April 22nd, 2008, 01:13 PM

I had some red lace sensors (also noiseless) that I really liked. They get a lot of flack around here because they aren't necessarily "traditional" tele sounding pickups but they have telecaster characteristics while being able to be cranked with overdrive with minimal noise.

Velorex · April 24th, 2008, 03:11 PM

Hi!

I use a Stack vintage Seymour Duncan since ages.
I heard no bad tone out of it but since i am mostly recording now
i need it more and more...it's just no hum.

velorex

garrett · April 27th, 2008, 08:00 AM

I'm 100% noise free, the only way to be! :)

Bill Lawrence in my Tele and Strats. DiMarzio in my PRS SE Soapbar II. My USA PRSes still have the stock HB's.

tlsmack · April 27th, 2008, 08:38 AM

Here's a great article with way too much information about noiseless pickups.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov9...les/pickup.htm

JohnS · April 27th, 2008, 12:08 PM

EMG - T set. Dead quiet. Dead wonderful.

kludge · April 28th, 2008, 02:48 AM

I just installed EMGs in my Tele tonight.

It's... different. I don't yet know whether the pickups are keepers or not (I'll have to play with them a while, gig once or twice), but the SILENCE... wow. I was able to turn on my favorite heavy fuzz (ZVex Mammoth) and there was NO additional noise at idle. Notes came out of nowhere.

And I gotta say, I like not grounding the strings, too. Not just for fear of electrocution, but because it's too easy to drop the ground and get noise the moment I do a pull-off or something.

These pickups may well be the final answer to the noise-vs-tone question I've been wrestling with since my first Strat, twenty-odd years ago.

But as for the tone... the jury's still out (like I said, need to play a while), but I'm VERY impressed so far. Impressed enough that I'm even more strongly considering EMGs for my two-humbucker Strat.

crawdad · April 29th, 2008, 11:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kludge

And I gotta say, I like not grounding the strings, too. Not just for fear of electrocution, but because it's too easy to drop the ground and get noise the moment I do a pull-off or something.

I feel a responsibilty to warn you of something. With a Tele, even if you disconnect the ground, your pots, and therefore your volume and tone knobs (metal), still conduct to ground. If you are singing on a mic and the polarity of your amp is reversed, you will be fine UNTIL you touch your volume control. When you do, you will get a strong shock.

You can STILL get electrocuted or severely shocked. Be aware and careful. I don't want any of my TDPRI buddies to suffer.

golfnut · April 30th, 2008, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crawdad

I feel a responsibilty to warn you of something. With a Tele, even if you disconnect the ground, your pots, and therefore your volume and tone knobs (metal), still conduct to ground. If you are singing on a mic and the polarity of your amp is reversed, you will be fine UNTIL you touch your volume control. When you do, you will get a strong shock.

You can STILL get electrocuted or severely shocked. Be aware and careful. I don't want any of my TDPRI buddies to suffer.

I always test by quickly touching the mic and the guitar before I sing. I hate surprises.

Vol. Knob · May 4th, 2008, 01:03 PM

I used to have a maple necked, ash bodied strat with Fender Vintage Noiseless in it. I wish I still had it. I miss the lack of hum. Foolish move, selling that guitar was...

My current strats... An '86 Squier Strat has a lil '59 telecaster pickup in the bridge and I love it. I recently got an '83 Squier Strat with GFS alnico pups. I'm considering going with some noiseless at some point in that one.

As far as my thinline is concerned, if they ever come up with an Antiquity II that's noiseless, then I'll consider it, but for now the Atiquity II is a perfect match for that guitar.

andrenighthound · May 4th, 2008, 01:12 PM

i have a lawrence L200 for a neck pickup in one of my teles and it is not going! anywhere!

Al Watsky · May 4th, 2008, 09:11 PM

Lawrence 280's in the CIJ tele used last night at the Apollo in NYC. Whats not to like? Silent,plenty of output, clear, plenty bright. Very good reports from the live sound guys, they enjoyed the clarity. I enjoyed the super low noise floor and the sense of power. Minimal effects into an amp splitter , using the volume and tone control into two rental amps. I like my old school single coils n' all but really this is a no brainer, if you need gain and no hum, noiseless is the way to go.

lostpick · May 4th, 2008, 09:24 PM

The Lawrence noiseless PUPS may be "thee" magic
sleepers according to Harmony Central reviews...
and you can find them reasonably priced...
the success of the Keystones has me wondering
about them....

doveman · May 26th, 2008, 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by david henman

2005 g&l legacy: installed the suhr silent backplate system. now THIS is tone! genuine, single coil mojo WITHOUT the single coil buzz. expensive, but worth every penny. unfortunately, it is only designed for strat type guitars with a trem bridge and a backplate.

I have a G&L Legacy with G&L pickups in it. I'm interested in the Suhr backplate system too. Did you use the G&L pickups? Just have to replace the middle one? Use some other pickups ... Suhrs maybe? Did it fit the standard G&L trem-cover holes or did you have to drill new holes?

robt57 · May 26th, 2008, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kludge

I just installed EMGs in my Tele tonight.

Did you do the -T or -TC set? I am really considering the EMG-T Alnico set. Mainly due to the ravs on the Neck PUP

Michaell · May 26th, 2008, 10:36 PM

Many " noiseless " pickups made to look like single coils are really stacked humbuckers

I am a HUGE fan of Lace Sensors.....Golds on my 2 strats....and the tele set on my tele

I am truly spolied by the fact that there is no annoying single coil buzz

Tele295 · May 27th, 2008, 08:41 PM

B*A*R*D*E*N

Can't live without 'em!

JamonHamon · May 28th, 2008, 01:57 AM

B*A*R*D*E*N
I agree Barden in my humble opinion are the best sounding noiseless
followed by EMGs then kinman

scottb · May 28th, 2008, 02:04 AM

One of my first strat builds was around a set of classic stack duncans. Never did sound right, I changed necks, bodies, bridges before I finally woke up and realized it was the pickups. They had absolutely no life. Sold them and moved on.
This thread has caused me to rethink the genre however.

nosuch · May 28th, 2008, 04:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by david henman

2005 g&l legacy: installed the suhr silent backplate system. now THIS is tone! genuine, single coil mojo WITHOUT the single coil buzz. expensive, but worth every penny. unfortunately, it is only designed for strat type guitars with a trem bridge and a backplate.

That system for a telly would be a dream come true!

Tony474 · May 28th, 2008, 05:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottb

One of my first strat builds was around a set of classic stack duncans. Never did sound right, I changed necks, bodies, bridges before I finally woke up and realized it was the pickups. They had absolutely no life. Sold them and moved on.

My experience is very similar. In 1998, while on vacation in Nashville, I bought a DiMarzio-branded Strat clone equipped with those pickups. While I loved (and still do) the feel and playability of this very slim-necked guitar, I could never get it sounding quite right no matter how it was set or adjusted.

At first I attributed the problem to the lack of mass in the neck, but when I replaced the pickups with Kinmans (the Traditional Mk II set) the whole thing really came alive. It now sounds as wonderful as it feels to play and, out of dozens and dozens of guitars over 50 years and more, it's one of my all-time favourites.

chuckamok63 · May 28th, 2008, 06:50 AM

I've been using Texas Specials in the Bridge while using Noiseless (not SCN) in the bridge, I love the noiseless bridge tone!

Roe · May 29th, 2008, 12:12 PM

I have kinman's broadkaster bridge pup. it's good but not great

david henman · June 4th, 2008, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by doveman

I have a G&L Legacy with G&L pickups in it. I'm interested in the Suhr backplate system too. Did you use the G&L pickups? Just have to replace the middle one? Use some other pickups ... Suhrs maybe? Did it fit the standard G&L trem-cover holes or did you have to drill new holes?

...sorry for the delay in responding. yes, i used the g&l pickups, replacing the midele one with a non-RWRP. and, yes, we had to drill new holes.

and still enjoying the results!!!

-dh

hopdybob · June 4th, 2008, 03:49 PM

i can not speak for tele pickups
but i use a SCN set in a strat without the s1 switch.
less quack then the keystone set (and they are verry quiet to)
more straty than the l280.

i think you have to toggle more with amp setting with the SCN
have more room to go other ways and not pintdown to 1 sound.

swangdb · July 11th, 2008, 12:31 PM

So, what are our choices for noiseless Tele solutions (in alphabetical order)...

Anderson
Bardens
Dimarzio Area T
Dimarzio misc noiseless
EH Knockout Pedal
EMG
Fender Noiseless
Kinmans
Lace Tele Models
Lawrence
Live with the noise
Noise Reduction Pedal
Seymour Duncan stacks/mini-humbuckers
Shield the doggone guitar!!
Suhr SSC

What did I leave off?

I guess my question is, which system sounds the most like a real Tele single coil sound. Okay, I guess by real single coil sound do I mean Buck Owens or Jeff Beck or Roy Buchanan or...then again, the differences in these sounds may have more to do with the guitarists than the guitars, but I digress...to me, a Tele Bridge pickup has to have some Pete Anderson Twang, so mini-humbuckers like the Duncan Hot Rails or little 59 won't do for me.

Anderson - I like the Anderson strats I've heard, though their noiseless pickups sound best in true single coil mode to me. How Twangy are their TD series pickups?

Bardens - heard them, liked them, not sure they sounded like a "real" tele but they sound good. Over $300 for two pickups seems like a lot but not if you never had to replace them I suppose.

Dimarzio Area T - I'm interested but I've never heard one except for one clip on the Dimarzio web site. It sounded good but it didn't showcase any TWANG

Other Dimarzio Noiseless - I get the impression the Area T is their twangiest, am I wrong?

EH Knockout Pedal - I have one of these. It works better than I expected. Does it make my PRS Humbucker guitar sound like a tele? Well, no, but it's close enough for an occasional country tune with the blues band I gig with. It's a pretty good crutch.

EMG - I like EMG Strat pickups but I hate batteries in guitars.

Fender Noiseless - The Strat noiseless pickups are often trashed but I've never really heard the Tele noiseless pickups and there appear to be two models, "Vintage" noiseless and SCN noiseless. Do either of these pickups sound like single coils? Are they similar in tone or different?

Kinmans - I had a set of Kinman Strat pickups I didn't like (pre-lawsuit Blues) but I later heard a set of Kinman Hank Marvins that I liked a lot. The Tele clips on the Kinman site are pretty good. Are these worth the money? If you didn't know you were playing noiseless pickups would you think they were real single coils?

Lace Tele - I've rarely heard good things about these pickups. I like the Lace Gold and Lace Holy Grail strat pickups, how close do the Lace Tele pickups get to the real thing?

Lawrence - I've heard a Lawrence Tele Bridge pickup in a 60s Tele - it was very clear, kind of hifi, would rock out but wasn't twangy. I think this was the TL model.

Live with the noise - I've done that a lot with Strats and still may but I hate that noise.

Noise Reduction Pedal like ISP Decimator. EH has a smilar pedal. How much of the guitar's tone do these things steal?

Seymour Duncan - How authentic are any of his noiseless Tele pickups?

Shield - I've never tried this. How much does it really help with reducing noise?

Suhr SSC - Well yeah. I wish there was an easy way to retrofit one of these to a Tele. Maybe there is I just don't know it. I'm too poor to buy a Suhr guitar right now.

At this point, I'll confess that I've never owned a Tele. I borrowed a friend's 60's Tele for a few years. I heard it with various pickups, it sounded more like a Les Paul Junior to me than a Tele. I've played a friend's Japanese Tele many times and it is real twangy. However...

This week I ordered my first Tele. I ordered a Scratch and Dent Fender Squier Vintage Modified Telecaster Thinline Tele from Musician's Friend. The price was low and the neck scale was short (24.75"). It might be a horrible mistake, the guitar might possess zero twang due to the shorter neck but I had the urge to order it and I did. I am 54, been playing since high school and this is my first mail order guitar ever. If I like it, I'm going to at least consider a noiseless option of some sort.

A great man once told me that if you don't like the way a guitar sounds, don't buy it. If you do like the way it sounds, don't change it. Then again, maybe excess noise would fall under the category of not liking the way it sounds.

That's all for now!!

Scotland · July 11th, 2008, 01:22 PM

Harpo Marx

Radspin · July 15th, 2008, 11:14 PM

I just got a 2002 Jeff Beck Strat with Hot Noiseless pickups and I really, really like them. Yes, they're more of a "hi fi" sound than traditional pickups, but I enjoy the clarity and the sonic difference in personality from my other Strats. I will say the bridge pickup sounds a little brittle clean, but rolling off the tone control fixes that for me.

I played the JB Strat through a '65 Princeton Reverb at a rehearsal last weekend, and the guitar/amp sounded stunning both clean and using a Fulltone OCD and Full Drive II. I know the Fender Noiseless pickups have been harshly criticized by some, but I love this guitar and the way it sounds.

And, the lack of noise, even with an overdrive pedal on, is just wonderful.

franchelB · July 16th, 2008, 06:55 PM

I'm using a Fender Vintage Noiseless neck pickup on my Telecaster. I'm keeping the bridge pickup a single-coil (Rio Grande Muy Grande).

As soon as I have some disposable income, I'll get a noiseless pickup for my Tie-dye Strat...I'm thinking Duncan Lil '59.

Rob DiStefano · July 16th, 2008, 09:40 PM

I love the tone of a good single coil pickup. I hate the humbuzz sometimes associated with recording and playing live, so some Teles, Thinlines, Esquires and Strats are just gonna hafta be "noiseless"

To date, there isn't a noiseless pup or system that can produce those true one coil tones. I've taste tested just about every noiseless "single" coil pup out there in pup-land, and prefer the L200's or the new L202's ... the new micro coils are showing some strong promise of greatly reduced humbuzz, yet are just one coil and no smoke and mirrors. YMMV.

scoots · July 16th, 2008, 11:17 PM

i have the scn's in an am dlx and like one of the guy's mentioned i like the neck pup. really like the neck pup. i'm good (well, ok) with the bridge, found some useable stuff (clean) backing down both the volume and tone about 1/3 (+or-). i'll tell you what i found the bridge pup is really good for---distortion! these am dxl's come with the no load tone(bypass) on them, which allows for some very bright, yet very full distortion. who says a tele isn't good for distortion? try one of these scn bridge pups with a ds-1. it'll tear your...

tpaul · July 22nd, 2008, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scotland

Harpo Marx

Harpo may not have spoken but he certainly wasn't noiseless!

ASC67 · July 22nd, 2008, 12:38 PM

Anyone tried these new PU's from GFS

http://yhst-50206111187217.stores.ya...u20nepino.html

swangdb · August 18th, 2008, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swangdb

Seymour Duncan - How authentic are any of his noiseless Tele pickups?

I borrowed a Seymour Duncan Hot Stack Bridge pickup (the STK-T3 I think - it's got the bar) and put it in my cheapo Squier Tele Thinline (with the short scale neck).

I expected the pickup to have an overwound, almost P90-ish tone but to my surprise (and delight) it sounds very Tele-ish. It sounds very similar to the Duncan designed pickup that came with the guitar. If I had been blindfolded I would have thought it was the Vintage Stack version of this pickup instead of the hot stack. Maybe the basic tone of the guitar is coming through with either pickup.

I haven't had a chance to play loud with distortion yet, I'll check that out tonight.

JonesKY · August 20th, 2008, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kludge

Has anyone tried the Dimarzio Area T neck pickup? What did you think? Again, thinking ahead for a bandmate's guitar. Needs a traditional chrome neck for visual reasons, but a humbucker would be nice...
(snip)...

I use (& love) the Dimarzio "Area" humbucking singles - just great pickups (Strat & Tele versions). The Area T Neck is fantastic: like a cross between a good strat & good PAF. The Area T Bridge is great, too: phat twang. One of my guitars has the Virtual Tele Hot Bridge: very P90/PAF thick but clear; nice.

The only concession with the humbucking p'ups in a Tele comes down to the bridge plate - it must be non-ferrous/magnetic. A standard steel tele bridgeplate interferes with the humbucking qualities of the pickups (Dimarzio, Duncan, Lawrence, all of them) resulting in 60-cycle noise (like a regular single coil, which defeats the purpose). That said, a new bridgeplate is in order. I'm using the Glendale (Stainless Steel) since it's of vintage spec w/3-barrel saddles. Fender's AmStd is non-metallic, but not vintage-styled, using 6-saddles; same goes with a Gotoh version. Whichever is used, coupled with the Dimarzio "Area" p'up, it'll be tough to go back to single coils for a regular gigging instrument, especially if you use medium gain (or more).

My $.02!

Shima · September 10th, 2008, 06:40 AM

Hi there, this is my first post. i am a pro player from germany, who has been reading this forum for quite some time, finding very helpful information and tips. now i encountered a problem simliar to the poster above.
I own an american ash deluxe that i upgraded with a glendale bridge, that is magnetic as i found out now. that improved the sound and made me happy. next step was upgrading the pickups.
since i do studiowork, a lot of times in front of pc's, i decided to stay noiseless.
having had good experiences with the dimarzio areas in my strat, i went with the area t's. soundwise they are great, but due to the magnetic bridge, the bridge pickup produces that 60cycle hum.
question is, how to eliminate this.
return to the stock bridge plate- soundwise not a preferred option.
buy another non-magnetic bridge- glendale doesn't offer one.
or modify the pickup to avoid the hum- special shielding, extra ground wire or....
if anyone has any idea, i'd be very thankful.

best regards, holger

tiktok · September 14th, 2008, 03:05 AM

I don't have single coils in any of my gigging guitars. I'm using Duncan Vintage Stacks, Barden, Bartolini (only in my Strats, never seen a Tele set) and GFS. The only ones I've hated were SD Hot Rails which I found totally unusable. All the others have sounded fine to me and apparently to everyone I've worked with. I've got some SCN in a B-Bender that I haven't had time to put to heavy use yet, and it sounds a bit lifeless, but it also came with Graphtech saddles, which always seem to sound dead to me. I'll change them out when I have time before I make a decision on the SCN.

I've never had someone ask me if I could get more high-end out of my Tele, but they have asked me why it's buzzing so much, so I avoid the pure single coils. Clubs and rehearsal rooms have wiring issues more often than not, so that's the final decider for me.

giantslayer · September 14th, 2008, 07:00 PM

I'm contemplating noiseless pickups for my strat. Noise gates don't help your tone at all. They only mute the noise when you're not playing. Try dialing up the highest gain tone you find useful, turning off your noise gate, and change which direction your guitar is facing to find the best and worst spots. Try comparing the two while playing. I could hear a noticable difference in the clarity and strength of the tone.

I've done plenty of shielding. First I did aluminum foil, which didn't seem to help much. Then I used copper tape. It made a very slight reduction to the amount of noise (if I didn't use a dB meter to test before/after, I wouldn't have noticed at all). However, what it DID do is remove the noise that appeared whenever I wasn't touching the strings.

John Thigpen · September 14th, 2008, 11:07 PM

Has anyone tried these Seymour Duncan Custom Shop Five-Two Stacks?

http://www.seymourduncan.com/product...two_stack_f_1/

At $140, it's pretty expensive, and I wonder if it's worth it. A friend just put three Duncan mini-hums in a strat and absolutely loves it. We were wondering about adding two to a Tele, but putting a noiseless Tele pickup in the bridge.

John

gstring · October 11th, 2008, 11:29 PM

I just put togeter a 2008 American Deluxe Tele with a rosewood neck from parts on ebay. Mods are a 4-way switch instead of the S1, schaller locking tuners (awesome, fast and highly recommended) and Texas Highway 1 pickguard (guess I'm a little pearloid-phobic). It took under 5 minutes to add the first set of strings. Now for the pickups. I went to GC and tried some teles but became confused regarding which pickups to buy (there just isn't a pickup that does it all) and finally settled on the stock SCN. It was the right decision because I was looking for a clean jazzy sound and the sound through a tube amp exceeded my expectations. The SCNs may not be able to produce the outer spectrum of bright snappy twang but you can produce some really great sounds out of the SCN with the right amp. I don't think the tele will ever replace my vintage noiseless strat but it is the perfect compliment. The strat honks, quacks and snarls and the tele is just plain clean and jazzy. Good times!!!

gstring · October 11th, 2008, 11:40 PM

I discovered that cranking a quality tube amp (have not had luck with ss amps and noiseless pups) and controling the volume on my vintage noiseless strat helps to produce the tone I am looking for. Once the right distortion is found then the tone is set until it sparkles. I guess this is using the amp to produce the tone. I tried this method with a newly acquired tele with SCN and it appears to work well. Of course, sound is in the ear of the beholder.

April 22nd, 2008, 01:13 PM	#41 (permalink)
Stuco Friend of Leo's Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: GA Posts: 4,230	I had some red lace sensors (also noiseless) that I really liked. They get a lot of flack around here because they aren't necessarily "traditional" tele sounding pickups but they have telecaster characteristics while being able to be cranked with overdrive with minimal noise. __________________ -"You do not merely want to be considered just the best of the best. You want to be considered the only ones who do what you do" J. Garcia

April 27th, 2008, 08:00 AM	#43 (permalink)
garrett Tele-Meister Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Adelaide, Australia Age: 30 Posts: 203	I'm 100% noise free, the only way to be! :) Bill Lawrence in my Tele and Strats. DiMarzio in my PRS SE Soapbar II. My USA PRSes still have the stock HB's. __________________ --Garrett--

April 28th, 2008, 02:48 AM	#46 (permalink)
kludge Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Minneapolis Age: 44 Posts: 1,034	I just installed EMGs in my Tele tonight. It's... different. I don't yet know whether the pickups are keepers or not (I'll have to play with them a while, gig once or twice), but the SILENCE... wow. I was able to turn on my favorite heavy fuzz (ZVex Mammoth) and there was NO additional noise at idle. Notes came out of nowhere. And I gotta say, I like not grounding the strings, too. Not just for fear of electrocution, but because it's too easy to drop the ground and get noise the moment I do a pull-off or something. These pickups may well be the final answer to the noise-vs-tone question I've been wrestling with since my first Strat, twenty-odd years ago. But as for the tone... the jury's still out (like I said, need to play a while), but I'm VERY impressed so far. Impressed enough that I'm even more strongly considering EMGs for my two-humbucker Strat. __________________ Oz: Well, other bands know more than three chords. Your professional bands can play up to six, sometimes seven completely different chords. Devon: That's just, like, fruity jazz bands. -from Buffy the Vampire Slayer

May 4th, 2008, 01:03 PM	#49 (permalink)
Vol. Knob Tele-Holic Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Kansas City, MO Posts: 618 105 Photos	I used to have a maple necked, ash bodied strat with Fender Vintage Noiseless in it. I wish I still had it. I miss the lack of hum. Foolish move, selling that guitar was... My current strats... An '86 Squier Strat has a lil '59 telecaster pickup in the bridge and I love it. I recently got an '83 Squier Strat with GFS alnico pups. I'm considering going with some noiseless at some point in that one. As far as my thinline is concerned, if they ever come up with an Antiquity II that's noiseless, then I'll consider it, but for now the Atiquity II is a perfect match for that guitar. __________________ I have a few bands: 7 Mysteries Zerababyl Inflammatory Rhetoric

May 4th, 2008, 01:12 PM	#50 (permalink)
andrenighthound Tele-Meister Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Bronx NY Age: 34 Posts: 253	i have a lawrence L200 for a neck pickup in one of my teles and it is not going! anywhere! __________________ "Blues in a doggy bag, is what I got to eat!" www.andreandthenighthounds.com

April 24th, 2008, 03:11 PM	#42 (permalink)
Velorex TDPRI Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Berlin,Germany Age: 50 Posts: 62	Hi! I use a Stack vintage Seymour Duncan since ages. I heard no bad tone out of it but since i am mostly recording now i need it more and more...it's just no hum. velorex

April 27th, 2008, 08:38 AM	#44 (permalink)
tlsmack Tele-Meister Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Lonk I-lant, New York Posts: 445 47 Photos	Here's a great article with way too much information about noiseless pickups. http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov9...les/pickup.htm

April 27th, 2008, 12:08 PM	#45 (permalink)
JohnS Tele-Holic Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: San Jose, CA Age: 60 Posts: 512 25 Photos	EMG - T set. Dead quiet. Dead wonderful.

May 4th, 2008, 09:11 PM	#51 (permalink)
Al Watsky Tele-Holic Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: New Jersey Age: 57 Posts: 538	Lawrence 280's in the CIJ tele used last night at the Apollo in NYC. Whats not to like? Silent,plenty of output, clear, plenty bright. Very good reports from the live sound guys, they enjoyed the clarity. I enjoyed the super low noise floor and the sense of power. Minimal effects into an amp splitter , using the volume and tone control into two rental amps. I like my old school single coils n' all but really this is a no brainer, if you need gain and no hum, noiseless is the way to go.

May 4th, 2008, 09:24 PM	#52 (permalink)
lostpick Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Staten Island, NYC Posts: 1,232	The Lawrence noiseless PUPS may be "thee" magic sleepers according to Harmony Central reviews... and you can find them reasonably priced... the success of the Keystones has me wondering about them....

May 26th, 2008, 10:36 PM	#55 (permalink)
Michaell Tele-Holic Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: on the bus Posts: 737	Lace Sensors Many " noiseless " pickups made to look like single coils are really stacked humbuckers I am a HUGE fan of Lace Sensors.....Golds on my 2 strats....and the tele set on my tele I am truly spolied by the fact that there is no annoying single coil buzz __________________ this space intentionally left blank

May 27th, 2008, 08:41 PM	#56 (permalink)
Tele295 Friend of Leo's Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: St. Latchodrom, CA Posts: 4,028 14 Photos	BARDE*N Can't live without 'em! __________________ "Turn it up and it doesn't need any reverb." - Danny Gatton www.dannygatton.info Tiger Town Aces - Music That Bites Back In Redd we trust! Free Bill Kirchen! If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn't it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed, tree surgeons debarked, and dry cleaners depressed?

May 28th, 2008, 01:57 AM	#57 (permalink)
JamonHamon Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: City of Lost Angels Posts: 1,832	BARDE*N I agree Barden in my humble opinion are the best sounding noiseless followed by EMGs then kinman

May 28th, 2008, 02:04 AM	#58 (permalink)
scottb TDPRI Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: NW Arkansas Posts: 60	One of my first strat builds was around a set of classic stack duncans. Never did sound right, I changed necks, bodies, bridges before I finally woke up and realized it was the pickups. They had absolutely no life. Sold them and moved on. This thread has caused me to rethink the genre however.

May 28th, 2008, 06:50 AM	#61 (permalink)
chuckamok63 Tele-Meister Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Chicago Il Age: 46 Posts: 105	I've been using Texas Specials in the Bridge while using Noiseless (not SCN) in the bridge, I love the noiseless bridge tone!

May 29th, 2008, 12:12 PM	#62 (permalink)
Roe Tele-Meister Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Trondheim, Norway Posts: 194 27 Photos	I have kinman's broadkaster bridge pup. it's good but not great __________________ www.myspace.com/prostitutes

June 4th, 2008, 03:49 PM	#64 (permalink)
hopdybob Tele-Meister Join Date: May 2008 Location: netherlands Posts: 227	i can not speak for tele pickups but i use a SCN set in a strat without the s1 switch. less quack then the keystone set (and they are verry quiet to) more straty than the l280. i think you have to toggle more with amp setting with the SCN have more room to go other ways and not pintdown to 1 sound. __________________ Please excuse my poor english

July 11th, 2008, 12:31 PM	#65 (permalink)
swangdb TDPRI Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Auburn, AL Posts: 39	So, what are our choices for noiseless Tele solutions (in alphabetical order)... Anderson Bardens Dimarzio Area T Dimarzio misc noiseless EH Knockout Pedal EMG Fender Noiseless Kinmans Lace Tele Models Lawrence Live with the noise Noise Reduction Pedal Seymour Duncan stacks/mini-humbuckers Shield the doggone guitar!! Suhr SSC What did I leave off? I guess my question is, which system sounds the most like a real Tele single coil sound. Okay, I guess by real single coil sound do I mean Buck Owens or Jeff Beck or Roy Buchanan or...then again, the differences in these sounds may have more to do with the guitarists than the guitars, but I digress...to me, a Tele Bridge pickup has to have some Pete Anderson Twang, so mini-humbuckers like the Duncan Hot Rails or little 59 won't do for me. Anderson - I like the Anderson strats I've heard, though their noiseless pickups sound best in true single coil mode to me. How Twangy are their TD series pickups? Bardens - heard them, liked them, not sure they sounded like a "real" tele but they sound good. Over $300 for two pickups seems like a lot but not if you never had to replace them I suppose. Dimarzio Area T - I'm interested but I've never heard one except for one clip on the Dimarzio web site. It sounded good but it didn't showcase any TWANG Other Dimarzio Noiseless - I get the impression the Area T is their twangiest, am I wrong? EH Knockout Pedal - I have one of these. It works better than I expected. Does it make my PRS Humbucker guitar sound like a tele? Well, no, but it's close enough for an occasional country tune with the blues band I gig with. It's a pretty good crutch. EMG - I like EMG Strat pickups but I hate batteries in guitars. Fender Noiseless - The Strat noiseless pickups are often trashed but I've never really heard the Tele noiseless pickups and there appear to be two models, "Vintage" noiseless and SCN noiseless. Do either of these pickups sound like single coils? Are they similar in tone or different? Kinmans - I had a set of Kinman Strat pickups I didn't like (pre-lawsuit Blues) but I later heard a set of Kinman Hank Marvins that I liked a lot. The Tele clips on the Kinman site are pretty good. Are these worth the money? If you didn't know you were playing noiseless pickups would you think they were real single coils? Lace Tele - I've rarely heard good things about these pickups. I like the Lace Gold and Lace Holy Grail strat pickups, how close do the Lace Tele pickups get to the real thing? Lawrence - I've heard a Lawrence Tele Bridge pickup in a 60s Tele - it was very clear, kind of hifi, would rock out but wasn't twangy. I think this was the TL model. Live with the noise - I've done that a lot with Strats and still may but I hate that noise. Noise Reduction Pedal like ISP Decimator. EH has a smilar pedal. How much of the guitar's tone do these things steal? Seymour Duncan - How authentic are any of his noiseless Tele pickups? Shield - I've never tried this. How much does it really help with reducing noise? Suhr SSC - Well yeah. I wish there was an easy way to retrofit one of these to a Tele. Maybe there is I just don't know it. I'm too poor to buy a Suhr guitar right now. At this point, I'll confess that I've never owned a Tele. I borrowed a friend's 60's Tele for a few years. I heard it with various pickups, it sounded more like a Les Paul Junior to me than a Tele. I've played a friend's Japanese Tele many times and it is real twangy. However... This week I ordered my first Tele. I ordered a Scratch and Dent Fender Squier Vintage Modified Telecaster Thinline Tele from Musician's Friend. The price was low and the neck scale was short (24.75"). It might be a horrible mistake, the guitar might possess zero twang due to the shorter neck but I had the urge to order it and I did. I am 54, been playing since high school and this is my first mail order guitar ever. If I like it, I'm going to at least consider a noiseless option of some sort. A great man once told me that if you don't like the way a guitar sounds, don't buy it. If you do like the way it sounds, don't change it. Then again, maybe excess noise would fall under the category of not liking the way it sounds. That's all for now!! __________________ -- David Swanger

July 11th, 2008, 01:22 PM	#66 (permalink)
Scotland Poster Extraordinaire Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Aberdeen, Scotland, Yewrup Age: 55 Posts: 7,428 3 Photos	Harpo Marx __________________ All those who believe in psycho-kinesis, raise my hand !

July 15th, 2008, 11:14 PM	#67 (permalink)
Radspin Tele-Holic Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: East Northport, NY Age: 54 Posts: 723	I just got a 2002 Jeff Beck Strat with Hot Noiseless pickups and I really, really like them. Yes, they're more of a "hi fi" sound than traditional pickups, but I enjoy the clarity and the sonic difference in personality from my other Strats. I will say the bridge pickup sounds a little brittle clean, but rolling off the tone control fixes that for me. I played the JB Strat through a '65 Princeton Reverb at a rehearsal last weekend, and the guitar/amp sounded stunning both clean and using a Fulltone OCD and Full Drive II. I know the Fender Noiseless pickups have been harshly criticized by some, but I love this guitar and the way it sounds. And, the lack of noise, even with an overdrive pedal on, is just wonderful.

July 16th, 2008, 06:55 PM	#68 (permalink)
franchelB Friend of Leo's Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Irving, United States of Texas! Age: 44 Posts: 2,314	I'm using a Fender Vintage Noiseless neck pickup on my Telecaster. I'm keeping the bridge pickup a single-coil (Rio Grande Muy Grande). As soon as I have some disposable income, I'll get a noiseless pickup for my Tie-dye Strat...I'm thinking Duncan Lil '59. __________________ Feel free to visit my homepage! http://www.myspace.com/francisbalagtas

July 16th, 2008, 09:40 PM	#69 (permalink)
Rob DiStefano Poster Extraordinaire Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Park Ridge, NJ Age: 63 Posts: 5,157	I love the tone of a good single coil pickup. I hate the humbuzz sometimes associated with recording and playing live, so some Teles, Thinlines, Esquires and Strats are just gonna hafta be "noiseless" To date, there isn't a noiseless pup or system that can produce those true one coil tones. I've taste tested just about every noiseless "single" coil pup out there in pup-land, and prefer the L200's or the new L202's ... the new micro coils are showing some strong promise of greatly reduced humbuzz, yet are just one coil and no smoke and mirrors. YMMV.

July 16th, 2008, 11:17 PM	#70 (permalink)
scoots Tele-Holic Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: hinckley,mn Posts: 551	i have the scn's in an am dlx and like one of the guy's mentioned i like the neck pup. really like the neck pup. i'm good (well, ok) with the bridge, found some useable stuff (clean) backing down both the volume and tone about 1/3 (+or-). i'll tell you what i found the bridge pup is really good for---distortion! these am dxl's come with the no load tone(bypass) on them, which allows for some very bright, yet very full distortion. who says a tele isn't good for distortion? try one of these scn bridge pups with a ds-1. it'll tear your... __________________ ...took the tube out of the v1 spot and replaced it with a dilithium crystal (like on star trek)...

July 22nd, 2008, 12:38 PM	#72 (permalink)
ASC67 Tele-Meister Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Minnesota Age: 42 Posts: 222	Anyone tried these new PU's from GFS http://yhst-50206111187217.stores.ya...u20nepino.html __________________ Steve

September 10th, 2008, 06:40 AM	#75 (permalink)
Shima NEW MEMBER! Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Germany Posts: 2	Hi there, this is my first post. i am a pro player from germany, who has been reading this forum for quite some time, finding very helpful information and tips. now i encountered a problem simliar to the poster above. I own an american ash deluxe that i upgraded with a glendale bridge, that is magnetic as i found out now. that improved the sound and made me happy. next step was upgrading the pickups. since i do studiowork, a lot of times in front of pc's, i decided to stay noiseless. having had good experiences with the dimarzio areas in my strat, i went with the area t's. soundwise they are great, but due to the magnetic bridge, the bridge pickup produces that 60cycle hum. question is, how to eliminate this. return to the stock bridge plate- soundwise not a preferred option. buy another non-magnetic bridge- glendale doesn't offer one. or modify the pickup to avoid the hum- special shielding, extra ground wire or.... if anyone has any idea, i'd be very thankful. best regards, holger

2009 TDPRI Giveaway Winners List is available HERE

IMPORTANT:Treat everyone here with respect, no matter how difficult! No sex, drug, political, religion or hate discussion permitted here.

September 14th, 2008, 03:05 AM	#76 (permalink)
tiktok Poster Extraordinaire Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Seattle Posts: 6,106	I don't have single coils in any of my gigging guitars. I'm using Duncan Vintage Stacks, Barden, Bartolini (only in my Strats, never seen a Tele set) and GFS. The only ones I've hated were SD Hot Rails which I found totally unusable. All the others have sounded fine to me and apparently to everyone I've worked with. I've got some SCN in a B-Bender that I haven't had time to put to heavy use yet, and it sounds a bit lifeless, but it also came with Graphtech saddles, which always seem to sound dead to me. I'll change them out when I have time before I make a decision on the SCN. I've never had someone ask me if I could get more high-end out of my Tele, but they have asked me why it's buzzing so much, so I avoid the pure single coils. Clubs and rehearsal rooms have wiring issues more often than not, so that's the final decider for me. __________________ "I like a tune. I like a tune and a singer and a solo, and now more of the tune."--Ian McLagan http://www.myspace.com/travishartnett Pearce Amps Info Page

September 14th, 2008, 07:00 PM	#77 (permalink)
giantslayer Tele-Holic Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Colorado Springs, CO Age: 23 Posts: 512	I'm contemplating noiseless pickups for my strat. Noise gates don't help your tone at all. They only mute the noise when you're not playing. Try dialing up the highest gain tone you find useful, turning off your noise gate, and change which direction your guitar is facing to find the best and worst spots. Try comparing the two while playing. I could hear a noticable difference in the clarity and strength of the tone. I've done plenty of shielding. First I did aluminum foil, which didn't seem to help much. Then I used copper tape. It made a very slight reduction to the amount of noise (if I didn't use a dB meter to test before/after, I wouldn't have noticed at all). However, what it DID do is remove the noise that appeared whenever I wasn't touching the strings.

September 14th, 2008, 11:07 PM	#78 (permalink)
John Thigpen Tele-Meister Join Date: May 2003 Location: Rock Hill, SC Age: 54 Posts: 221	Has anyone tried these Seymour Duncan Custom Shop Five-Two Stacks? http://www.seymourduncan.com/product...two_stack_f_1/ At $140, it's pretty expensive, and I wonder if it's worth it. A friend just put three Duncan mini-hums in a strat and absolutely loves it. We were wondering about adding two to a Tele, but putting a noiseless Tele pickup in the bridge. John

October 11th, 2008, 11:29 PM	#79 (permalink)
gstring NEW MEMBER! Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Alexandria Posts: 7	I just put togeter a 2008 American Deluxe Tele with a rosewood neck from parts on ebay. Mods are a 4-way switch instead of the S1, schaller locking tuners (awesome, fast and highly recommended) and Texas Highway 1 pickguard (guess I'm a little pearloid-phobic). It took under 5 minutes to add the first set of strings. Now for the pickups. I went to GC and tried some teles but became confused regarding which pickups to buy (there just isn't a pickup that does it all) and finally settled on the stock SCN. It was the right decision because I was looking for a clean jazzy sound and the sound through a tube amp exceeded my expectations. The SCNs may not be able to produce the outer spectrum of bright snappy twang but you can produce some really great sounds out of the SCN with the right amp. I don't think the tele will ever replace my vintage noiseless strat but it is the perfect compliment. The strat honks, quacks and snarls and the tele is just plain clean and jazzy. Good times!!!

October 11th, 2008, 11:40 PM	#80 (permalink)
gstring NEW MEMBER! Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Alexandria Posts: 7	I discovered that cranking a quality tube amp (have not had luck with ss amps and noiseless pups) and controling the volume on my vintage noiseless strat helps to produce the tone I am looking for. Once the right distortion is found then the tone is set until it sparkles. I guess this is using the amp to produce the tone. I tried this method with a newly acquired tele with SCN and it appears to work well. Of course, sound is in the ear of the beholder.