MIM Standard pickups

[Volitan]

What mainstream pickup (dimarzio, Seymour Duncan, etc) out there sounds like the pickup in the more recent MIM teles. I love the sound of those...it has serious kick, but still some twang. I LOVE them but I'm worried about the quality of them (components and all) so am looking for a more mainstream substitute.

So what pickups out there have that nice single coil brightness, but with that extra kick. I know the MIM's have ceramic magnets, so that's the place to start I guess. By kick, I mean a bright quality, NOT a scoop mids/dark/bassy sound. I want bright highs!

[TG]

There's not much in the way of 'components' in a pickup so if you like your pickups it may be best to leave well enough alone. They're very unlikely to fail anytime soon.

I've not played a recent MIM...and you really need to have a guitar for a while to get to know how it 'behaves' with particular pickups...so I can't make any recommendations. But I doubt anybody really can with any accuracy. Regardless of the reviews/recommendations/research you do, buying new pickups is a bit of a guessing game and you won't know if you'll like them until you buy and install them.

[Fatmanstratman]

Originally Posted by TG

There's not much in the way of 'components' in a pickup so if you like your pickups it may be best to leave well enough alone. They're very unlikely to fail anytime soon.

Regardless of the reviews/recommendations/research you do, buying new pickups is a bit of a guessing game and you won't know if you'll like them until you buy and install them.

Very sensible advice indeed.

If you like your current pups in your MIM, leave well alone - no need to worry about them.

How a pickup sounds to any one person is purely subjective - a "matter of opinion". Opinions - like musical tastes - differ greatly. What might sound "fantastic" to me might sound like crap to you.

Like TG says, it's a matter of trial and error.

[Volitan]

Well, I was also asking because, if I buy a new guitar and want to change the pickups, I would like to have something to change them too. For example, if I bought a new US standard or something, I'd like to have something to replace the pickups with, you know? Or if I was getting a custom, I would like to have these in there, but the thing is, you can't (as far as I know) buy them. Plus, they're as UNnoiseless as you could get.

[Fatmanstratman]

Originally Posted by Volitan

...I would like to have these in there, but the thing is, you can't (as far as I know) buy them.

Check out THIS GUY'S EBAY STORE (click link)

He keeps lots of brand new MIM parts (I think he gets them direct from the factory). Even though he's in the USA, I have used him several times from the UK and found the service to be 1st class and the products exactly as described.

[Volitan]

^Interesting

Still, anyone have any suggestions of some bright, noiseless, ceramic, tele pickups. The MIM pickups are cool, but there may be other things out there

[tele salivas]

just to clarify , so you ae looking for the qualities of the mim std pickup, but without the noise associated with that particular model(if you ever play underneath a television or screenshooter at a tavern, you get some NOISE! Hve to turn at a perpendicular angle to stop it)

[Volitan]

Originally Posted by tele salivas

just to clarify , so you ae looking for the qualities of the mim std pickup, but without the noise associated with that particular model(if you ever play underneath a television or screenshooter at a tavern, you get some NOISE! Hve to turn at a perpendicular angle to stop it)

If I could find some sort of noiseless pickup, there wouldn't be noise. I need a nice bright edgy noiseless tele pickup

[tele salivas]

Originally Posted by Volitan

If I could find some sort of noiseless pickup, there wouldn't be noise. I need a nice bright edgy noiseless tele pickup

that's what happens when I post before coffee, I meant to reiterate how noisy the mim pickups are(I have a 2004 std stock bridge pickup in a vintage bridge plate) and I have put up with the noise 'cause I love the sound of mu pup...your quest is my quest

[TG]

My all-time favorite telecaster bridge pickup is the Dimarzio AreaT. It's noiseless and it does the classic telecaster sound in spades.
Maybe do a search on it?

[Volitan]

Originally Posted by tele salivas

that's what happens when I post before coffee, I meant to reiterate how noisy the mim pickups are(I have a 2004 std stock bridge pickup in a vintage bridge plate) and I have put up with the noise 'cause I love the sound of mu pup...your quest is my quest

Ah, lol.

Yeah man, gotta keep searching.

[Volitan]

Originally Posted by TG

My all-time favorite telecaster bridge pickup is the Dimarzio AreaT. It's noiseless and it does the classic telecaster sound in spades.
Maybe do a search on it?

Seems promising. Don't know if it will have that grit and fuzz that I want. The stock MIM's have an inherent fuzz to them.

[tele salivas]

Yeah, I usually keep my guitar volume knob at around 7-8 and my tone knob a shade off the max to get a great 'vintage country' sound, but I love being able to put the volume on the guit at 10 and it cuts like a skillsaw through everything, it's like bringing a gun to a knife fight, I'll keep you in mind ,Volitan, if I come across any promising leads, apparrantly Bill lawrence has just come up with something pretty amazing, but I fear this will be out of my pricerange..but the specs may be something to note.. my gfs minihumbucker is a ceramic pup,(8.4K!)that is real quiet and matches up nicely with my mim bridge pup, may investigate them for a bridge pup, they are INExpensive, if I try and it fails, I can just stick it in my lap steel

[Volitan]

Originally Posted by tele salivas

Yeah, I usually keep my guitar volume knob at around 7-8 and my tone knob a shade off the max to get a great 'vintage country' sound, but I love being able to put the volume on the guit at 10 and it cuts like a skillsaw through everything, it's like bringing a gun to a knife fight, I'll keep you in mind ,Volitan, if I come across any promising leads, apparrantly Bill lawrence has just come up with something pretty amazing, but I fear this will be out of my pricerange..but the specs may be something to note.. my gfs minihumbucker is a ceramic pup,(8.4K!)that is real quiet and matches up nicely with my mim bridge pup, may investigate them for a bridge pup, they are INExpensive, if I try and it fails, I can just stick it in my lap steel

Tell me more about this bill lawrence thing. I know who he is, but what's this new thing?

[Fatmanstratman]

Originally Posted by Volitan

Tell me more about this bill lawrence thing. I know who he is, but what's this new thing?

I don't think full details have been released yet. One of our members here claimed to have spoken to Bill, but was unable to provide details of the new pickup at the time.

Have you tried any of the excellent range of GFS pickups? I've bought LOTS of them, and had FANTASTIC results.

And they are so reasonably priced, you won't need to worry about buying cheapo ceramic stuff - GFS have pups with Alnico magnets at less than the cost of the "cheap" Fender ceramic stuff (sorry - not being a pickup "snob" - it's just that I hate the thin tone usually associated with ceramic magnets!).

The only real answer to your original question is... research, trial & error. Try spending some time on Google, reading up on the various pups, and searching for sound clips. YouTube has lots of clips (although the audio track is not always brilliant!).

When you have a short-list of pups you think you may like, that is the time to seek further advice on the forum - otherwise folks will just keep posting stuff like "Have you tried.....?"....

[tele salivas]

Originally Posted by Volitan

Tell me more about this bill lawrence thing. I know who he is, but what's this new thing?

I think I saw it on the NAMM forum here, there wasn't too much technical info, but it sounds exciting, back at the ranch...I am a big GFS fan, my oversized ceramic magnet in my Mini hummer is anything but thin, I says, that seems like a good place to start, think I'll look up as much tech info I can on the MIM std bridge pup and try to match that up with something that might yield less of a noise ratio, also, I hear Ron Kirn is reasonable, and he is on this forum! maybe we can pick his brain as his schedule allows

[Tim73]

I just sold a bunch of MIM pups on EBay really cheap. They are usually on EBay if you keep checking back in. Personally I upgraded to SD Five Twos or Antiquities but that's just me.

[caliban335]

I like the sound of MIM Standard pickups. I recently converted a 2006 MIM Standard to an Esquire, pulling out both pickups and replacing the neck with a Fender Broadcaster pickup. The bottom of these don't look like any other Tele pickup I've seen.

Neck



Bridge



The two long strips along the polepieces are magnets.

[Volitan]

Originally Posted by caliban335

I like the sound of MIM Standard pickups. I recently converted a 2006 MIM Standard to an Esquire, pulling out both pickups and replacing the neck with a Fender Broadcaster pickup. The bottom of these don't look like any other Tele pickup I've seen.

Neck



Bridge



The two long strips along the polepieces are magnets.

The pickup in my 07 look like that. The thing is, the front of the bridge pickup looks different, so I'm not sure if it's they're the same. The 07 pickup has slightly raised and beveled polepieces, the 08 Ash standard has totally flush polepieces, so this leads me to blieve they may be different. But maybe not. Surely Fender didn't switch pickups on standards between Feb '07 and June '08 right?

[Wiggus]

I have a pair of Rio Grande Vintage Tallboys. They sound like Texas Specials to me, but with tighter bottom, a rise in the high mids, and a very chimey top end. I think the tall magnets (alnico V) make them brighter. Definitely hotter than vintage specs. I was going to put them on the classifieds. PM or Email me if you are interested in them. :-)