American Series Ash Telecaster pups

lightfoot18 · May 13th, 2004, 05:43 PM

Anyone played one of these? What do they sound like? Is there a big difference in tone from the regular Am series pickups?

skepticult · May 18th, 2004, 01:41 PM

I think they sound excellent. I have read that the bridge pickup has a baseplate on it, but my guitar is setup so nicely that I haven't wanted to risk messing something up by taking the bridge off.

The neck pickup is especially nice. A very full sound that sort of "blooms" if you use a strong pick attack.

It has the same deltatone pot that the AmSe Teles use. Both pickups react nicely to tone knob twiddling. No muddyness. The neck pickup distorts nicely for single note stuff and sounds great clean. The bridge can handle all kinds of distortion without sounding bad, and played clean has a nice spanky sound.

If I had a better mic I'd record some clips for you. The GT-6 tends to make everything sound the same run direct to the PC.

Tele Jr · May 21st, 2004, 11:53 AM

Yes they are very different and much better than the older style Am Series pups. They have what has been described as a very vintage alnico 3 Broadcaster like tone. The flat pole bridge pup has a copper bottom plate with the pole pieces going right through the plate flush with the bottom of the metal plate. This seems to give it the benefit of the extra spank from the heavier plate, while allowing it to breathe easier like a No Caster without the extra compression associated with a heavier bottom plate. Together with the steel bridge and brass saddles they really do deliver sweet vintage tone with an amazing range of articulation. I use a hybred pick and finger style and use my fingers for alot of fast picking stuff, and have found these pups to be among the best I have used for making the finger picked notes ring like a bell and sound just like the flatpicked notes, which is one thing I really look for in a pup.

If I were to hold up the pups to intense scrutiny and try to find a beef it would be that they are not replete with every design feature of the CS pups, they appear to have a more plain plastic bobbin vs the so called carbon fiber vintage CS types, and even though they have heavy leads with thick insulation, they do not have the cloth wrapped lead wires. I also don't know if it has the primo nickle silver neck pup cover like the Tx Special neck unit, which may actually make more of a difference tone wise than the vintage spec bobbin material or lead wire wrapping.

May 13th, 2004, 05:43 PM	#1 (permalink)
lightfoot18 NEW MEMBER! Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 4	American Series Ash Telecaster pups Anyone played one of these? What do they sound like? Is there a big difference in tone from the regular Am series pickups?

May 21st, 2004, 11:53 AM	#3 (permalink)
Tele Jr Tele-Meister Join Date: May 2004 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 209 9 Photos	They are different and much better with the ash body Tele Yes they are very different and much better than the older style Am Series pups. They have what has been described as a very vintage alnico 3 Broadcaster like tone. The flat pole bridge pup has a copper bottom plate with the pole pieces going right through the plate flush with the bottom of the metal plate. This seems to give it the benefit of the extra spank from the heavier plate, while allowing it to breathe easier like a No Caster without the extra compression associated with a heavier bottom plate. Together with the steel bridge and brass saddles they really do deliver sweet vintage tone with an amazing range of articulation. I use a hybred pick and finger style and use my fingers for alot of fast picking stuff, and have found these pups to be among the best I have used for making the finger picked notes ring like a bell and sound just like the flatpicked notes, which is one thing I really look for in a pup. If I were to hold up the pups to intense scrutiny and try to find a beef it would be that they are not replete with every design feature of the CS pups, they appear to have a more plain plastic bobbin vs the so called carbon fiber vintage CS types, and even though they have heavy leads with thick insulation, they do not have the cloth wrapped lead wires. I also don't know if it has the primo nickle silver neck pup cover like the Tx Special neck unit, which may actually make more of a difference tone wise than the vintage spec bobbin material or lead wire wrapping.

May 18th, 2004, 01:41 PM	#2 (permalink)
skepticult Tele-Meister Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 405	I think they sound excellent. I have read that the bridge pickup has a baseplate on it, but my guitar is setup so nicely that I haven't wanted to risk messing something up by taking the bridge off. The neck pickup is especially nice. A very full sound that sort of "blooms" if you use a strong pick attack. It has the same deltatone pot that the AmSe Teles use. Both pickups react nicely to tone knob twiddling. No muddyness. The neck pickup distorts nicely for single note stuff and sounds great clean. The bridge can handle all kinds of distortion without sounding bad, and played clean has a nice spanky sound. If I had a better mic I'd record some clips for you. The GT-6 tends to make everything sound the same run direct to the PC.