Pickup Recommendations for a MIJ All Rosewood Tele

[Troy T. Blues]

Hi guys,

I'm reposting this thread because now I'm looking for opinions in general, not a specific comparison.

I could really use your help please and I apologize for the long post. I'm looking to upgrade the pickups in my '86 MIJ All Rosewood Tele. There are so many choices out there and I'm really struggling with making a decision. I'm trying to seek opinions on what pickups you think would sound best with this type of wood and for what I would like to hear. I’m hoping that some of you can help and/or may have any experience with this type of application...or could simply recommend something based on this info.

As far as I know, I think the current pickups are late 80's Fender AM Std. The stock Japan ones are long gone. FWIW, I did manage to get the readings on the current pickups: 7.7K for the neck and 7.4K for the flat-pole bridge pickup. Not sure about the type of magnets though…maybe A5? I also want to upgrade because the pickup wires are of terrible quality and they were cut pretty short. Plus, not knowing exactly what’s in there doesn’t sit well with me either. With that, I would like to start from scratch, especially if I need to do something else in the future. At least I’ll have the knowledge and foundation to go by if I decide to make any further changes. It is a great sounding guitar, but I know it could probably even better since there is nothing special about these pickups.

I've been trying to do some general research about the tonal characteristics of the Rosewood Tele and some have mentioned that it’s very bright, kind of mid-scooped and kind of thin sounding. I can agree, especially with the bridge pickup, but it’s also very nice and clear. I’m OK with that pickup, but it probably could use touch more bottom/mids. I’ve also read some mention that the guitar can sound real warm too (I think that might have been said because people think of Rosewood as a generally warmer tone in regards to the fretboard, but I don’t think that's the case being solid Rosewood). The neck pickup is kind of lackluster, a bit muddy & undefined and not real sweet, especially in comparison to my '52 RI, but that's a totally different animal.

So, I may need a bridge pickup with a bit more mids or beef I think, but not too much. I like a bright, twangy bridge...more of a traditional/vintage type tone, but with some bottom and sort of ballsy. I think that maybe some pickups with a little stronger midrange accent would help, but then again, I don’t want it to be too middy or dark sounding at all. I'm looking for a neck pup that is not dark, has nice clarity and just simply sounds sweet in accordance to this guitar. I would like the pickups to be nicely balanced...sound great clean and overdriven.

I will consider anything at this point, but I don’t want something that has a waiting list. I would like to find some pickups that sound great off the shelf. I'm just looking for nice overall upgrade that will work well with this Tele. It would be very helpful to narrow down the search.

Thanks alot!
Troy

[Bigbee]

Originally Posted by Troy T. Blues

So, I may need a bridge pickup with a bit more mids or beef I think, but not too much. I like a bright, twangy bridge...more of a traditional/vintage type tone, but with some bottom and sort of ballsy. I think that maybe some pickups with a little stronger midrange accent would help, but then again, I don’t want it to be too middy or dark sounding at all. I'm looking for a neck pup that is not dark, has nice clarity and just simply sounds sweet in accordance to this guitar. I would like the pickups to be nicely balanced...sound great clean and overdriven.

I will consider anything at this point, but I don’t want something that has a waiting list. I would like to find some pickups that sound great off the shelf. I'm just looking for nice overall upgrade that will work well with this Tele. It would be very helpful to narrow down the search.

Same thing here - '62RI custom tele, and the pups are a bit wimpy IMHO. As far as I'm concerned, I know I want bareknucles pups on it - I haven't tried their telecaster pups so far, but the "Crawlers" humbuckers on my Vox Custom 24 are just fabulous. I lack words to describe how good they sound, enough to say that they turned this good-but-not-quite-right guitar into a tone monster that make most gibbies sound like toys. And when I say "tone monster", I don't mean some metal-shredder thingie (I don't do metal), I mean something that sounds just great for anything from early brit blues (think Beano) to classic rock to old-school hard rock to early punk-rock to modern hardcore, and it can even do great jazzy tones.

So I really recommend you have a look at BKPs - from your description, I think you might be interested in either the Yardbirds, Brown Sugar or (hotter) The Boss sets, but by all mean drop a mail to Tim (who build these pups) explaining what you want and what you don't - the guy really knows its stuff and is usually spot-on with pups choice.

HTH

[Troy T. Blues]

Thanks fir the suggestion Bigbee, I may look into that. At the moment, I'm leaning towards either the Lollar Vintage T or Fralin stock. With that, can anyone offer any opinions on those two pickups? Thanks!

[Chrismo]

Alnico II Pro for Tele in the neck, Jerry Donahue bridge.

[BritishBluesBoy]

I have a set of Lindy Fralin Stock Tele pickups in my Rosewood (raised polepieces as per the 60's originals) and it is a stunning sounding guitar. Well worth a look IMHO.

[JD0x0]

Originally Posted by Chrismo

Alnico II Pro for Tele in the neck, Jerry Donahue bridge.

+1000 but get your pickups from kleinpickups.com theyre much cheaper and they have a very wide selection. Also the pickups arent mass produced like SD does. Chris winds all pickups to order

[Troy T. Blues]

BritishBlues Boy, do you find your Rosewood Tele to be a brighter guitar or is it just me? If this is indeed considered a brighter guitar, maybe I should consider the Fralin 5%/2% overwinds? In the vid below, he says uses them in the "brighter guitar". I'm glad to hear that the Fralins are working out for you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcRFet_iDkk

JD0x0, I've heard of Klein...I'll take a look at those.

Chrismo, I'm really not considering Duncans at this time, but thank you.

Thanks guys!

[BritishBluesBoy]

Hey Troy, yes, I suppose my Rosewood is fairly bright but I reckon either set would sound great in your Tele. Just a matter or personal taste really. I always find myself tweaking the tone control on all my Tele's anyway so I can dial in just the right amount of brightness/warmth anyway...

[JD0x0]

Originally Posted by BritishBluesBoy

Hey Troy, yes, I suppose my Rosewood is fairly bright but I reckon either set would sound great in your Tele. Just a matter or personal taste really. I always find myself tweaking the tone control on all my Tele's anyway so I can dial in just the right amount of brightness/warmth anyway...

generally rosewood is a warm sounding wood. but considering it's much harder than alder, ash, maple, as well as others it transfers string energy a bit better resulting in more upper harmonics giving a bit brighter sound. I reccommend alnico 2's for the bridge and alnico 3 for the neck in all teles. If it's not bright enough theres always 500k volume pots and no-load tone pots for some more high end and output

[Troy T. Blues]

Thanks BBB...oh, I forgot to ask you were your stock Fralins a special order with the staggered poles?

JD0x0, thanks for the info and that makes alot of sense. It's a pretty heavy guitar too.

[BritishBluesBoy]

Originally Posted by Troy T. Blues

Thanks BBB...oh, I forgot to ask you were your stock Fralins a special order with the staggered poles?

Nope - he makes 'em in three different versions (flat, staggered and hybrid).

[Troy T. Blues]

Right on BBB.. I must have overlooked that. Looks like I'm gonna go with the Fralin staggered stock (no overwind) pups. I think I can't go wrong with this choice. Thanks!

[BritishBluesBoy]

Originally Posted by Troy T. Blues

Right on BBB.. I must have overlooked that. Looks like I'm gonna go with the Fralin staggered stock (no overwind) pups. I think I can't go wrong with this choice. Thanks!

Nice!

[Troy T. Blues]

Hmmm...I was just doing some research about flat poles vs. staggered and I've decided to go with flat poles. Here's a good description from the Lollar site:

If you compared a flat pole pickup to a staggered pole pickup wound the same way, you would get a little more presence ( like a Fender Amp presence knob), a little more bass and a little more overall output from the flat pole pickup. Another way to think about it is that a flat pole pickup will generate a little more output without putting more wire on the pickup coil. Adding more wire changes the frequency response, usually by losing some treble and gaining some bass. If you are already use to using staggered pole pickups, you may find that you will need to turn the bass down slightly on the amplifier because with a flat pole pickup you will no longer have to make up for weak low strings.
In most cases the flat pole pickup will give you a better string balance. The high E won't get buried in the mix like a staggered pole pickup can. You will also notice that the two low strings are louder than a staggered pole set, and the G string does not overpower the others.
Staggered poles create more of a smeared tone when you play more than one note at a time—you may or may not like it. On a staggered pole pickup the low strings rarely overpower any amp, but they can also sound somewhat subdued or weak. The volume on the G string tends to dominate all others. If you have previously played using only staggered poles and you don't notice any discrepancies with string-to-string volume balance, you have learned to compensate for them. If you decide to try a flat pole set, it may take some time to adapt but once you get familiar with the sound, you'll find they work better in most cases than a staggered pole design. For example, all teles up until around 1956 had flat poles—no one ever comments that their 1952 telecaster has bad string balance. Also, most Telecasters, Jazzmaster, Mustangs and Fender bass guitars have historically had flat pole pickups. On Gibson guitars no one ever staggers the adjustable poles as much as strat pickups.

The staggered would be nice to make it look period correct, but I certainly don't want it to thinner and brighter.

Here are a few pics of the guitar:

[JD0x0]

i like the look, feel, and sound of non staggered polepieces better.

And i doubt anyone is going to go up to you after a gig and say "those polepieces arent staggered like they should be. thats wrong!"

btw is that neck bare or finished?

[Troy T. Blues]

Ha ha....that's true. :-)

Yes, it's finished....

[BritishBluesBoy]

Whatever gets you where you want to be! I'm very happy with the pickups in my rosewood, and I'll bet whichever set you go for will sound great too!

[JD0x0]

Originally Posted by Troy T. Blues

Ha ha....that's true. :-)

Yes, it's finished....

that like ruins the whole point of an all rosewood neck

i have an all pau ferro neck on my guitar thats unfinished. i swear im buying 3 of these and putting them on the rest of my guitars. it's sooooo smooth and not sticky at all and i love the natural feel of it.

if i had your guitar i'd sand all that finish off, i wouldnt care about value or anything just the feel of it would be worth it

[Troy T. Blues]

Originally Posted by JD0x0

that like ruins the whole point of an all rosewood neck

i have an all pau ferro neck on my guitar thats unfinished. i swear im buying 3 of these and putting them on the rest of my guitars. it's sooooo smooth and not sticky at all and i love the natural feel of it.

if i had your guitar i'd sand all that finish off, i wouldnt care about value or anything just the feel of it would be worth it

Sorry, I don't agree with that at all. I don't have any issues whatsoever with that and it's never even remotely crossed my mind. It's perfect!

[Bigbee]

Originally Posted by Troy T. Blues

Here are a few pics of the guitar:

Oops, my bad - I thought you were talking about a Tele with rosewood touchboard, not about a rosewood body