Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro's put in MIM Tele.

[Duffy]

I installed the Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro traditional style tele pickups in my MIM standard tele I bought in Nashville a year and a half ago. I had been dissatisfied with the sound of it ever since and have been wanting to put in some new pickups. I had not been fond of the stock hot ceramic, noisy, totally non-noise cancelling - even in the middle switch position - pickups. The stock pickups didn't have a beautiful musical sound to them and were, in my opinion, unremarkable, putting it mildly.

This telecaster now sounds the best of any telecaster I have ever played. The change is way beyond what I expected. I expected a change, for sure, definitely a noticeable one; but this is dramatic. The guitar now produces very musical tones in any switch position and it is very quiet, even with the Big Muff Pi. It is totally silent in the middle switch position.

It sounds like I think a good telecaster should sound, lots of twang and a nice mellow neck pickup; but they both rock. The sustain is great. They work really good with blues because of the sustain and great musical depth of tone.

I did the whole job without even getting burned. I bought two new Weller soldering irons. A forty watt and a twenty five watt and a bunch of extra tips. I got new solder and flux. The whole soldering process went great. The original pickups were installed really well with the pickups being grounded to the wooden body with screws as well as the bridge pickup being grounded, in addition to a screw into the body cavity, also to the bridge plate via a star connector screwed between the pickup and the bridge via one of the bridge pickup height adjustment screws.

The new bridge pickup has a very nice full brass or copper, thick, baseplate. The Fender bridge pickup didn’t have a metal baseplate. The Fender pickups looked really cheap compared to the Seymour Duncan ones. The bridge pickup has heavy black string wrapping the wire windings and the neck silver/chrome cover encloses the whole pickup down to the mounting plate. The Fender bridge pickup has a thin fabric tape covering the wire windings and the neck chrome pickup cover doesn’t even completely cover the wire windings, which are totally exposed and visible between the plastic base and the cover. Purely cosmetic? I don't know. But nice appointments.

These stock pickups are, I think, one of the main reasons that so many people say that the Squier Classic Vibe Telecasters sound so much better than the Fender MIM standard ones. I bought a butterscotch CV Tele and it sounds way better than my MIM standard did before I installed these new SD pickups.

I'm glad I took the risk and bought the Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro telecaster pickups, without ever having seen or heard them. I have been very satisfied with all of the premium pickups I have bought from SD, no affln. Paying the extra money can sometimes be worth it. I would still like to try a set of Golden Age or Tonerider tele pickups in another tele.

Thru the DRRI this tele sounds awesome.

This guitar will now be one of my favorites, without a doubt. I’ll be keeping it close by.

[braderrick]

Great! The SD alnico pro II are my all time favorite tele pickup, seriously. The best part is they are affordable. I have tried many many different tele pickups and many many of the SD models too. The alnico pro II is my choice, even over SD's more expensive versions. Its just a good ole down to earth single coil tele pickup ain't it? Plenty of spank and twang without being ice picky. I love em.

[Duffy]

Totally nice, right. I didn't even notice that it isn't ice picky, but it isn't. It has a very beautiful twang without the shrill ice pick sound. Definitely has plenty of twang.

I haven't had much time on the guitar yet but it definitely cranks out some great tones. I like the chime of the bridge and middle position thru the clean channel of my DRRI. It totally roars with the Big Muff Pi cranked up.

I'm sure there is a lot that I haven't learned yet about how nice these pickups really are. This introduction has been great though.

[stratman323]

Glad it worked out well for you. You might find that a 12w soldering iron (very cheap) is better for the smaller, more fiddly soldering, such as the connections on the switch.

[musicmatty]

Great review..video demo of this would have been nice as well to share

[sir humphrey]

Not sure about in a Tele as I've not tried them, but they are my all time favourite in a Strat - wonderfully musical pickups, as you say.

[Duffy]

Originally Posted by musicmatty

Great review..video demo of this would have been nice as well to share

Yes it would have. I'm not tuned in on exactly how to do that upload though.

One thing I did to make things easier to put everything back together, was to measure with a finely gradiated scale, the distance of each saddle from the lip on the back of the bridge plate before I removed the saddles. They were fiftieth of an inch gradiation marks on the scale. I drew a picture of the bridge plate with positions for each saddle and kept the saddles in the same string positions as they originally were for string height reasons. Everything went back together nicely. I haven't checked the intonation but it should be very close to the same as it originally was.

One note on the Seymour Duncan neck pickup. I'm not sure if they are all this way, but it wasn't threaded for mounting the neck pickup to the pickguard. It came with traditional body mounting wood screws for the neck pickup. I carefully threaded the pickguard mounting screws thru the holes on the neck pickup to "thread" them while I still had the pickup loose in my hand. This is easier to do that to try to do once the pickup is in the pickguard and you are trying to keep the springs on and thread new threads into the neck pickup's wood screw unthreaded holes. This method of first threading the holes the way I wanted them, and then assembling the pickup in the pickguard worked easily. I like being able to adjust the pickup without having to remove the pickguard.

A video showing some of the small details that make the job possibly easier would have been good for possibly some dudes that are thinking about installing new pickups in a tele for the first time.

The Seymour Duncan was similar to the Fender wiring plan. Black was ground and yellow was to the switch. One of the Fender's was like that but the other used a white wire to the switch - no big deal to figure out.

I liked the way the stock Fender plan grounded the pickups really well; with the neck pickup grounded to a wood screw in the neck pickup cavity with a wire going from the grounding screw to the top of the volume pot at a star ground location. The bridge pickup was grounded to a wood screw in the pickup cavity with a wire going from there to the top of the volume pot at a star ground - but, the bridge pickup was also grounded to a star connector against the underneath of the bridge and secured in place by the tubing and one of the bridge pickup height adjustment screws. Fender had done a really good job of grounding the pickups and I decided to keep that seemingly excellent plan instead of using the Seymour Duncan plan that just had the ground wires from the pickups going to the star ground on top of the volume pot. I believe there is another ground that attaches to the output jack and that probably also helps ground the whole thing out. I liked this grounding plan because so many problems seem to come from poor grounds.

[Billy B.]

DIG UM

[franchelB]

There WAS a special run of MIM Teles a few years ago that DID have Duncan's Alnico II as standard pickups. And I was wanting one so bad, but I already had a modded Telecaster at the time. Unfortunately I don't have that Tele anymore.

Now if I can save enough money for another Tele, (and more than likely, it will be the Squier CV Tele), I'd look into upgrading with Duncan's Alnico II pickups.

[Duffy]

Originally Posted by franchelB

There WAS a special run of MIM Teles a few years ago that DID have Duncan's Alnico II as standard pickups. And I was wanting one so bad, but I already had a modded Telecaster at the time. Unfortunately I don't have that Tele anymore.

Now if I can save enough money for another Tele, (and more than likely, it will be the Squier CV Tele), I'd look into upgrading with Duncan's Alnico II pickups.

I can see why, but my butterscotch CV Squier tele has some really nice pickups in it stock. Not like these Alnico II Pro's though, but excellent sounding pickups.

It is all about what you want and doing the mods can be fun. This mod was fun but it took me about two hours of concentrated time to set up, do the job, and clean up.

I wasn't happy with the sound the guitar had and now it sounds great. I'm personally good with how my butterscotch CV tele sounds and won't be changing pickups anytime soon, if ever. The MIM Fender standard didn't even come close to the CV tele in sound quality. Now either one is a pleasure to play.

[InkStained]

I just ordered these pickups on Amazon. The OP's review is a big reason why.

The Little 59 bridge pickup I have in my Tele now can certainly rock, but it's also a heck of a lot of output. I'm looking for something a little less ... excitable.

[Duffy]

It will be interesting to hear what you have to say about the A2Pro's. I won't be surprised if you REALLY like them.

You are starting out with a nice pickup already with that noiseless one, but I think you will hear a big difference considering that they are two widely different designs of pickup.

Your new pickups shouldn't be very noisy. If you find them to be disgustingly noisy, you might want to check to make sure that all the grounds are good solid solder joints and good grounds. It seems like a lot of problems I have had with noise have come from bad grounds.

Take your time with the soldering if you do it yourself. Go to "Radio Shack", no affln., because they are the "only" place that I have been able to find electrical "leaded", not "lead-free", solder. I use electrical solder with lead in it, flux core. I will also use some fine black auto wet/dry sandpaper to scuff off the top of the pot or other part that I am going to solder "onto". Cleaning off that solder site with alcohol "before" applying the solder would also be a good idea.

After sanding you might want to apply just a small amount of "paste flux" to the soldering site and parts. The flux will burn off "impurities", microscopic, invisible impurities, from the solder site and your solder will flow and adhere to the solder site instead of "balling up" and rolling off. Avoid making a pile of solder at the solder joint - just enough solder to hold the part very firmly in place is enough. If your solder won't adhere and keeps balling up and rolling off - stop. Go out and get a cheap little hockey puck sized tub of soldering "flux" and apply a very small amount to the surface of the soldering site where the solder is rolling off. You will be surprised at how all of the sudden your solder starts sheeting out and sticking instead of balling up and rolling off.

Some experts at soldering do not use paste flux when soldering. These more expert people have a lot of skill at soldering and have been thru a lot of trial and error. They use different methods to clean the soldering site and get the solder to stick very well. I'm not really sure how they do it, and if I have a problem and my solder just keeps balling up and rolling off, I apply a small amount of paste flux to the site and when I heat the soldering site up before applying the solder to the site, I can see the flux "burn" off the impurities - then, without hesitation quickly apply the solder to the site so that you don't heat up the pot or other part so much that it burns internal components of the part.

If you are really worried about overheating a part that you are soldering you can push a wet wrung out wash cloth up against the mass of the part, away from the solder site, and it will work as a heat sink to keep the mass of the part cooler, drawing away the heat, while you apply the heat to the soldering site. You can prevent yourself from ruining a lot of different electrical components by carefully using this method.

Good luck with it. If you do it yourself make sure you have all the stuff you need ahead of time. I do not use "soldering guns". I only use soldering irons - the small type that usually have a cone or chisel point, fifteen to twenty five watts maximum; although I have a fourty watt soldering iron with a quarter inch chisel tip for heating up some things "fast", so I don't have to hold the smaller iron to the soldering site for a long period of time in order to get it up to solder melting heat - in the process bringing the entire mass of the component up to a high heat. I'd rather use the big iron and hit the specific solder site with a quick application of intense heat and make the solder connection very quickly, avoiding heating up the entire mass of the part. . . . It makes sense to me, but I only use it on big parts that are very hard to heat up. You can avoid overheating and potentially damaging a component by heating it up only enough to get the job done; paying attention not to over do it as you go. That is one reason why being prepared with all the stuff you need before you start is advisable.

Good luck. It will be great to hear how your project turns outh.

[InkStained]

I doubt I'll try to do this myself, but this is good information. Thanks.

[Duffy]

Originally Posted by InkStained

I doubt I'll try to do this myself, but this is good information. Thanks.

It will definitely be good to hear what you think of the outcome after you get the new pickups installed. I think you will notice a major change in the sound of the guitar. Those are some really nice traditional style tele pickups.

[InkStained]

Well, I had no real beef against the Little 59, but I have to say: My 93 American Standard Telecaster really does sound like a Telecaster again.

The Alnico II Pros are great. And thanks to the shielding job by my tech, my guitar is actually quieter than it has been in years (even though, yes, the 60-cycle hum is there. There's no escaping that).

The Little 59 was bright thanks to its ceramic magnet and overall design, but there's a new clarity with these pickups. The bridge pickup adores a tube screamer and the neck pickup is pure jazz. The in-between sound (which does buck the hum, thanks to the reverse wind-polarity design) is one that careers are built on.

Great pickups. Seymour really knows Teles.

[musicalmartin]

i had a SD alnico pro II neck and its sounded very good .It was great for blues and jazz.I intend to get another to go in a project .What I loved about the neck was the fact you could get a warm hazy jazz tone with out turning down the tone on the guitar but hit the strings harder and it dirtied up to over drive a valve amp ,my little Champ 600 superbly .

[deadicated]

Another Alnico II lover here. I used them in my challenge build last year and the honeymoon never ended.

[Southpaw Sam]

As Joe Walsh said in one of his songs, WELCOME TO THE CLUB!!! I've had all three Seymour Duncan A2 pup sets. Strat, Tele, and HB, and one thing I've noticed having owned two pairs of the A2 versions for tele is that SD needs to go to a nickel silver neck cover versus the chrome/brass neck covers which come stock for the A2 neck pup postion. Wth my older A2 tele set the neck pup came uncovered and it sounded clearer and better, after hearing the newer A2 tele set, I could tell it was the neck pup cover that was causing a lack of clarity.

[InkStained]

Another plus I've noticed: The AII bridge pickup doesn't cause my Princeton's stock Jensen to "fart out" the way the overpowering Little 59 did. Nice.

I'm remembering why lower output pickups are better.

[beatles1909]

I just did a complete rewiring & installed SD Str-1 neck Stl-1b bridge in my 2yr old mim tele and I have to say it is awesome sounding.

I will go on record to say I owe all you guys on the TDPRI forum an oppology as I honestly thought a lot of this upgrading was more fad then impovements and I must say I was 100% incorrect in my thinking!!

If I can find a a lefty classic style bridge plate on my travels that will fit my mim, I would like to change to the 3 brass style saddles & even get an ashtray cover as I love the orig look from when I was a kid!