And the top 3 Tele neck pickups are...

Strat neck p-up?

 

I have a twang king in one of my tele's and it sounds great.

 

Twang King gets my vote, Twisted Tele is #2 for a little thicker yet still clear sound.
I understand there may be two versions of the Twisted, one sold retail, the other OEM in Baja's et al. Don't know which one I have.

 

Not very sure but if I'm not mistaken, Di Marzio Twang King neck is wound with 42AWG coil wire which is used for Strat pickups. So it has more output volume than conventional tele pickups (built with 43AWG coil wire) in the same dcr ohm range.

If you really like the sound of TK neck and are in search for its fair competitors, try strat pickups, which usually fit tele body neck rout without its cover but might need new holes to set.

There are some other builders to offer or to accept an order for strat pickups in the tele format as well. Rob Di Stefano of Cavalier Pickups will build great one to your spec at a good price (maybe the best).

 

I love the Broadcaster bridge / Twisted Tele neck combo.

 

Cavalier Lion King

Fender PV58

I'll go with the Twang King

I have some other favorites. But these are "bright and clear".

 

The Twisted Tele in my 2016 AmStd is great

 

Keystone Deluxe, Twang King, CS Nocaster ftmp are very simular to on another.

Then the Twisted Tele of coarse.

I have Keystones, and Twang King............ had Nocasters as well.

Only SLIGHT downfall of the TK is they are not noise reduction ( one pup not RW/RP)
but not that big a deal they seem to be pretty quiet for single coils.

Keystone's are joyfully quiet. If I were to set up another geetar, that's what I would go with again. I have them in my Dlx. Nashville.

 

Cavalier Lion King and Bootstrap Palo Duro

 

TV Jones Starwood Tele neck. I don't work for them, not repping them. I merely own one. I encourage folks to give them a listen somehow, somewhere.

https://tvjones.com/collections/guitar-pickups/products/starwood-tele-neck-pickup

 

Good options mentioned so far. If you ever decide to go noiseless, the DiMarzio Area T Neck is a great sounding pickup. It has some thick, complex presence but also chimey top end.

 

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Here's the nickel solution: Get an five cent 0.047uF cap like is on your tone pot, and wire it in series with your hot lead of the muddy pickup to the switch. This dramatically cuts the capacitance of the pickup windings converting any old muddy pickup into a clean bright player. You can test with higher and lower caps.
You can also investigate a volume pot that is either on the high end of its spec or the next higher version ("250k" can measure up to 275k and still be 'in-spec', or go to 500k).

Then find your magical pickup

I tend to get good results out of regular old MIM dual ceramic bar, Squier ceramic block types, and import 'two for ten buck' pickups because I use the control mod tricks if they need it. but for what most players want out of this thread:


I hear good things from fans about the Cavaliers, Rose, Lawrence, Bootstrap, Don-Lis, Fralin, and Fender... Bill Lawrence liked to play squeaky clean Teles and favored that path in his pickups so look those up.

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Don Mare Stelly if you are looking for more of a strat sound in the neck position

 

Tooo many to mention .. but especially if you need single models, but in general my favorite brands are

1. Bare Knuckles
2. Fralins

and of the big houses I really like
3. DiMarzio

 

If you can hear that, you ought to work for homeland security.

 

Aaron at Rumpelstiltskin makes a Tele neck pickup called "The Belfry" that has more sparkly Strat like tone. I have one in one of my guitars and it sounds very nice.

 

I really like the clear sparkle I get from the Bare Knuckle Country Boy pickups in my recently completed swamp ash partscaster. Like new strings on an acoustic.

https://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/pickup/tele/country-boy

 

Twang King is my favorite, very stratty. I tried a Twisted Tele, didn’t like it.


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