Pickups for Ultra Tele

[teleguin]

Hi - this is my first post here.

I have a Texas Tea Ultra. I absolutely love the finish and how the guitar feels. I just don’t love the sound of the pickups. They seem a bit bland.

I’m looking to get some new pickups and wondered what people would recommend. I play a wide range of genres but mainly blues, rock and punk.

I’m really after a classic tele sound that sounds good playing those styles and would be a good fit for this guitar.

I have been recommend twisted teles and Barden Danny Gaten pickups by others. I feel like the Barden ones might be similar to the noiseless ones already in there.

Secondly, I’m a novice at wiring and wondered if getting whatever pickups I decide on means I will need new volume and tone knobs and if I will no longer be able to use the S1 switch.

Any recommendations and advice welcome!

Thanks

 

[RolandG]

Try Oil City Pickups. They do a Wapping Wharf Telecaster bridge pickup, which is a tapped single coil. This gives you both broadcaster and 60’s sound from the same pickup. If you’re interested in a Twisted Tele then try the Californian neck pickup.

 

[teleguin]

Haven’t heard of those before. Will take a look. Thanks.

 

[Kevin Wolfe]

If you look up Breja Toneworks on youtube you can see a video of how he makes that wiring work. You can do a screen shot of his diagram.

I think that the cover of humbucker will still need to be grounded, but I am not sure of that.

I don't think that you will want reverse taper pots even with a reversed control plate. Reverse taper will decrease the volume or tone when turning clockwise no matter which way the pot is mounted. They might be useful for a left handed instrument if you wanted it to be an exact mirror of right handed instrument.

Hi - this is my first post here.

I have a Texas Tea Ultra. I absolutely love the finish and how the guitar feels. I just don’t love the sound of the pickups. They seem a bit bland.

I’m looking to get some new pickups and wondered what people would recommend. I play a wide range of genres but mainly blues, rock and punk.

I’m really after a classic tele sound that sounds good playing those styles and would be a good fit for this guitar.

I have been recommend twisted teles and Barden Danny Gaten pickups by others. I feel like the Barden ones might be similar to the noiseless ones already in there.

Secondly, I’m a novice at wiring and wondered if getting whatever pickups I decide on means I will need new volume and tone knobs and if I will no longer be able to use the S1 switch.

Any recommendations and advice welcome!

Thanks

Love that Texas Tea! Let’s see some picks. I’ve got a ‘13 MIA Deluxe with the N3 noiseless pups and have been considering swapping them out. I got rid of the S-1 switch and went with a 4-way instead. Also a 1meg vol. and a no load tone pot. To me that made the original pups much more likable.

 

[teleguin]

Thanks Kevin. Interesting idea!

Are there any good humbucker options that would fit in the existing bridge route? It looks like the neck pick up already has an alternative humbucker space.

I really need to understand more about telecaster options!

 

[johnnylaw]

Gosh; incredile spread of options out there right now.
Bang for buck value is extraordinary with Tonerider. The repsonse is complex, musical, and dynamic. The build quality is wonderful. These pickups are a delight to play. Check out their Hot Classics for your repertoire.
Nice axe, by the way. Welcome to the rabid hole!

 

[lammie200]

Thanks Kevin. Interesting idea!

Are there any good humbucker options that would fit in the existing bridge route? It looks like the neck pick up already has an alternative humbucker space.

I really need to understand more about telecaster options!

BTW, if you are going to use a 4-way switch you may need to grind a little material off the switch stalk to get the switch to be able to swing all the way left and right once it is mounted to the control plate. You will just need to take off a small amount from both sides of the stalk, but if you don't do it the slot in the control plate will limit the throw and the contacts on the switch will short out between two positions instead of just hitting one.

 

[teleguin]

What are the absolute best pickups for a telecaster if money is not an issue and best wiring set up?

Is there a general consensus?

 

[john_cribbin]

^
That's a potentially expensive rabbit hole you really don't want to disappear down.

I'll tell you a secret that all the advertising and snake oil boutique dealers won't. The absolute best pickups, are the ones that sound best to you, regardless of price.

 

[cravenmonket]

I'll tell you a secret that all the advertising and snake oil boutique dealers won't. The absolute best pickups, are the ones that sound best to you, regardless of price.

Good advice. I have a Tele with Noiseless pickups and I love them, although I know I'm in the minority. I like quiet, clear, warm, clean, and I get all of that with the N3s. I know some feel that they're not true Tele-sounding, but I wouldn't know so I'm not complaining! Maybe I am missing some magic?

 

[teleguin]

^
That's a potentially expensive rabbit hole you really don't want to disappear down.

I'll tell you a secret that all the advertising and snake oil boutique dealers won't. The absolute best pickups, are the ones that sound best to you, regardless of price.

I figured it wouldn’t be quite so easy

So do you think the Barden ones are more likely to be similar to what I have already?

What are the Twisted Teles supposed to be like?

 

[john_cribbin]

OK, I'm going to have a bit of a ramble, lack of tea ....

Once upon a time, you used to hear a Fender stereotype - What's the best thing about a Stratocaster? The neck pickup. What's the worst about a Telecaster? The neck pickup. Due to Leo's design, strat pickups don't just drop into the tele neck position. Hail the Twisted Tele, it is designed to get close to a strat neck pickup tone, but drop into a tele. Very well regarded and loved by many. Check out the Baja tele reviews where they pair the TT with a Broadcaster bridge pickup, lots of classic tones.

Before you start swopping out pickups, play with the pickup heights. If you're lucky, you may dial in the tone you want for free.

So you have noiseless pickups. Hmmm, I had the originals in a Tele, didn't like them at all. I understand the latest are a lot closer to the traditional Tele tone, but maybe not enough for you?

There are lots of good pickups out there, unfortunately most come from the other side of the pond and you have the issue of taxes and duties, if they even ship internationally. Not been in the pickup market for years now, but I always sourced Seymour Duncan. Distributed here and usually easy to get secondhand on eBay.

Bare Knuckle pickups are well regarded and UK produced so they may be worth a look.

Right back to me tea.

 

[Golem]

There's no consensus. Probably the two winders I've heard about most from the UK are Bare Knuckle and The Creamery UK.

 

[teleguin]

Thanks this is all really helpful.

Do tele players generally have matching sets of pick ups e.g. twisted tele neck and bridge or is it better to mix things up e.g twisted tele neck and broadcaster bridge?

Is it easy to balance the outputs if they are mixed?

I have raised the pickups on the noiseless ones already a little bit as I felt they were underwhelming and lacking output. It made a slight difference but not enough to make me want something else.

 

[Golem]

Thanks this is all really helpful.

Do tele players generally have matching sets of pick ups e.g. twisted tele neck and bridge or is it better to mix things up e.g twisted tele neck and broadcaster bridge?

Is it easy to balance the outputs if they are mixed?

I have raised the pickups on the noiseless ones already a little bit as I felt they were underwhelming and lacking output. It made a slight difference but not enough to make me want something else.

The most accurate answer is it depends. If it's a huge difference, it'll be difficult to match the outputs. But, it can still yield interesting and useful sounds.

While a lot of winders talk about matched sets, I have occasionally found that using pickups where one pickup was significantly more powerful than the other can yield interesting and useful results. In one guitar the difference in output (broadcaster with TV Jones supertron neck) lent itself to a half out of phase tone in the middle position. In another tele a hot bridge pickup and low output neck made it so the middle position had a tone that was closer to a lower output bridge pickup but with a subtle added fullness. On the Sterling James Valentine, the bridge pickup is weaker than the neck, but it still sounds great.

 

[mjstamos]

Just get a set of custom Bootstraps to your specs and call it a day.