Tele Neck Pickup Love! (Share yours)

[dannyh]

The Lollar Vintage T neck pickup is prolly my favorite of any Tele neck pickup I’ve tried. I’ve got them in three guitars. Perfect to my ears.

 

[wineocaster]

I know Don Mare gets a lot of love on here for his bridge pickups, which is well deserved. I have a couple sets of his pickups and the neck pickup is fantastic. I believe it is what he calls his ‘54 neck pickup. I’ve never played on a neck pickup as often as I do know.

The CS Twisted Tele and 51 Nocaster are also great.

 

[dougbgt6]

I replaced Squire Affinity ceramic pickups with Classic Vibe Alnico. Bridge was different, but not sure which I liked. The neck however was stunning, turned it into a two pickup guitar.

Doug

 

[JohnnyCrash]

I’ve got… I lost count… I don’t know how many Tele partscasters (I want to say eight?), but the ONLY one that has a traditional Tele neck pickup in my “Daphne” (named after my daughter) mkI (the mkII is a baritone with a DIY b-bender).

One reason I’ve been able to appreciate it (I have a very big bias towards bright and clear neck pickups over the traditional dark/woody and jazzy sound) is that this guitar has a G&L passive Treble and Bass cut circuit. I can dial back a little bass when I need a less wooly neck.

All three knobs are also pull switches (it’s wired like the friggen atomic age — don’t ask haha!). The blade switch is a 5-way wired Strat style.

The neck and middle pickups are Tonerider ‘50s style “Nashville” sets with ALNiCo III magnets. The bridge is a GFS (I usually hate their pickups) quarter pounder type pickup. It’s wound “vintage” (around 7k if I remember correctly), but the massive AlNiCo V pole pieces and baseplate make it sound like an old DeArmond Dynasonic (I have a Dyna clone in another guitar from Duncan’s Custom Shop — similar tone). Big twang. Bright, but not harsh. A lot of bottom end.

 

[thaynes]

I have a set of Fender '64 Vintage pickups in my partscaster. Love the neck, I am able to get very bluesy tones out of it and find that it is very clear.

 

[Hoof Hearted]

DiMarzio Twang King a la Richie Kotzen does it for me.

 

[AKBluesDude]

Tried a lot of tele neck pickups over the years. My favorite is a Stephens Design Supercaster . . . followed by a Seymour Duncan Zephyr and J.M. Rolph '59. Just got a couple Harmonic Design neck pickups I'm looking forward to trying out along with several flavors of Budz that are in the parts box.

 

[IbanteleM5]

I put Fender Texas Specials in my partscaster and have no complaints. Not sure where all the hate comes from...if you want a strat, get a strat.

I’ve also been spending more quality time with my volume and tone controls…

 

[Big_Vig]

My taste in tone and volume goes to the American made Bill Lawrence Blue Label T1 N pickup as used by Roy Buchanan, now getting tough to find ($80 in bulk bought back in 2012). Mine are around 5.1 Kohm 29 Gauss Alnico V, without a cover (bare pole pieces). There is a knockoff on Amazon made in China labelled as "Bill Lawrence S2 Single Coil Strat Pickup Middle Position Black" that sounded almost as good for $60 that I recently put in a partscaster that was close the sound I was chasing. But I recently found the new Wilkinson M-Series neck pickup ($25 on Amazon) to sound almost identical to the Bill Lawrence with the cover removed (bare pole pieces) at 6.75 Kohm 28 Gauss Alnico V. There is an almost infinite selection of Tele neck pickups available priced all over the place. My Bill Lawrence pickups were the closest I have ever found to my favorite 1968 Fender Telecaster neck pickups which I bought new and have never found an absolute sonic match. My "Best Ever" is the 1968 Fender Telecaster Alnico V Neck pickup.

 

[pi]

Twang King neck!
I also like the Nocaster neck. For a while I traded it out for Twisted Tele, but didn't think it was an improvement.

The best Tele neck pickup I had was a Lace one (of all things, you don't hear much about Lace and when you do, not for tele). There's a story behind why I had a Lace pickup, but it was sent to me by Don Mare, who at the time was working in the Lace custom shop. This was before he was making pups under his own name. I don't know if this pickup was a stock one or a custom--he sent me one he had lying around to help me debug some electronic issue I had. I loved the way it sounded, but I later gave it to a friend (who gave it to his father in-law) because it didn't balance well with the bridge. I wish I kept it though, it was special. I keep wondering if I buy a stock Lace pickup would it be this good.

 

[76standard]

I’m sure we all have heard of those darn muddy Tele neck pickups, and how the only good thing about a Tele is the bridge pickup!

Ok, let’s show some real love for the unloved and under appreciated tele neck pickup!

I did have a few dark and non-dynamic tele neck pickups and these were Vintera 50’s (not the modified CS but the cheap ones), Roswell and some China ceramics.

The neck pups I love are the Fender Twisted neck, Lollar Special T neck and SD Vintage neck. These are just so lovely and woody but also with a bit of grit.
I love to pick very close to the barrel saddles so to get that hollow wood like tone.
(I must mention CS 51 Nocaster being a dynamic neck pickup but slightly too thin for my taste)

I find my preferred neck pickups are in good balance with the bridge pickup and need no tone adjustment if I flip between them.

Edit to add a photo - I mean actual Tele neck pickups and not humbuckers, Goldfoil, Filtertron or P90’s etc …

View attachment 1127859

I doubt many on this forum and/or this thread are fortunate enough to own some nice Jon Moore custom pickups. Jon is a Canadian winder. I was lucky enough snag a set for my '05 Tele during an EBay auction. I have also included a pictures and the product label Jon places on all of his pickups. A5 magnets and K 7.58. I was so pleased with the Tele set, I also purchased a set of humbuckers to go into my Washburn hollowbody.

The neck pickup, which the original thread is about, is glorious. Not dull, mushy or bass heavy, instead the EQ of this pickup is what I'd call balanced. Just the right amount of highs, mids, and bass to keep it clear and defined. The tonal flavor is reminiscent of a good neck pickup on a Strat. Jon knows exactly what he's doing to bring out the best in the players tone.

 

[BlueGillGreg]

Edit to add a photo - I mean actual Tele neck pickups and not humbuckers, Goldfoil, Filtertron or P90’s etc …

Okay, so I went to snap a pic of my Tele... and yes the switch was in neck position already. I thought when I bought this used CV 50s ten or fifteen years ago that I'd change the neck pickup for something like a P-90. But I like the neck pickup so much that it's still on there and I use it more than the bridge.

I play with the guitar volume turned up only about a quarter of the way, but with the amp turned up pretty loud. That low pickup output into a decent amount of power tube gain works for me, and I like to dial in the reserve volume from the guitar's volume knob for sustained bends, controlled feedback, etc. Not sure I'd spend so much time on the neck pickup if I played mostly with the guitar output on full.

I like these stock pickups as a balanced pair, they've got a great middle position sound. I add some of my reserve guitar volume in this position.

CVs from this vintage seem to have Tonerider Alnico II or III pickups in both positions. They're good pickups. A lot of people who got them left them in their guitars.

I'd still like to try a Tele with a Wide Range Hum Bucker in the neck position. A housemate in the 1970s played a Mahogany Thinline with 2 WRHBs, and that guitar had a magic, effervescent sound.

 

[Arfage]

The muddy neck pickup has always been a mystery to me, as they are essentially a strat pickup. I took the metal cover off a few - Fender Texas thing and Duncan Vintage Tele among them - and it didn't seem to help. I just went aftermarket with a Dragon Fire Quarter Pounder looking thing; PROBLEM SOLVED! No modding for a Strat pickup, which was my first impulse.

 

[Tom Grattan]

Fred Stewart neck and bridge. https://stuartguitars.com He made them to my 58 Tele pickup specs for my "new" Tele. Outstanding.

 

[barrymw]

Clearly there are a lot of really good choices available, but I actually like the sound of my humble fender V-Mod ii neck pickup. I find it to be sweet, rich and clear.

 

[cousinpaul]

Although I've currently got a SD 59 in the neck pos, I like the Fender OV a lot.

 

[sloppychops]

before i wound pickups. i had a 5/2 Nashville Seymour Duncan from 1991 with a Broadcaster Bridge it was Also 1991 Duncan's., and after 18 year Of Winding its still in my old 1999 Affinity Tele / Squire, sometimes the Guitar has a bunch to do with it, also the pickup maybe blessed?? hehe... honestly! I earned a old factory over one million dollars in my Stint there, I got a 99.00 Tele - but if Old Burst Les Paul's fetch up to a $ Million or more,

I may have got a real sweet deal! as this guitar was the TICKET.,
in my hands it felt magical - all other guitars for the last 23 made me sorta suck / their fret board fought with me, and their sounds were not implanted in my Psyche ( the Affinity was all that and a bag of Circus Peanuts ... it' View attachment 1129742 s a real head scratch-er! yes I tried to duplicate the pickups using my methods, while they were good. I put the Duncan's back in, it was not the pickups its the whole package_sometimes_ so one mans favorite pickup can be another-mans dust collector pickup.

Does that say "book cannon"? Or something else?

I really like the look of that writing on the pickguard. It is writing, right? How was it put on there?

And I have to ask since I'm completely befuddled... is it actually hanging on a door? It looks like it is, but it also looks superimposed or something.

 

[sloppychops]

I usually play on the bridge pickup or in-between, but I have a few Teles with great sounding neck pickups.

The stock Texas Special in my American Special has a big, fat sound that's great for muffly, pseudo jazz stuff. With the Bootstrap Palo Duo in the bridge, the middle position has a gorgeous chime.

The Porter 9t neck pickup in my 70th Esquire comes close to a P90 sound. More warmth and fatness than a true P90, and very bassy. Sounds cool with the tone dialed down.

By far, though, my favorite is the Odezza in a partscaster I bought off a hobbyist. I don't know which model it is, but the seller gave me the specs on it from the maker. It has the sweetest Tele neck pickup tone I've heard.

 

[sloppychops]

I have a huge soft spot for the 51 Nocaster neck PU. But this HW 50/51… in my broadcaster is delicious.

View attachment 1129842

That's one of the nicest Tele bodies I've seen! Nice find!

 

[heffus]

It's a telecaster. Give me a lower wound tele neck pickup with a brass cover and go play your strat.