70s Telecaster opinion please

billzabozo

Hello, I've acquired a Tele in trade recently (78 I think). Now the pickups seem a little shot particularly the bridge. I have a set of Custom Shop nocaster pickups that I've never used.

So should I pay to get the guitar serviced and the pickups rewound or would the custom shop jobbies be a worth while step up from the stock. Obviously it would be easier if I could AB the pickups so I could decide but money is tight at the moment so would rather not pay for unnecessary work if it can be avoided. I no intention of selling the guitar so keeping it stock is not a priority just want a nice tele workhorse.

Words of wisdom most appreciated.

Jimbro66

In my experience '70s Tele pickups could be rather feeble sounding. In your shoes I would drop in the Nocaster ones but make sure you keep the original ones to pass on if you sell the guitar. The Nocasters should sound a lot better so I can't see the point in having the originals rewound  -  unless they have faulty windings. If they do have aword with Ash @theguitarweasle

impmann

WHS

I binned the pickups from my 1972 as they were so abysmal. I'm told I should have kept them as it would make the guitar more vaulable. Oh dear, how sad, never mind.

ICBM

Shot as in highly microphonic - as a lot of 70s Tele bridge pickups are - or shot as in an open coil - also fairly common? Does setting the switch to one pickup alone and turning the tone control down to zero kill most of the volume as well? If so, open coil on that pickup.

Personally since you have to take the pickups out anyway even to wax pot them, and if you have a set of better pickups to hand, I would put the better pickups in and keep the originals (in original knackered condition) safe for any future collectors who may want them...

billzabozo

Thank you all. I did think it would be strange if someone said the late 70s tele pu are highly revered as some of the best ever made. 
The bridge is microphonic & the neck all bit dissapears with the tone control so I guess I have the best of both worlds:)
I'll swap the pu out and keep the originals as suggested.
Thanks for settling my mind. 

Alegree

Sounds to me like there was a wiring error with the neck in the cavity.

Potting pickups is a very quick and cheap process, if you were planning on reselling them I'd advise doing it as they don't appear to be vintage level valuable judging on the previous comments.

ICBM

Alegree said:

Sounds to me like there was a wiring error with the neck in the cavity.

That would usually produce silence.

The tone control killing the pickup output is a classic sign that the coil is open-circuit at the ground end, because the remainder of the coil is still attached at the hot end and will still partially work by capacitive coupling, but sounds thin and weak. This is common on old Fender pickups because the coil bobbin is open to the air via the tooling holes, and if moisture gets in it tends to cause a little spot of corrosion between the magnet and the coil wire which eventually eats through the wire on the inside end of the coil, which is the ground end usually. You can't fix it without rewinding the pickup.

OilCityPickups

ICBM said:

Alegree said:

Sounds to me like there was a wiring error with the neck in the cavity.

That would usually produce silence.

The tone control killing the pickup output is a classic sign that the coil is open-circuit at the ground end, because the remainder of the coil is still attached at the hot end and will still partially work by capacitive coupling, but sounds thin and weak. This is common on old Fender pickups because the coil bobbin is open to the air via the tooling holes, and if moisture gets in it tends to cause a little spot of corrosion between the magnet and the coil wire which eventually eats through the wire on the inside end of the coil, which is the ground end usually. You can't fix it without rewinding the pickup.

Absolutely correct. add to this the fact that in Tele bridge pickups of that time the magnets were a looser fit in the flatwork, allowing sweat to access the coil core via the 'gap' around the magnet, and you have the reason 70's Fender pickups in general tend to die early. This is the reason too why the bulk of our Oikl City rewinds are 70s Fender units!

Alegree said:

Potting pickups is a very quick and cheap process, if you were planning on reselling them I'd advise doing it as they don't appear to be vintage level valuable judging on the previous comments.

I disagree, all working 70s pickups have some vintage value, far better to do as ICBM suggests and put them away safely 'as is' in case a future owner wants totally unmolested units. All wax potting on vintage pickups carries a risk of disturbing something and sending a unit open circuit. If it ain't broke, fix it.