Your favourite Tele pickups?

lovestrat74 · December 2018

What's your choice for Tele pickups and why?

Teyeplayer · December 2018

@Alegree cirrostratus. The perfect tele set for balance and ensuring the neck pickup isn’t a waste of space.

menamestom · December 2018

Nocasters are nice, also whatever they put in the Baja 50’s.

Bare knuckle make some nice ones as well, I have had the Flat 52’s and Brown Sugar.

Fuengi · December 2018

My tele has an Entwistle AT52 in the neck and a HV58 (humbucker) at the bridge. They are so good I used Entwistle single coils in my Strat too, I can't tell how pleased I am with them.

Lestratcaster · December 2018

I've got the BKP "The Boss" set in my Tele and I like how it sounds.

MattFGBI · December 2018

EMG 81.

rossi · December 2018

Van Zant original vintage green label.They seem to cover the lot .I play jazz and blues and always get a sound that pleases everyone .It will of course twang as well when the tone pot is turned up for those country numbers and some overdrive rock.

guitarfishbay · December 2018

MattFGBI said:

EMG 81.

That’s my pick for most other guitars

But my Tele has BKP Flat 50s and they’re awesome. The bridge pickup has the right balance of beef and bark. The neck pickup sounds like a Tele neck pickup, it’s a little lower output but can still balance ok... for me Teles are all about snarl from the bridge pickup and sometimes the nice chiming in between sound. I’m more of a Strat fan for neck pickup tones.

KKJale · December 2018

Lollar. The Vintage T's are twangy and sensitive and low/medium powered and they've got a lovely, well-balanced, sort of very slightly produced-sounding quality... the neck pickup is really beautiful. Also have the Special T's which have a bit more poke and lose a touch of neck deliciousness for a more beefy and useable bridge.

enjo · December 2018

I have a Fender Twisted Tele in the neck, SD Quarter Pound in the bridge gives me a pretty versatile guitar.

Roland · December 2018

Oil City Californian and Wapping Wharf. The Wapping Wharf is a tapped single coil, so gives me two pickups in one. The tapped sound is “normal Tele. The full wind is fatter than some humbuckers.

The Californian has more character than a normal Tele neck pickup. It’s closer to a Strat pickup, but with more midrange. Whilst it works well on its own it also blends well with the tapped Wapping Wharf to give a Strat like middle position.

clarkefan · December 2018

Watched a couple of Greg Koch vids of his Fishman Fluence Tele pickups, they sound great.

AuldReekie · December 2018

SD Broadcaster at the bridge and TV Jones Classic at the neck of my "89 Levinson Blade T2. A lot of very useable Tele sounds plus with the Blade VSC. Bridge pick up with VSC mid boost sounds like a very biting P90

rico · December 2018

Lestratcaster said:

I've got the BKP "The Boss" set in my Tele and I like how it sounds.

Yup me too!

Jonathanthomas83 · December 2018

guitarfishbay said:

MattFGBI said:

EMG 81.

That’s my pick for most other guitars

But my Tele has BKP Flat 50s and they’re awesome. The bridge pickup has the right balance of beef and bark. The neck pickup sounds like a Tele neck pickup, it’s a little lower output but can still balance ok... for me Teles are all about snarl from the bridge pickup and sometimes the nice chiming in between sound. I’m more of a Strat fan for neck pickup tones.

I have the same set as @guitarfishbay, the neck is one of my favourite sounds on any guitar I have, it's like a bell chime, as he says.

The bridge delivers massively. I dabbled with a much higher output Cobra T bridge, but recently switched back to the Flat 50's and it's a lot more along the lines of what I need in the Tele now I've got what the Cobra T did in some of my other guitars.

They're a really nice set!

poopot · December 2018

https://www.mojopickups.co.uk/product/59-telecaster/

Have them in both teles now!.

Johnnyseven · December 2018

I have a Mojo Esquire in the bridge of one Tele and an Oil City 49er in another. They sound different but I really like both of them. The Mojo is fuller sounding which works well for rockier stuff and the Oil City works better for more classically Tele stuff.

Jimbro66 · December 2018

Roland said:

Oil City Californian and Wapping Wharf. The Wapping Wharf is a tapped single coil, so gives me two pickups in one. The tapped sound is “normal Tele. The full wind is fatter than some humbuckers.

The Californian has more character than a normal Tele neck pickup. It’s closer to a Strat pickup, but with more midrange. Whilst it works well on its own it also blends well with the tapped Wapping Wharf to give a Strat like middle position.

I'm another fan of the Wapping Wharf bridge pickup. Not just because of the flexibility of tapped/untapped options, both of which are good, but also because the lower three and upper three strings use different types of alnico magnet. This gives plenty of twang on the lower strings whilst avoiding the upper strings being ice-picky.

I considered the Californian but really wanted a traditional covered pickup for the neck. I use the Mojo 52 which sounds just as I expect an early 50s neck pickup to be. I'm happy with that.

gordiji · December 2018

Fender Nocaster. alnico 3. Fat, balanced & versatile without the ice pick.

PhilKing · December 2018

I have the Bare Knuckle Flatpoles in a couple or Teles, one of each set (the 50 and 52). The 52's are my favourites, though I have a set of real 62 Tele pickups in my 62 Tele, and they sound great. They do actually sound the same as the BK Yardbird set, which I have played and like too.

chris78 · December 2018

For Fender pickups, broadcaster bridge and twisted tele neck. Add a 4 way and you’ve got pretty much every tone imaginable from stratty neck, to tele spank to humbucker power.

Non-Fender, Lollar vintage t sound exactly like a tele should sound. My personal favourites are broadcasters from Klein. There’s a reason that blackguards have a near mythical status. Buy these pickups and you find out why

Howdy, Stranger!

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Your favourite Tele pickups?

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