Straty sounding tele neck pickup

alvynmcq

Currently changing some things on my 2020 player series telecaster. Have a broadcaster pickup (that I got from here) and a wilkinson vintage bridge. Now looking for a stratty sounding neck pickup, possibly with exposed pole pieces, anyone any suggestions what I should be looking at?

Probably going to pop some locking tuners on at some stage as well, just because I am lazy :-)

Gassage

@OilCityPickups 's big pole piece one. Fantastic.

lovestrat74

Twisted Tele all day long. I have that and the Mojo version  

Funkfingers

Fender devised the Twisted Tele pickup precisely for this reason. The formula is longer magnets, a taller bobbin, a non-brass cover (or no cover at all) and a third wire as a separate ground for the cover (if present).


OCP does The Californian.

Alegree does a couple of Strat-voiced Telecaster neck/Rhythm pickups. These are based on his Texan Hailstorm and Frigid Haze models for Stratocaster.

I have one of the FHTR pickups in my Fender AVRI '52 Telecaster. In direct A/B comparisons, it has the tone and dynamics of a Strat. Play typical Tele string bend licks, you'd swear it sounds like a Tele. 

Money no object, consider the Monty's DP51 set - based on Danish Pete Honoré's CS Telecaster.

paulnb57

Wilkinson, remove the cover, done!

Funkfingers

alvynmcq said:

2020 player series telecaster. 

Beneath the pickguard, your guitar should have a generous, one-size-fits-all pickup cavity. All sorts of possibilities present themselves. e.g. Firebird, Filter'Tron, Dyna-Sonic, goldfoil, you name it.

I deliberately listed the Firebird small humbucker first because it is so versatile, combining Fender and Gibson sonic qualities, depending on playing technique.

The other pickup that does this is the Fender Wide Range humbucker. Unfortunatey, one with pukka CuNiFe magnets will cost about half as much as the guitar. 

alvynmcq

Thanks everyone. Have read online that the neck pickup in the player series is some sort of MIM twisted tele, might give it a go with the broadcaster before doing anything drastic

@Funkfingers I had looked at a filter'tron as an idea, but I don't want to start changing the 250k pots

Funkfingers

alvynmcq said:

Have read online that the neck pickup in the player series is some sort of MIM twisted tele, 

That would be the Baja model (now renamed Vintera Modified).

The Player Series guitar gets Player Series Alnico 5 pickups. The bobbins of these pickups might be moulded plastic. 

A Broadcaster type pickup should have a hotter coil wind but weaker magnets. 

Broadcaster + Twisted Tele neck is what the Monty's DP51 set amounts to. To get this combination from Fender, you would have to purchase two pickup pairs and use half of each.

My version of this idea is an Alegree Tornado prototype in the bridge position and the Frigid Haze Tele Neck. 

A Freeway 3X3-03 selector switch will not fit into the AVRI control cavity without wood removal modification. I am in the process of converting to a Schaller Megaswitch M, circuit SS3.

The series, out-of-phase sound is interesting but hardly essential.

Zoolooter

Fender 51 Nocaster neck pu is the best I’ve tried on this quest. I found that if you went too stratty the middle position became a bit nondescript. 

I’m intrigued though by the custom options by Alegree. I noticed only the other day that he does a tele neck pickup with the B and E raised and your choice of magnet and wind.