Noiseless Tele Pickups?

koss59 · February 2017

My main gigging guitar at the moment is a Nocaster which occasionally has problems with noise in certain venues.
Ive recently built a partscaster as a backup for it and put the same pickups ( Nocaster ) in it as I love them. I'm now starting to think I should have put noiseless in it for when the Nocaster isn't sounding good.
Had anyone tried the Dimarzio area T set or the Kinman Broadcasters?

guitarfishbay · February 2017

Yes I had a Tele with Area Ts. I thought they were pretty decent. I thought they were subjectively more Tele-ish than the Area Strat pickups were Stratty, if that makes any sense.

rossi · February 2017

Keystone pickups are pretty noiseless and certainly sound good .

SidNewton · February 2017

I had a set of Kinman Broadcasters in a Tele about 10 years ago. I really liked them and would be happy to buy them again. That said I have a set of Bare Knuckle Flat Pole 50's in my current Tele (2010 American Deluxe).
That originally had the Fender N3 noiseless pickups but I didn't care much for them. Interestingly my mates son has recently bought the same guitar and I had the chance to compare mine and his yesterday. The N3's in his guitar have much more of a nasal quality to them, reminded me why I changed them. I much preferred mine with the Bare Knuckles.

robinbowes · February 2017

I've got two Teles and both have Kinman's in. One has a 60s Custom set (AVn-60b and AVn-60n) and the other has an AVn-48b in the bridge with a AVn-62 Mk-I in the neck (Strat pickup). I really like them.

The AVn-48b and AVn-62 are in a project guitar which I'm most likely going to return to stock to sell on so the Kinman pickups would be available if you're interested?

R.

koss59 · February 2017

Thanks, I'll look into those but think it'll be the Broadcasters I'm after to get close to the sound I already have.

simonk · February 2017

I had a set of Kinman Broadcasters in a US Tele and didn't really bond with them. I can't really put my finger on why though, just thought they were a bit sterile I suppose. Oil City's in all my Teles now and couldn't be happier.

robinbowes · February 2017

koss59 said:

Thanks, I'll look into those but think it'll be the Broadcasters I'm after to get close to the sound I already have.

To be clear - the AVn-48b is from the Broadcaster set, but I don't have a matching neck pickup (which is why I stuck in the Strat neck pickup).

R.

victorludorum · February 2017

Are they standard tele routs in your partscaster? If not, and a Strat sized pickup will fit, there are plenty of Lace sensors around that are fairly cheap.

koss59 · February 2017

Standard routing yeah, I also want it to look like a Tele still.
Im gutted to change it as it's turned out to be a great guitar but I could really do with a non humming option on gigs.

victorludorum · February 2017

You could get a pickup that has a reverse wind and use the middle position.

ToneControl · February 2017

For my strat, I found the Fender SCNs sounded a bit better than the Kinman set I tried in a diff strat - but they were a bit overwound

I have a low-wound Kinman strat pickup in the neck of a Jap Pawnshop, that sounds good

For teles:
I bought the Fender set, very good,
and then for my Blacktop baritone tele, I've used 2 x Fender N3 neck pickups, which are very good (and a weird Jo Barden twin blade two-tone HB-sized bridge pickup)

I think you'd have no trouble with Kinmans or N3s
With Kinmans, it's also easy to customise the balance a bit if you want a fatter bridge and brighter neck for example

If you can't stand the hum, these are great. They will all sound "slightly" different to each other and to other non-hum-cancelling pups. That does not mean they sound worse. I'm frankly baffled by some folk who are very anti-Kinmans, but then use multiFX units that completely destroy tone quality. All my kit is top-notch (that blacktop tele is the cheapest electric I own), and I am certain that using Kinmans and SCNs with boutique kit is fine.

Some people don't mind the mains hum, For me it is completely intolerable, especially on recordings

koss59 · February 2017

victorludorum said:

You could get a pickup that has a reverse wind and use the middle position.

Nice idea but I need more than just the middle sound. Maybe if I was playin Stax stuff all night I could pull it off!

victorludorum · February 2017

If money isn't an object, you could try the Fralin split coils, as they seem interesting, if a little bit ugly.

koss59 · February 2017

Thanks everyone, I've decided to try the Dimarzio as a couple of players I respect use them and I've heard some decent clips.
I'll report back when they're fitted.

Pete24v · February 2017

I know you've already chosen the Dimarzio's... but,

I have a set of these in a Strat that a ew years ago needed to be noiseless, I've not been happy with most of the other noiseless pickups i've tried (kinman, dimarzio) as they didn't sound like real single coils. EMG's were an option, and i nearly went for those as i've had them before.

But i tried these instead http://www.wildepickups.com/Wilde_Bill_s_NF_Singles.html

It's the closest pickup i've heard that is noiseless, and still sounds like a single coil.. so much so they are still in the guitar and it doesn't really need to be noiseless anymore as i'm not doing the same gig that involved massive lighting rigs and generators etc.

koss59 · February 2017

Thanks someone else mentioned those Bill Lawrence ones but they don't seem to be available over here. Maybe if these don't work out I'll order a set.

moogie72 · February 2017

Had n3's in a couple of teles...love them
very quiet and a nice clear tele chime, miss a little of the original twangyness but a good trade off with them being quiet. And very nice in my us thinline

guitarmangler · February 2017

You could add this system to your existing guitar to get rid of the noise.
http://www.ilitchelectronics.com/pgncs-t/
Suhr used it under licence for their guitars. Pricey, tho.

DrCornelius · February 2017

I too stuck some Kinman Broadcasters in my Thruxton last year and instantly regretted it - by then I'd sold the Kleins on here :-(

They were noiseless but the guitar to my ears lost a lot of its sparkle

koss59 · February 2017

What I have to get my head around is I already have an amazing Nocaster that does the Tele thing perfectly. This guitar has to be different and a bloody good way of doing that is to have it noiseless.
I did just a pub gig with it the other night and the noise wasn't really acceptable if I was doing a bigger gig so I'm going to have to change.

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Noiseless Tele Pickups?

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