tele pickup suggestions please

Dominic

 what is a soft ,mellow vintage style set ....I actually have  twisted telly set in a blackguard but find it too icepick sounding

Funkfingers

What exact model of Telecaster is it? 

Alnico 3 magnets certainly make for a nice neck/Rhythm position pickup. 

Dominic

nocaster

Funkfingers

What happened to the original pickups? What, if anything, did you dislike about them?

Also, what modifications have been made to the control wiring?

Dominic

put back to standard modern wiring
Original pickups still in guitar but I find them harsh and bright
I want a more mellow sound especially from neck although I play country and chicken pickin type stuff but I would like to be able to be ballad Jazzy on the neck wound back for Western Swing type sounds

Funkfingers

It should be possible to get a sweet Jazzy/Bluesy tone from the neck position pickup. Much depends on the pickup height adjustment, your string gauges and amplification.

It should be possible to get a warm, clean sound through overdriven valve amplification by winding the volume control back and gentle picking.

StuartMac290

I have these in one of mine

http://www.kleinpickups.com/p-44-nocaster-epic-series-pickup.aspx

They are my favourite tele pickups by a distance. They don't have that horrible exaggerated bite a lot of tele pickups have, they sound huge and warm and clear

BigLicks67

You could try Suhr, however you may want to experiment more with the existing set, for example this sounds very warmand I'm sure it's a twisted tele pickup.



Or have routed for mini humbucker Brent Mason style :

Gassage

Speak to @theguitarweasel ... the pups I've had for my teles off him have been utterly outstanding.

Dominic

love the Brent Mason vid even though jazz isn't especially his thing 
interesting to hear the difference between his moded tele and a normal tele  makes the normal one sound a bit thin - he is a great player
I always like Tim Lurch tele tones for this type of playing

xpia98jf

I've only used the Twisted Tele neck pup before but never found it to be ice picky. Are you referring just to the bridge? I'm also wondering whether it's set up issue?

ICBM

Locate the knob shown in the lower left corner of this picture, and rotate it anti-clockwise until the desired sound characteristic is obtained.

https://media.sweetwater.com/store/manufacturer/Fender/about/tele_feature-volume.jpg

Dominic

will ignore cleverdick comment

Gagaryn

Try lowering the pickups...

ICBM

Dominic said:

will ignore cleverdick comment

OK, I apologise for the way I said it , but why not actually try it? That's what the tone control is for - and it works very well. I use the one on my Strat-style guitar for exactly the same reason.

whitedogbanana

Gagaryn said:

Try lowering the pickups...

Agree with this....adjusting the height would be the first thing I do.

Otherwise I really like my Don Mare Super Sports. Not exactly "vintage" ie higher output but never ice pick sounding.

http://www.buckcannon.com/telesetsorbridge.html

menamestom

Dominic said:

I always like Tim Lurch tele tones for this type of playing

Yeah, he's great.  What about the Lollar Charlie Christian pickup?

Or a mini Humbucker?

Another warmer option would be a P90 Tele pickup, I have a strat one that is quite soft/warm.  The creamery do one.

Jalapeno

Have a chat with Marc @ @Mojopickups ; - he'll also do a wiring loom to get you where you want the sound to be.

Dominic

I have ......it does very little to take the harshness out of the sound until the last two increments then it just dies into mush
- I think it is more than the taper of the pot......it is a thin tinny sound even for a tele

Dominic

maybe ignorant but does a loom make that much difference ?
seems like changing the oil when the head gasket is gone.....no  ?

ICBM

Dominic said:

I have ......it does very little to take the harshness out of the sound until the last two increments then it just dies into mush
- I think it is more than the taper of the pot......it is a thin tinny sound even for a tele

It may need a better pot - that's the usual characteristic of cheap ones, or the wrong taper (Linear when it should be Log).

If so it's probably worth factoring in upgrading the pots even if you do find some pickups you like.