MIJ Telecaster pickup replacement advice

samothy01

Hey all,

I’ve recently acquired a circa 84/85 MIJ telecaster and it plays like a dreaaaaam. However, the pickups are not up to scratch and having never looked into replacing tele pickups before I wonder if you guys had any advice with where to start?

I guess that I should point out that I know the kind of cost of replacing them and as such pricing isn’t that much of an issue (although if a few quid could be saved with savvy advice then my bank account would be very appreciative...)

Thanks

ab2017

Tonerider hot classics are great especially today you'll save £10 if you use Amazon

Winny_Pooh

So many options. Care to give more info so we know what kind of music you want to use them for?

rico

Massive variety of pickups for tele's I currently have a Bare Knuckle Boss in the bridge of mine and it's fantastic, lots of bite but thick and juicy.

Have a look at the parts sub-forum of the classifieds and there's always bargains to be had. 

GavRichList

Personally wouldn’t look any further than Mojo pickups. I have Marc’s pickups in my Tele Custom, and the Broadcaster spec bridge is particularly wonderful. You can’t go wrong with him to be fair. 

samothy01

Winny_Pooh said:

So many options. Care to give more info so we know what kind of music you want to use them for?

Probably should have cleared this up before, good shout.

(Feel like this is a fairly hard question to answer...)

It’s probably best that I eliminate genres that I don’t play: Blues, Metal, Country (trying to think of ‘classic’ tele genres).

I’m not looking for a shred-ready upgrade as I play fairly pedal-heavy music through a Roland JC-30.

Does this help at all?

samothy01

ab2017 said:

Tonerider hot classics are great especially today you'll save £10 if you use Amazon

I shall have a look!

samothy01

GavRichList said:

Personally wouldn’t look any further than Mojo pickups. I have Marc’s pickups in my Tele Custom, and the Broadcaster spec bridge is particularly wonderful. You can’t go wrong with him to be fair. 

I have Mojo’s (assuming you’re talking about the English company) in my MIJ jazzy and they’re superb.

How did I forget about these???

samothy01

rico said:

Massive variety of pickups for tele's I currently have a Bare Knuckle Boss in the bridge of mine and it's fantastic, lots of bite but thick and juicy.

Have a look at the parts sub-forum of the classifieds and there's always bargains to be had. 

I’ve heard good things about bare knuckles!

Thanks for the advice.

noisepolluter

I’m a huge fan of Oil City pickups based in East London. Fabulous sound and build quality and staggering value for money. I’ve just ordered a Diesel Tap tele bridge pickup and Thames Delta neck which will be used for general rock/new wave duties as well as excursions into americana 

crunchman

I had some Fralin Blues Specials in Japanese Tele several years ago, which were stunningly good.  That was before a lot of the British pickup winders got going though, so these days I'd probably look at one of the British ones like Oil City as they would be a lot cheaper than the Fralins.

rossi

Big Fan of Tonerider Hot Classics .

ICBM

Oil City - drop Ash a line and see what he would recommend for what you want.

Also replace the switch with a CRL and the jack with a Switchcraft while you’re at it, the stock ones are junk. The pots aren’t too bad and the holes in the plate will be too small for better quality ones anyway.

samothy01

ICBM said:

Oil City - drop Ash a line and see what he would recommend for what you want.

Also replace the switch with a CRL and the jack with a Switchcraft while you’re at it, the stock ones are junk. The pots aren’t too bad and the holes in the plate will be too small for better quality ones anyway.

I will do! 

Also super thanks for that advice, little things like that I’d have no idea about! I’ll look into them.

Funkfingers

The vintage-correct depth pickup cavities on the MIJ Telecaster may restrict your options for replacement pickups. 

Stacked coil, noise-cancelling replacement pickups sometimes require deeper cavities. The Seymour Duncan STK-T1N is one that drops right in.