Switching out the pickups on a MIM Telecaster

calimoose

New member
So a while ago, I mentioned how I'm gonna do the 4-way mod to my tele. I've also been considering switching out the neck pickup.

I'm gonna finish the mod this weekend and its gonna be a brighter setup, with 500k pots and .022 caps. I think that switching out the bridge pickup with something meatier like a P90 would be a good idea. But I don't want excessive work, any sort of additional routing or having to adjust the cavity to fit certain pickups. Basically, I'd like to know what's the easiest way (i.e. closest to 'plug n play') I can switch out the neck pickup and what would you recommend as a replacement?

I've heard that MIM telecasters have cavities to fit humbuckers, which makes me consider getting a gibson P-94 (from what I've read, its a p90 in the form of a humbucker) as I think I can screw this directly into the neck and all I'd have to do is find a separate pickguard. What do you think?

Might be too general of a question, but as many of you know, I've never modded any guitar and aside from basic soldering, can't do much myself. But I wanna try, so any help is much appreciated, thanks
 
I don't think all MIM have humbucker routs, but I could be wrong. I would seriously doubt that it has one for a hb bridge.

Yeah, depending on what you call 'meatier', that SD 'lil 59 for Tele will do the job for the bridge and be your easiest way of getting there.

That other neck pickup isn't going to be anything like a P90, though. And I don't really know of any direct replacements for a tele neck that are going to sound like a P90.

Honestly, the easiest way to achieve what you're talking about is to sell the Standard and get a Deluxe or Custom. You'll still have to replace the pickups, but at least you won't have to do any mods to the guitar itself.
 
I don't think all MIM have humbucker routs, but I could be wrong. I would seriously doubt that it has one for a hb bridge.

Yeah, depending on what you call 'meatier', that SD 'lil 59 for Tele will do the job for the bridge and be your easiest way of getting there.

That other neck pickup isn't going to be anything like a P90, though. And I don't really know of any direct replacements for a tele neck that are going to sound like a P90.

Honestly, the easiest way to achieve what you're talking about is to sell the Standard and get a Deluxe or Custom. You'll still have to replace the pickups, but at least you won't have to do any mods to the guitar itself.

Thanks for the tips. I'm not gonna get an entirely new guitar, after a couple mods (for which I've already paid) all that's left is the potential replacement of my stock neck pickup and I'm done.

Thanks for the tips on the 'lil 59. The neck actually doesn't sound half bad. Definitely darker, but maybe a bit too much. In any case, it's on my shortlist.
 
The later mim telecasters have a big route under the pickguard which would possibly allow you to fit any humbucker style pickup. You'd need to get the pickguard off to take a look to see what model you have. All you would then need to do would be get a pickguard to take what ever pickup you choose. Not all tele pickguards are the same so you'd need to do a bit of research on that. TDPRI is a fantastic site for all things telecaster.

You may have a few more issues on the bridge pickup as the route for those on the mim is from memory too tight for a std humbucker. You will need to get under the hood and take a look.

Also keep in mind that pole piece spacings may be an issue for you with whatever you choose.

P90 pickups are wider than humbuckers.

There are a number of p90 style pickups in humbucker footprint out there.
 
The later mim telecasters have a big route under the pickguard which would possibly allow you to fit any humbucker style pickup. You'd need to get the pickguard off to take a look to see what model you have. All you would then need to do would be get a pickguard to take what ever pickup you choose. Not all tele pickguards are the same so you'd need to do a bit of research on that. TDPRI is a fantastic site for all things telecaster.

You may have a few more issues on the bridge pickup as the route for those on the mim is from memory too tight for a std humbucker. You will need to get under the hood and take a look.

Also keep in mind that pole piece spacings may be an issue for you with whatever you choose.

P90 pickups are wider than humbuckers.

There are a number of p90 style pickups in humbucker footprint out there.

Thanks for the additional info.

Potentially dumb question: after taking off the pickguard, how will I know if my tele can fit a humbucker or not or will need any routing adjustments? Are there certain measurements or shapes to look for? For example, can I go with any humbucker if, under the pickguard, my tele looks like this:

telecaster 1.jpgtelecaster 3.jpg

But if my tele looks like the photos below, then I can only plug-n-play with another single-coil neck pup with similar specs? :

telecaster 2.jpgtelecaster 4.jpg


I've looked through TDPRI, but lots of the threads I came across were too technical for me :/
 
Thanks for the additional info.

Potentially dumb question: after taking off the pickguard, how will I know if my tele can fit a humbucker or not or will need any routing adjustments? Are there certain measurements or shapes to look for? For example, can I go with any humbucker if, under the pickguard, my tele looks like this:

View attachment 92763View attachment 92762

But if my tele looks like the photos below, then I can only plug-n-play with another single-coil neck pup with similar specs? :

View attachment 92765View attachment 92764


I've looked through TDPRI, but lots of the threads I came across were too technical for me :/

The Tele in the first pic might fit a neck HB with an appropriate pickguard.

The Tele in the second pic, not a chance without doing some gutting.

The Tele body in the third pic is ready for dual humbuckers.

The Tele in the fourth pic looks like it will accept a neck humbucker.
 
The size of the rote will determine whether you can fit a humbucker. The only pic that wouldn't allow is pic 2 on your list. The pickguard can be adjusted or you can find one to suit with a humbucker sized hole. The bridge route is differant as it is on the slant on a telecaster and will most likely not allow for a humbucker. If it does you will need to get a bridge wiuth a humbucker route. As I say you will not be able to tell untill you get in there and look .
 
Also, if your Tele will accept a humbucker, give some thought to the Seymor Duncan P-Rails. It's a switchable P-90, humbucker, and single rail all in one pickup.
 
A vintage telecaster route will look like this and will only take tele pickups. If you have more space than this you will probably be OK.

tele route.jpg
 
Also, if your Tele will accept a humbucker, give some thought to the Seymor Duncan P-Rails. It's a switchable P-90, humbucker, and single rail all in one pickup.

The Duncans are nice sounding pickups. There is a full round up of the most widely available P90 BUCKERS HERE. Some one linked this to me when they were ordering a few custom winds. They wanted some thing like the Fralins with a bit of the Z90 thrown in. I got pretty close but it's hard to tell for sure as the body was a different timber to the guitar test.. TBH in my experience the more you pay the less microphonics you get. The rest is a bit of a duck shoot unless you get them hand wound..
 
Also, if your Tele will accept a humbucker, give some thought to the Seymor Duncan P-Rails. It's a switchable P-90, humbucker, and single rail all in one pickup.

It's funny you said that, I literally JUST added them to my shortlist before reading this. They sound great in the demos I've seen, and gives the versatility that I'm after.

Thanks guys
 
It's funny you said that, I literally JUST added them to my shortlist before reading this. They sound great in the demos I've seen, and gives the versatility that I'm after.

Thanks guys

I use a bridge P-Rail in my Hallmark Mosrite clone. It's a great pickup IMO. I use that guitar for twangy surf cleans all the way to blazing punk rock fury through very loud Marshalls.

You'll just have to get creative with the switching. You can use a simple 3-way toggle, push/pull pots, or SD has this triple-shot mounting ring thing with the switches included on the mounting ring.
 
A vintage telecaster route will look like this and will only take tele pickups. If you have more space than this you will probably be OK.

View attachment 92766

yep, that's what my 72 Std looks like for routing.

Cali- just pull your pickguard and look, it's quick, just a handful of screws. You'll have to take off the bridge plate to look at the bridge pickup routing.
 
Am I the only one who's never seen a Tele with a rout like those first two? Since when did they start doing weight relief on Teles?
 
It's not weight relief. It is done to ease production change and setup time on cnc machines. You will see the same route on many other models because it accommodates their range of pickups and pickguards. It also promotes sales because it allows people to mod easily etc...
 
It's not weight relief. It is done to ease production change and setup time on cnc machines. You will see the same route on many other models because it accommodates their range of pickups and pickguards. It also promotes sales because it allows people to mod easily etc...

yeah, I've seen that on mostly lower end Squires, but those two don't look like standard production teles to me. And since you still can't put humbuckers or P90s in that second one, I don't see what advantage there is to it.
 
It should be pretty easy to tell about the bridge. Is it a "real" Tele with the pickup in the bridge? Then you know that you need something designed to fit there, unless you're also going to swap the bridge and probably do a bunch of routing.

If it's a standard "real" Tele setup, I highly recommend you look at one of the Lil Puncher sets from Guitar Fetish. The link is to the "Cool Vintage" set, which is pretty light wound and I've never actually heard. I have the hottest of the bridge versions in one guitar, and I think the Modern Vintage set in another. They're 4 wire humbuckers that sound great wired standard, but of course also sound good split and in local parallel. You cannot beat the quality-to-price ratio for GFS pickups anywhere.
 
yeah, I've seen that on mostly lower end Squires, but those two don't look like standard production teles to me. And since you still can't put humbuckers or P90s in that second one, I don't see what advantage there is to it.

It has to do with the way they machine the bodies. If the same route is OK for a number of models they machine that route and stack the bodies until they need to run a certain model. The route for the outline and control etc is done at that point. They use the existing default route as a locating position on the machine bed and set up the rest of the cnc command from that. They do the same with neck profiles and leave the headstock as a paddle to machine when they know what guitar model it's going on and what scale length and radius to machine.
 
if you wnt a drop in replacement for the neck pickup, check out the G&L ASAT MFD Neck pup, I always thought that the neck pickup on teles were pretty useless till I played A G&L tele . also the MFD ( magnetic field density) pups have adjustable pole pieces. the g&l online store has decent prices too
or checkout the GFS Dream 180 ,I hear those are work well as tele neck pickups, though you'll have to fit
goodluck and enjoy
 
Back
Top