Tele pickup recommendations

[jdier]

I'm looking for something absolutely clean, but jazzy, glassy clean, not spanky, twangy clean. I don't really care if it's humbucking or not, actually I might prefer that it was if it didn't sacrifice tone for it.

So am I looking at Vintage Noiseless, or something in the JB line, or what?

Gotta fit the single coil tele footprint.

Also, this is for a Squire Affinity, which I hear conflicting information on hardware depth issues, so if anybody's had any experience with that, I'm all ears. (which is why I had to get the Beyer 770s )

Thanks.

I agree with what some of the others have said here... Tele's sound pretty much like tele's, however, the two ways I have hear tele's get rid of the twang are:

1. EMG actives. Twang removed! Nice smooth full spectrum sound. Really changes the Tele sound.

2. Two humbuckers. How about a Seymour Duncan Jazz in the neck and a 59 in the bridge.

Personally I would stay away from the mini humbuckers. I have them in one of my strats and really am not that fond of them.

The Seymour Duncan forum is a GREAT, GREAT, GREAT place to get advise on these types of questions. There are a lot of super tele nuts over there too.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[notCardio]

RandyW

So were there any issues swapping out pickups on the Affinity, as far as depth goes? Were the stock pickups regular sized, not some weird off-brand import size?

And jdier, I don't even want to think about what's involved in putting a hb bridge in. And like I said, I'm more concerned with the neck pickup.

Light, I'll look into the Bartolini humbucker, but even though I'm not in any real hurry, a year seems like a long time to wait for a single coil!

I need to resume practicing scales and chords again, after about a 40 year break. I think this guitar will be good for that.

 

[Light]

Are you saying both kinds of Fender noiseless suck, the SCN, and Vintage?

Yup. Just my opinion, of course, but there you go. I'm not actually much of a fan of ANY of the Fender pickups, though, so you might want to take that into consideration.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[Light]

I've heard some good things about the Kinmans though. It may be all hype, I don't know I've never played anything with them it.

Nope. Kinmans sound very nice. They aren't real single coils, but then you can play them in a room with neon lights and actually hear the guitar, so it's a trade-off.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[Light]

So were there any issues swapping out pickups on the Affinity, as far as depth goes? Were the stock pickups regular sized, not some weird off-brand import size?

Well, if you were to rout out for a humbucker anyways....

And jdier, I don't even want to think about what's involved in putting a hb bridge in. And like I said, I'm more concerned with the neck pickup.

It's not that hard, but you would need to get a new bridge.

Light, I'll look into the Bartolini humbucker, but even though I'm not in any real hurry, a year seems like a long time to wait for a single coil!

From what you describe as the sound your after (absolutely clean, but jazzy, glassy clean, not spanky, twangy clean), I really think the Bartolini humbucker is going to be the best choice. Their old guitar pickups (including the old single coil pickups) tended to be a bit sterile to my ears, almost as bad as EMG's, but the new ones (the PBF series) are really nice pickups. The old ones were very high fidelity, but kind of soulless. The new ones are still high fidelity, but with some personality too. Best of both worlds, if you want something nice and clean. I don't think they are ever going to take over the rock and roll world, but they have been THE pickup of choice in the Jazz world for ages, and the new pickups have an even greater versatility that makes them a very good choice for a lot of gigging guitarists.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[RandyW]

So were there any issues swapping out pickups on the Affinity, as far as depth goes? Were the stock pickups regular sized, not some weird off-brand import size?

And jdier, I don't even want to think about what's involved in putting a hb bridge in. And like I said, I'm more concerned with the neck pickup.

Light, I'll look into the Bartolini humbucker, but even though I'm not in any real hurry, a year seems like a long time to wait for a single coil!

I need to resume practicing scales and chords again, after about a 40 year break. I think this guitar will be good for that.

Nope no problems swapping pickups, I made a couple mods when I did it.
I did the copper tape treatment on the body cavities, replaced the pots and switch with some I picked up from the fret doctor. I grounded the pickup cavites to the pots. Also I drilled a couple holes in the pickguard so I could adust the pickups. The replacements fit fine, the only problems I would see with the squires is the bridge plate is located in a different location so it you want to use say a 3pc bridge the pickup location on the body would have to
be routed.