Fender Standard Tele Pickups....

Chocklit_Thunda

Can anyone on here shed some light as to the sound of these pickups? I got a set today for a great price but I also have a set of GFS Pro Series vintage Tele Pickups on the way...I'm debating which to stick into the current build....

The GFS stuff supposedly have a warmer vintage tone.
Bridge: 7.8K Alnico V
Neck: 6.6K Alnico V

The Fender's I have no idea about.... They're in a Bare Knuckle Pickups box (they were replaced in a standard Tele) with no info on the baseplates or anything.... I think the're also alnico V rods but thats it hey... If anyone owns/owned a standard Tele could you please shed some light? Whats the sound like? whats the output like? Is there a lot of hum?

Thanks in advance ?

nicovlogg

Chocklit_Thunda wrote: Can anyone on here shed some light as to the sound of these pickups? I got a set today for a great price but I also have a set of GFS Pro Series vintage Tele Pickups on the way...I'm debating which to stick into the current build....

The GFS stuff supposedly have a warmer vintage tone.
Bridge: 7.8K Alnico V
Neck: 6.6K Alnico V

The Fender's I have no idea about.... They're in a Bare Knuckle Pickups box (they were replaced in a standard Tele) with no info on the baseplates or anything.... I think the're also alnico V rods but thats it hey... If anyone owns/owned a standard Tele could you please shed some light? Whats the sound like? whats the output like? Is there a lot of hum?

Thanks in advance ?

A google search is your friend in this regard... Most of the Fender pups change over the years, but you should be looking slightly hotter winds than the GFS numbers you posted above - maybe around 7.5k neck and bridge even hotter. That being said, the lower wound GFS would not have a 'warmer' tone but might have more clarity. If you want a 'warm' tone you need to look at Alnico 2 or 3 pickups.

Chocklit_Thunda

Yeah I've been googling like crazy but honestly I've got nothing... There no year or anything on the baseplate a or anything... I think it also has alnico V pole pieces but I think you're right about it having more output...

Ugh fender have the worst records about their products.... I can't really find any specs on any older products.... These Tele pickups of unknown year and '90s standard strat pickups... I can't find anything on them.... Or any of them for sale.... It's like the moment they're not in production, they don't exist.

Manfred-Klose

i used second hand fender usa tele pups before, and they were abit lower gain than the cheap chinese ones i had (they actually sounded pretty rad ).
i am still using them, but they tend to be more of a blues sound.

i'd say try both, you cant really trust the internet on this one, as playing style, and wood choices will differ in sound.

.....lets face it, it is pretty easy and quickly to change tele pups.....

play the one set of pickups for a month, and change to the other for a month, and make some recordings to reference.

i'd like to hear the outcome on the GFS

Chocklit_Thunda

If you don't mind me asking, where'd you get the second hand pickups from? I'm lookin for USA standard Strat pickups now as well ? I've seen a few (various years) on eBay but I'm skeptical about the reliability of these sellers

nicovlogg

Chocklit_Thunda wrote: If you don't mind me asking, where'd you get the second hand pickups from? I'm lookin for USA standard Strat pickups now as well ? I've seen a few (various years) on eBay but I'm skeptical about the reliability of these sellers

No need to be - I buy pickups off eBay all the time and have never had a bad deal. Just check the seller rating.

I think you need to be specific with what kind of tone you want, then maybe I can give some recommendations. I've tried many of the common tele pups.

Manfred-Klose

i bought then on gumtree cape town a few months back from a guy that upgraded his pickups

Chocklit_Thunda

Well for the Tele I'm looking for a vintage Tele sound (I ordered the vintage GFS ones). Basically less harsh highs than standard pickups... Slightly warmer but still with the characteristic Tele sound...

As for te strat I'm also into the slightly warmer clear clean sound. I'm not after high output overwound sounds or something completely aftermarket. I like stock sounding pickups that's why I'm interested in the American Standards. But I'll try eBay and see what they have

nicovlogg

Chocklit_Thunda wrote: Well for the Tele I'm looking for a vintage Tele sound (I ordered the vintage GFS ones). Basically less harsh highs than standard pickups... Slightly warmer but still with the characteristic Tele sound...

That sounds like you want Alnico 2's then.. Have a look at any of the sets which feature that. Tonerider's vintage hot series is Alnico 3 which might get you there as well.

Chocklit_Thunda

I got a chance to fiddle around with a multimeter... The fenders measure 7.22K in the neck and 6.66K in the bridge.... Is that normal? Is the bridge in a Tele supposed to be lower output?

AlanRatcliffe

Don't confuse higher resistance with always being higher output - that's only true when everything else in the construction is equal.

In the case of a Tele neck pup, the wire gauge is smaller (to fit more windings on a physically smaller pickup), which raises the resistance. The bridge pickup is also louder than it would otherwise be thanks to the base plate concentrating the magnetic field.

Chocklit_Thunda

Ah thanks Alan! I wouldn't have guessed it worked that way... On the web you always see pickups with higher resistance being referred to as higher output.... Its confusing.

It would explain why my '57 classic comes in at 8.22K and my Burstbucker 3 comes in at 8.75K but the sounds and output differ vastly.

AlanRatcliffe

Chocklit_Thunda wrote: On the web...

There's your mistake. ?

The electrical side is less than half of it - the DC resistance should only be used as a rough guide in comparing similar pickups - it doesn't tell you anything about the magnetics and construction which are as (if not more) important to the tone. Even things like the insulation material on the wire can make a big difference to the tone on two pickups which are otherwise identical.

nicovlogg

As Bill Lawrence says, 'DC resistance (Rdc) tells you as much about a pickup's tone and output as the shoe size tells you about a person's intelligence!'

Inductance is a better measurement but even that doesn't tell the whole story.

Chocklit_Thunda

I'd always thought it was magnets that influenced tone and the no of windings (DC resistance) that influences output...

Didn't know all the other stuff changed the tone too.... I guess you learn something new every day ?

ezietsman

Chocklit_Thunda wrote: I'd always thought it was magnets that influenced tone and the no of windings (DC resistance) that influences output...

Didn't know all the other stuff changed the tone too.... I guess you learn something new every day ?

All the components and their configuration changes the tone. The output of a pickup is related to the amount the magnetic field through the coils change when you pluck the string. So, moving the magnetic field more (plucking harder) does that. Another way is to increase the number of coils the magnetic field exists in, more coils, more wire, greater resistance, but as Alan said, thinner wire has a higher resistance than thicker wire, so the resistance of the coils is not the only thing that affects the output.

nicovlogg

Chocklit_Thunda wrote: I'd always thought it was magnets that influenced tone and the no of windings (DC resistance) that influences output...

Didn't know all the other stuff changed the tone too.... I guess you learn something new every day ?

Everything about a pickup, down to the coating on the wire and the baseplate material affects tone somehow..

tiller

Thanks! This was something interesting about tele ?