Super High Dollar Pickups?

Mike Schwartzman · From: Maryland, USA

I know we have lots of 6 string Tele pickers here, and I'm curious to hear if any folks have tried some of these brands of boutique pickups.

I love messin' with parts guitars and I cruise Reverb.com sometimes looking at Tele sets. I see the the higher end makers like Lollar, Fralin, Porter, O.C.Duff, Don Mare, Duncan Antiquities etc. all the time.

Then I see brands that almost cost as much for set as a whole Telecaster like Ron Ellis, Tone Specific, Arcane, Fender CS wound by Josephina. Is there some secret sauce wound into these things? Am I missing something here?
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Emmons Push Pull, BMI, Session 400, Home of the Slimcaster Tele.

Per Berner · From: Skovde, Sweden

Dale Thompson · From: Tennessee, USA

Tone is definitely a personal choice. I like the Lindy Fralin slightly overwound Tele pickups but have buddies who get incredible tone out of stock Fender pickups.

K Maul · From: Hadley, NY/Hobe Sound, FL

James Burton and Steve Cropper did ok and I think they used stock pickups. Burton did put a banjo string on his high E so he could bend it easier. One of my favorite stories from an interview with Robbie Robertson of the Band. He talks about meeting Seymour Duncan many years ago.

"Now this was a style of playing I had learned traveling around the country with Ronnie Hawkins. People asked me about it a lot and I got bored so I used to make up stories. I'd say, 'I soak my guitar strings in hair oil,' or 'I cut swastikas in the speakers with razor blades.' So Seymour Duncan says to me, 'What have you done to your guitar to make it sound like that?' And not being able to think of anything better I said, 'I've got more windings in the pickups.'
"So anyway, I'm reading this article years later and Seymour Duncan says, 'Robbie Robertson told me about more windings, so I've put more windings in my pickups and I've gone on to make The Seymour Duncan Pickup!"' Robertson lets out a laugh. "And this whole business is based on a big lie! It never existed! I couldn't think of anything else to say!" Robbie takes a drink and smiles. "I never told this story before. I wonder what he's gonna think. "
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Godfrey Arthur · From: 3rd Rock

The secret is going to the pickup winder bring your guitar and work with him to dial in what you want. Granted off-the-shelf units will work good for guys like Cropper but guys like that can make most guitars sound good. Then again you get guys like Gibbons who has whole guitars made for him usually smaller versions than the originals to look better on Billy's physique and with special windings. You can bet that Gibbons works personally with the luthier/winder with the winder seeing and hearing the guitar to dial in something for tone and response.

I met Seymour and had him work on my Jazzmaster back in Santa Barbara when I was living there. And this was way before he became a household word. He was only known to guys like Page. I had no idea who he was then. Duncan came up with something PER the guitar and my style of playing which is really what needs to be done if you want to do things right. Unfortunately one of my family members took those parts out and has no idea what happened to them. I still have the guitar but replaced all the parts with reissue Fender parts.

After that it will be series of ordering pickups and swapping them to see if you hit a set that gets what you want. Like pulling a slot machine lever actually because no one guitar is going to react the same way.

These winders are catering to weekend warriors who have money to throw so that's how they make their money.

There was a pickup winder who had some very nice sounding pickups as I've heard before and after videos on his products. I can't think of his name but he appears to have gotten in over his head and couldn't supply the demand and I think people lost faith in him. Only time I could hear a difference from just a video.

Many times real good players are not really good examples of product quality because they play so well you can't tell any difference.

Side note: I had a discussion with Brian Wampler about this as Brian felt that he was not a good enough player to demo his pedals using Nashville guys who were just real good players. I mentioned to Brian that most of his market is a weekend warrior and that he, Brian, could do the pedal demos himself as the pedal would shine more in his hands than it would through some hired gun. This would speak better to the bedroom wrangler than some "god" on guitar. He took the advice and made more videos with himself playing.

I found an off-the-shelf great sounding pickup in my cheapo SX Tele. The bridge pickup gets a nice snarl. Wouldn't change it if I could. For one thing the pickups on the SX are not standard sized Tele and the body would have to be reworked to fit a standard Tele bridge pickup.
Sometimes one gets lucky. Razz

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Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

There are some major differences between many Tele pickups. There are a lot of variables, and then what works on a particular guitar varies according to the various mechanical/vibrational properties of the guitar plus how the player plays and what the player prefers tonally.

As stated, it costs more money - sometimes a lot more money - to hand-wind a pickup using a particular method, using particular materials, and to a particular set of specs and/or player preferences. Whether or not it is worth it to you depends on way too many things to enumerate here and nobody but you could possibly make that evaluation. There are also a lot of inexpensive but excellent pickups.

I, personally, have tried lots of different types of Tele pickups on lots of different Teles. I have no formula, except that I have a reasonable idea, mathematically and intuitively, how various design parameters affect a pickup's tonal response, and sort of how that relates to what I'm trying to achieve with a particular guitar. But then, if I decide to change a pickup, I pretty much say a Hail Mary and hope it works out like I want. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.

Personally, I usually like old-school (not overwound) Fralins on an early 60s type of rosewood-board Strat that I'm gonna use for blues, '69 Fender Custom Shop reissues (or real '69 Strat pickups) or mid-late 50s type winds on maple-neck Strats. I tend to like the '63 Fender Custom Shop Tele bridge pickups on my rosewood-board Teles, '52 black-guard type winds on maple-neck Teles, and I have had good luck with the Fralin blues (slightly overwound) Tele rhythm pickups on my Teles. I also have couple of sets of relatively early Barden Tele pickups, one of which is on my solid-rosewood Tele that weighs about 11.5 pounds - it's a beast, but it is great. I also have an old Tele that I got without the original pickups into which I put a Don Mare Nancy set. If you wanna try to get in the Roy Buchanan ballpark, they do a pretty good job, although I'll tell you it will peel the paint at 100 yards if you're not careful with it. But it can also be magic in the right Vibrolux or Princeton Reverb in the right situation. The 80s and 90s MIJ Strats and Teles also generally had pickups that sounded great in them - just cheap pickups with a ceramic magnet bar underneath. You'll never know what sounds good until you try it.

Perhaps the best-sounding Tele I ever had was a totally beat-to-hell but bone stock, except for an added tortoise pickguard, 1984 Fullerton '52 Reissue Tele. I will never understand why I traded that guitar away after using it for about 15 years. What a maroon. And the stock pickups in 80s and 90s US reissue Strats and Teles are generally very good. It all depends on what you're looking for, and also what you can do with the guitar. A cowboy-chord strummer isn't likely to find much difference between any of them.

It's not all snake oil, but there is also no magic formula. Too many variables - in the guitar, strings, electronics, player, effects, amp and how it's set up and pushed, musical style, you name it.

BTW, the most I have ever paid for a Tele pickup was, I think, $200 or 225 for a real '58 Tele pickup, about 20 years ago. It was worth it - well, OK, it was worth it to me. YMMV. But I honestly can't imagine why someone would pay a TON more than that for a new Tele pickup, but I know some guys out there will do that. There are some pickups, like old Charlie Christians, that would cost a lot to duplicate exactly as they were in the 1930s. But Fender pickups are pretty simple.

Mike Schwartzman · From: Maryland, USA

Thanks very much for your insights on the topic. Some cool stories in there too! Personally I can certainly appreciate the analysis of materials and winding techniques that many of these pickup makers apply. And I don't mind paying extra for that.

It's just when I scrolled thru the listings, I saw Tele sets at 650-750 bucks, and it stopped me in my tracks. I was used to seeing 50's, 60's vintage originals going for huge bucks, but not from current manufacturers. On my current favorite Tele I'm using a Duncan 5/2 (used to be called Nashville Studio) in the bridge, and in the neck a Nordstrand NVT A3. Nordstrand is more known for their bass pickups, but I'm glad I tried it. I'm totally happy with that pairing.

PS Hey Dave: An 11.5 lb. Rosewood Tele with older Joe Bardens...Danny can probably hear that from where you live. lol
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Emmons Push Pull, BMI, Session 400, Home of the Slimcaster Tele.

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

John Goux · From: California, USA

Personally I find most of the newer stock pickups by Fender and Gibson to sound fine, but kind of 2 dimensional.
I will up grade the pickups on a newer guitar and I think itâ€™s worth it.
Suhr, Duncan Antiquities, and Don Mare have been excellent upgrades. Worth my money.
John

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