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Tele Pickup Choices


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I'm slooowly building a tele out of solid padauk. It'll probably have similar tonal qualities close to mahogany. I was thinking of getting Fender Lace or the Sanarium Cobalts as I want something that sounds like a vintage 50's- 60's type. I want good crunch and twang and that smooth sound when playing rhythm. The new Lace alumitones look promising, but from what I read, the bridge position is disappointing but the neck position is amazing. My late friend swore by Kinmans but they're pricey. Any opinions?

B):D :D

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To be honest, the only tele pickups I've used have been the dragonfire brand, which seem to be a generic make that gets rebranded by everyone on ebay. I think they were about $30 for a set, but they actually sound pretty darn good!

The ones I want to try someday are the Bill Lawrence keystones, a lot of die-hard tele folks swear by them.

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at the other end of the price scale are these

http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/ZT-teleseries.html

http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/shop/i....php?cPath=2_67

if you are really after a traditional 50/60's tele sound dont go for laces or the Sanarium Cobalts.... go for something that is made the same way as the 50/60's ones

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Kinman pickups are not just good,lets say godlike..You maintain the noiseless sound and the classic sound that you wish to have without loosing that "alive sound" that fender noiseless and lace sensors loose..I find them a bit fake sounding and muddy.(personal opinion as always)

I dont think that you will have similar sound charachteristics as the mahogany because padauk is harder than that..

Now if your guitar will be made from padauk you must test the pickups before buying them,i thing that ordinary pickups ment to be placed on ash bodys will sound a bit over the edge to your ax,very sparky lots of treble etc..I cant be so sure about that but before spending money to buy,try to find a classic tele and remove its pickups to see what differance will it make to your body wood in sound and then buy what you want to buy.

Kinman's are simply perfect,also the same style as kinman does(another bobbin at the bottom to remove hum)so does seymour duncan does,never played one of SD but i think that it will be quite awsome too as kinman.

(I love AlNiCo magnets)

Peace.

:D:DB)

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bluetele9.jpg

My new tele has a fender SCn neck pickup and I really like it...absolutely no mud! I also like the hotter JB noiseless strat pickups (but not the vintage ones). On the tele the bridge pickup is an original fender wide range pickup and hard to get and very expensive on the vintage market. GFS though have a normal HB sized version if you wanted to do something different and might give you a bit of this vibe on a budget and the option of replacing it later with another HB.

Lace sound a little sterile to me...the alumitones seem to get a lot of good press and they are interesting, but I am not yet convinced (though I haven't heard them in person)...I believe they don't mix well with other pickup types.

For a more authentic sound, old school will get you there...kinmans are great, but you got to pay!

pete

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Thanks for the opinions; I hope more will drop in. I was looking at the Frailin site; his prices were reasonable. But the SOUND on the Kinman site are - well, words don't quite describe them. They're exactly what I want. Problem is Standard or Broadcaster?

I may place a bid on a set of Lawrences on ebay. The price may end up to be too good to pass up!

Any opinions on Duncans?

PSW's tele is awesome. Does the Bixby have any effect on the classic tele sound?

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http://www.wildepickups.com/The_Wilde_Collection.php

If you're going to get Bill Lawrence pups, get them from the man himself. His former business partner owns the rights to the name "Bill Lawrence" as it relates to pickup naming, so any new pups that are marketed/named as such may or may not be as good as the real thing. I have NO IDEA if they're made the same way as Bill still does it, but why risk it?

Also, BL designed the SCM pups for Fender. I'm sure Fender follows the design exactly, so they'd sound just like BL's, but BL sells them cheaper than Fender does. Just in case you missed it, let me re-word it: BL sells the exact same SCM pups as Fender does because he invented them but sells them cheaper.

I have BL pups in my tele. They are well worth the $100 shipped I paid for the pair. BL has a rep about being just a butth0le about tone, so you can pretty much trust that they will be extremely high wuality.

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Got to drop a plug in for Rio Grande pickups. Fabulous sounding pickups, and well made, too. "Good crunch and twang" is what they specialize in.

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PSW's tele is awesome. Does the Bixby have any effect on the classic tele sound?

Hee...wasn't Bixby the Incredible Hulk?

See the link below to see more of the guitar...the Khaler is expensive but very good and a bright tele like sound, brass roller saddles and a solid metal construction. It shares much in common with the Bigsby without the tuning hassles...

The guitar sounds very much a tele...even the HB in the bridge is very much fender in quality...lots of twang, sharp attack...all the usual tele traits...

Thanks...

I mentioned pickup choices...Kinmans always get rave reviews, but there are so many good pickups these days and even the cheaper ones have improved a lot, best of luck...

pete

ps...see october GOTM :D

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Thanks everyone. I checked the Rio Grande site and they absolutely ruined my day!! :D Their links wouldn't work so I couldn't check the sound bytes. :D Well, since I'm not purchasing real soon, I can afford to wait until their site is repaired. I noticed they can be a little on the high side too. The search will continue. Still, those kinmans sound incredible. B)

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  • 2 weeks later...
I'm slooowly building a tele out of solid padauk.

I was reminded of this project when I saw this padauk strat...

DSC04425.jpg

ChrisK's Padauk Strat thread

A couple of interesting and important things came up in the thread to consider...for a natural finish...

No, it's the same body. Padouk starts out being very orange. It turns brown(er) over time. I'd left the body in the sun for about a year (turning it of course). My office had an 8 foot by 8 foot window.

This was to lighten the wood colour...otherwise, no finish applied.

This thread...Padauk comments..., which linked me too it had some important things to note...

an Ibanez bass, made of Padouk, which under (admittedly very very) sweaty conditions tended to secrete oil into my shirt, leaving an orange patch on the front.

and

Padouk is a waxy wood. It's difficult to get two things to happen with it;

1. getting glue to stick,

2. getting a finish to stick.

As a waxy wood, gluing could present a problem with the risk of future separation if not careful, even an epoxy may stick more to the wax and be prone.

Also, this guitar is a chambered body to cut down on weight...

I am not familiar with the wood personally, but perhaps other do or have ideas about finishing such a guitar (the pictured one has no finish at all) to avoid these risks...

pete

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Thanks for the opinions; I hope more will drop in. I was looking at the Frailin site; his prices were reasonable. But the SOUND on the Kinman site are - well, words don't quite describe them. They're exactly what I want. Problem is Standard or Broadcaster?

I may place a bid on a set of Lawrences on ebay. The price may end up to be too good to pass up!

Any opinions on Duncans?

PSW's tele is awesome. Does the Bixby have any effect on the classic tele sound?

Since you mentioned Bill Lawrence here is a link to YouTube. Looks like he is designing a new line of pickups..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELQt9A6UdYQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V17YQk9mLTM...feature=related

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I have actually been researching this a bit; I bought my first Tele ever (a MIM) last month, so that I could test drive it, see what I liked and what I didn't, keep a few select parts, make templates, sell off the rest.....and make myself the custom Tele I was born to play (two actually....but that's for another thread).

You can get a good characteristic Tele twang out of any of the above-mentioned pups, but.....I don't think you can get true vintage 50s tone out of a noiseless pickup. The original 50s bridge pups were not wax-potted (and they certainly were not noiseless), and so as they aged they gradually became more microphonic. If they got too bad, you'd get this real feedbacky "squeal" which sounds very porcine. But just the right amount sprinkled on top of classic Tele tone, and you have vintage Tele heaven (see Roy Buchanan).

Lollar '52s are what you want in that case, I think they are not potted....at least you can tell Jason to not pot them. They will NOT be noiseless.

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You are right erikbojerik...but if you like the slightly more modern sound, some of the new technology pickups are very good.

I have always loved Roy Buchanan and his tele tone is astonishing and that kind of thing can really only be got from those traditional pickups and each are different...still a lot of his sound was in his hands...I saw him in Oz way back when and he played the whole show with a borrowed strat and still the sound was so identifiable.

I have really been enjoying my new tele and even though quite different to a typical tele...still is a very identifiable tele sound and it does take quite an adjustment to get the hang of it. A really nice no nonsense and often unforginving but very rewarding working guitar.

I am doing another more traditional pickup-ed one :D

pete

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