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I'm now deeply into my design and setting up my parts list for a Telecaster and a Strat, but have no clue as to the direction to go in for pickups. For the Tele, I'm leaning toward the Joe Barden T-Style Gatton pickups, but I'm not sold because the cost is so high.

I'm curious about what you Tele players like, and why.

Same thing for Strats, although as yet I haven't really thought about those yet.

Thanks.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I like the Dimarzio AreaT's for a tele. DP417 & DP615.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Don, my hearing is shot, so I may not be a good judge.
I don't have an opinion for a neck pickup, but I've used Squier Fat Tele bridge pickups that to me, sound really good and twangy. They are reverse wound.
They run about $12.00.
Dan

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wah
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Wah

It depends on the music you intend to play. I've recently discovered that jazz players love Teles (who knew?) for them it is all about the neck pickup.

My sense is that people love the ergonomics of the Tele. Beyond that it is a slab of wood with two pickups. You can do just about anything you like.

There's a Tele forum where pickup discussions have the passion of religious wars. The opinions are dizzying, but you do get a sense of the preferred pickups in each of the major configurations.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, I've searched there trying to get a sense of things, and even posted the question with only two or three replies that were generic.
What's really crazy is the number of people there talking about humbuckers in their Tele's. Now that ain't right...

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Bill Lawrence or Lace Sensors (Fender sells them as Noiseless N3 pickups, I think).

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

If you like that vintage vibe Lindy Fralins are popular in these parts.

Don,
Asking folks what pickups they like can open a can of worms... As mentioned on another post, I wasn't happy with the pickups thats came with my amercan std. tele. I read all these great things about the Barden tele pickups online and decided to bite the bullet and buy the Bardens. They ARE expensive. You'll notice that there are a lot of "high end" pickups that are quite expensive. I'm sure you can get decent sounding pickups without spending a fortune. I have also heard good things about the Dimarzio Area Ts. Dimarzio pickups are generally pretty reasonably priced. BTW - I put some Dimarzio Classic Air humbuckers in a previous build and they are great. I wired them switchable from series to parallel. The parallel setting has a convincing single coil sound, and no hum. Oh, yeah, and it is a tele...

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

I've got a tube amp and a solid state amp.
I don't play with effects.
I like the overwound pickups on the tube amp, and vintage wound on the solid state amp.
Your rig has a lot to do with the sound.
Playing style too, of course.

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After a few hours reading everything I could and listening to a zillion you tube video's, I think I'm going to spring for the Bardens. I was tempted to try something cheaper first, but everyone who has the things seems to love them, so why not just get what I think I'll like and be done with it?

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Danny Gatton used them for a reason.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Totally depends on what you want . I love the Fralins on my Strat, however the Lace Sensor Golds are on my performing guitar because they are quiet. They sound good enough.

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Pat

My 1997 B-bender, "Nashvilled" by Joe Glaser, he called it the Brent Mason set up. Duncan vintage staggered stack in the bridge, Hot Stack middle, and Vintage stack neck. The bridge has a switch that switches between stacked and unstacked For what I do I'm thinking about a regular strat middle and neck pickup, the Vintage Neck stack is on the wimpy end of the stick.

Interesting..! But why not just use a push-pull pot instead of adding the switch behind the bridge?

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

The switch is on the control plate, your looking at the B-Bender cam

I have played teles forever, and I have owned some beauties (still have a '61), but only ones I have "built" have been in the form of assembling and modifying premade parts from various sources, mostly for my own use (my main gigging guitar is a simple partso tele). Obviously I haven't tried every make or model out there, but personally I'm a fan of vintage type pickups, mounted in light resonant guitars, and some of the best IMO are Seymour Duncan "Antiquity" pickups. Lots of character, perfect for sweet, clean or crunchy to classic rock overdrive type sounds in small tube amps, probably not your typical high gain machine though. I know the Bardens, a band mate has two teles with them, and they are nice, silent and punchy, but they sound more hi-fi and not as "tele-like" to me as some of the vintage types, which is what I like about teles in the first place. Lollar and Fralin have nice vintage tele type pickups too.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

What Hesh said. Check the Fralin's no one has been doing it longer except for Joe Barden and he sold the Barden pickups a long time ago. I put the split blade in my Tele as they are noise cancelling and still get you that Tele twang and spank.

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