weird Tele pickup question / seeking advice

jessenator

jessenator

Well-known member
So I'm finally going to start upgrading my Paranormal Offset Tele, and looking at pickups with glazed eyes.

I'm kinda smitten with a friend's 1988 American Fender Tele sound, and ...maybe a question with more qualifiers, but I'm wondering if there's something out there that can get close without going right to Fender and paying the Fender tax, but if that's the solution, so be it.

Barring that very specific amorous obsession, something that's a nice upgrade that doesn't veer too far outside the Tele field.
 
You obviously want an Ibanez 9 string with fanned frets.
Seen a lot of Tone Hatch love over the last few years.
Someone was posting about a Chinese builder/Co. on Ali. Frinsi or WAAAH maybe? ..building respectable copies of vintage single coils..proper magnets and bobbins and such.
 
MichaelW
MichaelW said:
It's hard to keep up with my constant tone chasing and configuration swaps hahaha.

"Goldie" got a set of regular Fender knobs.....and yes, that's a mint pickguard. Or it is now......

View attachment 101350

That random knob.....and yes it was just that, a random knob in my big bin of old parts. It might be over 30 years old hahaha....
But they got put on my "Foamy". (Seafoam Green, but I don't want to call it "Greenie", too much baggage with that term heheh)
Because Foamy is currently an H-H Strat with a volume for each pickup and the neck pick up splits.
View attachment 101352

Burstie has had a pickup swap as well. I'd need to post a spreadsheet if you want to follow along with my pickup journey hahah.

But here's my secret, I found that there are a couple of winders on AliExpress that really nail strat pickup clones.
It's really just one winder that sells under different names, but usually I get the "WAAH" brand (name and seller's name).
They are WAY WAY better than the "Guitar Madness" pickups I mentioned from eBay. The GM pickups are made in Korea. The WAAH's are all made in China but they are mostly made to vintage specs. Fiber Bobbins, real Gavitt pushback cloth wiring. Light potting. Formvar, PE, and Polysol wire (depending on what they're cloning), hand beveled magnets, etc. I've been super impressed with the build quality and sound quality.

I've got a set of their Fender CS Fat 50's clones and a couple sets of CS Fat 60's clones. I also have a set of their clones of the Fender Custom Shop "Josefina Poblano" pickups. Which are A3 neck and middle with Formvar and an A5 pickup with plain enamel. It's a really neat set,
But back to Burstie, it's currently got a set of overwound A3's in it. It's not truly a 50's strat tone (a la Buddy Holly) but they sound great.

Before the tariff debacle, I was getting sets of Strat pickups for like $30-35 from AliExpress. Warning, it's ONLY the strat pickups that are this good. (And by "good" I mean USA boutique level.) The Humbuckers are all crap. There's a couple of sets of Tele pickups which are good. The P90's are "meh".

View attachment 101354

With the tariffs in the place and everyone scrambling to keep up it's not really worth buying pickups from China right now.
I'm not going to pay $80 for a set of AliExpress pickups no matter how good. Not when there's great builders right here. Like Cavalier, ToneHatch, Bootstrap, Planet Tone. All of which are extremely affordable and make fantastic pickups.

I have the ToneHatch neck and middle of Blackie at the moment and a higher output bridge (A5 ~9.2k). It's a quasi Gilmour set up but I'm on the hunt for a hotter bridge pickup.
Click to expand...
 
How do you like the Paranormal Offset Tele? This is one of the Squier models that always looks oh-so-tempting. The price point for the mid-price these Squiers is right where I can justify an indulgent buy a few times a year. Kind of like when I picked up a used Minilogue XD this past year.
 
gtfields13 said:
he price point for the mid-price these Squiers is right where I can justify an indulgent buy a few times a year.
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When I snagged this one it was not quite half of what they go for now. Should've got shell pink as they go for a premium now.

I do like it quite a bit. The Tele (same one referenced in the OP) felt a tad awkward (maybe because of my dad bod and no cutaway). The offset bodies sit in a comfy zone. Neck feels good, too (go pick up a Bullet; feels like floorboards). Hardware is ...middling, but not terrible. And the pickups aren't terrible at all, but hearing them side-by-side is stark.
 
Plenty of companies out there. It would help if you had specs on your friend's tele pickups. Magnets, impedance, and maybe wire gauge. If you're a cheapo, I'd recommend GFS maybe. Personally I've never liked the neck pickups. The cover really effects them. I replaced all of mine with p90s or filtertrons in the neck.
 
I've always been a GFS fan as well, their Slick series of pickups are hidden gems. That said my homemade tele sports a slightly overwound Seymour Duncan bridge that sounds great and the secret sauce for any tele neck pickup is to remove the cover and use it exposed. On my Duncan I got StewMac pickup tape to wind around it so I don't bugger up the coil.
 
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Harry Klippton said:
I also like my bootstrap tele pickups
Click to expand...

bootstrappickups.com

Bootstrap Palo Duro™ for T-Style

Our vintage output Palo Duro™ set deliver pure T-style tone with distinctive twang and a balanced, 3D-like tone with greater clarity than modern-output, high-wind pups. The bridge pickup is wound with 42awg copper wire, potted in beeswax and paraffin and includes a copper-clad steel baseplate...
bootstrappickups.com

These have a similar resistance to other '88s I've found online (that had measurements). Friend is under the weather, but this weekend might take some time and measure them. From the couple hours of skimming around, 1988 looks like it was the first year of the American Standard series, so they were AlNiCos for sure. I think ~$70 is a banger for some good pickups, so I may pick some up to try regardless.
 
jessenator said:
bootstrappickups.com

Bootstrap Palo Duro™ for T-Style

Our vintage output Palo Duro™ set deliver pure T-style tone with distinctive twang and a balanced, 3D-like tone with greater clarity than modern-output, high-wind pups. The bridge pickup is wound with 42awg copper wire, potted in beeswax and paraffin and includes a copper-clad steel baseplate...
bootstrappickups.com

These have a similar resistance to other '88s I've found online (that had measurements). Friend is under the weather, but this weekend might take some time and measure them. From the couple hours of skimming around, 1988 looks like it was the first year of the American Standard series, so they were AlNiCos for sure. I think ~$70 is a banger for some good pickups, so I may pick some up to try regardless.
Click to expand...
That's the set I have in my guitar. I have no complaints
 
They've probably changed but the regular Vintage RI Tele pickups used to be great and not very expensive either. I had a 1998 Tele done in the vintage '50s style and the pickups were fantastic.
 
Figured I'd just keep it in this thread.

I've discovered my paranormal tele only had two wires on each pickup, while my new Bootstrap neck has three. And looking back at the product page it shows two. I'm not sure what this third yellow wire is for 😅

Checking again, the yellow one has continuity with the lipstick shield.

1000010595.jpg

What I drew before I snipped wires.
1000010597.jpg
1000010574.jpg
 
Aleph Null said:
That means you can do out-of-phase and series wiring!
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Interesting. So if I got a 4-way switch, I could wire it up like this? (pinimg link)

d3ee3fae529e1e1e0ced5cd6c8e4c387.jpg
 
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