new pickups for my american deluxe ash telecaster

[markr76]

Hi all, I've decided I'm going to replace the pups in my telecaster. At the minute it has the stock fender N3 noiseless pups in with the s1 switching system. The guitar is ash bodied and has a maple board. I have already talked to Ben at bkp and I think the set i'm interested in is the Blackguard flat 50 set with the 4 way switch.

My main problem with the stock pups is that i find them a bit too bright and brittle. I like a chunkier telecaster sound. But still more vintage than modern.

I was wondering if the flat 50's neck pup can still get that hollow telecaster neck sound. I don't really want to mix and match as i prefer a calibrated set.

Also is ther any other models i should consider. I mainly play rock and blues and alternative rock. Not into anything too heavy.

Cheers

Mark

[Telerocker]

The BG50-set is spot on for what you want. If you're afraid the neck is not hollow enough, check the BG52-neck which has some strat-flavour. I have the old BG50-set, which is now more or less the BG52-set. The new BG50-set has a bit more balls and output, but still has a genuine early fifties telecaster-sound. Use the volume- and toneknobs, those are powerful weapons on a tele. You can create lots of sounds that way.

[markr76]

Thanks for the reply. Yes I'm a big volume and tone control rider. I had to learn to do it as my first amp, a peavey bandit, didn't have a foot pedal for channel switching and i never got around to replacing it! So I learnt to get my cleans the old fashioned way.

I bought the telecaster with a view to changing the pups straight away. It was more the build specs on the deluxe series i liked. Its a great guitar to play and sounds fantastic unplugged. very resonant and plenty of natural sustain.
I few years back I played a custom shop custom deluxe telecaster. It had the fender nocaster or broadcaster pup in the bridge and a twisted tele in the neck. Man that guitar was just what i was looking for in a telecaster, at the time i couldn't afford it though.
When you backed to tone down on that guitar it would give a les paul a run for its money! So thats what i'm going for with this guitar.

I use a badcat hotcat 30r amp and matching 2x12 which has loads of low end and top end sparkle. When I bought it, i tried a telecaster and strat through it as well as my normal prs and les paul. I was really impressed with both fenders with that amp.

[Telerocker]

Amps like Bad Cat and Matchless shine with single coils.

[markr76]

The other thing I like about the Badcat is you don't see many of them about in the UK. Everyone here seems to be using orange at the minute. Which is no bad thing as they are great amps too!
Gonna by getting a custom shop strat next year as I've some bonus due from work at the end of January. So i'll be looking to pop some bkps in that too, unless i like the pups in it already. The one i have my eye on has a texas special in the bridge and i know i'm not a fan of those aprticular pups.

[leolyonsofficial]

I have this same guitar. How does the S1 switching work with Bareknuckle pickups?

[Telerocker]

I have this same guitar. How does the S1 switching work with Bareknuckle pickups?

I reckon the same, but the sounds will be different. I don't like the Fender noiseless at all.

Btw, I have a Fender Am. Series HSS, but I replaced the S1-circuit with a Suhr-wiring layout, new pots and cloth wire. The S1-circuit provides a lot of different sounds, but none of them particularly good, which might have to do with the stockpickups. Got a VHII and Mother's Milk in it now.