Which pickups for a Blur Telecaster sound?

[general-lee25]

Hi all,

I'm looking to upgrade my 52 Telecaster with new pickups. I'm looking for a Graham Coxon sound see here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtIf3uDXnYw

At the moment, the pickups in the Tele are a little thin - any suggestions as how to get this sort of chunky sound? Was thinking a Brown Sugar set.

Thanks for any advice

Dan

[FELINEGUITARS]

Or maybe the Yardbird
Nice and firm sounding in an ash body or maple necked guitar

[Ratrod]

Yardbird or Blackguard.

I've read about people swearing by the Yardbird for these kind of tones and the Blackguard sounds like a wall of sound with overdrive.

[gwEm]

Yardbird or Blackguard.

I've read about people swearing by the Yardbird for these kind of tones and the Blackguard sounds like a wall of sound with overdrive.

+1

i've tried very few tele sets, but i would go for one of these, but definitely leaning towards the yardbird

[Brow]

Hey Dan.

Next time you're around, feel free to come and try my Bitsa tele with Blackguards in it. It's Alder bodied whereas yours is Ash, so it won't be exactly the same, but will give you an idea :)

[general-lee25]

Thanks everyone for your responses, I feel like I know where I'm going a bit more now.

Dan

[AndyR]

I was sure I replied to this yesterday :roll: - I typed several paragraphs, oh well, must've shut the window without sending!...

Another vote for Blackguards and Yardbirds - leaning slightly more towards Yardbirds.

I bought blackguards first because I wanted "old and fat" tele sounds but still with bite - they do it. I even bought a second set :D

I ummed and aah-ed for ages over Yardbirds, I was kind of expecting biting and shrill that would need taming (my perception of Yardbird recordings, video of early Led Zeppelin, etc). But, not at all, like Feline says - they are nice and firm sounding, they've got bite, but they are "sweet" and "rounded" as well. If I treat it mellow, they're mellow, if I whack it, they're aggressive - highly versatile little beasties :D

[Spiteface]

Good thing I saw this thread.  this is the kind of thing I'm looking at as well.

I bought a Squier CV tele over the weekend.  I assume either Blackguards or Yardbirds would be fine for a pine bodied tele as well?  I'm pretty sure they would be, but I'd like to be sure myself.

A little off-topic, but I've read various things about how the Teles he used in Blur had the pickups changed:

FN  : You sometimes replace your pickups. What do you replace them with?
GC : For a while we were putting in more powerful pickups, but I’ve thought better of that now. I like to keep that pretty much standard. Because it becomes too powerful for the setup I have—with my pedals and the Marshalls®. If I start to fiddle with pedals and things, I lose a lot of dynamic range if the pickup is too powerful. So just a standard pickup and a little crank from the amp, and then those distortion units can really raise the power levels and volumes as I feel appropriate, because I do have a few levels of volume just by pressing buttons.

The main teles he uses these days - a 60's relic and a 1968 tele - are stock, bar the Gibson humbucker on the '68, which was there when he bought the guitar.

So, I would love any further advice on this, as I'm hopefully going to be doing this in the near future.

[AndyR]

Yep, I'd still say Blackguard or Yardbird. I don't have a CV, but I've played one, I think those sets will be as advertised above... (I think Ratrod's got a rather nice pimped CV, that might well have Blackguards in?)

Interesting quote from Mr Coxon - seems to fit with what many folks say round here about pedals and high output pickups. I don't really use pedals myself, but I do tend towards vintage or vintage/hot in my pickups though...

[Ratrod]

Yeah, there's a Blackguard in my CV Esquire. I love that pickup. Almost sounds like a P90 when I roll the tone off a little. On tone bypass mode it's bright, snappy and twangy wich is great for country, rootsty-rockabilly and Hives-style tones.

[HTH AMPS]

Graham Coxon is using a USA-made '52 RI Tele, they're loaded with Fender custom shop nocaster pickups which are very nice as it happens.  The bridge pickup is typically around 7.5k - 8k and more midrangey than a typical wirey Tele pickup.  As such, I'd recommend the Blackguard flat50 set as thats what were originally in those guitars.