Installing new set of Tele Vintage Noiseless pups, any tips?

[Duffy]

I have a new set of tele vintage noiseless pickups to install in a tele.

Any tips on this installation?

Feedback is definitely appreciated if you have done this or know about it.

I'm going for it, going to do a straight replacement; unsolder, resolder type of thing.

[Rx Tone]

Nothing to it, really, if you know how to solder properly.
Draw a schematic of exactly which wire goes where before you start.
Make sure the new pup wires are the same colors as the old. If not...refer to your schematic and the instructions that come with the new pups.

[Commodore 64***]

When you solder to the back of the pots for ground, use flux (even if you have flux cored solder) and rough up the back with some sandpaper.

[duhvoodooman***]

I like to make a diagram of the existing wiring (helps with familiarization) AND take a close-up photo or two before starting. Will give you a little extra confidence once the old p'ups are removed ("Now, which liug did the white wire go t again??").

That top-mounted control plate makes Teles s-o-o-o-o easy to work on....

[Duffy]

Thanks. I will probably put them in today and will take pictures. I hope it turns out great with a great tone.

[Commodore 64***]

I've swapped out PUPs about 5x now. I'm always underwhelmed. Unfortunatley, I think 90% of tone comes from the player. And sadly, I can't seem to find an identity there.

[Duffy]

Commodore,

Yes, sometimes their isn't much difference unless you get some real good pickups like Seymour Duncans or Gibsons. GFS seem average unless you know exactly which ones to get.

This is a noisy tele and noiseless pickups are going in, so I hope to see quite a bit of change. Whether I like it or not remains to be seen, but I've played vintage noiseless pups in strats and like the tone. Maybe the same will hold true for the tele.

Also, when you change out to real good pickups, you might not notice much change using certain amps. With good all tube amps I have found that the difference is very noticeable with dynamics, tone control, attack, turning up the volume, etc.

Some stock pickups are great the way they are. The pickups in this guitar sound good, but are noisy and I want to have at least one tele that is noiseless.

[Commodore 64***]

Yeah, I put a set of Dimarzio HS-3 into my Strat over the weekend. They are noiseless and sound OK. Not sure they sound better than the original ceramics. Just different.

I need to quit mucking with hardware and start focusing on playing. However, that said, I can see myself swapping out the Dimarzios for a set of Bill Lawrence Keystones, if a deal I'm working on over at strat-talk.com goes through. Heh.

Throughout it all, though, I find myself playing my '94 MiM tele with plain old ceramic PUPs more than any other guitar. For sound and feel. I haven't had my Ibby Artcore out of its case for well over a month! And I just play my strat and Samick LP sparingly.

[Mike S.]

Hope yours work at least. I bought a lead Fender Vintage Noiseless for my Tele, and the pup was dead as a door nail. And I do mean DEAD (cue the Monty Python dead parrot sketch).

I purchased a set of Seymour Duncan Vintage 54's and haven't looked back.

I've installed a set of the Vintage Noiseless in one of my Strats, and they work fine if a wee bit dull for my taste.

[MAXIFUNK]

I think I am going to put in a set of SD Quarter Pound in my CV Thin Line Tele next year. But 1st I am going to add a 4-way switch and compensated saddles.
The stock Pickups are nice but I want to see what it might sound like with hotter pups.

[ZMAN]

Duff: While you have the thing apart you should take a look at the exisitng shielding. You could reduce a lot of noise by shielding it.

[Ch0jin]

Duff: While you have the thing apart you should take a look at the exisitng shielding. You could reduce a lot of noise by shielding it.

+1 Also, do they run shielded cable from the switches and pots to the output jack? If not, I would.

[Duffy]

I did the installation of the Fender Vintage Noiseless tele pickups yesterday.

Everything turned out great on the first try. Wiring was super simple and my soldering skills are good. The output cable is shielded. The cavities of the Squire Standard tele are shielded with flat black shielding paint.

I left in the original 250kOhm pots and whatever the capacitor was, I didn't check it and wired it the standard way.

Incredible improvment in tone over the stock Squire Std tele sound. Totally a pleasure to play. I really like these pickups. Completely silent even with my HRDX on super gain. Before it would be irritatingly loud when not playing.

This was an experiment. I was going to put the V Noiseless in my new MIM tele with hot ceramics, very noisy, but decided to leave it stock and put them in a nice walnut stain, black pickguard, rosewood board Squire Std I have. I totally like the sound and tones way more than the stock sound, by a quantum leap.

You hear people complain about Fender noiseless pickups, but I like these and I also like the Fender noiseless J bass pickups in my J bass. A lot of bass players use them.

I might buy a set of tele Samarium Cobalt pickups and put them in another tele I have and see how I like them. Some of the pro guitar players around here that I know, who have a lot of pro experience, told me they like the sound of the Vintage Noiseless better than the Samarium Cobalts, indicating, of course that everything is subjective - personal opinion.

I haven't made up my mind. I might put a set of Fender Hot Noiseless strat pickups in a strat I have. None of my single coil strats are noiseless. This could be fun. Then again maybe I'll spend some more money and get the Seymour Duncan stacked single coil noiseless for a strat or tele; I'm sure I'd like to have a set of them. They cost more.

Anyway, I'm super pleased with the way these pickups sound and can't hardly put the guitar down, except to play my new Ibanez AF125 full hollow body with Ibanez covered '58 humbuckers. Both guitars are really fun to play.

So this experiment with the noiseless pickups was a success and is an improvement to my collection, and didn't cost much - less than a hundred.

I will add pictures of both of these guitars and try to get a close up of the noiseless pickups and the Ibanez '58 pickups.

[ZMAN]

Hey Duffy glad to hear it all worked out for you. I don't know if you got my recommenation or not, but I tried my noisiest guitar, (P90 Vintage Icon LP) through my Vibro/Super champ amps. It is really amazing how little noise you get with these amps. I was ready to change out the P90s for Mini HBs but now I love the tone from this guitar. You still get some noise when you stand near the amp, but a couple of feet away and it is dead quiet.
I have the SCNs in my Deluxe MIA Strat, and I had the VN in my Deluxe Player Strat. Both have similar switching so it was a good comparison. They both sounded great and there are some great harmonics in the mix so they sound really nice. If the VNs are cheaper I would go with them.

[wingsdad]

... It is really amazing how little noise you get with these amps. ...

Had a gig in the late 70's in a bar located under the stands in Fenway Park in Boston, on the Yawkey Way side, called 'Whoze On First'. Playing a Fender P-Bass, we were astounded to hear the radio play-by-play coming thru my amp. I had to keep turning the vol pot to 0 in between songs. Of course, I turned it up if Yaz clouted one.

I'm no electrician, but I came to the conclusion long ago from a variety of playing situations that single coil pickup guitar's 'noise' -- whether it's 60-cycle hum, RF 'BS', or whatever -- is not so much the pickup's fault as the amp's, or rather, how the amp's preamp 'accepts' the pickup's signal, and most often probable faults in the electric circuit(s) that the amp is plugged into, either inherent to the circuit or caused by such things as rheostats and/or flourescent lighting ballasts involved in that circuit.

That kind of faulty wiring ran rampant in the olden days of the 50's, simply due to more primitive wiring technology than today. That's kinda why Seth Lover invented the humbucking pickup for Gibson.

For instance: if you have a rheostat light dimmer control, or ceiling fan running (the motor!) or flourescent lighting, or worst case, all of the above, in the same circuit the amp is plugged into, the 'door' is there for noise to intrude.

Sometimes, it's not even your room or house with the fault. It can be your next door or upstairs/downstairs neighbor's abode. Like tht radio transmitter at Fenway. Single coil pup + Radio Frequency signal = noise.

One possible 'cure' is to have a dedicated 'isolated ground' circuit on its own breaker specifically for plugging in your gear. But even that won't do jack if you turn the ceiling fan on or dim the lights to mellow your mood.

[Duffy]

Yes Zman, I did get that message but have not tried it on my SCXD yet. Was waiting to try it, which I will. It is right above my other amp, next to me here. I'll try my P90 Squier or the new MIM hot ceramic tele. Either one of them will be a good test. At least the Squier P90 is noise cancellig in the middle position. I have an SX copy of a Gibson special with two P90s, that one has no noise cancelling at all, maybe I'll try that one too. The SX is a very nice guitar, all mahogany set neck antique sunburst LP special style.

All new electrical system at our house. I'll remember that about the ceiling fans because we use them to move air out of the woodstove heated area of the house to the other rooms, occaisionally. I had the radio signal with one amp a while back, but I lived about a mile or less from a big radio transmission antenna at the station. Never connected the two and still don't know if it was that station it was picking up. Something in the amp was probably resonating with or attenuating the wavelength of the radio station and able to get the signal to the speaker. I wouldn't know what component of the amp that would be. Maybe the windings on the the power supply or transformer were working like an antenna. Plus there probably wasn't any type of RF filter, even if that would work. Probably would need shielding.

I still have to adjust the pickups a little from the original installation to balance the sound.

I left the pickguard vintage style so the neck pickup screws directly into the wood of the guitar to raise and lower the pickup. I need to take out the neck pickup and get it so the screw lets the pickup slide up the screw when I losen the screws, if just stays in place when I loosen the screws.

I filed down the pickguard that slides under the base of the neck so that I can place the pickguard straight down over the pickups without forcing the neck pickup around.

[ZMAN]

Had a gig in the late 70's in a bar located under the stands in Fenway Park in Boston, on the Yawkey Way side, called 'Whoze On First'. Playing a Fender P-Bass, we were astounded to hear the radio play-by-play coming thru my amp. I had to keep turning the vol pot to 0 in between songs. Of course, I turned it up if Yaz clouted one.

I'm no electrician, but I came to the conclusion long ago from a variety of playing situations that single coil pickup guitar's 'noise' -- whether it's 60-cycle hum, RF 'BS', or whatever -- is not so much the pickup's fault as the amp's, or rather, how the amp's preamp 'accepts' the pickup's signal, and most often probable faults in the electric circuit(s) that the amp is plugged into, either inherent to the circuit or caused by such things as rheostats and/or flourescent lighting ballasts involved in that circuit.

That kind of faulty wiring ran rampant in the olden days of the 50's, simply due to more primitive wiring technology than today. That's kinda why Seth Lover invented the humbucking pickup for Gibson.

For instance: if you have a rheostat light dimmer control, or ceiling fan running (the motor!) or flourescent lighting, or worst case, all of the above, in the same circuit the amp is plugged into, the 'door' is there for noise to intrude.

Sometimes, it's not even your room or house with the fault. It can be your next door or upstairs/downstairs neighbor's abode. Like tht radio transmitter at Fenway. Single coil pup + Radio Frequency signal = noise.

One possible 'cure' is to have a dedicated 'isolated ground' circuit on its own breaker specifically for plugging in your gear. But even that won't do jack if you turn the ceiling fan on or dim the lights to mellow your mood.

Yea I remeber those days. I have owned my SG with P90s since the 60s and I had a 65 Super Reverb back then. I do remember sitting playing one night and picking up radio signals when I turned a certain way. I have gone to great lengths to isolate my guitar amps and pedal board, from noise. I have a conditioned power supply and Usually have no 60 cycle hum at all. It was just so upsetting to have so much noise with my high gain amps with this one P90 guitar that is supposed to have "stacked Wilkinson P90s" that are supposed to be hum cancelling. That is why I am so surprised by the extreme quiet from these little XDs by Fender.
It must be the way they process the signal.