handmade telecaster Archives - Mr Glyn's Pickups

Single Silver Lady-vintage Telecaster NZ$129 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas it’s GST free; NZ$112.17

Set Silver Lady-vintage Telecaster NZ$249 for NZ customers, if you’re overseas it’s GST free; NZ$216.52

Alnico III, Bridge 5.9 KOhms, 3.18H, Neck 7.25 KOhms, 2.39H

Silver Lady-vintage Telecaster set is designed for the traditional telecaster player. The bridge pickup has plenty of twang and clarity but is never harsh. The neck pickup full, clear and perfectly balanced with the bridge pickup.

Telecasters are brutally honest guitars. There’s no hiding behind fat mushy tones – if you can do it on a Tele then you really can do it.

I wanted to make a Telecaster set that would reflect the clear honest tone of an old Tele. It’s a delicate balance to get enough treble and for the top end to have sufficient warmth to be usable, but with no hint of woof or boom in the bottom. The bottom needs to be full and clear with no hint of muddiness. The bridge needs a twang but it has to be a warm twang without being over harsh. I’ve used Alnico III magnets with a vintage style wind on both these pickups

Alnico III have low string pull which increases sustain. The lower power magnets let the strings ring more clearly.

All my magnets are specially made for me, they need to be just right.

This pickup set is primarily for clean Telecaster players. They are ideal for those classic country tones or for textural rhythm players. They’re great for giving a pure signal for modulation effects.

Through my repair work I’ve re-wound a lot of old Tele pickups. This is invaluable experience for designing my own version. I enlisted the help of a couple of experienced Telecaster players as test pilots. I really needed plenty of opinions and testing through a variety of amplifiers to get this one right.

I’m really happy with the warm classic tone of this set, clear and chiming with just the right twang. So I have given them a classic name – “Silver Lady”.

Silver Lady-vintage Telecaster

https://www.youtube.com/c/MrGlynsPickups/videos

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Single Cruel Mistress hot Tele NZ$129 for NZ customers. If you’re overseas it’s GST free; $NZ112.17

Pair Cruel Mistress hot Tele NZ$249 for NZ customers. If you’re overseas they’re GST free; $NZ216.52

AlnicoV – Bridge 10.65 KOhms, 4.96H. Neck 7.25 KOhms, 2.48H

Testimonials

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Mr Glyns Cruel Mistress hot Tele Pickups are designed for the Tele player who wants more than the traditional country twang. They have a full bottom end, cut through mids and a top end that is strong but never harsh. They’ll push you amp that bit harder without loosing that Telecaster character.

Brett Kingman demos (I think he likes them)

More Cruel Mistress hot Tele demos

Description

There is nothing like the high end snarl of a good Tele bridge pickup. However, Tele Pickups are complicated. It’s a sound that needs to be just right – too much treble and it can sound grating and obnoxious, too little and it just isn’t a Tele. The treble needs warmth while still cutting through a mix like a zombie banjo.

I wanted to make a pickup with a bit more power to drive an amp harder while keeping the Tele character. My biggest concern was not losing what a Tele is all about. In my repair work I came across quite a few replacement Tele pickups that just don’t sound like Teles. Bridge pickups need grit and the neck a chimey clarity and together they should be full and open and matched well enough to create almost a reverb sound with the switch in the middle position. Good Telecasters have a very distinctive tone and I felt I needed to retain that but at the same time offer more.

The Cruel Mistress hot Tele uses Alnico V magnets to help with the attack and AWG43 wire for the snarl.

The neck pickup on a Tele needs to be smooth and warm and have a great balance with the bridge pickup so that the middle position rings with an almost reverb-like tone. The difficulty with Telecaster neck pickups is there just isn’t much space under that cover. As a result it can be a hard pickup to get right and there were a lot of experiments and disappointments on the way. Eventually I came on a design that has enough bottom end to sound full but not so much to sound boomy. And the final pickup was a great match to the bridge.

I had help from the ears of a couple of pro players who were generous enough to let me load their guitars with prototype pickups for testing. The whole process takes time and only after many road tests and versions did I fix on a design. As a result, each of my designs have been developed over many years of subtle changes and road tests. Having help like this means my pickups are trialed through many different amps and playing styles. The neck/bridge balance as well as dynamics/compression need to be tested in as many situations as possible to find a pickup that will work for most players.

So if you need some grit and aggression from your Tele this is the set for you.