Single The Duchess Tele – NZ$139 for NZ customers. If you’re overseas it’s GST free; $NZ120.87

Pair The Duchess Tele – NZ$269 for NZ customers. If you’re overseas they’re GST free; $NZ233.91

Alnico 5; Bridge 7.28KOhms, Neck 7.1KOhms

The Duchess Tele set is for the Telecaster player in need of that distinctive smooth Tele twang but with none of the ice pick cut. The neck pickup is warm and balanced with a full clarity and string separation. This a medium powered set that sits nicely in my range between the Silver Lady and Cruel Mistress.

The Duchess Telecaster set by MrGlyns Pickups — The Duchess Tele Set

The Duchess Tele pickup set will do just about everything from ‘vintage’ Tele twang to a platform for pedals.

The Duchess’ beginnings

The idea for this pickup started in 2021. I had some work at Roundhead recording studios in Auckland looking after the guitars of an American recording artist. During the process, the producer and engineer (working from the US) decided to send over their favorite ‘magic’ telecaster because they wanted that sound on the record.

The guitar arrived and it was an original ’61 Fender Esquire Custom, sunburst, double bound and just beautiful.

Although it was an Esquire it had a neck pickup that they told me had been added later. After taking the pick guard off it looked more like the neck pickup had been fitted in the factory so maybe it was a custom order. There are often strange anomalies with vintage guitars. We’re so used to models being standardized these days but it wasn’t always this way.

My job was to check over this guitar and set it up for the recording.

The Duchess telecaster - MrGlyns Pickups

I plugged it in and loved the sound immediately, now I understood why they’d shipped it over from the US for this session. So, I got my test meters out to analyze every aspect of the pickup. It was rather unusual for a Fender pickup of that time so maybe it had been re-wound at some stage. That didn’t matter, it sounded great, so I set out to make a Telecaster set in that style but with my own spin.

I made quite a few prototypes and did all the usual testing but didn’t quite get around to releasing the pickup. It often works that way, the last part, the part where I actually put the pickup on the website can take quite a while.

The Duchess Tele is finally born

Then in 2022 I had the idea for my Pandora 3-way pickup. I used the design for The Duchess bridge pickup as the middle position for the Pandora. I knew all along the Pandora was never going to be for everyone but was pleasantly surprised when the idea caught on.

An order for a Pandora came in from an old friend of mine in the UK. He’s called Darren Driver and he’s in a well-established Springsteen tribute band – The Boss and the Beeston Street Band

Darren had been a customer of mine when I had a guitar shop in Leeds in the late 90’s. He was a Telecaster player back then and it seems he still is. It’s always good to re-connect with people.

A couple of months later Darren got in touch saying how the mid position of the Pandora was his ideal Telecaster sound. Well, that was all it took. I got into the workshop and made a matching neck pickup for the Duchess. That week’s band practice I tested the set next to the drummer and was still really happy with it. So, I sent a set off to Yorkshire. I needed to make sure it was exactly what he wanted.

Darren said he was happy to make a demo of the pickups once he had got them into him number one Telecaster. That’s him in the video above.

And so The Duchess Tele set was born.

The Duchess – Tele set is great with either 250KOhm or 500KOhm volume pots. It’s really up to you – 500K will give more high-end Tele twang while the 250K will sound warmer. It really is a great pickup set either way.

The choice of capacitor is up to you. The more traditional 0.047 will roll off more treble with a lower value (0.022 for example) will be more subtle. I often get asked to recommend capacitors but it is a personal choice, there’s no right or wrong here.

The Duchess Telecaster pickup set explained

I have made a couple of short videos to explain my thinking behind these two pickups:

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The Duchess has been a useful addition to the Mr Glyn’s pickup range. Click on the links below to hear the other Telecaster pickups we make.

buy The Duchess set

Head to store

buy The Duchess single

updated 28 April 2025

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Silver Lady telecaster pickup set by MrGlyns Pickups

Cruel Mistress tele pickup set, by MrGlyns Pickups

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updated 17 May 2023

The Duchess – Tele set

I repair quite a few old pickups and thought you might be interested this ‘68 Telecaster bridge pickup repair.

68 Tele Bridge Pickup. Fender Telecasterbridge pickup from 1968 — ’68 Tele Bridge Pickup

Assessing the damage

As you can see it’s looking pretty tired. I quite like seeing pickups like this – it’s clearly given great service for decades. This is just wear and tear and the sign of a happy life, and although it isn’t working now there’s no reason why it can’t be made good for a few more decades.

One of the first things I noticed is the black tape. Underneath it is the original waxed protective string. I’m not sure why someone added that.

The plate underneath has aged fantastically but as you can see the earth wire is missing from it. I re-solder the connections just in case there is a dry joint but the pickup is still dead.

I suspect this is the fault- the top plate has warped over time and the corrosion has got in and damaged the windings. That top plate looks like a skateboard deck – it should be flat! This ’68 telecaster bridge pickup is going to need a re-wind.

Removing the windings

With the back plate off you can clearly see the date.

And here it is, this is the problem. With the windings cut away you can clearly see that the corrosion on the pole piece has spread into the winding. There’s a bit of wax in there too from when it was potted originally.

So here’s the plan. I need to flatten that top plate back. Then clean up the pole pieces. I need to do something about the corrosion. And finally re-wind the pickup to original spec. And most importantly make it look like nothing ever happened.

Repairing this 68 Telecaster bridge pickup

Cleaning the poles is easy, then I flatten the top plate and glue it in place with super glue. Originally it was just a push fit. Then I treat the rust with some anti rust stuff. Here you can see it masked off so I can give the poles a couple of coats of lacquer.

Next I wrap the poles with thin tape. I want to protect the windings from future corrosion. I want this pickup to play hard for another 50 years.

Then it’s re-winding and wax potting and finally replacing the original string.

Of course, I forget to take a photo of it with the string on.

If you want a Telecaster pickup set similar to an old 68 Telecaster bridge pickup take a look at my “Silver Lady” set. The Silver Lady is wound to very similar spec to the old Fenders.

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