Mexican made Fender Telecaster tone
 

I bought a used 2007 Mexican made Fender Telecaster a few years ago. It looks like new and the set up is good. I am more of an acoustic guy but I like to play it once in awhile at home and for recording.

I am not that happy with the sound. It is flat with too much bass for what I think a Tele should sound. The front pickup with the switch forward sounds the best but just OK. I am comparing it to other Telecasters I have had including a Squier. I am playing it through a Boss Katana-50. The neck was too thin on the Squier so I sold it.

Would like some feedback on replacing the pickups. The Squier was a classic Vibe. I just like the way it sounded and it worked well for recording. Other than the pickups what else in the electronics should I consider for the tone?

Maybe the pickup height at the bridge needs to be brought higher, and the neck lower..

I have a Vintera tele, and I have especially mellow pickups installed as a personal taste! But perhaps playing with the heights will help.

In 2007 Fender started using ceramic pickups in the MIM Tele's. My advice is to get some Bootstrap Palo Duro pickups when they start up production again next month. Super great alnico pickups for a bargain price ($50 for a set...). Depending on the pots in the Tele you may just need to get a different cap value for the tone pot. .047 with 250k pots is the basic setup for a Tele.

https://bootstrappickups.com/collect...for-tele%C2%AE

As mentioned above, pickup height should get tried first. I assume you've already tried fresh strings.

Lots of good pickups out there. I think the Fender branded "original vintage Telecaster" set is a good reasonably priced set.

On my Fender MIM Nashville Tele, I swapped out the 6 block saddle flat bridge for a Fender 52 style bridge and 3 brass barrel saddles. It was a straight swap on that generation MIM Tele bridge as I remember.

Tell me what kind of music you play and what you want it to sound like and I can help you better.
I have way too much experience with this. :)
Seriously, I can help.
Be specific.

I briefly owned a 2007 MiM Standard Telecaster for a few months in 2008. Did not care for those ceramic pickups at all. Back then I thought the higher spec Strats and Teles sounded much better than the ceramic single-coils they were putting in the Standards.

Then I didn't touch an electric guitar again until early last year, eventually ending up with a 2022 MiM Player Telecaster and I like the current pickups just fine. They're normal Alnico (5 maybe?) and aren't so high output and harsh sounding.

Do you think maybe you could find a set of current-day stock Player pickups someone might sell off cheaply because they "upgraded" to something different?

My MIM thinline ‘69 reissue came with Fender noiseless pickups. I like them well enough for blues and jazz tones.

This is one of hundreds of comments and observations all pointing to the same conclusions about electric guitars: Where they were made matters very little. What electronics are in them and how they are set up matters alot.

Rokdog49,

The stuff I play and record I think would be considered Americana, Country, and Softer Rock. The 2007 MIM that I have has been setup to what the factory specs are. The sound is flat with no twang. The front pickup sounds fine in a bluesy way and that is OK but over all the guitar tone is not as versatile as I would like.

Thanks,

Thanks all for your replies I am reading them all.

Ok,
I’ll put some suggestions together soon. I can give you some options with the bridge pick up.
Even if you like the neck pick up, I’ll offer a couple of other options.
Back at you tomorrow…

Before you get out the soldering iron do play with pickup height. It’s vital to get the harshness out of ceramic pus. I had an 09 that was the sweetest Fender tele I’ve ever had once I got it dialed in. It really pays to take some time to get it right.

Ok gman, here you go…

This one will give you the “twang” with some punch in the mids.
If you like Brad Paisley’s tone, you’ll like it. It also works well with rock or other styles. It has a slightly higher output too.

https://www.seymourduncan.com/single...aisley-la-brea

https://youtu.be/2_Ey1D3ofx4

If you like the early Eagles sound when Bernie Leadon was with the band,
this bridge pick up will give you that. The neck pick up in this set is probably my favorite as it has a more clear kind of “chirpy” tone… sounds very pretty in the middle position.
You can still dial back the trebles if you like a darker voice for blues stuff.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...r-pickup-black

https://youtu.be/uuIZbkoKqMQ

This last one will give you the Tom Petty sound but won’t be as articulate as any of the others. Watch the guy playing in the country video to get an idea of how it sounds. Remember, “twang” is in the fingers.
The one I use is very similar to this, mine is just a “custom wound” I had done a few years ago.

https://www.seymourduncan.com/single...ter-pound-tele

It’s difficult to recommend any specific one of these as they will all do what you want.
If you twisted my arm, I would probably go with the Paisley La Brea in the bridge as it’s the most versatile.
The difference is really in your ears.
Hope this was helpful

You can do a lot of tinkering with setup, but if you can't get there, then probably any of the Fender American/Pure Vintage sets will be a big improvement. The ones they put in the (first issue) Baja 60s I had sounded fine, but I don't think they make that exact set anymore.

If you want to spend money, I put Klein pickups (NFI) in both a MIM Strat and a Classic 60s Tele (I got used that someone had replaced the original PUs with ceramics - grrr). Wonderful pickups IMO, but they've gotten pretty spendy, so keep the originals handy to put back in if you decide to move that along - you'll do better reselling the parts separately.

In this day and age spending tons of money on pickups is completely unnecessary. The folks oversees figured out a while ago that $5 worth of magnet, wire and plastic could make a handsome profit if sold at $20... making a pickup is lo-tech and there are zero secrets. These outfits charging a $100 or more per pickup are having a laugh at us. The pickup maker Bootstrap out of Ohio is a case in point. Their pickups are made of the materials and specs in demand but they can sell a set for $50 (Tele and Strat)... go figure. I've been down the boutique small winder road and have come to the conclusion that it is mostly money wasted.