Replacing Fender’s MP-90’s

[Rescon]

Bought a inexpensive Thinline Tele last year that came with MP-90’s. Pickups Never really impressed me - seemed dull and kinda thin. Fast forward a few months after a recoup from a hand injury and I now have a dead bridge pickup so might be the perfect time for replacement. Still want p90 style and seems Fralin or Lollar get a lotta love.
I’m relatively new to electric and can’t say specifically what I like but I do lean towards the p90 tone. Don’t care too much bout upgrading cost on cheap guitar... can always swap back out if I sell.
Any suggestions or possible good comparison videos?
Thanks everyone...
Nick

[Rescon]

Oh forgot, it’s a Thinline modern Tele with mahogany body. Maybe a bit warmer cause of the hog???

[raysachs]

I had the same guitar for a while. I was OK with the sound of the pickups but found them really noisy. I replaced them with a set of Vintage Vibe soapbars, which were about $200 for the set. They were also RWRP and much better shielded than the original Fenders, so they were pretty quiet and sounded better as well. Pete Bitloff, who makes them, builds them with whichever magnet you want and includes a second set of magnets with them, which are easy to switch out. I bought them with Alnico 2 and later switched to the Alnico 5 he included, which gave them a bit more bite when over-driven.

I liked the guitar, it played well and sounded good, but it still didn't have quite as much bite and growl as I'm used to with P90s. I actually had it and an Epiphone ES339 with P90s for a while. While the difference between them wasn't that much, I kept the Epi and sold the Tele because my other two electrics are a Strat and tele and I wanted something a bit different for my P90 guitar. Honestly, I could have kept either and been happy with it - I could really only hear a minor difference when I A-B'd the two of them and I may have been fooling myself there too. I don't have that much experience with P90s, but I liked both the Vintage Vibe and stock Epi P90s more than the stock pickups in that Tele thinline deluxe.

[Rescon]

I don’t find them too noisy for me. Matter of fact, a buddy who know a crap load more than me bout electric pickup said he was surprised they weren’t noisier. I’m just finding them very dark and muddy especially at low volumes.

[Chickee]

Big plus1 toward Lindy Fralin products. I redid the electronics in a classic player Jazzmaster this last year with LF noiseless P90’s and I can’t put this guitar down. They are quiet, clean up beautifully when you roll off the volume and have that great P90 crunchy growl when pushed. Sized to fit your application and no one will ever know you have them loaded unless you tell them. Of course the guitar will sound killer with none of the P90 hum. Let us know how it turns out.
frankie

[bsman]

I wonder how a set of Gibson soapbars would sound in that?

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by Rescon

I don’t find them too noisy for me. Matter of fact, a buddy who know a crap load more than me bout electric pickup said he was surprised they weren’t noisier. I’m just finding them very dark and muddy especially at low volumes.

One of the common complaints about that guitar was the use of 250K tone pots. A typical mod would be 500K pots to brighten it up a bit. I never tried it myself, but folks on the telecaster forum seemed to like the results... So if you replace the pups, you might want to have the pots replaced at the same time...

-Ray

[PTony]

Had the same guitar as well. After I set it up and adjusted the pickups, I did a complete rewire. CTS 500k pots, vintage pushback wire, SwitchCraft Jack and toggle, orange-drop caps, 50’s wiring schematic. It SERIOUSLY livened up the p-90’s.

I think one of the most noticeable changes to the tone were related to the caps. I put a .022 on the neck, and a .047 on the bridge. Typically it’s the other way around.

After the mods it had great “balance” and was much brighter without being “shrill/ice-pick like”. It retained its fullness but also added some “life”.

I agree that LF and Lollar make fantastic pickups. I had Lollars on a G&L Thinline that sounded fantastic.

But, in many cases a complete rewire costs around $100.00 (*for the parts...and this could be less depending on the amount of pots the guitar has) and is a great place to start. Many “lower end” guitars suffer from cheaper quality pots, caps, etc. so one can never go wrong upgrading them first.

Of course YMMV, and all of that.

[DukeX]

I'd look into Seymour Duncan pickups as well. He has a lot of P-90 offerings and makes great pickups.

[DukeX]

Originally Posted by PTony

Had the same guitar as well. After I set it up and adjusted the pickups, I did a complete rewire. CTS 500k pots, vintage pushback wire, SwitchCraft Jack and toggle, orange-drop caps, 50’s wiring schematic. It SERIOUSLY livened up the p-90’s.

I think one of the most noticeable changes to the tone was related to the caps. I put a .022 on the neck, and a .047 on the bridge. Typically it’s the other way around.

After the mods it had great “balance” and was much brighter without being “shrill/ice-pick like”. It retained its fullness but also added some “life”.

I agree that LF and Lollar make fantastic pickups. I had Lollars on a G&L Thinline that sounded fantastic.

But, in many cases a complete rewire costs around $100.00 (*for the parts...and this could be less depending on the amount of pots the guitar has) and is a great place to start. Many “lower end” guitars suffer from cheaper quality pots, caps, etc. so one can never go wrong upgrading them first.

Of course YMMV, and all of that.

I like the idea of replacing the wiring if you love the guitar but want to improve the sound. I did this on my ES335 Dot and seven years later could not be happier.

[Rescon]

I’m going to start with the wiring, caps and pots. I like this idea first and pickups down the road when(if) needed.

[M Sarad]

I put Vintage Plus Tele pickups from Harmonic Design to replace the Fender Noiseless that came with it. Plenty of Tele power, spank, and goodness. They sound great, better than the Duncans in my Strat.
https://www.harmonicdesign.net/allpages/teles.html