Kinman AVn for Broadcasters (Tele) Set

These came installed in an American Deluxe Tele that I purchased used.

I've heard a lot of great reviews of Kinman pickups, but these have to be the most sterile, lifeless sounding pickups I've ever heard in a Tele. Even after adjusting the pickup heights, the pickups exhibited a thin, upper midrange harshness that I could not dial out, even when using the Tele's tone control. There's no warmth to them whatsoever and they are very unnatural sounding. Can't wait to get 'em outta the guitar.

Noiseless single coils. I got the 4 way no solder harness as well. 4 position selector. Bridge, Neck and Bridge in series, Neck, and Neck and Bridge in parallel. Parallel is awesome, sounds like a giant humbucker.

Put them in my 2000 American Standard Tele, replacing stock pickups and stock pots. This is now my go to guitar. I have several other guitars but they are now obsolete. I don't want to play any electric but my Tele with my Kinman's!

Absolutley killer tone, best pickups I've ever used. Tried to play out with my McCarty after using my tele with Kinman's. No go. Tried to use my 1960 Gretsch, no go. Tried to use my 335, no go. Nothing sits in a mix like my tele and my Kinmans. I use this guitar through my 20th anniversary Dr Z Carmen Ghia with amazing results. No effects really needed. If I can't crank it up I use a Creation Audio Labs Holy Fire overdrive. I will use my Bad Bob boost or my Creation Audio MK4:23 boost if I need a totally clean boost. But if a driven boost is needed I just use the 4th position on the tele. Gives about a 5 db boost.

Would totally replace in a heartbeat. I just wish Chris made pickups for my other guitars as they are now not being used. :o(

Kinman AVn for Broadcasters (Tele) Set: 2 passive stacked humbuckers. AVn-48n - (neck pickup with special magnetically invisible Nickeled cover) 7.8 K-ohms; Inductance 2.2 H; Resonance 3.5KHz; Q 1.9. AVn-48b - (bridge) 7.35 K-ohms; Resonance 3.5KHz; Inductance 3.3H; Q 2.69.

I installed these p/u's into a 01/2008 Fender Custom Classic Telecaster with a maple fingerboard. I replaced the Fender Classic Tele Single-Coil (Bridge) pickup and the Custom Shop ???Twisted??? Tele Single-Coil (Neck) pickup. I got Kinman hum cancelling p/u's because I wanted to use my guitar to record.

Each pickup's output is about 25 percent higher then what it replaced. They have a very complex and solid sound: very clear highs, a strong bottom, and a human voice-like midrange. They have a lot of sustain and they don't lose definition as they decay. You can perform anything you want with them but death metal.

Mr. Kinman recommends you experiment with their height under the strings. It's worth the time and effort: once you find their sweet spot you won't look back.

Rating: 10-Sounds great!

They're expensive, but I'd replace them.

I've played guitar for 30 years. I use Fulltone effects, a Traynor YCV50Blue amplifier retubed with Eurotubes, and a YCX12Blue extension cabinet.

I've used Joe Barden rails and active pickups. The Kinman AVn for Broadcasters (Tele) Set is the best set of humbucking pickups being made for Telecasters today. I wish, though, I'd got the NoSoldering TK4 harness: Chris puts together a guitar's insides like his p/u's: perfectly!

Rating: 10-Fantastic value.

Set for telecaster, dead simple, fits my tele without problems.
With the stock pots (don't know if other value is required by K.)

Fender Baja blonde telecaster, both pickups. Original circuitry while interesting is so much trouble because of noise (can't play the thing outside living room actually, and I'm no high-gain freak).
By the way I removed the whole original electronics, and now I keep it very simple: one toggle switch (gibson) and one master volume, less is more. And nothing in the way of the switch...
For Baja freaks K. makes a special neck pup which allows you to keep the original circuitry.

It's not like the Baja stock pups, which are a bit nicer-less aggressive. To play home and clean-bluesy stuff I would say stay with them.
Kinman bridge has more bite, while very balanced, and real singlecoil flair. Open, dynamic, harmonics are incredible, a beast!
Kinman neck is a bit flat, but with low end, a good choice for jazz stuff and with the bridge a good funky sound.

Now the bad news: my Kinmans were both so microphonic I had to remove them! Very big problem here, even on a tiny marshall mg10 set clean I could sing in the pups and clearly hear my voice through the speaker!
Unacceptable, just imagine the picture when playing loud and distorted:howlin thing, feedback to become deaf, absolutely not possible to play!

So now I have the stock Baja pups back, with my simple layout, and I do like them better at home. For leads I just stomp on my line6 crunchtone box (which wonderfully cleans the noise). What a farce, Mr Kinman...

For the price asked I am absolutely not impressed.

To be fair I have put strat Kinmans(blues mk2 set, woodstock and scn) in other guitars and zero problems at all, let's hope I'll get a warranty exchange(that is, if my problem is particular, otherwise I'll only get the same problem back).

And in every situation the sonic delivery of K. pups is absolutely astounding, and they get only better when played loud.

For 230 euro the set I can't swallow the howlin tone...

Kinman broadcaster pickup set. Stacked coil hum cancelling tele pickups.

Installed in a 52 reissue tele, to improve HUM. No real tone issues with the original pickups, but in my old house the 60 cycle hum was horrible, and rendered the guitar almost unplayable.

Output was just slightly more than stock, very typical tele bridge sound, neck is pretty unique. The bridge pickup is brighter than the stock Fender, and perfectly balanced. The neck is much brighter as well, and much tighter sounding. Overall very clear, well defined, HI FI sound. Hum is minimal, less than my Les Paul with the stock humbuckers. Compared to the stock pickups, I run the tone control down half a turn from where it was to get the same sound. Bridge output is significantly more than the neck, as with most older teles.

It would be very hard to go back to standard single coils after using this product. I'm still wondering how he gets this degree of clarity and definition with a stacked coil pickup. I've tried the Fender SCN and the Duncan stacked tele pickups, and both fall far short of these for clarity and balance. Really impressive, innovative product.

Single coil pickups - passive, a little hot, and totally noiseless. No, I mean NOISELESS. No hum, nothing. Genius.

I've installed this pick up set in a 1999 American Telecaster Deluxe - one of the best guitars I've ever played. That's why I splashed out on these, I thought she deserved it. I just wish I'd thought to do so sooner.

Who else is using them? No idea, but EVERYBODY should be. Or maybe they shouldn't. Maybe this should be the secret of a select few. ;)
Kinman don't advertise, they rely on word of mouth and favourable reviews. And I am more than happy to spread the good word.

These are the perfect pick up if you are chasing THE Fender telecaster tone. Putting these in your guitar is like someone has transplanted the soul of the perfect original 52 Tele into the body of your favourite guitar. Minus, of course, the hum.
I've been using a Fender Hot Rod Dlx (Ltd Ed Tweed w/- Jensen speaker) and a Marshall JCM800 head with generic box. The sound of my tele through both these amps has improved over 300%. I've used Fender Standards, Texas Specials & SCN Vintage Noiseless, Seymour Duncan Little 59s & Quarterpounders, and Dimarzio Hot Rails, and none of these has come close. The Kinman just sing. Incredible tone.
PLUS the Kinmans have the sustain of a hot humbucker (but with the tone of a lushly aged OLD tele single coil). Their output is hotter than a standard single coil, but still has that sparkle. None of that shrillness though but can cause you to wince. All killer, no filler. :)
Mr Kinman, I take my hat off sir. Tone to die for? Problem solved.

Look, obviously these pick ups are not going to suit someone who wants to play in Korn, but if you love the sound of a tele in full flight - clean or otherwise - then these pick ups will have you salivating uncontrollably.
If they failed, then Kinman would replace them, just after hell thawed out that is. The quality and workman ship is something to behold.
If they were stolen (of course with my guitar still wrapped around them) then I'd get online and order a new set. THEN I'd start looking for another tele to put them in.
A little pricey? Perhaps. But what is a fair price for the perfect tone? When I think of all the money I've spent over the years on pick ups that didn't make the grade... (sigh)

Spend the money people, You will not regret it. Then you can stop thinking that I'm being over the top and join the Kinman revolution yourself.

Single coil sized humbuckers. Closest you can get to single coil sound with no hum. Period.

I put these in my new American Telecaster. I have Kinmans in my Strat and knew I would need to have his pickups in my Tele. The stock pickups actually didn't sound that bad, but the hum drove me nuts in the studio and live. These are a marked improvement in sound quality, even if they weren't hum-cancelling they would be an excellent upgrade.

Not sure of any pros who are using them but there will be if there aren't already.

These are not all that much hotter as far as specs go, but they are clearer, punchier, and more defined. As described, these are a little fatter and darker than his traditional tele set, and while they still twang enough for country licks, they also get you much closer to the mighty tele tones of Robben Ford, Jeff Beck, and Greg Koch. (Robben on his white Tele, now that's the sound!) Highs are there but not shrill, mids and lows are right where they should be. With the lower string pull of these pickups, I find my intonation sounds more "true" as well. The neck pickup sounds bluesy and very clear, not muddy even with the gain way up, and it's probably the best tele neck pickup I've heard. The bridge pickup spanks. Nice fat rich tele tone, but darker and bluesier. No shrill ice pick sound here!

I play a variety of styles from Jazz, Blues, Fusion, Country, and Rock and these pickups cover them all. I wouldnt do metal on a tele, period, unless you're John 5 who can do anything.

If stolen then that would probably mean my whole tele would be gone and that would plain suck. I would want want one and would save up for another, and would definitely get these pickups for it. Hands down.

I've been playing 23 years. I run my guitars (several strats and a tele) into a Tech 21 Trademark 60 with a Jenson speaker and two modified Keeley tubescreamers. Effects are just a Maxon phaser, Boss tuner and Boss Delay. It's a simple and versatile rig that is portable and gets the job done. Seven years with this rig and nary a change.

My various guitars have Lace pickups, Lawrence Pickups, and Kinman pickups, and they all sound good in their own way. It's nice to have a bunch of guitars that all sound different from each other. Still, Kinman is the one to go to if you want hum-cancelling pickups that don't sound like they are. They have a unique and incredibly useful voice, very rich and musical with subtleties I find very pleasing. They are a bit more expensive, but if you have the ears to appreciate the subtleties then they are worth the extra ching.

The pickups are passive humbuckers, but they are a special construction that maintains a tone that is closer to single coil. They feature coax wiring, nicely terminated in a ground pigtail to go to a volume pot, and an extended, shielded center conductor to go to the switch. The pickups come with surgical tubing and screws which replace the springs on the standard pickups, and allow the bridge pickup to be mounted and adjusted through the top of the pickguard. It works really well. I can't imagine adjusting the pickups properly if I had to take off the pickguard to do it. The bridge plate is grounded to the bridge pickup ground through the mounting screws. Full details are available at the Kinman website. You also get a resistor and cap to prevent tone rolloff when turning down the volume.

I bought a Fender Deluxe Reverb amp for use with my jazz hollowbodies, and realized it might sound really nice with a tele. I bought a Korean light ash tele with a wild birdseye maple neck and fingerboard, barely used, and got to work. I put in the Kinmans, 4-way switching, Callaham knobs and compensated bridge pieces, a Fender "Pat. Applied For" bridge plate, lots of shielding, a four-way switch, a 0.033uF tone cap, a few more screws in the bridge plate, solid-shaft pots, and a graphite nut. I reversed the controls. As a result, I can walk by the custom shop teles at the store without drooling. The pickups eliminated the horrible hum the stock setup had.

These pickups are hot if you raise them. With weak alnico magnets, you can get within 2mm without problems. Into my Fender Deluxe, I can overdrive the input tubes at low volume and overdrive the output tubes at "7", without any stompboxes. With a tube screamer, I don't have the problem of amplified hum. There is pretty much no noise if I'm touching anything metal on the guitar.

The stock Seymour Duncans had more twang, but these "Broadcasters" are much bluesier, and maintain the expressiveness of the original single coils. For more classic tele twang, Kinman recommends the AVn-60s.

I'll give them a "10" since they sound better than stock for my purposes, with the proviso that they don't "twang" as well. I don't really want to "twang".

If they died, I'd buy more. If I buy a strat, I'll use Kinmans there too.

Pickup features: Noisless singles......sort of
Impedence or other specs: Just enough to get the job done, but no more

Model of guitar or bass: HomTelecaste body: cocobolo Rosewood, Mahogany
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: None.
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: Not sure
You musical style(s): Blues
Reason for pickup change: Am searching for the holy grail

Perceived output level: These pickups are right where they should be. I'm completely finished with overwound pickups as they cannot possibly maintain their crisp highs, and accentuate the tones of the woods used on the instrument. I have tried pretty much tried all the poular Telecaster Models: Harmonic Design, Anderson, Fralin, Fender,Duncan Antiquity, Japanese, GFS,
Tone: Perfectly balanced after tweaking the height and my amp
Sonic evaluation: I have had probably 20 different guitars over the past 6 years. Mostly expensive Fenders: Tele's and Strats. I only play Teles now that I have built myself or bought from Warmoth, Usa Custom. I such a tone fanatic that I am constantly trying to Match different tonewoods, with pickups to find the sound that melts me.
I built a Mahogany tele with a 1/4" Cocobolo Laminate top, with a Maple/Ebony neck. I just finished assembling this beauty, strung it plugged it in and was amazed at the tone. These pickups amazed me; I have never heard
a guitar ring like this one. I love alnico pole pieces on Pickups. Now as I look back at all the ones I've tried, I realize that the single coil pickups I have liked best all had Alnico poles. The punch, glitter, with bells and harmonics are amazing. I have never spent this much money on pickups before, even on Humbucker, but my foolishness paid off as I have found my Tele tone that I have been searching for. The only other pickups that have come close are Vintage-Vibe P-90's with alnico poles.
the kinmans are dead-noiseless
I use a Traynor (newer model YV40 All tube amp)thru an Ibanez delay / echo, and a bass chorus all on very low settings.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play blues, rock, Knopfler-esque type suff.I love Telecasters. These are true Tele pickups

Comments: If these disappeared I wouldn't need the aggravation of trying any more pickups. These are either as good as they get, Or, I lucked out on my tonewood combo. Worth the money, no question

Pickup features: Stacked single coil noisless
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Modified MIM Telecaster
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Twang Kings
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Classic rock, early rock, country
Reason for pickup change: I was using Twang Kings for a couple of years, and found these to be quite good, but as my style and abilities evolved, I found that the Kings were lacking, especially in the higher registers. I was looking for more bloom and punch and a more balanced sound, low to high. Don't get me wrong here, I really think the Kings are a really good set and I've used them for a couple of years. Things change and I moved on.

Perceived output level: Hot. I have to lower my amp volume setting quite a bit
Tone: Balanced
Sonic evaluation: I plug my Tele straight into a HRDx, which is slaved into another HRDx. The amps are modified with speaker changes, master volume mods etc. Of all the changes I've made to get the "holy grail" of tone, these Kiman pups provided the most dramatic sound improvement to my setup. These pups have amazing clarity with no dullnes perceived any where on the fretboard. The highs and lows are rich with gorgeous overtones, with very balanced output, string to string. The middle switch position provides truly, 'a tone to die for'! Kind of reminds me of a Strat in position 2, but in a different sort of a way, that only a Tele can produce. The pickup outputs are hot, as such, you have to use your volume pot a lot, to control the drive hitting the amp. Back off the volume for pure clean shimmering tones, crank up to put you in ballsy overdrive. Simple!
There is, however, a price to pay with these pickups. I have found that my left hand fingering technique has some to be desired. I tended to bend certain srings while chording, and cause me to be out-of-tune, in certain notes of the chord. These pups bring this up, front and center. Funny, I've never noticed this before. Such is the clarity of these pups, simply amazing!
These are supposed to be noisless pickups. I was thinking about my Fender SCn pups on my Strat, which are truly noisless. with the Kinmans, I still do get a tiny wee bit of hum when I'm not touching the strings. I guess I'll have to shield the cavities and the pick guard and see what this does.
All in all, I can't say enough about these Broadcasters. There just isn't any words I have to describe how great these pups sound. They give a rich pallate of tones to choose from, by just dialling the volume and tone pots. They'll also make a better guitar player out of me, thats for sure!!

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: For what I play, these are just excellent...the best so far!!

Comments: If these were lost or stollen, I'd replace these in a heart beat. Initally these are fairly expensive but you certainly get your money's worth, and then some. Unfortunatly, I can't compare these to other hi-end brands, but I doubt that there would be much of an improvement. I'm good to go for at least another few years. Mr. Kinman sure rolls a mean coil, hats off to you, Sir!!