Product: TV Jones Tele Replacement Set
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted
06/11/2000
at
03:30pm
by
Scott
Email: halfway at loop<dot>com
Features
:
Pickup features: Single coil (passive)
Impedence or other specs:
Instrument
:
Model of guitar or bass: Fender ?69 Thinline Telecaster Reissue (Mex)
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Stock Fender Mex Tele pickups (bridge & neck)
Other pickups on guitar: none
Artists using this pickup: John Fogerty and Tony Gilkyson
You musical style(s): Soul, Funk, R&B
Reason for pickup change: Stock Fender Mex pickups sound like pig vomit.
Sound
:
No Opinion
Perceived output level: Hot, the way I like them. Sounds great through 20 feet of cable (guitar - 10? - pedals - 10' - amp). Standard pickups tend to only sound good through a 10 feet cable, which makes it impractical when used with pedals and in live situations.
Tone: The reason I had the stock Fender Mex pickups changed cause its tone was slightly more appealing then watching the Hanson?s sing the national anthem. The bridge pickup sounded thin, harsh, and brittle. The usually unusable Tele neck pickup sounded washed out, like I was playing underwater. And the most reprehensible, it sounded simply boring. The cheapest best way to improve, and customize, the sound of the guitar is to change the pickups. TV Jones bridge pickup sounds phat and warm. The neck pickup sounds clear and open. TV Jones tells me these pickups are based on vintage 50?s Tele pickups with a few improvements (most notable is a usable neck pickup). The comparison made me feel that Fender makes their pickups with left over refrigerator magnets.
Sonic evaluation: Okay, I?m having fun getting down on Fender. I got TV Jones pickups on my main guitar (I bought the Fender Tele as a backup), so it was frustrating having the Tele not playing up to what I am used to. When I first used the Tele through my Rivera amp, I was pointlessly EQ-ing it to death trying to find a decent tone. Once I got the ?TV Jones Tele Pickup Replacement Set?, I was back in tone heaven. A very full detailed musical tone that filled the amp and the room instead of the amp struggling to resuscitate the guitar.
For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I love single pickups cause it can sound very acoustical. With me regularly playing straight guitar to amp running clean, I need pickups to sound more then anything, Natural. Which these pickups excel perfectly.
Overall Rating
:
10
Comments: TV Jones main gig is making archtop style guitars and pickups. I forget what issue, but he has a review in Guitar Player Mag of a Gretsch style guitar he made for Brain Setzer (It?s always an event when GP can get away from all things Hendrix). But he does make Strat / Tele / Les Paul style guitars and pickups though he rarely advertises it. It?s this complete view of the guitar building process that?s extremely helpful when I call him asking about what I can I do to make my Tele sound better. TV Jones understood the Tele?s idiosyncrasies, what works and what doesn?t, and handed me pickups that made the Tele fun to jam with. Though when you ask him stuff, the only problem is that TV Jones speaks Techno Luthier at first, until I stand there with a blank face, then he reverts back to English. Oh ya, he has a website you can check out at ?www.tvjones.com?. I don?t think Harmony Central has him in their links page. One more thing, GO LAKERS!!!