Tonerider Vintage Plus (Tele Set)

Single coil Tele style with cloth covered leads and a traditional appearance.

My 2007 MIM Telcaster sounded rather dull and really lacked that Tele country twang. My 'spare' guitar, an Ibanez Talman TC630 had much more twang than the stock 2007 MIM Telcaster, so I knew I needed to do something with the Tele, but at low cost. The Tonerider Vintage set was not only well priced, but also got many good reports on www.tdpri.com

Fantastic sound!!! ... especially for the price. The bridge pickup really makes the wound strings twang so nicely. I couldn't get anywhere near the twang of the Toneriders from the original pickups. The difference is incredible. I play the Telcaster direct into a Fender Princeton Reverb Re-Issue (a match made in heaven). I also use a Zoom G2 (for headphone based practise) with the reverb, tremelo and compressor on, which really helps the bent 'country' note sing with that extra sustain. The Tonerider pickups in the Tele sound way better than the Ibanez Talman TC630. The neck pickup has a really nice bluesy tone, pretty much like a Strat sound in fact. Because these pickups sound so good, they'll also make any fret buzz more noticeable ... I find that the middle pickup selector switch position is where I notice fret buzz more than the individual pickups. The Tonerider pickups have highlighted an existing problem that I need to get sorted. If you're playing with distortion, it's probably not a big issue, but for anyone who's playing clean, then zero fret buzz is essential.

I bought the Tonerider pickups purely on what I'd read on the internet, and I never was in a position to compare them with anything else. I was after a distinct country twang and they certainly deliver it. These things really do have a great sound at an affordable price ... Toneriders are 'must have' on any stock MIM or Squier Telecaster. I have no experience with USA Teles, Highway 1, TexMex or Custom shop pickups from Fender, but on the cheaper models, the Toneriders are an ideal OEM replacement. The cloth covered leads are a rather professional & traditional feature.

Single Coil Tele Pickups, Classic Looks with a Chrome covered neck pickup and a string wrapped (Black) bridge pickup.

I Installed these a MIM Standard Tele with an Alder body and Maple neck and fretboard. I used a Wilkinson Vintage 3 saddle bridge plate. 250k pots and a .022 tone cap.

I recently installed another set in a Custom Pine Tele Caster with 4-way switching, 250k pots and a Bill Lawrence (Wilde USA) Q-filter in the tone circuit.

Higher output than stock fender pups. Very comparable to Bill Lawrence Keystones.

Clear and Pretty with no Glassy highs, very well balanced for chording and leads, plenty of twang too. These are one of the most musical sounding pickups. These make me smile every time I pick up one of my Tele's that are blessed with these, and I begin to play anything. I can't say enough good things about them.

The Sound is FUN, Pretty, Cool, Clean, Twangy, Vintage and with the Q-filter, When I roll the Tone knob all the way down, it sounds very much like an acoustic's piezo pickup.

I'd rate these at 11 but the scoring only allows for a 10.

If it was destroyed or stolen, I would replace them in a heart beat.

Been playing for 25 years. I own 9 Tele's along with 20+ other electric and acoustic guitars.

I compared these to Bill Lawrence (Wilde USA) Keystones for Tele's.
The Keystones have a touch more output, a bit more noise free, a tiny bit less expensive, and a little less twangy. The original Keystone had an open coil Neck pup which made it a must to go with the Tonerider Vintage Plus on my last build, I had to have the Classic looks from the pups for a Natural, Blackguard with a Bigsby.

Keystone are now available with a chrome covered neck pup and I just bought a set but have yet to test them.

The Tonerider "Vintage Plus" are side by side one of the two Best Tele set's on the Market. They are less than $100 a set (I hope they stay there) and they with provide you with a million bucks worth of tone, smiles and good times.