Vintage Vibe Guitars Nashville Telecaster

Single coil

Custom Tele Thinline, mahogany back, maple cap, all maple neck

I have decided to finally post some reviews about Pete Biltoft???s Vintage Vibe pickups. These are the only ???vintage voiced??? pickups I use in my instruments now. They come individually packaged with great care, each with their own handwritten ???birth certificates??? should you ever need to have them replicated or replaced. Pete offers a lifetime guarantee on his excellent work.

I ordered this set from Pete through eBay, and he gave them to me for the price of his standard set of Strat pickups??? Fantastic! They are basically his standard Tele set with a Strat pickup in the middle. These are the first set of Vintage Vibe pickups I ordered, and they went in a custom-build Tele Thinline with mahogany back, flame maple front and all maple neck. Basically, I was going for a ???69 reissue sound (I had played one of these in a local store and fallen in love with it) with more beauty and tonal options.

After I had the instrument put together and adjusted, I took it to the local guitar store to A/B it against the ???69 reissue that had inspired it. The store staff ended up gathering around as I put both guitars through their paces and were ???wowed??? by the greater depth and warmth demonstrated by Pete???s pickups. Particularly in bridge position, Pete???s pickup retained the bite of a Tele, but added more girth in the low end, making those country bass lines really ???jump??? out of the amp. The neck pickup too got rave reviews from the staff not only for its tone, but for being well-matched to the bridge pickup in terms of volume (a perennial problem for Teles). The 2 and 4 positions produced admirable Strat-like quack, giving me early Mark Knopfler and Albert Lee sounds at will. I also have these pickups wired to a 5-way superswitch that makes position three activate the neck and bridge pickups like a standard Tele, and this was where these pickups really stood out as a matched set, producing a tone with greater notches in the mid frequencies than the ???69 reissues. Although Pete???s pickups do not hum-cancel in this position, Pete???s careful shielding process helped minimize the noise, even under the store???s fluorescent lights. (???69 reissues do not hum-cancel in the middle position either, so it was still a fair comparison.)

One thing I will say in all my reviews of Pete???s pickups, and I can not stress this enough: These pickups are all EXTREMELY TOUCH SENSITIVE. They replicate and even amplify variations in your picking technique, especially if you use your fingers at all. If you rely on your pickup to compress your sound due to poor right hand technique or play music that tends to stay in one dynamic range, these pickups may not be for you. However, if you want a lot of expressive range from your instrument (ala Derek Trucks or Mark Knopfler), order a set of these now! They will make a Mexican-made Nashville Tele Deluxe a pro level instrument and will hugely improve any other instrument you strap them into.

9.5