Custom Shop ’51 Nocaster Tele Pickups

I have 6 electric guitars, including a 2019 Fender American and a 2013 Gibson Les Paul Traditional, plus a 50's Classic Vibe Squire Telecaster and a 70's Vintage Modified Squire strat. Both of the Squires were, in their day (they are no longer made, at least not as they were 5 or more years ago) consistently reviewed very highly for playability and, important here, tone. As an admission, my favorite go-to guitar is the Squire strat - it just plays and sound fantastic, but that's another story. In any case, while I love the playability of the Squire Tele, its tone always seemed a bit...light...to me. I'm not one to constantly change out PUPs to chase down a particular tone or sound, but after a lot of thought and research I decided to "go for it" and give these Nocaster PUPs a try. It didn't help that I'm a Bonamassa fan and it seems his new favorite guitars are his two early 50's telecaster and Nocaster and I love the sound he gets from them. No matter what I tried with my Headrush, I could not get a sound close to his Teles - hence the mission to see if these PUPs would get me there. Longer story short, these Nocaster PUPs are amazing. They have more growl and range than the stock (Squire) PUPs and are easily managed with the tone and volume controls - which I've always been a proponent of using! They have completely transformed a really nice sounding guitar into an extraordinary guitar. I can't say you couldn't tell the difference between Joe's and my guitars ( ;) ) but I am so much closer to the sound I want from my Tele. I've only ever played an early 60s (I think it was) Tele once and while it's been a long time since I did, I'm convinced my reborn Squire sounds better. Maybe someday I'll get to play an early 50s Tele, maybe even a Nocaster (I doubt it), and I'll recognize the difference, but for now, I can't put down my new Squirecaster - it sounds amazing. Sure the PUPs cost 2/3 what the guitar cost me, but the total cost to date is still less than a Tele Mexico and I have played one of those several times and (sorry to anyone who fees otherwise), my Squire blows it out of the water. Keep in mind I own and play a Fender American and a Gibson LP, so I'm I big fan of their products, but to be honest, I'll go home from work tonight and pick up my reborn Squire Tele.

I should listened to the people here complaining. Neck pickup is useless, arrived damaged. Lost hours of my precious time.

You could say that, dollar for dollar, these are the best sounding Tele pickups you can get. But I think it's more accurate to say that these are among the best sounding Tele pickups at ANY price point. The boutique pickup world is awash in some truly excellent Tele electronics; and bespoke pickup sets costing upward of $300 or more are not uncommon. Sure, these crazy expensive PUs sound good-- excellent even. But how do these Fender reproduction PUs sound in comparison? Simply put, as good, or better. I installed these in a Fender Japan Telecaster with a single piece body (a rarity!) and the last little bits of tone hiding in the instrument were coaxed out load and clear. The bridge PU has all the honk and sparkle you could want, but is mercifully free from the icepick-to-the-forehead treble that can be more pain than twang. The neck PU has a warm yet defined color. Never muddy, it has a relatively flat response which produces rich sounding chords and round, punchy lead lines. Together in the middle position, these PUs produce a wonderful, exciting rhythm color with just the right amount of shimmer. The string separation is excellent, and when pushed into overdrive, the inner harmonics really leap out in a beautifully balanced tone. They do alter your pick attack somewhat, but not in a bad way. There's still plenty of traditional, percussive "smack" on the transients, but it is more focused, and very responsive to your technique. The bridge position is RWRP for a hum canceling effect in the middle position, but even without extensive shielding these are very quiet single coils which do not squeal when the gain is dimed. If you want to add tone and even more stylistic versatility to your Tele, you can't go wrong with a NoCaster set

These are my favorite Fender brand pickups but not necessarily my favorite pickups in this price range. They have a very jazzy neck, and a decently twangy bridge. Alnico 3 magnets are the way to go for tele's!

Good pickup for a raw gritty tele sound. It nails jimmy page tones and has twang for days. Although it does not have sparkle if you want the castles made of sand sound or wind cries marry this pickup does not do it. Overall happy but i like the twang king in the neck better because it sparkles. But for a dirty pickup these sound amazing rock harder than my les pauls. Have lots of girth and will blow your socks off.

My experience was identical to others shared here. The box was sealed, but seemed a little worse for wear. And the bridge pickup just didn't work. They are on sale here, but not a value if it doesn't work. In the process of returning them.

I replaced the neck pickup in my player plus Nashville tele with this set and the improvement was great for me. It sounds very similar to the pickup in my noventa ii nocaster and I don’t regret losing the noiseless pickup. This p/u has very low noise compared to a set of Fat 50’s I have in another guitar. I didn’t change any other electronics in my tele and haven’t had any problems or concerns.

These are just great pickups, never edgy or bright with a nice attack and nice dynamic range. Great tones on all 3 positions with a 0.047 uF cap on the tone control. The bridge measured about 8% lower DCR to the spec but sounded just fine and full. Either Fender changed the spec or it's just variation. I also own Twang Kings and these are so very similar but the Nocasters are better overall. They just sound more natural and are less fatiguing.