Fender Custom Shop Texas Special Telecaster Pickups

I’ve had a 2005 Fender Highway One Telecaster lying around for almost twenty years. Bought it used back in 2008 for a great price, relic’d it myself, loved the feel — but the original stock pickups were honestly pretty cheap and noisy. Good guitar with bad electronics. Classic story. Recently I finally decided to give this Tele the upgrade it deserved. I installed a brand-new control plate, rewired everything properly and dropped in a set of Texas Special Tele pickups. And wow — this guitar woke up. These pickups have everything I wanted: tight, punchy bridge bite without being ice-picky warm but articulate neck tone perfect balanced output that classic Tele twang, but with more attitude and presence and the middle position is dead silent thanks to the RWRP design Yes, they’re hotter than vintage and they do hum a bit when used alone — but that’s part of the Tele charm. Once installed correctly (with proper shielding), they sound phenomenal. Honestly, I feel like I finally heard what my old Highway One was capable of. These pickups turned a “good but cheap-sounding” guitar into a real instrument. If you own a Tele from the Highway One era or any model with budget stock pickups, this upgrade is absolutely worth it.

I just installed these on my 2011 mim fender telecaster--so far I love the new sounds! These pick ups are very hot and twangy. The neck and bridge (top and bottom) positions have remarkably improved (the neck sounding deeper and 'chimey' and the bridge very clear and bright), but it is the middle position (on my 3 way tone switch) that has completely transformed (pulling the the deep and the bright tones together--a fantastic marriage of both sounds that is well balanced. It has also canceled the slight hum that was present when plugged up to my Vox ac15c1)! For those who decide to 'do it yourself,' the installation was not that difficult (from start to finish, it took about 2 hours). I recommend to those with little experience to youtube a few videos on how to wire this up to your guitar ( a few tips: adding flux and soldering the wires ensures an excellent connection. Also use heat shrink tubing so that your newly soldered wires are covered snug and professionally. And lastly before the install, make sure the pick ups test exact or close to their electrical output that the packaging lists ). I highly recommend these to anyone attempting to upgrade the sound of their mim fender or squier teles. I am now in tone tweaking heaven. Cheers!

I bought these almost on a whim, as I was looking for a project. I had an old Epiphone Tele clone that I never played anymore, so I figure it was a good candidate. I popped these puppies in to it and what a difference. These pickups sound incredible. The neck pickup is awesome for blues play. They break up just a bit if you really hammer down on the strings, otherwise it is a nice glassy sustain. The bridge pickup is really ballsy. Great for rock with some nice distortion tones. I play with a 5150 head, and I've never gotten such response from single coils like I have from these. They sound almost like humbuckers, while retaining the nice high end of a single coil. They're also dead quiet. Also amazing for a single coil. If you have a lifeless Tele these are a cheap way to breath life in to an old guitar.

Just soldered these into my Squier Affinity Tele, and I couldn't be happier with them. They are quite hot, but seem to do everything very well. Clean tone is very articulate and bright, fuzz and distortion are crisp, and not muddy at all with the tone knob cranked. as a matter of fact, the tone knob actually has a purpose now. they do twang like a champ too. They will do from clean acoustic tones to Metallica, and everything in between. Well worth it!!!

I purchased these pickups at a significant discount through the amazon warehouse. I had a lot of trouble getting them working and after rechecking my wiring and soldering several times, I realized that I had not made any errors. Then I took a close look at the pickups and found the Bridge pickup had been wired backward. I de-soldered the wires from the switch and pot ground and reversed them. Now they work and sound great. I have no doubt this is why the previous buyer returned them.

I installed the Fender Texas Specials in a Squier Affinity Tele ($160). There is an obvious improvement in tone, response and sustain. The bridge pickup is very ballsy and twangalicious, think Hot Rod Lincoln lead tone. The neck pickup is smooth and buttery and with a Boss Blues Driver it produces the ultimate Sunshine of Your Love fuzz tone. When both pickups are on you get a very balanced tone that works well clean or distorted. I couldn't be happier. I would highly recommend these pickups to anyone wanting to get the most tone out of their Telecaster.

I put these in my custom Pilar telecaster replacing the Lolar pickups that came with it. The Lolars were just too low output. I initially tried replacing them with Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders, but found them to be too dark. These Texas Specials keep the classic tele sound and also provide good output for covering rock stuff too. Love them!

Enjoyable pickups. Neck and bit hotter but they both breakup very well when pushed just a little. Really improved my Mexican Telecaster!

Hot Southern Fried Pickups

Excelentes pastillas con sonido clásico Telecaster y extra de punch, ideales para combinar con selector de 4 posiciones.

That’s the angry sound I’ve been looking for. Super responsive and high output.

Non c’è molto da aggiungere, qualità costruttiva artigianale da Custom Shop, timbrica iconica con output generoso, brillante e rotondo, aggressivo quando e quanto serve. Consigliato selettore a 4 posizioni, per poter beneficiare di due timbriche intermedie (serie o parallelo) oltre alle classiche neck e bridge.

Diese Tonabnehmer werten jede Telecaster Gitarre noch einmal sehr deutlich auf! Super ausgewogener Klang mit viel Biss und Druck. Dabei sind die Texas Special Pickups wahre Alleskönner: von Vintage-Sound über Blues zu Rock ist alles möglich!