Telecaster upgrade advice....

do you think it's lacking in any way? that's the place to start. you write "sound better." is that suggesting it doesn't sound good enough, or are you just fishing for suggestions? (many gigging players are quite satisfied with these guitars as they come stock.) what is your playing setup? there may be other changes (outside the Tele) that would have far more impact on the sound.

for playability, almost nothing can touch a good set-up, including fret dressing. find a good, reputable luthier or tech for this.

So I have a Mexican made Telecaster and I haven't done anything to it....all stock. I was wonder if anyone has any suggestions on some better pickups, upgrades..etc...for a decent price that would make it sound better? any advice would be great thanks!

There's several models of Tele made in Mexico. Which model do you have?

What are you using for an amp?

Pedals?

What do you want to change about the sound you're getting now?

I've got a 2004 Standard Tele that's bone stock, and it's my "jazzy" Tele. I don't have any intention of changing a thing on it. If you click on the top logo in my signature, that will take you to my band's myspace page. Listen to the song "Monday Morning Lament" and you'll hear it in all it's wondrous Tele glory :) The bottom logo takes you to my personal myspace page, where you can listen to "Doesn't Matter," Which features my G&L ASAT (Leo Fender's last incarnation of the Tele)

Well since I got it....I've never really been happy with the sound. I've played it mostly on a Princeton Reverb Amp from 65' I believe (its a friends). A buddy of mine in a band I played in had a similar tele, probably a little better made, and for a while his was in the shop and borrowed mine because I played keys mostly in the band and he would always say the sound was "thin" compared to his. I really don't even know the model. I believe its a standard tele from 3 or 4 years ago. I've played a few other tele's, all mexican made and they seem to have a little twangier sound, nicer sound than mine played out of the same amp. I was just wondering if it was the pickups. A few people told me I could get some better pickups but I wasn't sure. So thats why I posted.

have you ever adjusted the pickup heights? if it is sounding thin, you may want to raise the bass (low E) side of the pups and/or lower the treble side (high e).

other:

borrow an overdrive pedal to see if that does what you want tonally. a Tube Screamer or similar will do it. a moderate increase (boost by the OD pedal) in the guitar's signal level to the amo should thicken the midrange a bit

Seymour Duncan makes great alnico Tele pups. I have a set on my Lite Ash Tele. very nice: twang + body

Is your guitar string-thru-bridge (top loading) or string=thru-body (load string thru holes back of body). the string-thru-body will have a tighter, more focused timbre. unfortunately, while converting from thru-bridge to thru-body is possibly, it is not a trivial change.

Well since I got it....I've never really been happy with the sound. I've played it mostly on a Princeton Reverb Amp from 65' I believe (its a friends). A buddy of mine in a band I played in had a similar tele, probably a little better made, and for a while his was in the shop and borrowed mine because I played keys mostly in the band and he would always say the sound was "thin" compared to his. I really don't even know the model. I believe its a standard tele from 3 or 4 years ago. I've played a few other tele's, all mexican made and they seem to have a little twangier sound, nicer sound than mine played out of the same amp. I was just wondering if it was the pickups. A few people told me I could get some better pickups but I wasn't sure. So thats why I posted.

I'm never one to advocate throwing money at a problem unless that's the ONLY way to solve a problem. I'd start with raising the pickup heights a bit. I'd also experiment a bit with going up a gauge in string size, playing with different pick thicknesses and materials, and play with tone settings on the amp.

Since it's a blackface style Fender amp, try this . . .

Set your treble and bass tone controls to 0.

Now crank the volume between 7 and 10. (No - I'm not crazy. With the classic BF tone stack you're not gonna get any volume at all with the tones at full attenuation)

Strum a chord, and bring the bass up to about 3. You should hear a volume increase and have a very bassy type tone.

Now bring your treble up the same amount. You should hear another volume increase and have a fairly classic fender tone. You shoukd also have a light bulb flash on over your head as you hear what's happening

Use the tone controls to dial in the sound and volume you want

Cool thanks for the tips...I'll give all these ideas a shot. I'm with not spending $ if I don't have to.

Hi :)

Good advice so far....

It's always a good thing to angle the pups (thus - balancing out the sound) on a Fender.
After that, it's a question of how near or how far to place the pups.
Too close, and the sound will.... cut out at times.
Too far and you have a very weak, dead sound (which could be what the problem is).
Getting them at just the right close position will give it a bit more of a clipped sound.
Getting them at just the right low position will give it a more open and airy sound.
The difference between the correct high/low positions is usually only a matter of a 1/16" to an 1/8".

As far as the OD pedal and the (excellent) advice on how to dial in a blackface amp, well, these don't really address
the tonal problem of the guitar itself.
You may want to do both, although the problem with the guitar will still need to be solved.

I would check the bridge on your guitar.
The bridge is a crucial tonal component on a Tele.
The one on your guitar may be bowed slightly or otherwise bent to the effect of not making good contact to the body.
This is especially important with the bridge pup, as the open pup in the bridge position on a Tele directly interacts with the bridge.
The neck pup will be affected as well, as bad tonal transfer to the body will occur with poor bridge contact.

Adding a Baseplate to the bridge pup will fatten the sound up, adding more low/midrange.
(Assuming that your Tele has a real SC pup in it)
They cost $5 to $10 bucks US.
(Some soldering needed to install)

Getting a replacement bridge will greatly affect the tone as well.
Anything from = improved sustain, 'richer' tone, more spank, and more twang will be realized with a good bridge.
(And all of those tonalities can be diminished with bad body contact on the existing bridge, as well as harmonic interference and increased feedback)
Callaham makes a good replacement bridge and compensated brass barrel saddles for a Tele.

The POT values can affect the treble response as well.
If you have SC pups and 500k pots, as you turn the volume down.... the tone darkens up.
250k pots are recomended for SC pups.... I've 'heard' that MIM Fenders may have 500k's.
Don't know for sure.

Also (and we'll need Greg [gnease] for this one),
I'm not sure if the tone control is wired to the bridge pup in these new Teles....
If so, than changing to a smaller capacitor value will help to warm the tone up as it's rolled off (as opposed to darkening the tone with a larger cap value).

If not, than it can be rewired to include the bridge pup, and adding the small cap will help to warm things up.

Ken