Vintage Plus

My wife bought me this set for my birthday two months ago, and they brought new life into my old Standard Telecaster, which had the factory ceramic pickups. The stock pickups were a weak neck pickup and a harsh bridge pickup. These Vintage Plus were an obvious choice, since I play mostly 50s and 60s rock and roll, rockabilly through a clean or mostly clean amp. I was surprised how well they also handle gain and effects, for when I play 80s and 90s rock. I will definitely buy a set of Toneriders again.

I purchased these pickups the other day for my classic vibe telecaster and they’ve completely brought it to life, great note definition and clarity and they handle gain really well which I wasn’t expecting due to their low output. I’ve bought pickups by Bareknuckle, House of Tone and the Creamery for my other guitars who are all good in their own way but charge 3 times the price of Tonerider. I was trying to save a bit of money this time round, so thought I’d give these a go after seeing the excellent demonstration videos on youtube and seeing good things on forums for many years. I’ve been blown away by how good they are. Great build quality, comes well presented and with a wiring diagram for ease. I’m already eyeing up a pair of the the Classic Blues Strat pickups. If you’re thinking about trying these out, don’t hesitate.

For years I’ve held the opinion the fender original vintage series were the best all round Tele pickup, now I really believe it’s the vintage plus set. It actually has a better balance. Attention to detail and quality of life upgrades. Absolutely worth every penny.

I build custom telecasters and use these vintage pickups as well as alnico II and hot classics regularly for customer builds. You really can go wrong with any of these…they all have the Tele tone that is pleasing to the ear! I will continue using all of these telecaster Tonerider pickups for all of my builds…no need to change a good thing!

I very recently bought a Squier Classic Vibe Tele which to be honest was pretty good as it stood, but I always tend to customise my guitars as you end up with a better quality guitar for a lot less money than you would spend with a dealer. I also fitted a Gotoh bridge- the only problem here was removing the old Squier bridge plate- I had to use an impact driver to shift the cheap Chinese screws. The pickups themselves sound fine with more detail than the old ones- I may at a later stage change the main wiring and pots.