Telecaster Pickups in White or Chrome

[Gemcutter]

I've done a lot of searching and have come up short - I'm looking for a telecaster bridge pickup in white or chrome. I'm interested only in something that looks like a traditional white strat pickup with the 6 poles exposed, or something completely covered in chrome like the neck pickup. I want to stay away from a lipstick tube because I'd like to try to preserve the traditional tele sound. Any leads?

 

[bagman67]

Rio Grande markets a pickup they call the Stelly, which is a Tele-esque wind in a Strat form factor.  If you get a baseplate for it you may be all the way there.


http://riograndepickups.com/stelly



FOr something that claims to be exactly what you're after, right out of the box, there's the Duncan Twangbanger:


http://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/product-news/the-twang-banger-tele-twang-strat-size


My guess is the street price on the DUncan will be a little lower than the Rio Grande part, but I leave that research as an exercise for the reader.

 

[bagman67]

Harmonic Design also has something they call the STP:


http://www.harmonicdesign.net/allpages/strats.html


About 2/3 of the way down the page.

 

[stratamania]

If the pickup still needs to fit into a standard Tele bridge the ones mentioned so far are strat form factor so won't fit.

 

[Gemcutter]

I do appreciate the effort, but yes, the idea is to mount the pickup in a standard Telecaster bridge, so the strat pickups won't work.

 

[stratamania]

Here's a possible source.

http://www.riograndepickups.com

Go to the Tele bridge pickup section and you can select a number of different colours for a particular model.

 

[bagman67]

Ah, I misunderstood "looks exactly like a strat pickup" to mean "shaped exactly like a strat pickup."  Yeah, the Rio Grande offerings have a variety of bobbin colors, so you can go that route.  Have fun!

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Well, if you can't find what you're looking for in appearance, but happen to accomplish it in tone, an aesthetic alternative is to use bobbin toppers.

They have chrome & gold ones too.
http://www.universaljems.com/cart/bobbin.htm

 

[Fat Pete]

You could also try contacting some of the smaller winders. I ran into the same issue when looking for a white bridge pickup for my Corvette. Allan of Catswhisker Pickups here in the UK made this for me (and I highly recommend him). Clearly not standard Tele but he would have made me any type in white. I'm sure there are plenty of winders Stateside who could help - maybe try our own TroubledTreble of Roadhouse Pickups.

 

[Gemcutter]

Thanks a bunch, guys!

Fat Pete - awesome look on your custom pickup. Tony, I think you hit my hot button with the very inexpensive Bobbin Toppers. I'll have to pick some up to see if that's the way I want to go on this build.