In recent years I have had the honour but also the pleasure to repair and analyse Tele pickups from the 50s. The insights I have gained have been exploited in my Tele products.
Each TL set is provided with its own fitting capacitor and a piece of 7 stranded cloth wire for the internal wiring.
The sound samples are from Rainer Gaffrey. To hear is always the neck pickup, then both pickups followed by the bridge pickup. To get an even more detailed picture, I recommend visiting Rainer Gaffrey's site.
The TL60 Set is pure Rock´n´Roll. Both the neck and the bridge pickup are powerful with pronounced mids delivering that typical Telecaster overdrive through a distorted amp that we all know and love from our ´60s Telecaster heroes. If Funk and Soul are yours just think of Steve Croppers immortal licks on his white ´60s Tele. Whether it´s Classic Rock or funky Soul Music, as Status Quo would tell you: “Whatever you Want!”
TL 60 clean:
TL 60 crunch:
The bridge pickup has flush poles as did the originals. This construction method and the particular winding produce the typical “early quack”. The neck pickup is powerful and has a glassiness to its tone. We know the typical ´50s Tele sounds from the Country Music stars like Vince Gill, Redd Volkaert and Arlen Roth. But not only these! Further Stars with that ´50s Tele sound: Jeff Beck, Keith Richards and Bruce Springsteen. All these musicians love the unique sounds a ´50s Tele can produce. The TL-50 Set is the perfect replacement set for history´s most versatile guitar.
BC 49 clean:
BC 49 crunch:
Ever heard a ´65 Fender Telecaster through a wound up Vox AC30? Or a Marsall JTM 45? No?! Really!? Then it´s time to put on Status Quo Live and let the sound roll over your eardrums. It´s all there: the Tele Snap, attacking mids that remind you of older PAFs and of course, the typical Tele bite –just all a bit milder. The TL Real 65 brings it all down to that level and in a good Alder body with a Rosewood fingerboard you will be elevated into the league of the most amazing ´65 vintage sounds. And with that shot of sweet singing highs - the TL Real 65 is to die for!
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TL Real 65:
TL 50 clean:
TL 50 crunch:
The TL 55 is the perfect alternative for all who find the TL 50 Set a bit too powerful, mid-heavy and raw. The bridge pickup has staggered poles. The tone here is all about that Tele twang. It snaps, is funky and sparkly! The neck pick up has a slimmer tone, ideal for fans of defined neck pickup sounds – and especially on the bass strings.
The BCB 49 is also the Bridgepickup of the TL KR Set. It’s a true „must have“ for all you Keef Richards devotees out there! It has a special wound PAF neck Humbucker which adds the right amount of rich and fullrange tones for authentic Brown Sugar-riffing! If you expext a Neck Humbucker to be flubby or muddy, the TLKR-Neck stays tight and defined. Remove or simply clip off your low E-string, tune to Open-G and hit a chord on your Tele: the TLKR will give you the trademark sounds of the Human Riff!
TL 50 & TL 60 Comparison by Alberto Barrero
The first pickups Leo Fender made for the Broadcaster were wound with AWG 43 wiring and were a close relative of the Lap-Steel pickups of the time. The NC49 Set brings that “Mother of all Telecaster Sounds” back to life. The neck pickup has a historically authentic brass cover and has all the original sounds: powerful but somehow more jass intoned than modern Tele pickups. The BCB 49 bridge pickup sounds fuller in the mids thatn the TLB 50 bridge pickup and has that fascinating caramel covering: sweet highs and a sliver of “Brown Sugar” to the bass. The BC 49 Set manages to sweeten the authoritative Fender Blackface Amp with a shot of Tweed.
Das war ja klar. Kaum hatte Till Hoheneder seinen Stratocaster ST 60 Tillcaster Bridgepickup, da bearbeitete er mich solange, bis ich ihm auch einen speziellen Tillcaster-Bridgepickup für seine Toploader Esquire kreierte! Wenn der normale TL 60 Bridge ein Dobermann ist, dann knurrt der TL 60 Tillcaster wie ein Rottweiler!
