Fender 51 Nocaster Pickup Set

I have a Fender American Deluxe Telecaster which has the SCN pickups. Personally I think they sound very good, but it's true that they don't have the brightness and twang of single coil pickups and there is always a hint of humbucker tone with them. I have had an on-off, love-hate relationship with the guitar because of this since I bought it in 2006. I finally decided to replace the SCNs with Fender 51 Nocasters.

Actually, this was my second attempt to get a tone I would be happy with. My first attempt was with Lollar Vintage Ts. I was full of hope that installing such highly regarded (and very expensive) pickups would perform a magical transformation and give me the guitar of my dreams. It was a very salutary lesson, that putting the worlds best pickups into a modern American guitar does not make it sound like a 52 Tele. The Lollars were really good, but they were very bright and had tremendous sustain, neither of which I really wanted.

So, this time, with the Nocasters, my expectations were more modest. I expected that the fundamental character of the guitar would remain unchanged, but I would get the brightness and twang that is missing with the SCNs. That, indeed, turned out to be the case. The pickups are very well suited to the American Deluxe (or Standard, which is fundamentally the same guitar) and tonally are very similar to the SCNs. They are full bodied and warm, but they have more brightness, twang and noise. I've been able to compare by guitar to an American Standard Tele with Twisted Tele and Broadcaster pickups. In truth, there isn't much to choose between them and I would have been happy with either, I preferred the Nocaster.

The thing I am not happy about is the set of fittings that came with the pickups, which are only for vintage style Teles. The screws for the neck pickup just plain do not fit a modern Tele. They are too long for the body cavity and too thin for the pickguard. Maybe I'm being picky, but I think that providing the right kind of fittings for both styles of Tele is a fundamental requirement that Fender should have met.