Telecaster Pickup Installation Made Easy (a step-by-step guide)

[@dbajpeyi]

Thanks for not overcomplicating it and saving me hours.

[@joeahmed9465]

keep coming here just to see your tele, looks cool man!

[@moose6676]

Thanks for a brilliant demonstration, you have just saved me money, and a trip to my guitar tech 👍🏻 cool telecaster by the way. 👍🏻Subscribed 👍🏻

[@coilsboutiquepickups]

Thank you very much!

[@79943]

Excellent job of showing how to do this. Very helpful to me right now. Thanks for posting. I cringed a couple times when your fingers were so close to those solder joints. I could smell the heat and feel it in my finger tips!

[@coilsboutiquepickups]

Thank you for your kind words. I've been doing this for so many years and have really thick skin.. 😉

[@lazvt8469]

There is something about a Tele that's been beat to schiff....I like it!

[@ross302ci]

Teles truly look their ugliest in the show room. Better with every ding.

[@coilsboutiquepickups]

I totally agree

[@ThomasGilmore-fi6gb]

Good thing that you're not responsible for handling a saxophone.

[@dvdean]

Super easy to follow and straight forward. thank you!

[@maurotortora]

Great, very clear, detailed and helpful! Top!

[@gabehizer111]

Very helpful! I'm following along with my Tele on the bench....

[@coilsboutiquepickups]

Thank you very much

[@RokDAWG1]

Nice work! I dig that guitar!

[@07Cessna]

Thank you very much for your nice video. Your guidance helped me a lot. Best regards from Germany.

[@coilsboutiquepickups]

Vielen Dank

[@FingalPersson]

god tips to cut the cables to remember where the wiring goes, saves you the trouble using the phone to take a picture :P

[@TonyDevalt]

Hello and thanks for the awesome video it was vrey helpful. I was also wondering if you could draw or show me how to connect my 2 active humbucker pickups to my Tele controller plate? Thanks!!

[@coilsboutiquepickups]

Sure, send me a few photos of the guitar and electronics and I'll try to help out

[@jeffhilliardmusic1767]

Great video! 2 questions if you wouldn’t mind. I have a noiseless fender in the neck but installing a lil 59 in the bridge. Should I switch hot and ground in the 59 bc it would be out of phase? Also, is there a need for a ground to the base plate of bridge to the bridge cavity and then ending at the volume pot?

[@coilsboutiquepickups]

First question: You will need to connect the pickups and put on some strings to check the phase issues. Second question: I really recommend you ground the bridge when using those pickups.

[@rudivorster4442]

Thanks for the video, very clear! However, when I touch my neck pickup cover, there's a buzz? Do I need to ground the cover? Thanks

[@coilsboutiquepickups]

Yes. You do need to ground the cover. Usually, tele neck pickup covers are already soldered to the pickup eyelet. If so, you have installed the wire opposite, and you should switch between the hot and the ground of both pickups

[@toneranger]

Cool tutorial 👍🏻thank you for sharing. Is it possible to install a Strat style 2 screw single coil in the Tele bridge plate position which would require a triangular style 3 screw pickup, is there an adapter plate required? Thanks 👍🏻

[@coilsboutiquepickups]

It would be easier to convert a tele style bobbin to sound more like a strat pickup than to modify a strat pickup to fit onto a tele guitar... Also, the spacing of the strat pickup is much smaller than a tele pickup

[@toneranger]

@@coilsboutiquepickups thanks a mil for your kind replyl, I was looking to install a standard 2 screw hot rail in a Tele 3 screw bridge position, but it looks like an adapter doesn't exist

[@coilsboutiquepickups]

​@@toneranger Sure, I also don't know of an existing adapter...

[@toneranger]

@@coilsboutiquepickups cheers 👍🏻

[@gazzie12000]

Great video, very clear - thank you! I have a Fender Made in Japan 62 Telecaster with two wires sitting under the bridge plate, ie soldered to the body on a strip of copper wire. Obviously they are ground wires, grounding to the plate - and they are making it impossible to get the bridge plate flat against the body. I see you do not have these at all - are they likely to be the pickup grounds? Or something else? I know people say you need a ground wire under the bridge plate but you don't have this, so should I disconnect these wires, and resolder to the volume pot like you did? Or might they be something else?

[@coilsboutiquepickups]

Well, the pickup on my guitar has a base plate that grounds the entire bridge. If you do not have a base plate on your pickup you should ground the bridge using wires. For those kind of cases I usually use a copper shielding tape to ground the bridge - it's super flat and won't cause any gap between the bridge and the body.

[@gazzie12000]

@@coilsboutiquepickups Many thanks for replying. The copper tape (I said wire above, but I meant tape!) is as flat as can be, as you say, but there are 2 "bulges" where the wires have been soldered to the tape. Those two solder/wire lumps are what is preventing the bridge plate laying flat. My bridge pickup has a metal base plate. I only just bought this Tele 2nd hand (2 weeks ago) and it had Texas Specials added by the first owner. It sounds to me as though he has added earth/ground wires that he didn't need? I haven't taken it all apart - sounds like I need to do that and trace where they both go? In your opinion as I have a metal base on my bridge pickup, should there be any ground wire needed under my bridge plate? I think I need one from neck pickup (cover?) to the volume pot, but do I need any other ground wire at all?

[@coilsboutiquepickups]

@gazzie12000 According to what you're saying - no, it seems that you don't need any additional grounding except for the base plate of the bridge pickup and the neck pickup cover is usually soldered to ground straight out of the pickup's wire. You can send me some photos of the bottom of your pickups to [e-mail] so I can be sure of what is going on there.

[@gazzie12000]

@@coilsboutiquepickups Thanks, yes I understand. I'm going to have a look over the next few days, when I've got time to take it apart and trace the wires back. From the video and your advice, I think I can probably work out what to do, definitely there's something not right, and 2 wires grounding to bridge plate is certainly wrong!. In terms of the bridge plate, at most it should be one ground from controls (volume pot) to underside of bridge plate I think., and usually just bare wire lying between body and plate. So I'll see where those existing 2 soldered wires are coming from. But if I'm unsure what to do I'll be in touch - many thanks for the video and the advice!!

[@coilsboutiquepickups]

@@gazzie12000 happy to assist. Take care

[@rickylakemusic]

what temp do you have your solder iron? I have just gotten a tele CLONE and wish to install alnico fives and a six saddle bridge along with roller string trees I also ordered. your video allowed me to have the confidence to goat head and do it meself. I have subscribed and will look for all your vids. thank you for helping folkes like myself mod up their axes. you are a goode man I do believe. now send me that dollar for talkin' you up... addy is below..

[@coilsboutiquepickups]

Hhhaaaa, thank you for that. I use a temp of 400 Celsius.

[@rickylakemusic]

@@coilsboutiquepickups I used that temp and soldered like a pro. Just got an iron with a temp dial. Decided against alnico fives. I have those in my strat copy and gonna keep the stock pups that came with the tele.

[@andyg901]

Which temperatures were you using?

[@coilsboutiquepickups]

400°c

[@andyg901]

@@coilsboutiquepickups thank you! That will definitely help me :)

[@Dbj5555555]

Shielding would be nice

[@Chicken853]

Does it work the same way with Humbucker.

[@coilsboutiquepickups]

Basically, yes.

[@Rob-fn1lm]

Why can't you cut the wire at the pick-up end would that be easier

[@yoeltal3089]

Suoercool!

[@davidkaplan5517]

yeah I'll just take it to a professional shop lol

[@coilsboutiquepickups]

lol