'68 Telecaster Pickup

Monty’s ’68 Tele set is our recreation of a late 60’s Tele set. Crafted to be as close to the originals as physically possible and modelled on the pickups from a really lovely 1968 tele, these pickups are really nice and glassy, and firm favourites here at Monty’s HQ.

The general consensus is the post-1965 Fender guitars are inferior to their 50’s and early 60’s counterparts. We firmly disagree; whilst we’ve played many simply outrageous examples of early Fenders over the years, some of the best Teles to come through our workshop have actually been from the late 60’s. In particular, we’ve played several absolute beasts from 1968. We carefully analysed (with permission!) the pickups from these guitars and have recreated them in our ’68 Tele set.

Much like their Strat counterparts, late 60’s tele pickups have a slightly lower output and simply unrivalled top-end chime. This comes from their thinner magnets, which combine with the use of less wire to give a slightly narrower coil. This scoops out the mids slightly and boosts the top end, making these pickups wonderful for sparkling cleans. They also sound great driven, the bridge pickup, in particular, having a gloriously edgy top-end that manages to be bright without ever straying in ‘ice-pick’ territory. This gives these pickups real attitude and combines with their outstanding responsiveness to make them an incredibly rewarding set to play.

Just like the originals, these pickups are lacquer potted. This means that, rather than being dipped in wax, the coil is sealed with a very thin layer of lacquer. This keeps all but the very outside of the coil free from wax, resulting in an incredibly dynamic, responsive pickup. Traditionally, the downside of this potting technique is that many vintage examples get very microphonic. We’ve rectified this by giving the metalwork a light wax treatment, ensuring that these pickups won’t start squealing when you turn the gain up without compromising on their unique lacquer potted character.

Hand-wound here in the UK using period-correct 43-gauge (neck) and 42-gauge (bridge) Plain Enamel wire.

Neck: Alnico V, 6.8k

Bridge- Alnico V, 6.6k