Are you looking for the best noiseless Telecaster pickups? Then, you’re in the right place!
Designed and created by Leo Fender in 1950 in California, the Fender Telecaster was the original solid-body bass to go into successful mass production. Though several solid-body electric guitars and basses have witnessed commercial launch following the Telecaster’s introduction, the latter continues to be overwhelmingly popular with perfectionists. The Telecaster is as versatile and handy as the iconic Fender Stratocaster, compatible with most musical genres and styles such as R&B, indie rock, metal, jazz, soul, and country.
The who’s who list of bassists who’ve made the most of the Telecaster is almost endless-Freddie Stone, Roy Buchanan, Danny Gatton, Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Bryant, George Harrison, etc. Nevertheless, the pickup embedded in the Tele makes the instrument reproduce the classic sparkling and snappy notes. So here’s a roundup of the best noiseless Telecaster pickups.
Best Noiseless Telecaster Pickups – Comparison Table
1. Seymour Duncan SHR-1 Hot Rails (Editor’s Choice)
The Seymour Duncan SHR-1’s are the best noiseless Telecaster pickups, in our opinion.
Are you a bassist specializing in rock or heavy metal and looking to captivate your audience with full, powerful audio? Then you can reinforce your audio with the SHR-1 Hot Rails single-coil pickup from Seymour Duncan. Though the Seymour Duncan SHR-1 Hot Rails pickup features a single-coil design, it is as versatile as a double-coil humbucker. In addition, the SHR-1 Hot Rails comes with built-in ceramic magnets, making it a pickup with an amazingly high output.
On the other hand, this single-coil pickup is entirely wax potted and sealed, enabling it to produce a rich tenor with consistent sustain. Featuring two slender blades together with hardwearing coil wounds, the SHR-1 can effortlessly enable the amp to produce robust acoustics. Owing to its extraordinary sensitivity, this Seymour Duncan single-coil pickup instantly responds to very subtle strumming.
The pickup has been painstakingly handcrafted to ensure an impeccable replacement for standardized fender telecaster-size pickups. The SHR-1 Hot Rails guarantees flat tone delivery for rhythm performance and thickset single notes for lead playing. The loaded midrange harmonics and taut low-end offer it crispiness, making this pickup ideal for rock and metal genres.
Features
- Pickup can replace stock pickup in the neck position
- It helps achieve full and heavy tones
- Four conductor cables for multiple wiring options
- The humbucking coil that easily fits into a standard single-coil slot
Pros
- Exceptional noise-cancellation effect
- Functions very much like a humbucker despite being a single-coil pickup
- Â Handmade for rendering the piece as a perfect replacement
Cons
- If you’re not adept in soldering, installation could be problematic.
2. Fender Pure Vintage Reissue Telecaster Pickups (Close Runner-Up)
The notes that the Fender Pure Vintage Reissue Telecaster Pickups help reproduce nearly simulate the chime-like tenor belted out by ’60s telecasters. While the pole pieces with staggered tops furnish a steady response across the strings, the Alnico V magnets guarantee a hard-hitting and firm response. In addition, the magnet wire coated with enamel aids in achieving a warm neutral tone, and the copper bridge plate helps create a chiming effect.
The push-back style waxed cloth wrapping (just as they used to do in the 60s), together with the fiber bobbins, aid in creating a vintage effect. The cloth wounding also relieves you from constantly worrying about harming the wiring or the plastic when uncovering. While a nickel-silver casing shields the neck pickup for boosting clarity, the bridge pickup’s copper-plated steel bottom plate enhances output.
If you’re someone who prefers vintage-style sounds and looking to broaden your bass’s tonal palette, then you pick up these pickups.
Features
- Staggered pole pieces for balancing output and volume
- Wax potted and sealed
- Alnico V magnets for more dynamics
- Fiber bobbin and period-correct cloth wiring and fiber bobbins
- 1-year limited warranty
Pros
- Minimal audio feedback and hum
- Ultra hot, punchy, and concise tunes
- Authentic full-bodied telecaster tone
Cons
- If you prefer cutting-edge tunes, look elsewhere as these produce vintage mojo
- Could get noisy
- A tad pricey
3. EMG T System Prewired Telecaster Guitar Pickup Set
Don’t look any further if you want a seamless replacement for the pickup in your current Thinline telecaster bass. The brand new and upgraded EMG-T System Prewired Telecaster Guitar Pickup Set frees you the hassle of soldering for installation. In addition, this pickup pair features the EMG’s proprietary, and signature T Set, ensuring the delivery of an extraordinarily soft sparkling tone.
If you’re looking for good reasons to choose this pickup set over other top-quality options, then you’ll find many. For a start, installing it is easy, thanks to EMG’s patented Quik-Connect header and mating cable. In addition, every pickup comes with an output jack, battery clip, prewired tone and volume controls, and wiring diagrams.
Every pickup has been designed and engineered with meticulous care so that they can directly replace stock units. The EMG T System package comprises one pickup each for neck and bridge positions along with a control plate system. And unlike most single-coil pickups that invariably reproduce hum or noise to some extent, these are practically noiseless.
Features
- Easily installable: Can be installed without soldering
- Prewired control plate with the preinstalled tone, volume, and switch ports
- Alnico magnets with custom-built windings and coils
- Pickup set replaces the stock system of your Tele
Pros
- It comes equipped with the original EMG T Set ensuring a responsive, sparkling, and whisper-quiet tone
- Perfect replacements for neck and bridge positions
- No audio feedback and hum
- Ideal for a wide range of musical genres, including but not limited to metal, heavy rock, jazz, blues, and R&B
Cons
- Dynamic response remarkably lower compared to standard single-coil pickups
- Many users have reported that installation instructions are imperfect and confusing
4. Seymour Duncan Micro JHLP-Voodoo
The Seymour Duncan Micro JHLP-Voodoo Hendrix Loaded Pickguard keeps classic rock and blues players enraptured, helping deliver a warm vintage tone. At the same, this vintage telecaster pickup keeps that annoying feedback at bay while enabling bassists to create the classy bell tune. With the micro JHLP-Voodoo installed in your Fender Telecaster, you’ll have it easy creating punchy trebles and warm, bursting lows.
Pairing perfectly with Seymour Duncan’s Hot Stack Tele Lead or any vintage stack, this pickup produces an archetypal lead tone keeping the sparkling Tele strum intact. And true to type, the low-end borders on eloquence and snappiness while the highs reflect the classic glitter. The output is unmistakably high but without the annoying hum and also maintains the original Telecaster lead tenor.
Features
- Split-coil
- Active pickup
- Alnico V magnets
- Neck pickup
- Single-size coil designed to work as a humbucker
Pros
- Helps Telecaster delivers the snappy and bell-type notes that Tele players aim to accomplish
- Virtually noiseless
- Vintage tone and output
- Chrome-plated cover for shielding and reducing hum
- 4-conductor lead cables for customized wiring
Cons
- Players not comfortable with installing pickups could find it challenging to set it up.
5. Seymour Duncan SPH9-1N Phat Cat Humbucker Neck Pickup
The Seymour Duncan’s SPH9-1N Phat Cat Humbucker Neck Pickup is your best bet if you want to achieve a P90’s focused bite but have a humbucker-compatible bass. A genuine Gibson single-coil P90 pickup, the SPH9-1N Phat Cat, is a carefully remodeled and modernized humbucker exclusively designed for installing in humbucker-based guitars.
Seymour Duncan had originally fashioned this retrofitted pickup in its custom shop for Hamer guitars, but its heavy demand inspired the manufacturer to opt for consistent production. When in the bridge position, the Phat Cat roars and snarls and glistens and rebounds while in the neck position. Chords have bright, ringing harmonic overtones, while solos have that classic P90 cut and edge.
This pickup uses dual Alnico 2 bar magnets to ensure a more smooth, solid, and sustained attack. On the other hand, the metal casings offer better shielding leading to enhanced audio feedback and hum reduction than classic P90 covers.
Features
- Designed and engineered in the US: high-quality P90 pickup
- A retrofitted humbucker-style pickup that reproduces classic P90 tone
- Solid metal casing offers excellent shielding for feedback elimination
- Ideal for heavy rock, classic rock, blues, jazz, and country players
Pros
- Seamlessly upgrades the stock neck pickup of a telecaster
- Two Alnico bar magnets for an even and consistent attack
- Good rebound when in the neck position and growls when in bridge
Cons
- If you’re aiming for a heavier and more thickset tone characteristic of a humbucker, look elsewhere
- Strictly speaking noise reduction effect (owing to the metal cover) is hardly noticeable.
6. Fleor M00022-3 Telecaster Pickup
If you want to replace the neck pickups installed in your existing Tele with a performance-driven and pocket-friendly pickup, then buy the Fleor M00022-3 Telecaster Pickup. Â This pickup for the neck position comes integrated with wax potted and sealed Alnico 5 magnets that do away with feedback and hum. The package also comes with springs and screws that allow you to set up the pickup quickly and with minimal effort.
This Telecaster pickup from Fleor helps reproduce the vintage 50s and 60s twangs that sound perfectly clean and balanced. You’ll love the bite and tonality that this telecaster pickup enables the amp to reproduce. At the same time, you’ll be pleasantly surprised that this Fleor Telecaster neck pickup tends to be remarkably quieter compared to the ones that came with your guitar.
Features
- Fender Telecaster neck pickup replacement
- Alnico 5 magnet
- Wax potted and sealed for minimizing feedback and hum
- Black ABS plastic bobbin
- 2pcs spring, 2pcs screws for quick installation
Pros
- The fat and extraordinarily clean guitar tone
- Vintage Tele twang
- Superb bite and tonality
Cons
- You could experience microphonics to an extent
- Despite the manufacturer’s claim the quality of wax sealing is poor
- The enameled wires tend to be flimsy and hence vulnerable to snapping easily
7. Fleor Dual Hot Rail Humbucker
The Dual Hot Rail pickup from Fleor functions as efficiently as any high-quality humbucker despite featuring a single-size coil design. In addition, the two magnet bars serving as pole pieces can furnish comprehensive shielding that eventually helps minimize hum while the prewired setup facilitates noise cancellation.
Features
- Dual Hot Rail twin coil humbucker style telecaster pickup
- Ceramic magnets
- Includes springs and screws for easy install
- White ABS plastic bobbin
Pros
- Vacuum sealed and wax potted for reducing hum
- Sounds articulate and sparkling in the bridge position
- The tone of a high-output single-coil perfect for 70s hard rock, classic punk, and jazz
Cons
- It does not come with wiring instructions, so that that wiring could be an issue for many players.
8. Seymour Duncan Vintage Stack Tele Set
The Seymour Duncan Vintage Stack Tele pickup set helps eliminate the irritating buzz and feedback while maintaining the classic Telecaster sparkle and twang. Telecaster specialists consider the bite and the chime the Holy Grail, which this Seymour Duncan vintage stack telecaster pickup guarantees. The lows are full and warm, and the treble response has that classic spank.
This pickup lets you access the vivacious leads and the harmonious musical tones all through the bass’s fretboard. While the high tends to be pleasantly radiant, the lows come across as characteristically expressive and snappy. The Vintage Stack Tele Set helps you achieve that archetypal lead tenor replete with the whole gamut of sparking Telecaster strum.
And you can rest assured that this classic stack telecaster set will keep out the exasperating feedback associated with single-coils.
Features
- Soundless Tele neck pickup
- Also replaces bridge piece of Telecaster
- Animated leads and excellent harmonics across the strings
Pros
- Warm and flat lows and biting treble response
- Clean and robust balanced tone
- Four conductor cables for convenience in setting up
Cons
- It can get unbearably loud when you turn up the amp’s volume knob
How to Get Rid of Pickup Humming on Telecaster Guitars
Irritating hum and feedback from the amplifiers or loudspeakers is an annoying and all-too-common issue that bassists face more often. But, unfortunately, you have to put up with undesirable noise and buzz regardless of whether you’re performing live or recording in a studio. And it is not a problem peculiar to electric Telecaster guitars only; even acoustic guitars equipped with pickups can produce hum.
Any element in an acoustic or electric guitar’s signal chain can pick up buzz or feedback due to unbalanced input and output in the instrument’s circuitry.
Major Sources of Hum on Tele
- The AC (alternating current) in the electrical wiring creates electromagnetic fields inductively with the guitar’s magnet coils picked up by the guitar’s pickup and conductors. The (60Hz) signal generated by the conductors is relayed to the amp or mixer, which then amplifies the signal resulting in hum
- Guitars can quickly detect RFI (radio-frequency interference) from TV transmitters, motors, and computers in the vicinity
- Formation of circuit or ground loop owing to the hooking up of mixers or amplifiers in series via a cable shield causes the flow of a 60Hz current (signal), leading to irritating buzz.
Helpful Last-Minute Tips and Quick Fixes for Eliminating Hum
- Keep moving from one spot to another in the room until you’re in a spot where the hum is virtually nonexistent
- Turn up the treble and volume controls of your bass for superseding the signal picked up by the guitar’s and amp’s cables
- To eliminate buzz across different notes, try the gate
- Set the amp’s polarity switch on the amp to the lowest (hum) position
- Power up the guitar amp through the outlet strip of the mixer
The above is not an exhaustive list as there are numerous other ways to eliminate or reduce hum.
Conclusion: The Best Noiseless Telecaster Pickups
So there you’ve it-the eight best noiseless Telecaster pickups; four from Seymour Duncan, two from Fleor, and one each from Fender and EMG.
If you’re looking for a quality replacement for the neck or bridge pickup of your Telecaster, then settle for Fender or the Seymour Duncan models. And if you want something pocket-friendly without compromising the quality front, go for the Fleor pickups.
However, if we had to pick “the one,” we would say that the Seymour Duncan SHR-1 Hot Rails are the best noiseless pickups for Telecaster available on the market at the moment.