Fender Custom Shop 51 Nocaster PU 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.

I bought these to upgrade the pick ups in my Squire Affinity Telecaster. The standard pick ups were lacking, but thats not surprising considering the low price.

The Nocasters arrived in 3 days, which i was very pleased about. They were packaged very well and obviously with some thought. I was immediately impressed with the service from Thomann.

I fitted them with no problems, but its worth pointing out that they come with slot head screws rather than cross head, must be for that vintage vibe i guess.

I was immediately blown away by the difference in sound quality - The neck pickup on a clean setting is just superb, the wooliness of the Squire pick up was gone and replaced by such clarity and full bodiedness, its difficult to put into words just how good it sounds.

The neck pickup is equally as good - It still twangs like anything if you want it to, but its got a fullness to it that is just perfect. The two combined is even better, this guitar with my Blackstar amp can give me pretty much any tone i need, apart from high gain metal (but thats not really what these pick ups are about).

I can think of no downside to these, for the money i think they are superb, and i really doubt you could get better no matter how much you spend. My cheap Squire now sounds as good as any Fender, and i'm chuffed to bits.
If you are considering a set of these just buy them, they really are as good as people say.

I recently acquired a pretty good 50s style tele (maple neck, light weight swamp ash body) that originally came with slightly overwound pickups that were a tad too hot and noisy for my taste. Replaced these with a set of Kinman noiseless pickups first, and while the bridge and middle position sounded great, the neck pickup by itself sounded way too dark and woolly. I wanted that vintage sound, so I decided to try another set. After a good deal of research, I narrowed the choice down to either the Fender Nocasters or a set of Lollars costing twice as much. I opted for the Nocasters and have no regrets whatsoever -- these are perfect for the vintage goodness! Both neck and bridge sound full, clear and articulate. Neck is warm and deep, bridge has just the right bite and twang, middle position is rock'n'roll heaven. Not too noisy either. Finally my tele has the sound and versatility I always wanted it to have -- it will do the jazzy hollowbody-ish tones, the rock(abilly) and the country picking, no sweat. Will recommend these without hesitation, and if I ever buy another tele that needs an upgrade, I will buy another set of Fender Nocasters without further thought.

I have put these pick-ups in my MIJ Fender Rosewood Telecaster (1990/1995). The main reason for me to change the pick-ups was the fact that I was never happy with the sound of the bridge pickup. The choice for the 51 Nocaster set was mainly the positive reviews on the internet and last but not least Thomann's customer reviews.
The change was simple and I was able to re-use all the screws and springs from the original pick-ups. However, as this was the first time I saw the electronics I am pretty sure that the person who installed the original pickups must either have had a pretty bad hangover or first day on the job as the soldering was very, very sloppy indeed.
In any case once the 51 Nocaster pick-ups were installed I was of course curious for the sound, please note that most of the time I do play clean sounds and very little overdrive or distortion. Strings I use are D'Addario EXL110 (.010 - .046).
The sound was simply, for my ears, amazing. This is how I wanted my Tele to sound. The guitar is alive now, more volume, great clarity, nice tone definitions and one can clearly hear the wood. All positions sound excellent and have a purpose, which was certainly NOT the case with the original pick-ups. I had a hard time putting the guitar down and I kept falling in love with the sound each time I changed from neck to both to bridge pick-up. Long story short, in my case this was the best I have done to my Tele and felt very good about my choice as it worked out well beyond my expectations. In other words: a no brainer.
PS.: Thanks to the Thomann reviewers as they did help me with my decision to go for the 51 Nocaster set.