Question: Poll: Telecaster neck pickup is a lipstick pickup…

How many here refer to a tele neck pickup as a lipstick pickup?

  • Total voters
    27
  • Poll closed .
I never considered a metal covered pickup as the definition of a lipstick pickup, and that includes the telecaster neck pickup. Telecaster pickups have a base bobbin with coiled wire, magnetic poles, and a metal cover on top. A real lipstick pickup is a bar magnet and wire coil directly wound on it with the whole shebang fully contained inside a metal tube. It is a fundamentally different design, and that likely drives the sound differences.
 
Motorik said:
While we're talking about Telecaster neck pickups, are any of you big fans? It seems really common for people to swap them for some other type of pickup, but I really love my tele neck pickup and use it a lot.
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I heard people say they’re useless but that’s where I find classic tele sounds, alone or split with the bridge. Which is why I got a tele with a tele pickup set.
 
DinoMikeSr said:
I heard people say they’re useless but that’s where I find classic tele sounds, alone or split with the bridge. Which is why I got a tele with a tele pickup set.
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I love the neck pickup for Stones stuff. I also use it all the time for rockabilly. The solo from 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' is classic tele neck tone, Brian May wouldn't have got that from the Red Special, and it sounds a lot different from the tele bridge.

David Lindley on Jackson Browne's 'Late For The Sky' also has a holy grail tele neck sound.

So yeah, I'm a big fan of the traditional tele neck pickup.
 
I like my Teles to sound like Teles. There are a ton of great neck pickups to choose from. I think some of the basis for the hatred of the neck pup goes back to the early wiring scheme, which was detrimental to the neck tone and made it sound flat and muffled. Unless you have a real early 50's Tele, this probably isn't an issue.
 
First of all, they sound nothing alike.
2nd the construction is totally different.

I had this MF Rouge Tele copy I got back circa 2000’ that I modded with 2 GFS lipsticks and painted Krylon Satin shell pink.
It sounded remarkably like a Dano but with better construction. I eventually became bored with it, the neck was like a 12-14 radius. It was a plywood top loader that never had much sustain and never really felt like a Tele. The lipsticks were a big improvement, at least they gave it some character. I gave it away to the 13 yr old granddaughter of a contractor who did a lot of work on my studio.
 
Motorik said:
I love the neck pickup for Stones stuff. I also use it all the time for rockabilly. The solo from 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' is classic tele neck tone, Brian May wouldn't have got that from the Red Special, and it sounds a lot different from the tele bridge.

David Lindley on Jackson Browne's 'Late For The Sky' also has a holy grail tele neck sound.

So yeah, I'm a big fan of the traditional tele neck pickup.
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I remember watching an old Queen concert (Montreal maybe?) and Brian switches to a tele for Crazy Little Thing. One of the few songs he doesn't use his Red Special.
 
Motorik said:
While we're talking about Telecaster neck pickups, are any of you big fans? It seems really common for people to swap them for some other type of pickup, but I really love my tele neck pickup and use it a lot.
Click to expand...

I like the sound but I think it looks quirky. You know, much like a tyrannosaurus which I suppose were very, very dangerous animals but had these tiny arms.
 
335clone said:
I like my Teles to sound like Teles. There are a ton of great neck pickups to choose from. I think some of the basis for the hatred of the neck pup goes back to the early wiring scheme, which was detrimental to the neck tone and made it sound flat and muffled. Unless you have a real early 50's Tele, this probably isn't an issue.
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My first tele pickup was very weak and muddy, altho to be fair is was a very cheap tele shaped object, the MF Rouge that eventually got the lipsticks. When I built my partscaster I went with a Strat pickup in the neck. Its a good sound, but since then Ive learned there are actually very good tele neck pickups available. One of these days I might get a new pickguard for the partscaster with a real tele neck pickup.
 
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