Skip to main content
Music Radar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Artist news
  • Guitar Amps
  • Guitar Pedals
  • Synths
  • Guitars
  • Drums
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Software & Apps
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • EVH trance state
  • Antonoff on Please Please Please
  • “Mick looked peeved. The Beatles had upstaged him”
  • 95k+ free music samples

Recommended reading

Fender Player II Modified Series
Guitars Fender remixes its blockbuster Player II range with the Modified Series and got IDLES to demo them
Legendary guitarist Robbie McIntosh (Paul McCartney/the Pretenders) plays a butterscotch Telecaster in the Monty's workshop as he demos his new signature pickup set.
Guitars Robbie McIntosh and Monty’s new pickup set offers best of both worlds for Esquire and Tele fans
Lollar Pickups Super-Caster
Guitars Lollar’s Super-Caster pickup set is here – three single-coils to rule the world?
Brent Mason
Guitarists “I thought, 'Well, now I have a Strat, a Les Paul, and a regular Tele all in one’”: How a top session player struck gold
Seymour Duncan Jazzmaster Silencer Pickups: these aftermarket pickups feature a patent-pending triple-coil design and are drop-in replacements for any standard Jazzmaster pickup.
Guitars Seymour Duncan unveils the Jazzmaster Silencer, drop-in pickups to soup-up your offset
Fender Player II Advanced FSR
Guitars Seymour Duncans, ebony fingerboards? Fender launches Player II Advanced Telecaster HH and Strat HSS
Fender American Vintage II Series 2025 new models: a still from Fender's promo video pictures the '51 Tele in Prototype White, the '57 Strat in Black, P-Bass in Olympic White, the exquisite all-new '65 Stratocaster in Candy Apple Red (one of three finish options) and the '66 Jazzmaster in Sherwood Green Metallic.
Guitars Affordable retro mojo: Fender expands American Vintage II series with fresh finishes and new models
  1. Guitars
  2. Guitar Accessories & Components
  3. Guitar Pickups

Guitar modding: how to change pickups on a Telecaster

Tuition
By Jack Ellis ( Total Guitar ) last updated 7 May 2020

Supercharge your Telecaster’s sound with a single-coil swap

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Changing a pickup can really rejuvenate your old guitar, and with the Telecaster design there are hundreds of choices for upgrades - you can certainly beat those stock pickups.

Don't Miss

How to solder guitar parts

The Telecaster isn’t the easiest guitar to swap pickups on, we will admit, as you’ve got to de-string and take the bridge off to do it. We will take you through the DIY method to get you twanging your heart away...

To avoid confusion we’re going to call the neck pickup the ‘rhythm pickup’ and the bridge pickup the ‘lead pickup’. This guide will also cover two different types of lead pickup.

The patient of choice is a Fender ‘Tele-bration’ Bamboo Tele (a bit of a rarity!) and we’re upgrading to some swish ’64 Telecaster pickups. The ’64 pickups feature a copper backplate on the rear of the lead pickup, which saves a step. For the sake of this demo we’ve shown you how to solder a plastic baseplate lead pickup too. Get your screwdrivers out and soldering iron on!

  • Explore the best electric guitar pickups right now

Tools

  • New set of pickups
  • 40-watt soldering iron
  • Soldering iron tip cleaner
  • Soldering protector mat
  • Safety goggles
  • Handy helper clip
  • Wire strippers
  • Wire cutters PH1 and PH2 screwdrivers
  • Backup wiring diagram
  • A fresh set of strings
Page 1 of 13
Page 1 of 13

Let’s get stuck in by chopping your old strings off. With your fretboard exposed, this is a good time to clean it. 

On Telecasters, the rhythm pickup can be attached to the pickguard or screwed into the body. Whip off the ’guard with your PH1 screwdriver, making sure that you don’t lose any of the small parts.

Page 2 of 13
Page 2 of 13

We had the rhythm pickup mounted to the pickguard. This means that height adjustment is easier to do. 

If you have a rhythm pickup that is screwed into the body you will have to take off the pickguard to set the rhythm pickup height. Carefully remove the old rhythm pickup - don’t yank the wires yet!

Page 3 of 13
Page 3 of 13

The telecaster bridge is unique and has to be removed to take the lead pickup out. The PH2 screwdriver seems to fit most of these longer screws nicely. 

Be wary of the torque that these are tightened up to (that’s the twisting force); when we screw these back in, we don’t want to over-tighten them and strip the screws.

Page 4 of 13
Page 4 of 13

The bridge should pop off now. We had difficulty as the bridge was stuck to the lacquer!

Be very careful and don’t be tempted to jam a screwdriver in as you’ll damage the finish. It won’t be glued on, trust us. Sometimes wax is used under there as a neat way of reducing microphonic feedback.

Page 5 of 13
Page 5 of 13

Loosen the pickup bolts (PH2 again) but be mindful of the solder tag that may be hanging off. 

Make sure this won’t spin and trash the delicate coil wires as you unscrew it. The solder tag is used to connect the pickup’s ‘ground wire’ to the bridge itself, as this helps to reduce humming in the circuit.

Page 6 of 13
Page 6 of 13

Our rhythm pickup and lead pickup are still hanging on! Unscrew the control plate and stash the screws. 

This DIY protector mat comes in handy at the workshop. It’s an old bar runner mat from a pub but it’s heat and solder-proof. Each Tele is different, so you may have different colours and other wires inside there.

Page 7 of 13
Page 7 of 13

Chop, chop! We’ve got to figure out which wires are the ones belonging to our old pickups, give them a light tug and you’ll see. 

True singlecoils will have two wires coming from them: a ‘hot’ and a ‘ground’ but sometimes there’s a third that is soldered to the back of a pot. If there is, chop that off too.

Page 8 of 13
Page 8 of 13

Some Teles have an extra wire trapped under the chrome bridge - this is the ‘bridge ground’ wire and is connected to earth. 

The old lead pickup had a plastic base plate, which needed the solder tag to join the earth wire to the bridge. If you are putting in another pickup with a plastic base, replace this solder tag.

Page 9 of 13
Page 9 of 13

If you need the solder tag, the order for the parts is: bolt > bridge > solder tag > rubber/spring > pickup. 

Make sure that the solder tag can’t spin and wreck your lovely new pickup. If you have a metal base plate on your new pickup there should be a small jumper wire connecting the ground wire already, so this is not needed!

Page 10 of 13
Page 10 of 13

Reassemble the neck pickup into the pickguard and feed the wires into the control cavity. 

Reinstall the bridge doing up all the screws to the same tightness it was before. It’s starting to look like a Tele again!

Page 11 of 13
Page 11 of 13

Time to solder the new connections in. Tin each of the new pickup wires with a small amount of solder then pop them onto the same terminals they came from. 

If you’ve forgotten, you can check your diagram. Two will be on the three-way switch and the other two will go to the back of a pot.

Page 12 of 13
Page 12 of 13

Quick test: plug the Tele in to an amp and gently tap test the pickup by tapping a screwdriver onto the pole pieces. 

You can check that the switch isn’t back to front and the volume and tone controls work. If your pickups are back to front, just swap the two hot wires on the three-way switch.

Page 13 of 13
Page 13 of 13
Jack Ellis
Jack Ellis
Social Links Navigation

Jack runs an independent guitar setup and guitar repair service in Manchester, England. He serves the musicians of the Northwest of England, working on electric guitars, bass guitars, acoustic guitars and more. Jack has been writing the Fix Your Guitar column in Total Guitar Magazine since 2017.

Read more
Fender Player II Modified Series
Fender remixes its blockbuster Player II range with the Modified Series and got IDLES to demo them
Legendary guitarist Robbie McIntosh (Paul McCartney/the Pretenders) plays a butterscotch Telecaster in the Monty's workshop as he demos his new signature pickup set.
Robbie McIntosh and Monty’s new pickup set offers best of both worlds for Esquire and Tele fans
Lollar Pickups Super-Caster
Lollar’s Super-Caster pickup set is here – three single-coils to rule the world?
Brent Mason
“I thought, 'Well, now I have a Strat, a Les Paul, and a regular Tele all in one’”: How a top session player struck gold
Seymour Duncan Jazzmaster Silencer Pickups: these aftermarket pickups feature a patent-pending triple-coil design and are drop-in replacements for any standard Jazzmaster pickup.
Seymour Duncan unveils the Jazzmaster Silencer, drop-in pickups to soup-up your offset
Fender Player II Advanced FSR
Seymour Duncans, ebony fingerboards? Fender launches Player II Advanced Telecaster HH and Strat HSS
Latest in Guitar Pickups
Legendary guitarist Robbie McIntosh (Paul McCartney/the Pretenders) plays a butterscotch Telecaster in the Monty's workshop as he demos his new signature pickup set.
Robbie McIntosh and Monty’s new pickup set offers best of both worlds for Esquire and Tele fans
Richard Fortus onstage against a bright blue background, playing his signature Gretsch Falcon
“Well this is a first…”: Richard Fortus says it was so hot in Saudi Arabia that his pickups melted
Kramer 2024
Kramer delivers the face-melting shred candy with six refreshed electrics, all with US-made pickups
Fender Chrome Cobalt P/J Bass pickups
Fender releases Tim Shaw-designed Chrome Cobalt power-up for the P/J bass guitar in your life
Fender Jason Isbell Telecaster Pickup Set
Fender and Jason Isbell team up for Tim Shaw-designed pickups to sweeten your Telecaster tone
Seymour Duncan Phat Cat P-90 Noiseless
Seymour Duncan makes a great pickup even better as it gives the Phat Cat P-90 the Silencer treatment
Latest in Tuition
Piano basics: the black notes - what are they for and how do you use them?
Circle of fifths
The ultimate guide to the circle of fifths and how it can help you make better music
From Parlour to Jumbo: The beginner's guide to acoustic guitar body shapes (and which one is right for you)
Tokyo Dawn Records Nova
Fantastic (free) plugins and how to use them: TDR Nova
Podcasting
The head of Audacity shares his top 5 tips for beginner podcasters
Pedalboard
The ultimate guide to pedal board essentials (and what order to put them in)

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...