Yesterday I took off the pickguard of my MIM Telecaster to confirm the neck pickup cavity had been routed to accommodate a standard humbucker or a P90. As I expected, it had. I don’t think my Classic Vibe 60s Thinline Telecaster has the large cavity but I haven’t looked yet.
I want to change out the neck pickup in one of my Telecasters. There’s nothing wrong with the stock pickups. But I’ve been mostly playing jazz on my Teles and a Charlie Christian pickup would be really nice. Alas, I would have to rout my MIM neck cavity to get a CC pickup into the guitar. So, maybe just a P90, or a CC in a humbucker size. Maybe I’d even just try a different telecaster pickup. The problem is, there are too many pickups that I haven’t heard.
It’s an age-old problem. How can you make a decision about purchasing a new pickup or guitar if you’ve never heard it, can’t find it locally, and all of the online video and audio samples are from musical genres you don’t like, played through equipment you don’t own or want?
The best solution might be to take a chance on an unknown product and return it if it doesn’t suit you. But, published specifications can help. This brings me to today’s rant. Most pickup specifications give DC resistance and the material used for the magnets. It’s better than nothing, but not by much. There are a bunch of different measurements that can be made on guitar pickups, but the inductance is the one most correlated with the sound you will get from a pickup. Inductance (L), measured in Henries (H), won’t tell you everything but is a much better guide than DC resistance (R) measured in K Ohms.
The problem is too few pickup makers publish the inductance values for their pickups. If most guitarists believe knowing the resistance and type of magnet is all they need to know, why would a manufacturer provide inductance values? It’s a question of marketing.
The meaning of inductance in Henries is probably closer to what most guitarists believe resistance means. A higher H reading for a pickup is associated with a darker and louder sound (reduced highs, more output).
There are many resources on the internet that can explain pickup physics better than me. I just want a better idea of what pickup I should put in the neck of my Telecaster to replace the stock pickup. If you want to learn more about inductance and other parameters, see the following:
- • The Secrets of Electric Guitar Pickups.
- • Pickup Inductance.
- • Electrical Parameters and Pickup Performance, Part II – Inductance
Fender, Lollar, TV Jones, and Tonerider publish inductance values in addition to DC resistance and type of magnet for most or all of their pickups. Here’s some data I’ve found on their websites.
| Make | Model | Pos | Mag | Size | R | L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tone | Vintage 90 (P90) | N | A2 | P90 | 7.60 | 6.60 |
| Loll | Standard P90 | N | A5 | P90 | 8.20 | 6.50 |
| Loll | Charlie Christian | N | A2 | CC | 3.20 | 5.90 |
| Loll | CC for HB | N | A2 | HB | 2.90 | 5.50 |
| Fend | CuNiFe Wide Range HB | N | CNF | WHB | 10.10 | 4.20 |
| TVJo | T-90™ | N | ? | TV | 6.10 | 4.20 |
| Loll | Imperial HB | N | A2 | HB | 7.60 | 4.09 |
| Loll | Imperial Low Wind HB | N | A2 | HB | 7.00 | 3.61 |
| Tone | Rebel 90 (P90 HB size) | N | A2 | HB | 8.40 | 3.40 |
| TVJo | T-Armond™ (soapbar) | N | ? | TV | 7.80 | 3.38 |
| Fend | Vintage Noiseless Tele | N | A2 | T | 12.00 | 3.30 |
| Fend | Shaw Hot 50's Tele | N | A5 | P90 | 8.00 | 3.16 |
| Fend | Ultra Noiseless™ Vintage Tele® | N | A5 | T | 11.30 | 2.75 |
| Fend | Custom Shop Texas Special | N | A5 | T | 9.00 | 2.73 |
| Tone | Hot Classics | N | A3 | T | 7.10 | 2.70 |
| Loll | Vintage T | N | A5 | T | 6.30 | 2.50 |
| TVJo | Starwood Tele | N | ? | T | 7.40 | 2.45 |
| Tone | Alnico 2 Blues | N | A2 | T | 5.60 | 2.30 |
| Fend | Gen 4 Noiseless Tele | N | A5 | T | 10.60 | 2.30 |
| Fend | Custom Shop ’51 Nocaster | N | A3 | T | 7.10 | 2.19 |
| Loll | 52 T Series | N | A2 | T | 6.70 | 2.10 |
| Fend | Vintera '60s Vintage Tele | N | A5 | T | 7.50 | 2.06 |
| Tone | Vintage Plus | N | A5 | T | 7.10 | 1.90 |
| TVJo | Super'Tron | N | ? | TV | 4.00 | 1.81 |
| Loll | Mini HB | N | A5 | MHB | 6.10 | 1.80 |
| TVJo | TV Classic | N | ? | TV | 4.00 | 1.40 |
| TVJo | Magna'Tron | N | ? | TV | 4.80 | 1.24 |
| Loll | Standard P90 | B | A5 | P90 | 9.15 | 7.40 |
| Tone | Vintage 90 (P90) | B | A2 | P90 | 7.90 | 6.80 |
| TVJo | T-90™ | B | ? | TV | 7.30 | 5.50 |
| Fend | CuNiFe Wide Range HB | B | CNF | WHB | 11.20 | 5.30 |
| Fend | Vintage Noiseless Tele | B | A2 | T | 13.00 | 4.90 |
| Loll | Imperial HB | B | A5 | HB | 8.40 | 4.80 |
| TVJo | T-Armond™ (soapbar) | B | ? | TV | 11.80 | 4.56 |
| Loll | Imperial Low Wind | B | A5 | T | 7.90 | 4.29 |
| Tone | Hot Classics | B | A3 | T | 9.20 | 4.20 |
| Fend | Shaw Hot 50's Tele | B | A5 | P90 | 7.70 | 4.03 |
| TVJo | Starwood Tele | B | ? | T | 11.70 | 4.03 |
| Loll | Vintage T | B | A5 | T | 8.00 | 3.98 |
| Fend | Custom Shop ’51 Nocaster | B | A3 | T | 7.18 | 3.74 |
| Fend | Gen 4 Noiseless Tele | B | A5 | T | 10.60 | 3.60 |
| Fend | Vintera '60s Vintage Tele | B | A5 | HB | 6.90 | 3.44 |
| Tone | Rebel 90 (P90 HB size) | B | A2 | P90 | 9.30 | 3.40 |
| Loll | 52 T Series | B | A2 | T | 6.70 | 3.30 |
| Tone | Alnico 2 Blues | B | A2 | T | 6.50 | 3.20 |
| Fend | Ultra Noiseless™ Vintage Tele® | B | A5 | T | 9.90 | 3.10 |
| Tone | Vintage Plus | B | A5 | T | 6.50 | 3.00 |
| TVJo | Magna'Tron | B | ? | TV | 8.00 | 2.92 |
| Fend | Custom Shop Texas Special | B | A5 | T | 10.20 | 2.84 |
| TVJo | Super'Tron | B | ? | TV | 4.80 | 2.64 |
| Loll | Mini HB | B | A5 | MHB | 7.40 | 2.31 |
| TVJo | TV Classic | B | ? | TV | 4.80 | 1.83 |
Pos = Position. N: Neck; B: Bridge
Mag = Magnet. A: Alnico; CNF: CuNiFe
Size = Size/Shape. HB: Humbucker; T: Telecaster; CC: Charlie Christian; MHB: mini HB; WHB: Wide Range HB
R = DC Resistance in K Ohms
L = Inductance in Henries
One of the lowest DC resistance type pickups are Charlie Christian (CC) designs which typically read only 3.2 K Ohms. The reason this is such a popular pickup for jazz and is sometimes compared to P90 pickups is suggested by looking at the inductance readings. The standard Lollar CC pickup (for solid body guitars) has an inductance of 5.9 Henries. The only two pickups in this list with higher L readings are P90s from Lollar and Tonerider (6.5 and 6.6 H).
Although many of your favorite pickup makers don’t publish inductance values (e.g., Seymour Duncan and Lindy Fralin), hobbyists and others have published values for pickups in their collections. This thread in TDPRI has a bunch of measurements: Measured Electrical Values of Various Telecaster Pickups. Although I couldn’t find a nice table for Lollar pickups from a search done on his website, a Google search did find this on Lollar’s site.
As I said, inductance is no more the whole story than resistance. But of the two, it is more informative.
