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Post subject: Re: Tele American Elite
Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 5:23 pm
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VintageBrit wrote:
Can we have a bit of a review and some pictures please.
How are those Noiseless Pups?

The old N3 pickups were reported to have some quality control problems in which a certain percentage stopped working.
It is unclear from this discussion as to whether this has improved in the 4th generation pickup.
This is most likely due to the circuit board approach which is utilized in Fender noiseless pickups.

I'm a fan of Fender noiseless pickups in a Telecaster, but they are notoriously very fragile.
If a lead wire comes off of a Fender noiseless pickup, it is unlikely that you will be able to re-solder the wire back on to the pickup and have the pickup actually work again.
That has been my unfortunate experience with a Fender SNC Noiseless Bridge Pickup.

I have read that Fender may be using a 70/30 split between top/bottom coils to maintain more of a single coil sound in the 4th generation pickups.
A similar split appears have been used in the N3 generation of Fender noiseless pickups, and of course, it impossible to view any difference in the number of windings between top and bottom stacked humbuckers.

Here is a picture of a 2nd generation Fender SCN Noiseless Stratocaster Pickup, which has a fairly even split.

Image
The above picture can be compared to the current Fender 4th Generation Noiseless Stratocaster Pickup which has a much smaller bottom pickup.

Image
This photo is a Fender 2nd Generation SNC Noiseless Telecaster Bridge Pickup.
Despite the primitive appearance, which dates to the early 2000s, I like the Fender 2nd Generation SNC Noiseless Telecaster Pickups a lot.
They were designed in collaboration with Bill Lawrence and had "rare earth," samarium cobalt magnets.

Image
This is a photo of Fender 3rd Generation "N3" Telecaster Noiseless Pickups which appears to show a smaller top bridge pickup.

Image
This is a photo of Fender 4th Generation Telecaster Noiseless Pickups which appears to show a smaller bottom bridge pickup.

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Justin Norvell, Fender Vice President of Product Development, has stated that "rather than comparing the 4th generation pickups to, and voicing them from the past three generations of Noiseless pickups, we used our American Vintage series pickups and voiced a more classic tone.”
“The 4th Generation pickups are an entirely new design.”
“We spent two years in development and produced dozens of versions to get it right."
"There’s a bit of a secret to the formula, but we used separate pole magnet sets in the coils and then experimented with different wire gauges between the coils and different gauss strengths in the magnets until we achieved the optimal combination."
"They’re all-new; new bobbins, magnets, everything, and we also made sure to voice them to be musical and smooth with high gain." (http://www.guitar-bass.net/gear/fender- ... es-review/)

Justin Norvell, Fender Vice President of Product Development

Image
In the final analysis, I think the trade-off of slightly altered tone to get rid of single coil hum is worth the price for my ears in a Telecaster, particularly if you are using any type of overdrive or distortion.
In my opinion, noiseless pickups sound better in a Telecaster than they do in a Stratocaster, when compared to single coil pickups in both guitars, unless you are looking for a lot county twang in your Tele, which is usually greatly diminished with noiseless pickups.

Given the Strats that I have tried with noiseless Pickups (I formerly owned a 2006 AM Deluxe Strat with SNC Noiseless Pickups), I can't say that I really like noiseless pickups in a Strat, or that I would own another Strat with noiseless pickups.
However, there are a lot of noiseless pickups that I have not tried in a Strat, including the Fender 4th Generation Noiseless Pickups, which could alter my opinion.


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Post subject: Re: Tele American Elite
Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 10:26 pm
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I've been happy with the N3 noiseless pickups in my 2014 AmDlx Strat. And an acquaintance of mine has a 2012 AmDlx Tele with the N3 pickups, which sounds stellar - especially the bridge.

I did have to get my bridge pickup replaced under warranty when it became quite intermittent.


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Post subject: Re: Tele American Elite
Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2017 12:23 pm
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Nice picture/summary of the noiseless pickups Mick! Very subtle differences most people wouldn't have noticed.


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Post subject: Re: Tele American Elite
Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2017 12:40 pm
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Yep great pics. Thanks.
I have done a bit of work with the SCNs and found the slugs are not magnetised like std slugs and a lot of the field is generated by the mid magnet so there is not really a north south as per a std coil.
I wonder what impact the "we use separate pole magnets for the coils in the 4th gen" means ... is this heading towards dummy coil territory like Dimarzio?
Anyway thanks for the post. :D


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