I've given up on a Nocaster, how about Nocaster pickups?

[1973Marshall]

At $2500 used, I've given up on a Nocaster.

I am in love with the idea of a 9.5" radius neck with 6105's having recently made the mod to another guitar, so I am about to do it to my AVRI52 RI. It's not a Nocaster but I love it and can't see myself selling it plus $1500 to get a Nocaster, and that's IF I get a good selling price AND find a well-priced Nocaster with those specs lol.

I'm wondering if some of the extra magic I hear in a Nocaster is also the pickups. What if I mod my AVRI to 6105 and 9.5 and slap in some Nocaster pickups. Would that be an improvement on a budget?

Whole thing would run me about $400-$500 WITH new pickups OR should I stick with AVRI pickups which sound pretty damn good.

 

[Elmaco]

Well, I don't know how those AVRI pickups sound, but those nocaster pickups sure sounds delicious. The other guitarist in my band has those pickups in his tele, and it sounds stupid good through his orange dual terror.

 

[Tootone]

Or... you could just remove the neck pickup, fill the route with wood, and buy a new pickguard to cover the mess. Then remove the decal from the headstock..

probably costs less than $30 all in and a couple of hours of yiur time.

 

[Rotten]

I’ve bought two used Nocasters for $1650. Just look around.

 

[H. Mac]

I didn’t find Nocasters (I’ve had three of them) to be superior to the AVRIs or PVs, although Nocaster necks can be pretty comfortable. The AVRIs and PVs are excellent from the factory, and their pickups are the best Fender has made since the 50s.

I’m not a big fan of Nocaster pickups. The earlier Nocaster pickups were around 9-10K or so, and they were great, but around 2000, Fender changed them to around 7-5K, and I didn’t think they were magic at all.

I’d stick with AVRI or go with PV pickups.

 

[Rick51]

It's all personal preference. I like the 7.25 radius and neck profile, the vintage frets, and the OEM pickups on the 52RI's. Perfect for me, and much better for me than the nocasters.

I like the 52RI pickups better because they are somewhat brighter wide open. If I want a fatter sound, I can just roll off the tone a little bit, it fattens up nicely (.047 tone cap).

 

[twoheadedboy]

Don't do any irreversible mods to an AVRI. You'll kill the resale value, which will limit your options later.

 

[Wagster]

Or... you could just remove the neck pickup, fill the route with wood, and buy a new pickguard to cover the mess. Then remove the decal from the headstock..

probably costs less than $30 all in and a couple of hours of yiur time.

Huh?

 

[jvin248]

.

Pull the control plate and wiring as intact as possible including the jack. Pull the pickups. Get an Esquire pickguard.
New control plate (for like $5) and pots/caps/switch/jack wired up, maybe an Eldred mod or a 4 or 5-way mod.
Find a hot MIM Standard 10.5kohm used bridge single coil (yes they have ceramic, just means more heat). Adjust pickup height to tone taste.
Find other pickups and try those too.
Find other pots and caps to try as they push the pickup tone around.

Play that for a while. If you ever decide to sell the guitar or put it back because you miss something about it you have all the original items and no messing around. If you do

.

 

[dazco]

I've used both the nocaster and the 62 AVRI bridge pickups and to me the nocasters are a lot nicer sounding. One of those pickups i felt very unique and great sounding. The AVRI i thought was very generic sounding and just ok. I actually think the stock pickup in my classic vibe 50s is better. But like i said, i'm talking the bridge models. Neck wise i find most tele pickups too dark so i always used a twang king there, tho on my classic vibe again i like the stock, albeit with the cover removed.

 

[Tootone]

Huh?

Because folklore has it that the neck pup was unuseable... too bassy. The wiring/switching was pointless... so the neck pup was disconnected and in some cases removed entirely, and the Bridge was rewired to the Tone and Volume... or sometimes left just connected to the volume only (no tone). This was the "legendary" Nocaster tone with all tonal balance conducted with just the volume pot.

And it had no "Telecaster" or "Esquire" decal on the headstock.

But when the Telecaster decals were added, they were pretty much the same guitar through 1952.

So my logic is... if you have an 52 AVRI but really want the "legendary" Nocaster... scrub off the Telecaster decal, and remove the neck pup, switch and tone wiring. Go the whole hog and take the neck pup out to stop its magnets damping the strings resonance and sustain.

 

[Boris Bubbanov]

I think your idea of modding the existing AV52 (radius and fretwork) is a bad idea.

+

I do have 8 of these '06 AV52 variants "Inlay" that came from Corona with No-Casters installed, instead of Original Vintages, but I have a number of T styles with Original Vintages also. The No-Casters are RWRP, and this means you can install a 4 way and have a 60 cycle noise suppressed Series and Parallel switch position and that's great. But all in all, the No-Caster is not better in some transformational way; or I don't think it is.

 

[2HBStrat]

Or... you could just remove the neck pickup, fill the route with wood, and buy a new pickguard to cover the mess. Then remove the decal from the headstock..

probably costs less than $30 all in and a couple of hours of yiur time.

Didn't original "Nocasters" have two pickups?

 

[Killcrop]

Didn't original "Nocasters" have two pickups?

Esquires came routed for a neck pickup anyway.

A Tele is pretty simple. What makes the Nocaster cool is a nice aged finish and a fat neck. I have 55 Relic with a nocaster neck. Its a great guitar but sonically pretty similar to many of the regular production Teles I've played. If you drop some Lollars in it, you can take that out of the equation.

 

[Tootone]

Didn't original "Nocasters" have two pickups?

Yes... but noone ever used the neck pup... according to legend... they took out the wiring and sometimes even the pup so they couldn't accidentally switch to it. It took Leo a while to catch on regards the neck situation. I also read that without the neck pup the guitar sounded better without its magnets deadening the strings.

EDIT... I now have a Twisted Tele neck.... i.e. a Strat neck pickup... works for me.

 

[stratman89]

My '52 RI 'Thin Skin' has a CS Nocaster bridge pickup, 9.5" fretboard radius and 6105 frets. This is my #1. I am a huge fan of Nocaster pickups. I play in a Classic Rock cover band and use this guitar exclusively to get Eagles cleans to AC/DC crunch.

I also had a '51 CS Nocaster that had Nocasters pickups. 9.5" radius and 6105 frets.

 

[Mpcoluv]

Several winders also make the 10k A3 Nocaster pickups.....

 

[DGA]

At $2500 used, I've given up on a Nocaster.

I am in love with the idea of a 9.5" radius neck with 6105's having recently made the mod to another guitar, so I am about to do it to my AVRI52 RI. It's not a Nocaster but I love it and can't see myself selling it plus $1500 to get a Nocaster, and that's IF I get a good selling price AND find a well-priced Nocaster with those specs lol.

I'm wondering if some of the extra magic I hear in a Nocaster is also the pickups. What if I mod my AVRI to 6105 and 9.5 and slap in some Nocaster pickups. Would that be an improvement on a budget?

Whole thing would run me about $400-$500 WITH new pickups OR should I stick with AVRI pickups which sound pretty damn good.

Nocasters show up on Reverb for under $2,000, but they don’t last long at that price point.

 

[eoengineer]

At $2500 used, I've given up on a Nocaster.

I am in love with the idea of a 9.5" radius neck with 6105's having recently made the mod to another guitar, so I am about to do it to my AVRI52 RI. It's not a Nocaster but I love it and can't see myself selling it plus $1500 to get a Nocaster, and that's IF I get a good selling price AND find a well-priced Nocaster with those specs lol.

I'm wondering if some of the extra magic I hear in a Nocaster is also the pickups. What if I mod my AVRI to 6105 and 9.5 and slap in some Nocaster pickups. Would that be an improvement on a budget?

Whole thing would run me about $400-$500 WITH new pickups OR should I stick with AVRI pickups which sound pretty damn good.

Not to be the guy that marches into a thread and mentions a different option, but have you checked out the Fender American Original 50s Telecaster?

It’s a 52 spec tele with the addition of a 9.5 radius and “vintage tall” frets. Seems like it might get you most of the way there.

My 2017 AVRI 52 tele is jaw droppingly good, and I’ve compared against several custom shop guitars. I love the vintage radius, but understand it’s not for everyone. I can’t imagine a carbon copy of mine but with a 9.5 radius not impressing.

 

[metrokosmiko]

Research the pickup specs on that elusive Nocaster guitar.
Go to custom winder and ask him to wind just that.
Done.