Nashville tele pickup help!

Since you are going to have to go to a tech to install them and spend the money, make sure you get the right tele pickups so you don't have to replace them again. Go with Don Mare pickups from the start. They are the best.

Also, soldering is easy. Learn how to do it.

 

Here's what you should consider instead:

Get a proper 3 brass barrel bridge assembly; the current 6 hammer saddle bridge is what is gumming up the sound, IMO.

If you want to take the next step, make a base plate for the Tex Mex bridge Tele pickup, and make sure it is soldered to ground.

Next, upgrade the tuners to Gotoh from the Pings on there.

If you're still unhappy, a Seymour Duncan SSL-1 for the neck, a RWRP SSL-1 for the middle, and a Jerry Donahue for the bridge. You will need to make a new pickguard; use a 5 hole type or an 8 hole Esquire to start with.

 

Is a "Nashville Tele" a Fender product? I was thinking it was a 3 pickup tele and was blown away by Boris knowing so much about your guitar.

I don't know about the 3 barrel bridge. I mean Brent Mason plays a six saddle tele and we aren't knocking his playing or tone. I'm going through this right now with wanting a tele made. Trad. guys say this, but I don't think it means anything other than trad. tele visual. I mean James Burton doesn't even use tele pickups and one of the most talked about replacement brodge companies agreed there is more than one way to get the twang.

I have heard the JD is a great pickup.

 

My .02 - 3 brass saddles will give you a more gritty "tele" sound. The Barden bridge is nicer in every way - well worth the extra $. Don't buy noiseless pups - I did and was sorry. Mine has Texas specials. I owned a Nashville power Tele - was an excellent piece.

 

I go along with Boris on the Donahue bridge pickup, it's my favorite tele bridge pickup in itself and I think it would match up nicely with a rw/rp Duncan AlNiCo II strat pickup for the middle. If your pickguard uses a strat neck pickup I'd put in a Duncan Lipstick Tube for strat. It's an extremely cool pickup that's brighter than a traditional tele neck pickup but has a little of that tone compared to a normal strat pickup. Otherwise, if your pickguard is for a traditional tele neck pickup, I'd use a Duncan AlniCo II tele neck pickup.

 

To the OP: You say you "just traded" for it. Have you spent time playing it first to decide you really need to change the pups?

I ask because so often, especially in these forums, I see people swapping pups on new guitars, sometimes planning to swap them before they've even gotten the guitar. There seems to be a mindset in these forums that stock pups and tuners are crap and should be replaced.
I can see it when someone's planning on replacing them with something completely different, but from your post, it sounds like you don't even have a different set of pups in mind with a particular sound, more like it's a "just because they're stock" replacement.