The Squier Classic Vibe Tele with the Lollar pickups and Lab L7 amp does sound very warm and deep, ribbons.

Your post made me wonder how much difference in sound the Lollar 52 T Series neck and bridge pickups make compared to the guitar's out-of-the-box pickups.

I tried finding videos that might demonstrate this. Here's the closest I could find: a video comparing American Standard Pickups with Lollar 52-Ts on a home-made pine Tele.

With all the different setting options that the man used (below), it was hard to tell much difference between the pickups, but perhaps the Lollars sounded more mellow? It seems to me that the tone is affected more by the settings used than the pickups. (He should have played the same songs using the different pickups, and he should have used the exact same settings!)

I guess I'm wondering if the tone difference is worth the $220 cost of Lollar 52-T neck and bridge pickups (according to the Lollar website): Telecaster Pickups Tele Pickups

Having gone down the road of gourmet pickups many times I can say that the differences are really minor as long as you are comparing them to a decent stock pickup - not some piece of garbage from a $199 guitar.

Erica and Chula, thanks for your advice (and for posting the video, Erica). I think I was overexcited about the tone that guy was getting out of his Squier CV Tele with the '52 T Lollars and Lab L7 amp (Chula, very cool you that you used the Lab L5. Those amps are legendary, it seems - good enough that B.B. King grabbed five of them). As you stated, Erica, the '52 T Lollars seem warmer, taking a bit of the biting edge off the Tele sound - and that's exactly what I like about them. My Squier CV Tele has Alnico III pickups, and now I've learned that Alnico IIIs were used on '50s Teles. So it doesn't seem worthwhile to make the change.

If you are handy with a soldering iron you could always mess with capacitor values or different pots.

Depending on the model Fender's will come with either 500K or 250K pots. If you have 5ooK changing it to 250K with definitely smooth out the tone.

I think my Squier CV is 250K pots, but not sure.

Never handled a soldering in my life but handy with a blowtorch on meringues and creme brulees. :)

Hello Group. I'm new to the site and needed to ask a few technical questions

Hello everyone.
I am extremely new (even noob is too good! so, please be kind.LOL) to the audio world and need a little help.
I have some equipment that I would like help in connecting. If I do it on my own, I will blow something up! Even the simple terms like "power amp in" on the front of a powered mixer has me scratching my head.
So with that said, Here is what I would like help with.
I am part of a 3 piece band ( 2 guitars and a vocalist) We have the bass and drums on a backing track played through a laptop computer. We are miking the two small guitar amps with instrument mics (SM57's) and the 3 people are singing through vocal mics (SM 58's). I have tried numorous ways of hooking up the following equipment but I can't seem to get it right. As I said, If I keep plugging and unplugging lines to different places to see what works....I will damage something.
I have a lot of patch cords, mic cords XLR, Speaker and guitar cords. I would like to get your opinion on the best way to set up the following equipment for us to play live in a small to medium size bar/nightclub.

Here is what we have....and where I thought each piece could be utilized.
1 x Peavey XR 8600D Powered mixer. It has 2 amps, main/main and main/mon amps 4 ohms (according to what I can get from the manual). (2 guitar amp mics and 2 vocal mics could be used on this one)
1 x Behringer INuke NU1000 power amp with crossover switch for full range/mono and bridge. 2 ohms (Backing track amp?)
1 x Behringer Eurorack UB2222FX passive mixer desk.
1 x Harbinger HA 120 power amp with 2 x 12" passive speakers 8ohm (I thought the lead singer could use this one)
2 x Seismic Audio speaker cabinets with 2 15" speakers and small tweeter/horns 4 ohm at 700 watts rms (main FOH speakers?)
2 x Harbinger 12" 600 watt powered speaker/monitors (for the two guitar players)
2 x 75 watt rms passive Kustom wedges 8 ohms (lead singer monitors)
1 x 400 watt (i think) Sonic passive subwoofer with an 18" speaker and ported slots on the bottom. Don't know the ohms.
Any connection set up that doesn't blow up and amp or speaker will work for me. You guys are the experts here. I would be in your debt if you could lend me a suggestion or two.

I could take pics of the equipment if it would help in any way or add a link to the manuals too.
Again, thanks in advance for any help.

pictures or didnt happen

Was messin' aboot in the guitar shop a few weeks ago and my buddy insisted I try out a Larrivee acoustic. Instantly fell in love, and I've never been much of an acoustic guy, this is the first acoustic I've ever felt comfortable playing, and the tone was very full. I've forgotten which model it was but it retailed for $1700. Has been itching away at the back of my mind since and I'm at the point where I've started browsing Craigslist for lightly used Larrivees. Found a D-03 (sitka spruce top, mahogany sides / back) in great condition nearby for $750, out here they retail for $1500. Stopping at the guitar shop on the way home from work today to test run a brand new one before I set up a time to try out the used one.

Larivee D-03 - Craigslist Posting

http://i.imgur.com/LvnEty0.png?1

Anybody here have experience with Larrivee acoustics? From what I've seen online thus far the fans are very devoted and outspoken regarding Larrivee's tone and build quality. I'm pretty excited and will probably scoop it on impulse before the week is over, so if there are any naysayers please stop me quickly.

Larrivee's are top notch for sure.