LoathsomePete

Not the most advanced half stack but for just shy of $350 it'll do the job. The only bad thing about the head is that the gain knob for the rhythm channel is missing so I have to twist it with pliers. The head is a Peavey Supreme XL and the cab is a Randall RX412. I would like a 6505 at some point, but until I find myself with a spare $1200 this will have to do.

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ribbons

Considering buying Lollar 52 T Series neck and bridge pickups for my Squier Classic Vibe Tele (same as shown here) with some birthday gift money. I think they sound fantastic, especially the bridge - although some commenters think the great tone is coming from that Lab L7 amp.

Chula Vista

Lollars are great pups.

I gigged with a Lab Series L5 many moons ago. Killer amps. Ty Tabor of King's X used one for years. BB King too.

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

VEGANGELICA

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

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Chula Vista

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.

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

ribbons

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.

Chula Vista

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.

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

ribbons

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.