Squier Telecaster Classic Vibe Stock guitar pickups VS Fender Custom Shop Texas Special pickups
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- Опубліковано 6 січ 2021
- Comparison of the stock Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster guitar pickups and the Fender Custom Shop Texas Special pickups. Includes audio samples in all pickups settings with Clean, Crunch and Gain settings. Complete guide to Installation of pickups and upgrade to US made Telecaster bridge.
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I listened with high quality headphones and I couldn’t tell the difference in any meaningful way. The differences were extremely subtle and neither sounded “higher quality” than the other. Thanks for this valuable shootout.
Plot reveal......The Squier Classic Vibe comes as standard with a set of Fender Custom Shop Texas Specials 😎😆😲👍
The Classic Vibe pups held their own. Which doesn't surprise me. The CV line has always been impressive. Every model in the CV lineup has strong, articulated pickups. Well done🤔
So close that I don't think I'd bother changing. Thanks for the straight to the point video. No unnecessary chatter. Stay blessed!❤️
You're welcome Max! Thank you!
Jesus Christ loves you so much and He will save us from our sins if we put our faith and trust in Him! because we all sinned and fell short of Gods perfect glory (romans 3:23) and the wages of sin is eternal death! (romans 6:23) but the gift of God is this
john 3:16-21
"for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. this is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposes. but whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God."
and romans 10:9-13
"if you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord" and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. for it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. as scripture says, "anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame. "for there is no difference between Jew and Gentile - the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, for, "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
so God is coming at a time we least expect, and if we put our faith and trust in Him He will gift us His grace and clothe us with the righteousness of His blood (but of course death could not hold Him, He is risen!) and we will have eternal life in His kingdom where there will be there will be no more death, or sorrow, or crying. there will be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. because He loves you so much! (romans 5:6-8) but if we deny and reject Him and don't repent from our sins to follow God, then we will have our part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. because no liar, no thief, no blasphemer (using Gods name in vain as a cuss word to express anger or disgust) and no adulterer (Jesus Christ says in matthew 5 that anyone who just looks at someone to lust for they’re an adultery at heart) will enter the kingdom of heaven. so hear these words, repent and believe the gospel! accept Jesus Christ and confess your sins to Him so that He will forgive you and give you a life with truth and real love and joy and peace that this world can never give you or fulfill in you you! and the love and joy and peace that He will give you will never fade away or perish. this is all if you haven't done this yet and Jesus Christ hasn't saved you yet, also when you have time please you should watch this channel here on youtube called "Christ forgiveness ministries" and hear what they have to say, glory to God. God bless you! 🙌👑💟
@@trustinjesuschrist6933 AMEN brother.
@@trustinjesuschrist6933 “and the Lord said unto them ‘thou shalt not spam your brother’s UA-cam channel comments with unrelated religious content’.”
My pleasure! Thank you for posting a comment!
Set A wins every time in neck and middle. Set B wins mostly every time in bridge. But so close you can hardly tell. Not worth spending the extra money.
Original pickups sound just fine !
Didn’t care for them too much. Duncan quarter pound bridge and a Duncan hot rail neck with 500 k pots. It really rocks
@@williamdon3442 Sure it does !
@@trustinjesuschrist6933 Sorry,dident quite catch that,could you repeat it but going into greater detail.!!
@@Terencetembre1001. well i mentioned a youtube channel at the end called “Christ forgiveness ministries” and you can check that out but there’s a different channel that i think you should go and listen to as soon as you have time, you should find it when you search up “living waters”
God bless you in the name of Jesus Christ!
@@trustinjesuschrist6933 Nobody cares.
I just ordered this exact guitar and it will be here later today and was wondering about this very subject. You've given me the answers I needed. I will not think anymore about if I need a pick up upgrade for better recording. Thanks . I can hardly wait for it to arrive.
I preferred - just by a little bitty bit - what turned out to be the Texas Specials, because they sounded a tad bit thicker. But then you revealed you used a heavier gauge string set for the TS soundbites, so I'll contribute it to that. Thank you! You saved me some $$$ !!! Very nice comparison, BTW. You gave us more than enough samples to base a decision on. Very much appreciated!
Thanks George and I'm glad you enjoyed the review. I am working on another review comparison of the stock CV pickups with the Fender Tex Mex which are much more affordable. Please subscribe, thanks!
Thank you for the comment, I appreciate it and I'm glad I was able to help!
I have the Texas Specials in my American Special Tele and absolutely love them. I picked that they were set B, but only on a couple of the demo sets. The slightly smoother chime on the clean neck position was the give away, but that is also my favourite part of the TS sound so I was listening for it. All in all I agree, very similar performance across most of the demo.
Man… I wish I had found this video two weeks ago! I sort of did the same thing. I had bought an Affinity Tele to tinker with during the lockdown, and ended up ordering CS Texas Special pickups for it. The only difference really was that I wanted to put a 4-way switch in so I could get parallel and series tones, and since I was doing this much, I decided to go ahead and swap out the dime sized pots for Emerson 250K pots. And I had to switch the pick guard out because the stock one wouldn’t quite allow the new neck pickup to fit. The first time I ever did ANYthing like this. I didn’t do a side by side comparison, but I went into it knowing what I didn’t like about the stock Squire pickups & knowing what I would like to find in the new CS pickups. I learned a TON and really enjoyed myself. But wow was I nervous doing it. I really do wish I had seen this video prior to jumping in with both feet. LOL
My end result was a bit different too. The stock pickups were ‘OK’ but to my ear they just sounded a little thin. And being a novice I thought the CS Tx Specials being rated “hot” would be cool. The output did jump a fair bit higher with the new pickups, and sounded much fuller. Especially in the mid-ranges. But you’re right in that it wasn’t a HUGE difference, and not as drastic a change as the price might lead one to think. The pickups were almost what I paid for the guitar. I’m still glad I did the swap, mainly because of learning so much and how much fun it was. Novice soldering can cause quite the case of fear sweat though.
Transparent butterscotch blonde with a black pearl pickguard, and I love it! The whole experience takes me back to being 15 years old in my neighbors garage with friends… rattling the fillings out of the neighborhood’s dental work. Absolute fun times..
Thanks for an awesome video!
Wow Doc, you made my evening! Thank for the compliments and I really appreciate it! Please subscribe I've got more content coming.
@@airtimedesign Thanks, it’s good to hear that. Not to worry, about two minutes into the video I started to feel like it was one of those coincidences that’s a little too coincidental to not take notice of, so I paused, subscribed, and clicked the notification bell. So I’ll be on the lookout for your next one!
Take care 👍🏼
I struggled to pick out which set was which and flipped a few times in my guesses as the samples played through. Both sound great.
Both fine in solo and band settings.
Seems like the Classic Vibe pickups were modeled after these Texas Specials. Extremely close in sound, no need to change. Only if you need higher output, and I don't. Thank you for saving my time and money on this!
There’s not enough difference to justify the cost . Played a G and L tribute Tele recently and much preferred it to the CV and Player .
Jesus Christ loves you so much and He will save us from our sins if we put our faith and trust in Him! because we all sinned and fell short of Gods perfect glory (romans 3:23) and the wages of sin is eternal death! (romans 6:23) but the gift of God is this
john 3:16-21
"for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. this is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposes. but whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God."
and romans 10:9-13
"if you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord" and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. for it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. as scripture says, "anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame. "for there is no difference between Jew and Gentile - the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, for, "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
so God is coming at a time we least expect, and if we put our faith and trust in Him He will gift us His grace and clothe us with the righteousness of His blood (but of course death could not hold Him, He is risen!) and we will have eternal life in His kingdom where there will be there will be no more death, or sorrow, or crying. there will be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. because He loves you so much! (romans 5:6-8) but if we deny and reject Him and don't repent from our sins to follow God, then we will have our part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. because no liar, no thief, no blasphemer (using Gods name in vain as a cuss word to express anger or disgust) and no adulterer (Jesus Christ says in matthew 5 that anyone who just looks at someone to lust for they’re an adultery at heart) will enter the kingdom of heaven. so hear these words, repent and believe the gospel! accept Jesus Christ and confess your sins to Him so that He will forgive you and give you a life with truth and real love and joy and peace that this world can never give you or fulfill in you you! and the love and joy and peace that He will give you will never fade away or perish. this is all if you haven't done this yet and Jesus Christ hasn't saved you yet, also when you have time please you should watch this channel here on youtube called "Christ forgiveness ministries" and hear what they have to say, glory to God. God bless you! 🙌👑💟
@@trustinjesuschrist6933 Go away.
@@trustinjesuschrist6933 I thought we were talking about guitars, did JC play guitar? then if not, try someplace where someone may listen, "Go Away Nooow"
@@trustinjesuschrist6933 cool story bruv, but what evidence is there to support your claims? (FYI, the Bible is the claim, not the evidence)
@@davidcroft9320 Jeebuz rocked an SG through a Marshall…😄
Very surprised... I guessed the Texas Specials as "A", although throughout the demo I changed my mind a couple of different times depending on the level of dirt vs. clean. Those new Squier pickups hold their own.
I to thought they were A.
I really couldn't tell the difference .And I have pretty good speakers on my PC. Very surprised. I just ordered one of these Teles from Sweetwater earlier today. So the results are making me smile. Thanks for video. Also great playing in the demo, awesome!
Thanks Peter I'm glad you enjoyed the review. The Squier is hard to beat for the money. Please subscribe to see more reviews!
Great comparison. And it was a close call. I figured right but with some settings they seemed to sound almost identical to my ears. On other settings the CS really seemed to open up. It was surprisingly close.
Nice job! Thanks 👍
Thanks James, glad you enjoyed the review. Please subscribe more on the way!
I thought A had more of a vintage style tone. Once I found out B had 10 gauge strings, that sealed the deal for me, A all the way. Thanks coz you helped save me the cost of new pickups in my CV BSB. Going from 9-10 gauge strings made a huge difference in tone.
Try some 11s
@@craiglinderman5249 I will in Eb 👍
I got a Squire Bullet Tele at the end of 2020. The cheapest Squire Tele of the line. OG price $200, got it on Black Friday + trade in discount for $75. I swapped out the stock for Texas Specials (whole point of me getting the cheapest tele was to mod everything and learn). The difference between the stock squire Bullet tele pickups & the Fender TS picks ups was like night and day. With the TS pickups and a few other mods, this Tele is one of my favorites now to play. For me it was a big jump and change in sound. The middle position even gives me a “quacky” sound like position 4 on a strat. But maybe the huge jump in tone for is that I swapped them in from the cheapest tele on the market.
i got the butterscotch bullet tele and did the same thing...now its my favorite guitar
Somebody I know has a set of Texas Specials they don't want, so I just picked up a Bullet to put them in. Did you run into any issues with installing them? I'm already planning on replacing the pots and switch etc. but not sure if there are gonna be any fitment problems or anything.
I love the bullit pickups.
I was thinking that I was tone deaf as I couldn't hear a significant difference, and my mind kept changing throughout the comparison. I was thinking about swapping out my stock pickups with some Lollards and going to one of their P-90's in the neck slot. Nicely done and thanks! I shared your video on my Flipboard ezine: Telemania. You have a new fan.
Glad you enjoyed the review Nonno and thank you!
I could tell a noticeable difference on the neck pickup but not much at all at the bridge. Been playing guitar for 60 years and heard a lot but now that I seen your demo I would just change the bridge plate and leave the original pickups in. Thank you for the demo. Good job !!!
You welcome John. Thank you for the comment and please subscribe. I appreciate it!
that was a cool video!
I think both pickups sounded fantastic, to be honest, it's hard to justify the cost + effort of changing the pickups when the stock ones are so good. A CV guitar sounds like such a good value tbh.
Hello Gerair, That was my take away also. I would be happy with either set of these pickups.
@@airtimedesign thanks for the video, I’m warming up to the idea of getting a CV as my next guitar. How do you feel the neck of the CV as compared to a slightly higher end t-style?
@@geralr I love the neck on the Squier CV. There is a video of a blind comparison with high end Tele and CV Tele and I think you would find it helpful.
ua-cam.com/video/QCEdT2d43jU/v-deo.html
@@airtimedesign thank you very much!!
@@airtimedesign for me the CV neck is kinda sticky -too much lacquer maybe ? Don’t like satin necks as were available on the old Mexican Fenders , much prefer a thin layer lacquer .
I changed out the stock pickups on my 2010 CV for the Texas Specials and found that there was practically no difference.
I also installed a Fishman piezo bridge and preamp and use the acoustic more than I thought I would. It was well worth the investment for the Fishman but I would easily go back to the original pickups.
Hey Rick thanks for the comment. So did you find my comparison about what you expected?
@@airtimedesign actually, yes. I was wondering if you would reach the same conclusion that I did. I wasn't disappointed with the original pickups but wanted to compare to something more "Fender" .
I have a blonde Classic Vibe Tele and I changed the pickups to Fender NoCaster and the difference was quite significant. I will never get rid of this guitar, it is amazing!
I wonder how Nocaster pickups would sound with a 4-way switch?
I couldn't agree with your summation more. I had guessed during the review that B was the Texas Specials, but barely. Hey, great review, man!
Thank you Papa John for the comment and I'm glad you enjoyed the review. Please subscribe to see more of my reviews! Happy New Year!
I also went back and forth while I was listening, but at the end I agree with you - not very much difference for the effort and the extra money. One thing is that I'm really falling in love with that twangy Tele sound. I may have to get one of those bad boys!!
Hey Gary! Thanks for the comment. I never owned a Tele until I bought the CV a few months back. At $399 it was a lot easier to try it out than buying a more expensive Tele. Now I understand why there are so many avid Tele players. It's got that twang thang!
Thank you so much! you have quite literally saved the cost of a set of Texas specials. I was about to order a set for my Classic vibe, but after listening to your examples it is very hard to justify the outlay. Like you I thought it would hugely change the tone, but it just goes to show that we guitarists buy a lot of stuff because we "think" it will deliver our holy grail tone. Well done Squier! and well done you!
I love Texas Special pick-Ups! I have them in one of my previous Tele's and I thought they were fantastic. Quick to overdrive the signal; great with the tone rolled down a touch on the bridge and a big, fat Hendrixy neck tone when that's selected.
Great video comparison. I have Squier Cv50's vintage blonde tele, crafted in China. Bought it 6 years ago, she went through all kind of modding, once I have put Ritchie's set chopper T and twang king and they sounded great but I missed that vintage sound of my telecaster, so after a while I putt them back and modified it with 4 way switch. They are great sound stock pickups, there is no need to change them, very versatile guitar and well made. Just put your time and effort to tweak them. Love it so much!
Thanks Tomislav and please subscribe. More reviews on the way!
Wow, I liked the stock pickups more. Although I love the extra chime and articulation that 9's give single coils and that could be some of the difference I hear. I liked the darker fenders when clean but I liked the brighter stock pups more when dirty. Great video!
Thank you Steven, glad you enjoyed it. Please subscribe, there is more on my channel.
Thank you, I appreciate it!
Real close, I’ve got the 70’s classic vibe 70’s strat & 50’s classic vibe 50’s tele & I’m very satisfied with the pickups on both, good demonstration, I may go with the titanium saddle & bridge and change the output jack but other then that I’m very happy with Fender on the Classic line
I’ve just purchased the 75 custom Squire Vibe .
I was thinking about upgrading the pickups …
I’m not going to bother now .
Your video has saved me some $$
Thanks so much for your video!
God Bless
Jason Messham
Thanks for the comparison, this just saved me some money! Good content!
Thanks Brock, One more thing to keep in mind is that the TS to have more output. I adjusted the volume to be the same for the comparison but having a higher output pickup does change the sound when using an amp. Also I posting another pickup comparison between the Texas Specials and the V mod 2 pickups. That should be uploaded this weekend. Please subscribe. Thank you!
I liked A the best. I had no idea they would be the the Squiers! Wow ! I am Gobsmacked ! Thanks you for this video...a real Eye Opener. I was just sure A would be the Custom Shops..
You're welcome! Please subscribe I have another Fender pickup comparison coming.
I think performance of both back to back was well within the margin of what pedals and amps can do to sound. Spending the money there and leaving the OE pups alone is a FAR better investment, IMO.
Such a small difference they could have been the same pickups from different sets. Not surprised. Appreciate the honest comparison!
Or just giving it a notch more gain.
Its not only about the sound of the pickups...Its about the time and the work that is put to craft the instrument. The feel of the neck, the fret work, the paint, the bridge quality (types of metals used), the electronic parts quality, the wood quality and the number of wood pieces used to craft the body of the guitar... maybe some more.
There was very little difference between the two but it was noticeable. I imagine it would have been even closer if 10-gauge strings had been used with the original CV pickups. Swapping to slightly heavier strings is probably the best way to go.
They were so close. I preferred the Texas Specials, but it was sooo close and I thought on some settings the CV pickups sounded better. Knowing that you changed the strings also, I would not change out the stock pickups. There is just no way that the difference in sound justifies the price. The only thing I would change would be to put in the brass saddles. That is it!
Thanks for your comment Chuck!
I had a blonde CV tele and the stock pickups were ToneRiders, very good pickups on their own. I'm not sure what the white CV came stock with but they sure did sound good in your test.
This was a really good comparison! I have a CV Custom Tele, a CV 50’s Strat and a 90’s era Fender 60’s reissue strat with Texas Special pups. I have thought about changing pickups in both CV’s to Texas Specials because I LOVE that “quack and jangle” I get from my reissue strat, but this video has me second guessing the change in the tele for sure. I really like the CV tele sound as is, but I’m not at all happy with my CV strat pickups. They are really noisy and the neck pickup just doesn’t have that “quack” like my reissue strat. I was going to change both CV’s with Texas Specials, but now I’ll probably just change out the CV strat. You just saved me some money, my friend!
Thanks for a great comparison video!
Glad you enjoyed the review Great Scott! Please subscribe for more reviews. All the best
Thank you for taking the time to comment. I appreciate it.
The TS sounded actually thinner to me on the cleans but definitely hotter once you added the gain. Great review!
Thank you and I glad you enjoyed the review, please subscribe!
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!
thanks for this. It tells me that I won't be upgrading pickups on my newly bought classic vibe. lol. You just saved me a bucket of dough. The stock vibe pickups sounded almost as if not just as good as the Texas. IMO.
You're welcome Muttley! I'm glad you enjoyed the review. It's true the TS are not night and day different from the stock CV pickups but they do have a difference that, for some people is worth the money. I ended up keeping mine and the advantages are more apparent when you play through a good amp. Comparing them direct into my audio interface and my DAW is a good start but not the whole story. The bottom line is the CV pickups compare very well to high end pickups and it's hard to justify spending more money for a very small difference in sound.
@@airtimedesign yea, I understand for gigging or recording the extra $ is justified, but, for one's bedroom or home use? To me , it's not worth the extra $. I did buy some Dimarzio's and Duncan's to replace stock pickups in a couple of my Teles, but, have not changed them yet and I honestly don't know if i will. lol
honestly the only thing i kinda wanna replace on my CV is the scratchplate because it warped. but i dont wanna give up that classic black guard look
Great comparison. I was surprised that both sets sounded fairly close. So close that the ultimate decision as to which is superior is a matter of taste, as neither clearly outclasses the other. With that in mind, my preference was for the Texas Specials, because of the fuller tone and articulation. However, that may have been due to string gauge which likely means that if the CV pickups would have sounded just a bit fuller as well. Thanks for the demo!
Thank you.. I was really interested in this as I have the Classic Vibe Tele as well. My blindfolded preference was the brighter set A. I do feel I short changed your effort by listening to this on my iPhone w/o earbuds. But yes, I heard the same thing .. not a significant improvement. Sometimes I heard more complexity in the Texas Specials, but sometimes that just translated into a bit more muddiness. This was most noticeable in the neck and mid settings. And once you added crunch and gain… dang.. the bridge sounded even more similar.
I really appreciate this because swapping out my slim C neck on my CV for a soft V Fender is also on my wishlist. But this comparison makes the neck swap a priority over the pickup swap since the audio difference (on an iPhone … sorry) is not substantial.
Not to make more work or expense for you,.. but I would love a sound test with Lollars and one with a humbucker in the neck as well. Thanks!
Absolutely agree on the muddy sound. That's why I thought that pickup was the TS.
I thought the B pickups definitely sounded a bit more brash with a little more top end sizzle but whether that means they are better... I don't really think so.
I prefer the stock pickups. Texas Specials are too hot. The originals sound more vintage and nicer to my ear.
I did this exact swap about 4 years ago. I wish I didnt waste $200 like that. Great information! Awesome video!
I'd be happy with both. I was preferring B throught the test (mostly), but it went down to nuances.
Absolutely impressive
Great video. I would not spend that money. I like the sound in the stock pickups in my Classic Vibe Tele.
Thank you for the compliment! It really is not as big as an upgrade as I was hoping. The stock pickups are not as hot and do not have as much output but that's not a big deal. Just turn up the amp a little more and get the gain. I now have 2 Squier Tele's and one has the TS and the other has stock pickups. I like having both and they both sound great.
There wasn't much difference but I was going for set B all the way through the tests hoping they would be the stock pick ups. But who knows how much the string swap made the difference.
The strings and the bridge
I built a custom Telecaster and I wanted the best pickups so I used the Texas Specials and a 4 way switch for series wiring in position 4 and I love them
The Squire pick ups are very good. Really don't need to replace them. I found just adding a better cap really opened them up. Maybe that is also the limiting factor with the Texas specials.
I thought pickups A sounded a little darker and a bit muddy, whereas set B sounded more jangly and clear, but the difference wasn’t extreme
Sounded to me like the B Texas Specials had more low end and low mids. It was more noticeable, to me, on the clean samples. Both A and B on the crunch and gain sounded like you had the high end rolled off.
could that be bc he also changed the saddles to brass?
@@justray510 The CV has brass saddles too. They're chrome plated.
Si anche io sono arrivato alle tue stesse conclusioni. Grazie 1000, non me lo sarei mai aspettato! Non sempre spendere molto di più è commisurato al risultato! Fabio
I liked the “A” selection pickups better and thought they might be the Texas Specials. What really surprised me was that you said you went from 9s to 10s for the “B” selection. I would have thought they would have made the Texas Specials even “fatter” but that didn’t seem to be the case. I have a Tele with Texas Specials in it and I have a set of CV pickups lying around. I will check the resistance CVs to see if they are in that 7.5Kohm range and if so may just swap them and put 10’s on (up from my 9s) on that Tele. Thanks for the great review and demo and the excellent playing. I will have to check out your streaming music! All the best to you!
Honestly I flip flopped more than once on which was which. In the end I was like it's not worth doing the swap to me but I'd change that switch in a heart beat hahaha. Makes me want the scv now
Hey Jeff, yeah I'm probably going to change the switch and the pots. Not that it will have any effect on the sound but it's just nice to have better components. The switch actually has pretty solid but after my less than perfect soldering it has developed some static. I think the pot that I soldered the grounds to also has developed some issues. I probably got them too hot.
Set A was the best sounding imo.Set B is brighter in the neck pickup, nearly harsh sounding.
I picked it right, and thought the clarity and musicality of the Fender pups was significantly better. The Squiers sounded a bit thin and distorted in comparison. Very thorough explanation and demo!
Thank you Jimmy! I appreciate the compliment and glad you enjoyed it.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I wanted to buy TS pick-ups, you've just saved me some money, thank you! 😊
Great review ! Blind, I chose A. They had more ring without Nasty spiking. B sounded like it had dead old strings on higher notes. On paper, new strings and higher quality pups, B should have killed it. Just love blind tests for a reality check. Glad my ears like cheap.
I thought the same as you.
A was bright bright BRIGHT and glassy. B is slightly thicker and more balanced. Idk sometimes I think classic vibe pups are too bright but no listener is gonna notice
@@gnoogie You can dial down brightness, but not the other way round.
@@douglasalexander4348 tru, but it's kinda like if you dial in a alot of bass for your guitar tone then high pass the bass. it still sounds bass heavy but not bassy if that makes sense. harmonically different guitars/pickups will sound different even if the difference is mitigated thru eq. no listener cares, but those minute little differences add up in the context of a full songs mix
@@gnoogie Yes, also on early Chinese models there are two cv models, one with alnico 3, 50’s butterscotch (mine), and one with alnico 5, 60’s white. Think the earlier Chinese models had the best pickups, allegedly made by tone rider. Later models had fender A5 on both ? So reviews may differ depending on model and country of origin which is rarely mentioned. Anyhoo, a guitar at this price years ago would have been junk, but this cv is great. I’ve now also got a 2021 Mexican player, I much prefer the neck. It has a different more twangier tone, but still love the vintage looks and warmer tone of the CV so, despite my intentions, couldn’t part with it. Those two guitars and flavours for the price of the vintera modified….
Neither sounded consistently better than the other IMO. I’m sure there are times when replacing pickups is really worth it but this doesn’t appear to have been one of those times.
Because both pickups used the same garbage wiring and pots. Texas Specials in my Mexican Strat sound as good any custom shop. Why? I used the same wiring as Fender uses on their custom shop guitars.
@@Somnospeed 🤣
The TS a re beefiers, that's how I recognize them. It was pretty obvious. The good surprise was that they are still Tele pickups and not so drastically different. That what I was affraid of. I just bought a set of TS that have been manually rewinded with less turns, can't wait to test them. I hope they'll have the "craft wind dynamic"... And still keep the Telecaster character. Thank you for your review. Appreciate it!!
I just picked up a new 2018 old stock CV butterscotch today. It's made in china and doesn't have neck pup mounted to the guard. I had to remove it to raise it a tad.
But it's a great guitar and I'm glad I found it!
I have a 2016 CV Vintage Blond also made in China with as advertised AlNiCo 3 low output pickups. The Butterscotch was advertised with AlNiCo 5 high output pickups... Both guitars play and sound great! and both have medium jumbo fret wire opposed to the newer models having narrow tall fret wire. Years ago I had a CV Thinline that I swapped out the pickups with Texas specials and it sounded great clean and dirty through a Blues Jr...
My only gripe with the squiers was they use really poor quality fret wire on them I had a CV tele and I had played it to the fingerboard in a year.
I have a MM tele now no such issues and it gets just as much use.
I have a Vintera Tele, coming up on two years now, and the fret wire is getting pitted. I did play it a TON the first six months, I really do love the guitar, but the frets are wearing fast.
@@Kenzabukuro my MIM tele is getting a little pitted. But the frets are not wearing flat to the wood like the squier did.
That said I often use the guitar 35-50 hours a week in sessions. I’m still a couple of years till a refrett.
I should do SS frets but I’m really not fond of the feel of them.
There was a difference that became more pronounced in “crunch”. The Tx pups seemed “richer” to me. BUT the difference was not $250 worth.
Eye opening experiment. Thanks!
Thanks Matt I'm glad you enjoyed the review. Please subscribe!
Great review thankyou,the CV pups sounds awesome
The Texas Special pickups have a lower bass end to them. I appreciate the video comparison that you did.
Neither were really better, just different.
Same way I felt Scott. Thanks for the comment.
Original Pickups sounds fine..just would upgrade all electronics, pots, switch, cap, plate and wire..Jescar EVO frets!
lol....thats 500 dollars..
@@jacobbrown1690you still end up with a better playing and sounding guitar than a off the rack custom shop fender telecaster..$500? Not quite, I pay $300 for a fret job..I do everything else myself.
On all tests I preferred set B, the Texas Specials. That said it was a preference and only a slight one. If you leave it stock you'd be happy and have saved the cash.
I've been playing Squiers for years. I love the Classic Vibe series. I've been shopping for a new set of pickups because the magnets are degaussing on a couple poles. Might go with the Texas Special. Good comparison. I could tell the difference and I knew A had to be the Squier.
Hey Larry, Thanks for the comment and I'm glad you enjoyed the review. Please subscribe!
Definitely prefer the A's stock pups.
Very close comparison. I gave a slight edge to the A Pickups!!
Extremely close. I did guess the classic vibe right because I have one and it has bright pickups...so figured B must be the custom shop. I'm not sure which sounded better... maybe "B"... but depends on how bright of a tone you want...both good .. amazing how good CV sounds in comparison. Great video thanks!
Thanks for the video. Just like you I couldn’t see an obvious difference and I went back and forth on which sounded “better” to me.
Hey Jaime, glad you enjoyed the video. Please subscribe!
Thicker strings don’t sound more full. BB King used 0.008” for his high E, and no one ever said his sound was “thin”. The Classic Vibe pickups are excellent. No need to swap them out. If you want a fatter sound, then add a tube screamer set to very low drive to fill out the midrange.
You ruined the test using different string sizes. 😢 video was great up till that point.smh
lol r u serious
Ha, funny I did the same thing with my Squire Tele. I did not do the comparison recording like you did, I just changed them. When I done and I played the guitar for a while, it did change the character tones enough for me to notice. I was not as pleased as I expected. The guitar had a different vibe and I needed to play it slightly different.
After about 2 years using it, I left the Texas neck in and put back the original vibe back in the bridge. Now, that actually gave me a difference I liked working with.
The squire tele is a prety good guitar and sometimes I like the way it feels better than my American made tele.
I just wanted to toss that all out there if anyone was curious.
Very honest review, nice and clear. Tks a lot bro.
Thank you Luis, All the best!
This just proves to some ppl are sensitive to sounds than others.
I guessed right after only a few of your compared licks especially the bridge.
Love the faded white paint.
Man you just saved me a lil cash, I couldn’t hardly hear a difference, the originals were just a tad brighter, imo. Great video
i was going to change my classic vibe to texas specials,think il just leave them now! thanks for the comparison.
Hey Billy, I ended up keeping the TS and I think they are great pickups. The comparison does not what happens when you plug into an amp and with the additional gain it pushed the preamp harder and fatten things up. With that said the Squire stock PU still sound great and it's hard to justify the cost. Please subscribe I am working on a comparison now with the Fender Tex Mex PU.
I just bought a CV Tele and I immediately recognized its pickup sound. It's got a lot of snarl and a really tight low end but it's thin in the mids and it's not particularly full sounding. I love it for solos because it's so expressive but it can get a little tiring over the course of a sesh. I thought pickup B sounded significantly fuller. OTOH, the stock picksups were killing it on that last riff and the Texas Specials weren't.
You can fix all that.
Use the tone dial and a compressor with a tone dial…boom! ….fixed
During each demo clip there was at least one tone that stood out as fuller sounding on B. But I think I will keep my standard Squier tele pickups and change strings. They sound excellent esp with crunch and gain settings
I have installed older version Classic Vibe pickups in many Guitars I own, because I’ve liked them a lot, since the first time I played a Guitar with them in it.
Thank you for the comment BadChizzle, I'm now uploading another comparison of the Classic Vibe Stratocaster with the Fender American Pro. You might enjoy it. Please subscribe Thanks!
@@airtimedesign Done
@@airtimedesign By the way… I’ve had Custom Shop Texas Specials in my 2006 Highway One Tele for years. I did so just to keep it all USA parts pretty much… ha ha… and they are also very good. Also I thought the Highway One pickups were a joke in construction compared to even some very inexpensive alnico pickups. Plus… the sound was very lackluster.
Off topic:
I’m an Alnico person and have done many A B tests with ceramics… and maintain my opinion that alnico is much better to my ears. Just put that out there as maybe a conversation starter… not an argument with anyone who may read this.
Waiting for your Strat video,
Chizzle
Great video! I thought the Texas specials had a bit more clarity but I would not change the stock ones out having heard the comparison.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.
I liked the Squier pickups better. All along I actually though they were the Texas Specials. I guess I’m not changing out my pickups. Great video. Thanks. You saved me some cash!!!!
That was a great test. I have the cv 60s ordered and was wondering if I would need to change pickups, saddles, and pots. But according to this, I wouldn't make enough difference to spend the money and go through the headache of changing it. Thanks!!
Clean tones CV all the way, especially on the bass notes. Like the TS on most of the crunch but not all. My vote is CV!
THANK you for intro-free video and keeping out any distracting music!
The neck pickups sounded nearly identical. However, there were up to +3dB of lower-mid guts on that Texas Special. I happened to like it, and if I recall correctly, this is what you were seeking. Also I don’t know if you levelled/limited both pickup sets to appear to have identical output voltage, but the output gains were remarkably close. I expected WAY more power out of the T.S. as opposed to the Squier C.V.s.
Either way, I don’t know how much you paid for the T.S. set, but I hope it wasn’t a lot (though I know it was).
BTW: I knew the T.S.were Set B. That’s simply because I have brilliant, trained hearing as a pro mixing engineer with a degree and over 15 years experience.
To be honest, I was surprised at how little difference there was between the two pickup sets. Those C.V. Squiers are a dead banger of a deal. I’m’na get me a CV Mustang, stick some [whatever humbuckers Kurt Cobain liked] into ‘em, and ride off into the sunset.
I thought the Squire was at times a little scratchy, the custom pickups, on occasion sounded slightly richer in tone and clearer in the middle position. But the difference was only slightly audible on some sttings and really not at all on others. Very thorough test, thank you.
I've just put some uk Mojo pickups on my Tele, broadcaster bridge and p90 staple neck and they sound to my ears wonderful. But then again .......
Thank you for this excellent comparison, which must have taken a lot of work. I thought the A pickups were more articulate generally and had more bite in the bridge position. Would definitely not spend the money to "upgrade".
Brooks, the original pickups sounded better. In most all comparisons they sounded brighter and fuller. This video helped me make my final decision to keep my Squire Classic Vibe Thinline pickups instead of swapping them out for Texas Specials. I'm putting the $165 I would have spent for Texas Specials into fender locking tuners, graph tech nut, and a 5-way switch. Thanks for posting
Hello Al, I'm glad I could help. I ended up keeping my TS in the Tele because although there isn't a night and day difference, there is a difference, and with an amp the difference becomes more of a factor. I adjusted the comparison so the volume was the same for the recording and review but the TS have more output and that does change the dynamics when you play with the amp. With that said the stock pickups are hard to beat.
Excellent comparison, thanks for all the hard work. After hearing this i'm going to stick with my early 60's vibe tele stock pickups which are marked as Toneriders. Can you please tell me what pickup height settings you used?
Thanks Alan, glad you enjoyed the review. The pickups were at factory settings. Thanks and please subscribe!
I bought a MIM Tele a few years ago. It had Custom Shop Texas Specials in it. I replaced them with DeMarzio Twang Kings.
Great test and comparison! Really loved the format. The Squier pickups sound a little noisier and a tad brighter to me but I agree, it's not a big difference. Did you ever changed the pots and switch on the Squier? Would love to know if it brought a meaningful improvement or change in tone.
Fantastic demo . I just changed a set of fender 50’s to gen4 noiseless noise aside the noiseless don’t sound better just duller
Thanks Mark! Please subscribe to see more of my reviews.
@@airtimedesign done
The B is the Texas?
Edit: Correct! So close, but as far as I know, the Squiers have brighter pickups. But you listen this diference just for a few moments. So cool! Great video!
Thanks Artur, glad you enjoyed it!
Do you thinks premium pots would make a difference?
@@reharris904 I have not experimented with pots to see if better pots would upgrade the sound. They will change the sound to make it brighter or darker depending on the value.
@Mark Seymour All the audio samples were with the pots wide open.
@Mark Seymour Sorry, I did not see the other comments/questions.