Delete

Kinda depends on how hot you want to go. I've heard good things about the Duncan Saturday Night Specials, but those straddle the line between vintage and modern. I think you'd be happy with most Duncans (among other brands).

What kind of music do you play? What kinds of sounds are you wanting to achieve?
 
Seabhac said:
Hey everyone. I've had an Epiphone Les Paul Standard 60s for about a year now, and I'm looking to swap the pickups. It has the stock Probuckers right now, but they sound a little too grainy and anemic for my taste.

I'm looking for something a little hotter and more "modern" sounding. Vintage-style pickups feel a little "slow," if that makes sense. It's hard to explain, but when I compare pafs or something similar to something like a Full Shred, they feel off to me.

I'm thinking about the Pegasus in the bridge and either a Jazz or Sentient in the neck.
Let me know your suggestions.
Click to expand...
Pegasus and sentient are amazing! They’re super versatile and sound gnarly with the heavies. They can be coil tapped for some single coil funnzies
 
Last edited:
Seabhac said:
I have a track on soundcloud called "Zephyr" posted under meh46782. That's the kind of stuff I play. As far as tones go, I've always been a fan of Tony Iommi's modern tone and Jerry Cantrell's tone of Facelift. "We Die Young" just sounds so frickin massive.

(I would have just linked the track, but I don't have 10 posts yet)
Click to expand...
Keep in mind, Cantrell tone is three amps blended together. I believe it was a Marshall, Bogner, Mesa soup.
It’s hard to beat a Suhr Thornbucker in the neck and a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the bridge.
 
Budda said:
Jb/59 is kind of the standard, affordable used and plentiful - start there.
Click to expand...
I'll second this one. IIRC, the JB is what Cantrell was using on Facelift. @rcm78 is right about the amps, too. Loved Cantrell's tone on that album especially, it's what turned me onto Bogners. DiMarzio Super Distortion and Suhr Aldrich are good recommendations, too, as are Sentient and Pegasus.

Also, with higher output pickups, it's not necessary to adjust them right up to the strings. They can be backed off quite a bit more than lower output pups, which can make them a little easier to tame and tweak. Adjusting the screw coil can help balance out the highs and lows, too. Some I have raised up quite high and some I've sunk down into the coil. Really depends on the pickup and what I wanted to get out of it. My point is: don't be afraid to adjust. The recommended heights are just a starting point.
 
You could try Bare Knuckles. Check out the Mules or the Rebel Yells. I recently replaced my burstbuckers with Rebel Yells. A little spendy but well worth it IMHO.
 
I put the Pegasus and Sentient in my 7 string and was very happy with their tone. I found them modern and clear while getting too edgy/sterile in the highs. They have enough output and voiced well to get heavy while also covering the low gain and clean tones. Highly recommend!
 
sb3 said:
You could try Bare Knuckles. Check out the Mules or the Rebel Yells. I recently replaced my burstbuckers with Rebel Yells. A little spendy but well worth it IMHO.
Click to expand...
Some of my favorite pickups. Mules might not quite be what @Seabhac is looking for since they've vintage output and not miles different from the Probuckers (the Mules are great, just going for the same vintage-PAF sound). OTOH, there's not much I can't play with Rebel Yells. I've got a set in a LP Custom and they're great! About twice the price of a JB, but IMO, worth every penny!
 
If you're going to change pickups my advice would be to make sure you go for something very different to what's in there now. For example, if you think you need more output then find out the rating for what you've got and then make sure that the replacements are significantly higher output - not a little, a lot.

If you get something that's not different enough to what You've got already, you might have a similar experience to me - which is to say that the new pickups I bought a while back didn't hit the spot in the way that I had hoped.

If the pickups you've got are decent but you just don't love the tone, have you tried an EQ pedal or a tube screamer to shape the tone?

Buying new pickups feels like a shot in the dark - it's hard to know what you're going to get and there are few sources of information that actually allow you to hear what you're going to get. Most people can't give you a decent recommendation because most people just don't have experience of many different pickup sets in the same guitar.
 
Tannhauser said:
If you're going to change pickups my advice would be to make sure you go for something very different to what's in there now. For example, if you think you need more output then find out the rating for what you've got and then make sure that the replacements are significantly higher output - not a little, a lot.

If you get something that's not different enough to what You've got already, you might have a similar experience to me - which is to say that the new pickups I bought a while back didn't hit the spot in the way that I had hoped.

If the pickups you've got are decent but you just don't love the tone, have you tried an EQ pedal or a tube screamer to shape the tone?

Buying new pickups feels like a shot in the dark - it's hard to know what you're going to get and there are few sources of information that actually allow you to hear what you're going to get. Most people can't give you a decent recommendation because most people just don't have experience of many different pickup sets in the same guitar.
Click to expand...
This is exactly why I don't have tons of experience with different pickups. It's not like each swap is short money either, it's a pricey "hobby".

Even if you get new pickups that are very different from the old ones, that doesn't actually up the odds you'll like them. You really don't have much to go on but reputation/rumors. Ugh.
 
FWIW, I put Aldrich PUs in my R9 because I didn´t like the Custombuckers. I have the Aldrichs in another guitar, a custombuilt superstrat where I love them. But, they didn´t work for me in the Les Paul. So I put the Custombuckers back in. I guess it is the guitar that doesn´t work for me, I´m gonna sell it.
 
gitfruit said:
FWIW, I put Aldrich PUs in my R9 because I didn´t like the Custombuckers. I have the Aldrichs in another guitar, a custombuilt superstrat where I love them. But, they didn´t work for me in the Les Paul. So I put the Custombuckers back in. I guess it is the guitar that doesn´t work for me, I´m gonna sell it.
Click to expand...
Gonna sell it instead of trying burstbuckers, 57s, jb/59, or any other common swap from before the aldrich was made? at the price of a new or used R9 that seems like selling the guitar short imo.
 
Dave Merrill said:
This is exactly why I don't have tons of experience with different pickups. It's not like each swap is short money either, it's a pricey "hobby".

Even if you get new pickups that are very different from the old ones, that doesn't actually up the odds you'll like them. You really don't have much to go on but reputation/rumors. Ugh.
Click to expand...

I think I'm rather more skeptical about the differences between pickups which is perhaps why I'm in favour of a more decisive change - essentially, I don't think there's going to be a world of difference between two pickups of roughly the same output, for example. If you're bothered enough to spend what could be 25% of an upper-midrange guitar's total cost then it probably bothers you enough that you probably don't really want that kind of pickup - or that the problem isn't the pickup at all.

Agree very much with you that there's not enough to go on however - I suspect that it's not in the pickup manufacturer's interest but I'd love Seymour Duncan or someone to put out a video with the same player, guitar and amp and demo every pickup they make one after the other. It'd be a bit of a hassle, but I think that it'd make it easier for people to choose and ultimately to buy a pickup. ...That they don't do that, is part of why I think the pickups aren't all that different.
 
Budda said:
Gonna sell it instead of trying burstbuckers, 57s, jb/59, or any other common swap from before the aldrich was made? at the price of a new or used R9 that seems like selling the guitar short imo.
Click to expand...
I feel like its the neck I´m not comfortable with. Maybe I should have bought a LP with a 60s neck, they are slimmer I believe. But I´m no LP expert at all. I thought I had to have a LP because a couple of my favorite guitarists play LPs and I like the sound of it, but not when I play it. Seems like I´m a Strat guy :)
 
gitfruit said:
I feel like its the neck I´m not comfortable with. Maybe I should have bought a LP with a 60s neck, they are slimmer I believe. But I´m no LP expert at all. I thought I had to have a LP because a couple of my favorite guitarists play LPs and I like the sound of it, but not when I play it. Seems like I´m a Strat guy :)
Click to expand...
60's all the way if you like a strat neck carve!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom