Help me pick some pick..ups

[SonVolt]

It needs a refret like no-one's business. It's seen a lot of play time since 1978.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

That explains why I like it so much. I love those Norlin-era pale sunbursts more than the vibrate brown vintage bursts on modern Gibsons.

*imaginary like goes here*

 

[chiliphil1]

Black pickups are never goofy.

I don't know.. I try to never argue with you volt but in my mind I don't see the black ones working with the vintage amber color. But I'll try it both ways.

Um, never mind.

 

[lordquilton]

Zebras would look good in that guitar chilphil.

 

[SonVolt]

That's what I was thinking. That's a really pretty Les Paul - Zebras would look fantastic.

 

[chiliphil1]

Zebras would look good in that guitar chilphil.

That's what I was thinking. That's a really pretty Les Paul - Zebras would look fantastic.

I definitely thought about that but the sets only come in black! Maybe I'll see how they look and worst case I can sell the set and buy individuals. I think though it'll work out one way or the other, gotta nail the tone and then I'll worry about the look

 

[dreyn77]

gibson has a ornament style of 'contrast'. it's evolved over the years slightly with each decade.
the whole guitar is made for each different gen type of decoration, so the styles tell an evolution story.
if you mix up the guitars parts with other style parts, then the guitar will standout to the expert /fan of the guitar.

try not to change your guitars style story too much.
1) it's not worth changing from what was gibsons' selection.
2) the people who like the guitars are also gonna notice the differences you've made to the thing.



Swamp thing, that's the electronic miss match sound effect of wrong parts played together.
the amp maker and the pickup maker don't see I to I sometimes.


this same problem swamp thing is getting will happen if you mix a JAZZ pickup with a superdistortion pickup and use a newish style amp.
bad sound will be the end result.

it's no good and I've used that pickup combination in some amps which don't get along with them.

I know your concept of 'wanting the unique gain sound'.
that's a great sound to use. I like this sound too.

you familiar with the AC/DC angus young sound of 'powerage' era?
you know how he was running the vintage gear with a special box which cranked up his sound and pissed off his bro?

well, that 490 pickup is gonna do that type of sound for yah without all the old gear. just that pickup with the JVM amp.
so if you're gonna go for that you'll want the set.

the whole point of the 500T is for the SOLO artist to use that pickup, so you need to be familiar with what a vintage amp can do and the comparison between that amp and what the 900 amp can do.
then you might realise what the 500T pickup might do, sound wise.

basicly you gotta learn to control tone at the guitar and brighten all sound up from that pickup tone control.
in the process of brightening up the sound, you can then solo and be heard.

BUT you actually have NO use for this custom pickup, cause you've got that sound feature built into the JVM amp.

so, basicly you'd be buying the same effect twice.
how many times do you need to be making the sound bright and pearcing?
once, right. so don't get super custom pickups. you've got the custom amps.

I'm afraid you'll need 2 different pickup sets. 1 for each of your amps.

one set which works in the JVM. my suggestion is the gibson 490/498

and a set for the YJM. so, any of the vintage/BB pickups or aftermarket brands.

lots of custom pickups available for this amp. (unless yngwie tweeked the amp to only sound great with his special pickups but I don't think this is the case)

 

[neikeel]

There are some sweet nuggets of sense in there Dreyn

 

[SwampThing]

gibson has a ornament style of 'contrast'. it's evolved over the years slightly with each decade.
the whole guitar is made for each different gen type of decoration, so the styles tell an evolution story.
if you mix up the guitars parts with other style parts, then the guitar will standout to the expert /fan of the guitar.

try not to change your guitars style story too much.
1) it's not worth changing from what was gibsons' selection.
2) the people who like the guitars are also gonna notice the differences you've made to the thing.



Swamp thing, that's the electronic miss match sound effect of wrong parts played together.
the amp maker and the pickup maker don't see I to I sometimes.


this same problem swamp thing is getting will happen if you mix a JAZZ pickup with a superdistortion pickup and use a newish style amp.
bad sound will be the end result.

it's no good and I've used that pickup combination in some amps which don't get along with them.

I know your concept of 'wanting the unique gain sound'.
that's a great sound to use. I like this sound too.

you familiar with the AC/DC angus young sound of 'powerage' era?
you know how he was running the vintage gear with a special box which cranked up his sound and pissed off his bro?

well, that 490 pickup is gonna do that type of sound for yah without all the old gear. just that pickup with the JVM amp.
so if you're gonna go for that you'll want the set.

the whole point of the 500T is for the SOLO artist to use that pickup, so you need to be familiar with what a vintage amp can do and the comparison between that amp and what the 900 amp can do.
then you might realise what the 500T pickup might do, sound wise.

basicly you gotta learn to control tone at the guitar and brighten all sound up from that pickup tone control.
in the process of brightening up the sound, you can then solo and be heard.

BUT you actually have NO use for this custom pickup, cause you've got that sound feature built into the JVM amp.

so, basicly you'd be buying the same effect twice.
how many times do you need to be making the sound bright and pearcing?
once, right. so don't get super custom pickups. you've got the custom amps.

I'm afraid you'll need 2 different pickup sets. 1 for each of your amps.

one set which works in the JVM. my suggestion is the gibson 490/498

and a set for the YJM. so, any of the vintage/BB pickups or aftermarket brands.

lots of custom pickups available for this amp. (unless yngwie tweeked the amp to only sound great with his special pickups but I don't think this is the case)

Goddamn..you are a phucking headache wrapped in an enigma

 

[Dmann]

First of all, I am an EMG guy. I have EMG's in all my gutiars except my Les Paul, and my Taylor 12 string.

My 2002 LP standard, I got in a trade, came with Seymour Duncan's SH-1N Custom, which is a one of a kind, one off "Production Floor Custom" Pickup, and an SH-5 Custom Humbucker already installed. I had intended to install EMG's in it at the first chance, but was completely taken by surprise at how well these pickups worked with the guitar.

Interestingly enough, Buddy had all the receipts and apparently the LP also had EMG's installed in it at one time.

Getting back to it, I'll be honest, I'm not sure which one is which in the Les Paul, as I never bothered to take one out and check because the heights are set up perfectly, they are push/pull tapped, very low noise, and sound fantastic. Whomever ordered these and put them in, knew what they wanted!

I use the LP for covers of Ozzy, Alice in Chains, Guns & Roses, Whitesnake, The Cult, Led Zepplin, (late 80's early 90's stuff) etc and with any Marshall (DSL, JVM, JMP, etc), it pretty closely nails those tones straight up.

One of the things I like about these pickups is I also run a Maxon 808 OD, and when I roll back the volume on the guitar to about 50% and then the tone to about 70% I still get the meat boost from the OD but the signal is clean and full when using the neck pickup.

Anyways, it might be worth your time to contact Seymour Duncan directly and explain the challenges you are having with the guitar and the goals you want to achieve tone wise and see what they recommend.... god knows there are only about a billion options these days.

Be patient, and don't impulse buy. A lot of people say EMG's and Les Pauls are not a great matchup unless you are playing Thrash Metal.




EDIT--------------- I see you already ordered some. Good luck I hope they work out for ya!

 

[SwampThing]

First of all, I am an EMG guy. I have EMG's in all my gutiars except my Les Paul, and my Taylor 12 string.

My 2002 LP standard, I got in a trade, came with Seymour Duncan's SH-1N Custom, which is a one of a kind, one off "Production Floor Custom" Pickup, and an SH-5 Custom Humbucker already installed. I had intended to install EMG's in it at the first chance, but was completely taken by surprise at how well these pickups worked with the guitar.

Interestingly enough, Buddy had all the receipts and apparently the LP also had EMG's installed in it at one time.

Getting back to it, I'll be honest, I'm not sure which one is which in the Les Paul, as I never bothered to take one out and check because the heights are set up perfectly, they are push/pull tapped, very low noise, and sound fantastic. Whomever ordered these and put them in, knew what they wanted!

I use the LP for covers of Ozzy, Alice in Chains, Guns & Roses, Whitesnake, The Cult, Led Zepplin, (late 80's early 90's stuff) etc and with any Marshall (DSL, JVM, JMP, etc), it pretty closely nails those tones straight up.

One of the things I like about these pickups is I also run a Maxon 808 OD, and when I roll back the volume on the guitar to about 50% and then the tone to about 70% I still get the meat boost from the OD but the signal is clean and full when using the neck pickup.

Anyways, it might be worth your time to contact Seymour Duncan directly and explain the challenges you are having with the guitar and the goals you want to achieve tone wise and see what they recommend.... god knows there are only about a billion options these days.

Be patient, and don't impulse buy. A lot of people say EMG's and Les Pauls are not a great matchup unless you are playing Thrash Metal.




EDIT--------------- I see you already ordered some. Good luck I hope they work out for ya!

I agree totally! And BS about the EMG=Thrash theory. David Gilmour was one of the first guitarists to put the shine on EMG.

Quite honestly I've considered a EMG 57/89 combo myself

 

[chiliphil1]

First of all, I am an EMG guy. I have EMG's in all my gutiars except my Les Paul, and my Taylor 12 string.

My 2002 LP standard, I got in a trade, came with Seymour Duncan's SH-1N Custom, which is a one of a kind, one off "Production Floor Custom" Pickup, and an SH-5 Custom Humbucker already installed. I had intended to install EMG's in it at the first chance, but was completely taken by surprise at how well these pickups worked with the guitar.

Interestingly enough, Buddy had all the receipts and apparently the LP also had EMG's installed in it at one time.

Getting back to it, I'll be honest, I'm not sure which one is which in the Les Paul, as I never bothered to take one out and check because the heights are set up perfectly, they are push/pull tapped, very low noise, and sound fantastic. Whomever ordered these and put them in, knew what they wanted!

I use the LP for covers of Ozzy, Alice in Chains, Guns & Roses, Whitesnake, The Cult, Led Zepplin, (late 80's early 90's stuff) etc and with any Marshall (DSL, JVM, JMP, etc), it pretty closely nails those tones straight up.

One of the things I like about these pickups is I also run a Maxon 808 OD, and when I roll back the volume on the guitar to about 50% and then the tone to about 70% I still get the meat boost from the OD but the signal is clean and full when using the neck pickup.

Anyways, it might be worth your time to contact Seymour Duncan directly and explain the challenges you are having with the guitar and the goals you want to achieve tone wise and see what they recommend.... god knows there are only about a billion options these days.

Be patient, and don't impulse buy. A lot of people say EMG's and Les Pauls are not a great matchup unless you are playing Thrash Metal.




EDIT--------------- I see you already ordered some. Good luck I hope they work out for ya!

Thank you for the wisdom. If for some reason these do not work out I will give them a shout. I used the pickup finder on their site and it reccomened x2n but I don't think I want to go that extreme! Hopefully this will solve the issue, if not we will go from there.

 

[chiliphil1]

Got it done today! This is much better. It still doesn't have all the power of the EMG guitars but that's not a bad thing, gives me some variety but now it will at least keep up with them and sounds great through the YJM with the boost on or off. As far as looks, I'm digging the black pups in there, without the pick guard it's very slash like but I'm a pick guard guy so here's a couple pics.
before


After

 

[rick16v]

Nice!

 

[Dmann]

 

[Rocktane]

Nice! The Duncan Distortion is a great pickup!

 

[ampmadscientist]

I would recommend Gibson Angus Young PUs.

I have always liked Gibson PUs better.

As far as boomy neck PU, that's pretty much a given...the neck PU works better for clean sounds usually.
The bridge PU is better for rock n roll, distortion...
It's not the PU, as much as the position of the PU.

I have used Seymour, Dimarzio, EMG, etc...and I always concluded the Gibson worked better overall.
The EMG was a second choice, but the battery is a PITA.

Then there is some passive EMGs that sounded pretty good on my Jackson.
I was surprised how well they worked. Not bad...

But you know what?
The sound does not come from the PU. It comes from the guitar.

So if you have a great sounding guitar, add good pickups.

If you have a dead awful guitar, no pickup will fix that. It's all in the wood...

 

[chiliphil1]

I would recommend Gibson Angus Young PUs.

I have always liked Gibson PUs better.

As far as boomy neck PU, that's pretty much a given...the neck PU works better for clean sounds usually.
The bridge PU is better for rock n roll, distortion...
It's not the PU, as much as the position of the PU.

I have used Seymour, Dimarzio, EMG, etc...and I always concluded the Gibson worked better overall.
The EMG was a second choice, but the battery is a PITA.

Then there is some passive EMGs that sounded pretty good on my Jackson.
I was surprised how well they worked. Not bad...

But you know what?
The sound does not come from the PU. It comes from the guitar.

So if you have a great sounding guitar, add good pickups.

If you have a dead awful guitar, no pickup will fix that. It's all in the wood...

Yeah, I really did consider the Gibson pickups, I was thinking just a plain old 498/490 would work for me but the price is so high it just turned me off on them. I went with the Duncan's for more clarity and power which I now have in spades. I spent some time tonight just jamming through the YJM with the boost off and it was fantastic. The neck is no longer boomy, it sings and when turned down is sparkly clean.. These are really excellent pups.

As far as the guitar, there is no question about how good it sounds, when unplugged it has the tone of an acoustic with the bite of an electric, it's really something it sustains for days and reminds me of the part in "this is spinal tap" when he was referring to the sustain of the '59 paul he had.. There is no issue on that part.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Those Distortion neck pickups are really underrated. They're supposed to sound really good in the bridge, as well.

 

[Bull Rock]

Nice !!!

I'm really partial to SD Custom Custom bridge in Lesters...(i usually adjust the poles though mostly bottom end up) and 59 wired out of phase. I used to be a pickup whore, chasing forever, but this combo is for me, my grail. The DD is my second pick for bridge-it rocks. Neck pickups always boomy, but a 59 out of phase is killer - try it sometime. Your welcome. haha