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Les Paul replacement pickups

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11/20/1997 12:05 PM

Les Paul replacement pickups

I want to upgrade my Les Paul pickups and would like to hear input on pickups. It currently has stock Gibson pickups, which sound rather dull, and a bit dominant on the low E string.

I play medium volume rock/country/blues through a Rivera combo amp, and need both clean and distorted tones. I like the distorted tones of players like Robben Ford (wish I had a Dumble amp), Scott Henderson (wish I had his chops), Gary Moore and Rick Vito.

I am thinking of the Seymour Duncan Antiquity, Pearly Gates or Seth Lover pickups. Has anyone compared these to stock PAFs? How about Van Zant pickups?

Thanks in advance!

11/21/1997 6:42 PM

Dave, I agree about the Gibson pickups they are kinda flat. Here's my 2 cents:
1) Antiquitys: Overhyped and overpriced basically a dirty alnico pro 2
2) Pearly Gates: Not bad but a little too hot for my tastes sacrifices warmth for gain.
3) Seth Lovers: Overpriced if you can wait the 6 to 8 weeks to get them, most comprable to a PAF.
4) Alnico Pro 2: These get my vote, they are priced right, and are very warm sounding with great response. Try them and remember Seymours 21 day replacement guarrantee if you dont like them. Good Luck!
Bill

11/26/1997 1:44 AM

>4) Alnico Pro 2: These get my vote, they are >priced right, and are very warm sounding with >great response.

I got a set of these when I was looking for the perfect pickups for my Gibson L-5 copy. Way too bright for that guitar, so I ended up going with a set of SD Jazz pickups, which have worked perfectly for a thick hollow-bodied guitar.

Before bringing the Alnico Pro 2's back for exchange, I thought I'd try them out in the '75 LP Standard to which I added a Kahler eccentric cam Vibrato (with a palm lever, which was the only good thing about that mod!) For that guitar, I was looking for an early 60's vibe and the Alnico 2's were just the ticket for Duane Eddy or Ventures stuff. For clean and moderately overdriven settings, I think they work great; but if you get into the more distorted realms, I do think that they are too harsh (for that I prefer the SD JB, which I put on my "real" LP).

The Seymour Duncan website has the charts listing some of the specs for their pickups, which will give you some idea of how the pickups will sound:

http://www.seymourduncan.com

Steve Ahola

12/5/1997 10:54 AM
Ken Drottar	Dimarzio has those charts listing frequency response at their website also. What I find interesting is that the charts for each vendor's version of PAF pickups should be the same, but aren't. What a great business.

12/14/1997 5:10 AM
Steve A.	Ken: Do you have the URL for Dimarzio? I wanted to add them to my list of guitar links. Steve Ahola P.S. Those charts are only good for rough comparisions- like to eliminate the pickups you definitely don't want for a particular guitar. Or if you're bringing one back and you want to exchange it for something a bit brighter or fuller or louder.

12/8/1997 10:26 AM

Bill/Ken,

Thanks for your responses. I installed a set of Antiquity pickups as other raved about them.

My conclusion is that they are overpriced, but still a vast improvement over the stock pickups. One problem I have with them is that the string balance is way off. The neck pickup G is dominant, while the bridge pickup A and B strings are dominant. I have been able to tweak the pole pieces to help, but more than I ever had to with another pickup.

Sonically, the tones are clear and smooth, without a lot of gain or bite. I have no problem getting good overdriven sound from them, but they are not a heavy metal shreadder's choice. Combining neck and brige works great, and is one of my favorite features of the Les Paul pickup capabilities.

I wish I had the chance to try other pickups, but I figured that I would splurge for the Antiquity pickups. Overall, it was a worhtwile move, but a less expensive pickup may have done just as good a job.

By the way, the Semour Duncan tone chart does not show the Antiquity pickups.

be well,
Dave Patterson
davidp158@earthlink.net

12/5/1997 3:07 PM

Are you sure they're set up right?

Pickups change character dramatically with even very small adjustment in polepiece height or pickup height. Get your screwdriver out and dicker around. You may well have the sound you want from your pickups just waiting in the wings.

Bear in mind that the sounds you so crave to emulate, are the sounds you hear AFTER the recording engineer and your stereo have had their way with them.

You might want to measure the DC resistance of your pickups, just as a reference point when shopping around or comparing. DC resistance is far from a representative index of a pickup's sound (particularly since it says nothing about the magnets or shape of the coil), but *can* give a ball park estimate of some characteristics when working within the same class of pickups. Higher resistance is usually accompanied by higher output.

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