Pickup Recomendation for Les Paul Studio

  • Any particular reason you wouldn't go for boutique with a studio?
    Now looking at the darkburst.

    Just associating an LP Studio with someone that is working within a budget. But yeah, if you've got a guitar you love, no reason not to go with an equally loveable pickup. Think of the Darkburst like a JB or vintage EVH sound but with a lot more string definition. Godwood is my favorite, fat fat fat tone, more modern sounding. I don't know what his secret sauce is, but he's able to get a well potted pickup to sound like it hasn't been potted at all. That gets you harmonics galore, you'll find yourself picking with just your fingers and you'll look down and say "hey, how long have I been playing without a pick?"

  • Any particular reason you wouldn't go for boutique with a studio?

    If I may yet again respectfully intervene.


    I had a Studio long ago - sounded and played so great.
    Sold her to get the "real" thing... a LP with "standard" or "traditional" on the headstock and full binding, neck and body.
    Worst mistake I've ever made... Never found another "fancier" one that played and sounded as good as that studio. One of my biggest regrets in live as a guitarist.


    Studio's can be really great guitars and are definitely worth upgrades if you're not happy with the pickups!


    Also, I forgot about WCR. Got to try his Godwood set and loved every second of it! Especially in that LP studio I later sold... (must have not been taking my meds at that particular moment)

  • They also make a new hotter version called Hot Heaven. I have one and it's one of the best sounding passives I've used. To think of it, top 3 of passive pickups for me are all Lundgren. :D

    I'm not saying Lundgrens are bad at all, it sounded great in a LP that I borrowed from a friend and played through his amp and that's why I bought one...but my gt10 sucked the life out of it and made me buy more pu's before realizing the gt10 was to blame X(

  • Yeah, I think we all have a story like that. I bought an early PRS back before they went to mass production. Sounded great and turned out to be the guitar I always reached for but it was a plain top and boring burst. Later I saw the ones with fancy "10 tops" and stunnings colors and traded it in for one. Worst gear mistake I ever made. Not that the new guitar sounded bad, just the plain one had something special to it.

  • to be honest, I would recommend to stay away from "exotic" pickups. Stick with some Gibson pickups, Classic 57s come to my mind. Pretty much everybody should know them, should know what they sound like. The purpose of your search for pickups is to make you and your clients understand what your profiles are meant to be. So you better go for some well-known and wide-spread pickups. :)


    Just my 2 AlNiCos
    Martin

  • imho, people who purchase a KPA and commercial profiles are looking for a GREAT tone, and understand tone comes with gear. Stock Gibson pickups are very average. Gibson saves money there. PAF type are what many are after to get that vintage tone. Without recommending any specific brand I'd go for PAF type pickups. There are many overpriced and overhyped but also lots of good stuff for less than $100

  • imho, people who purchase a KPA and commercial profiles are looking for a GREAT tone, and understand tone comes with gear. Stock Gibson pickups are very average. Gibson saves money there. PAF type are what many are after to get that vintage tone. Without recommending any specific brand I'd go for PAF type pickups. There are many overpriced and overhyped but also lots of good stuff for less than $100

    I have been underwhelmed by most gibby pups. Even a set of Duncans from Guitar Center generally sound better to me. For PAFs, I have always liked the Dimarzios.

  • These Wilkinson humbuckers are my all time favorite and among the pickups I'm comparing them with are Dimarzio 36 anniversary PAF, Distortion, and SD JBs and various other Seymour Duncan and Dimarziio pickups . Once I discovered them I put them on many of the guitars I have and they consistently sound terrific. I have tried all kinds of Pickups and currently have too many to list including Kimans also.
    For Humbuckers, specifically in a less paul these wilkinon (less than 50 dollars for a set) sound magical to my ears. By magical I mean they have the bite (nice highs). growl (mids) and heavy bottom and I honestly don't care what type of magnet they have, even though I believe the magnets are alnico 5


    http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Wi…a10505:g:3fUAAOxyHltSST8I

  • These Wilkinson humbuckers are my all time favorite and among the pickups I'm comparing them with are Dimarzio 36 anniversary PAF, Distortion, and SD JBs and various other Seymour Duncan and Dimarziio pickups . Once I discovered them I put them on many of the guitars I have and they consistently sound terrific. I have tried all kinds of Pickups and currently have too many to list including Kimans also.
    For Humbuckers, specifically in a less paul these wilkinon (less than 50 dollars for a set) sound magical to my ears. By magical I mean they have the bite (nice highs). growl (mids) and heavy bottom and I honestly don't care what type of magnet they have, even though I believe the magnets are alnico 5


    http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Wi…a10505:g:3fUAAOxyHltSST8I

    Very interesting. I was a 36th anny Dimarzio guy before I got into the Bareknuckles. I may have to try a set of these. The price is sure right.

  • These Wilkinson humbuckers are my all time favorite and among the pickups I'm comparing them with are Dimarzio 36 anniversary PAF, Distortion, and SD JBs and various other Seymour Duncan and Dimarziio pickups . Once I discovered them I put them on many of the guitars I have and they consistently sound terrific. I have tried all kinds of Pickups and currently have too many to list including Kimans also.
    For Humbuckers, specifically in a less paul these wilkinon (less than 50 dollars for a set) sound magical to my ears. By magical I mean they have the bite (nice highs). growl (mids) and heavy bottom and I honestly don't care what type of magnet they have, even though I believe the magnets are alnico 5


    http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Wi…a10505:g:3fUAAOxyHltSST8I

    The only problem with the type of companies that outsource their lower-end products is the quality can be different from year to year. They usually contract for a price point instead of specifications. They could be using Alnico magnets one year, but if market fluctuations cause higher raw material prices, they'll switch to ceramic to get the price back down to the contract price. Or, they just use whatever they had leftover from their previous manufacturing run. More than once, I've pulled Epiphone branded pickups on non-Epiphone guitars. I wouldn't buy a pickup without knowing what kind of magnet is used and the output...or, had a very liberal return policy

  • Suhr Thornbucker/Thornbucker Plus is another great option. I have tried Dimarzio PafMasters and 36th Anniversaries from Dimarzio. Long time ago had WCR Goodwoods and to be honest I didn't bond with them. The Suhr's are my current fave.

  • Suhr pickups are great. Great definition and articulation. I haven't had the chance to try the Thornbuckers, but I have a couple guitars with Suhr pickups (DSH+, Aldrich) and they sound killer. Agreed, both of those are high output, but still, they work well with clean, crunch and heavy profiles.

  • I'm a late arrival to this party, but here's my 2 cents...


    I have an outstanding Gibson '58 reissue that has gone through a few pup swaps over the years.


    My current config is a Gibson Burstbucker #2 in the neck and a Seymour Duncan Custom SH-5 in the bridge.
    The Burstbucker has a wonderful clear tone and the Duncan sounds like an overwound PAF.


    If you want a vintage tone I can also vouch for Seymour Duncan Antiquities, but the Burstbuckers are even better.
    Slightly cleaner and brighter than Antiquities when you roll back your volume knob. A little more expensive than the Duncans, but definitely worth it.


    This will be blasphemy to some people, but I always wax pot vintage style pups.
    I don't notice any tone degradation, and it stops the microphonic feedback you get with vintage PAFs.
    (That's if you use higher gain amp settings.)

  • wow that's stunning. the burstbuckers pro that came with my LP std are very (very) average pickups. a PAF style upgrade has litteraly changed my tone. all is clear now, the frequencies don't mix in an audio soup as it used to be before.
    it looks like there is a world difference between burstbuckers 2 and pros