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I'm new to investigating pickups. Until now I've made to with stock pickups but now fancy trying some changes after reading great reviews.
I have an 90s SG Standard with Gibson the 490R/498T combo with stock 500k pots. I know some people don't rate these highly, but I don't think they're so bad. A lot of SG players seem to prefer the Gibson 57 Classics with a ClassicPlus in the Bridge. I played a borrowed SG with those and I did prefer it to the stock pups. However, it seemed to be mainly as the 498 has a pronounced midrange. And the 498 seemed quite a bit hotter than Classics. So I had a go at just scooping the Mids on my amp and rolling off the volume on the guitar and that put me in the ballpark. So that made question whether it was worth an expensive upgrade if I could get close with EQ settings. I may be totally wrong, but the 490/498 combo doesn't sound that far from the 57 Classic/Plus once you take it down from everything open. Might be just me though.
So that led me to wonder:
1. Are there any graphs that show the repsonses across the frequency ranges for a variety of pickups; rather than just their output as a single figure?
2. Are there any other tweaks I could make using an EQ pedal and/or adjusting the Vol/Gain that would allow my stock pickups to give me some idea of the characteristics on other pickups recommended for my guitar.
And so, after deciding against the Gibson Classic 57; I started wondering about the SD Custom 5 for the bridge and either the 59 or the Pearly Gates for the neck. I've read a lot of good things about those, so I'm getting very tempted to try them. Although here in the UK, prices for pickups are frightening! So:
3. Could anyone give me an idea of how the 59s, Custom 5 and Pearly Gates might differ tonally from either the Classic 57 or 490R/498T; apart from the differences in sheer output? Do any of those pickups have any particular tonal bumps, like with the mids from the 498T that are characteristic, or are they more evenly balanced?
I also have a Tweedy SG coming. I understand that the Vibrola can lighten the tone of an SG and so I will decide whether the SD combo will go into the SG Standard or the Tweedy once I see how I get on with the Burstbucker 1's in the Tweedy. Everyone online seems to recommend a Burstbucker 1 in the neck with a BB2 in the bridge; so I'm not sure that the stock BB1 in the bridge will have quite enough muscle for me.
Any advice appreciated!
I have an 90s SG Standard with Gibson the 490R/498T combo with stock 500k pots. I know some people don't rate these highly, but I don't think they're so bad. A lot of SG players seem to prefer the Gibson 57 Classics with a ClassicPlus in the Bridge. I played a borrowed SG with those and I did prefer it to the stock pups. However, it seemed to be mainly as the 498 has a pronounced midrange. And the 498 seemed quite a bit hotter than Classics. So I had a go at just scooping the Mids on my amp and rolling off the volume on the guitar and that put me in the ballpark. So that made question whether it was worth an expensive upgrade if I could get close with EQ settings. I may be totally wrong, but the 490/498 combo doesn't sound that far from the 57 Classic/Plus once you take it down from everything open. Might be just me though.
So that led me to wonder:
1. Are there any graphs that show the repsonses across the frequency ranges for a variety of pickups; rather than just their output as a single figure?
2. Are there any other tweaks I could make using an EQ pedal and/or adjusting the Vol/Gain that would allow my stock pickups to give me some idea of the characteristics on other pickups recommended for my guitar.
And so, after deciding against the Gibson Classic 57; I started wondering about the SD Custom 5 for the bridge and either the 59 or the Pearly Gates for the neck. I've read a lot of good things about those, so I'm getting very tempted to try them. Although here in the UK, prices for pickups are frightening! So:
3. Could anyone give me an idea of how the 59s, Custom 5 and Pearly Gates might differ tonally from either the Classic 57 or 490R/498T; apart from the differences in sheer output? Do any of those pickups have any particular tonal bumps, like with the mids from the 498T that are characteristic, or are they more evenly balanced?
I also have a Tweedy SG coming. I understand that the Vibrola can lighten the tone of an SG and so I will decide whether the SD combo will go into the SG Standard or the Tweedy once I see how I get on with the Burstbucker 1's in the Tweedy. Everyone online seems to recommend a Burstbucker 1 in the neck with a BB2 in the bridge; so I'm not sure that the stock BB1 in the bridge will have quite enough muscle for me.
Any advice appreciated!
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