I have a 2013 Gibson Les Paul 60's Tribute that I got earlier this summer in a 2nd attempt to learn to play guitar. I play it through a Blackstar HT5 amp. However, I just don't like the Burstbuckers that came with it. I like a wide range of music from 70's classic rock to Metallica with a main focus on 80's rock and the Burstbuckers just can't handle that range. My favorite bands to play are AC/DC, GnR, & Metallica and while they do AC/DC fine, they fail on the other two.
After doing some research on this topic a few months ago, I ended up liking Kojak's recommendation of an 59-A4 in the neck & Custom-A8 in the bridge. However, something came up and the funds for that project had to be used elsewhere, so I left the guitar stock and have mainly been learning on AC/DC since.
Now I have the funds and want to upgrade the guitar. Besides new pickups, I am having a tech give it a wiring overhaul using 500K Bourns pots and high quality traditional wiring, not this new circuit board crap. To throw a wrench in my plans, my guitar tech recommended that instead of the Duncan set I mentioned, I should go with Bill Lawrence USA pickups. He recommended the 500R in the neck and the 500XL in the bridge. He said this was a very good set of pickups, better than the Duncan set I was thinking about, and would do an even better job of spanning the range of music I wanted. He also said these pickups clean up much better than the Duncans and also sound better when coil-tapped.
I did some research on the Lawrence pickups, so I know the difference between Bill Lawrence USA & Wilde pickups, and would likely go with the Bill & Becky series since most people tend to favor those over the BL-USA ones. I asked my tech about the difference and he said that the differences are very minor at best and he just goes with BL-USA as they get him the pickups much faster than Wilde can.
This takes me to my original question. Knowing my equipment and the type of music I like to play, would the Lawrence pickups be better or worse than the set of Duncans I was planning to get? I am also open to other suggestions.
Thanks in advance!
After doing some research on this topic a few months ago, I ended up liking Kojak's recommendation of an 59-A4 in the neck & Custom-A8 in the bridge. However, something came up and the funds for that project had to be used elsewhere, so I left the guitar stock and have mainly been learning on AC/DC since.
Now I have the funds and want to upgrade the guitar. Besides new pickups, I am having a tech give it a wiring overhaul using 500K Bourns pots and high quality traditional wiring, not this new circuit board crap. To throw a wrench in my plans, my guitar tech recommended that instead of the Duncan set I mentioned, I should go with Bill Lawrence USA pickups. He recommended the 500R in the neck and the 500XL in the bridge. He said this was a very good set of pickups, better than the Duncan set I was thinking about, and would do an even better job of spanning the range of music I wanted. He also said these pickups clean up much better than the Duncans and also sound better when coil-tapped.
I did some research on the Lawrence pickups, so I know the difference between Bill Lawrence USA & Wilde pickups, and would likely go with the Bill & Becky series since most people tend to favor those over the BL-USA ones. I asked my tech about the difference and he said that the differences are very minor at best and he just goes with BL-USA as they get him the pickups much faster than Wilde can.
This takes me to my original question. Knowing my equipment and the type of music I like to play, would the Lawrence pickups be better or worse than the set of Duncans I was planning to get? I am also open to other suggestions.
Thanks in advance!
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