pickup for praise and worship music in a les paul...

[Jocelyn]

Re: pickup for praise and worship music in a les paul...

.

It's kind of handy to have a hot pickup in the bridge position (like the Duncan Custom, Custom Custom, JB or Distortion) when you're trying to get a rockin overdriven tone at low volumes...as is always the case playing in church.

Yes thats what I want and thats why I choose the JB, for the overdriven tone, and it sounds good too.

[Jocelyn]

Re: pickup for praise and worship music in a les paul...

I'm in almost the same situation...

I'm thinking of replacing my no-name pickups with a couple Seymour-Duncans for better quality sound. I have a Brian Moore i81.13 (a fairly lightweight Kalantas Mahogany body, Maple neck, Rosewood fretboard, two humbuckers with split coil capability). My model came with stock no-name pickups, but I noticed that other (more expensive) Brian Moores come with Seymour Duncan pickups. In our church we play modern worship stuff (like Vineyard, Paul Baloche, Tim Hughes style with some songs by Third Day and Newsboys). So sometimes I play clean, sometimes slightly dirty, and sometimes with a crunchy overdrive. Definitely no metal, though.

So that brings me to my pickup question. I saw this thread, and appreciate the responses so far. My thing is that I don't want the pickups to be too harsh or overpowering. I was thinking of going with a Seymour Duncan Jazz in the neck with a JB in the bridge--seems like a popular combination. I did read some posts in another thread where a guy thought that JBs sounded too shrill, and another thought they didn't sound good clean--any opinions on that? Seems like most people like them. I could also go with a '59, Pearly Gates (love that name!), or Alnico 2. So many choices!

So for a modern worship setting, I want something that sounds really good, both clean and dirty without being too harsh or overpowering.

I definitely want Jazz in the neck. I definitely want the humbuckers to still sound good when split to "single coil".
So for the bridge: JB, Pearly Gates, Alnico 2, or '59???

I love the JB and I know I tend to get a bit biased towards it. But the JB wld work well in the Brian Moore since it is a Mahogany body, rosewood fretboard and maple neck.The JB and Jazz also split very well to give a single coil tone. I personally use the JB with 250K pots. 500k sounds good too, but since it is the only pickup on the guitar I put 250K.

[Toenail-Tommy]

Re: pickup for praise and worship music in a les paul...

Sometimes the name leads you to the right answer...."Pearly Gates" for church wails, "Screaming Demon" for FULL DISTORTION HAILS...

(i miss Full Distortion's old Avatar)

[tone4days]

Re: pickup for praise and worship music in a les paul...

welcome Fuddy Duddy

as you can see from my sig (and the pic in my profile), i have a brian moore i88.13 ... i upgraded the stock pups (blech!) to an Alnico II Pro Neck and JB bridge ... these are the exact pickups that Brian Moore Guitars put on the upper end i-series guitars ... in fact, i played Patrick Cumming's (pres. of Brian Moore Guitars) guitar at an open-house and it had these very pickups in it and sounded great - sold me! ... while you are in there, you might want to consider putting in a 5 way switch instead of the 3 way switch ... you can drop a "P-type" megaswitch to get the 5 combinations found on PRS guitars ... every single one of the combinations is humbucking, and the #2 and #4 position are very fun indeed to approximate 'strat-ish' or 'tele-ish' tones ... wonderful for chimey clean chords (add a touch of chorus to taste )

don't worry about the JB being harsh or shrill or overpowering ... it balances beautifully with the AIIP ... it just keeps a little extra held back for those times when you might want to really open it up

cheers
t4d

[Luke Duke]

Re: pickup for praise and worship music in a les paul...

Fuddy WELCOME TO THE FORUM!

Both you and MooM should look at the at the A2P or the Pearly Gates. Warm tones but still spanky enough to cut. As I've said before I'm not a big fan of a JB in a LP, that's why I've got the A2P in my bridge slot.

Luke

[Youngpup]

Re: pickup for praise and worship music in a les paul...

I just installed a custom custom and a Stag Mag in the neck of my LP. I am going to stick with that combo. I love the CC for the bridge it gives the brigde the warmer vintage tone I am looking for and the Stag is awesome in the the neck. Real clear and chimie. The in a little hoter then the bridge but I like it so much I think I will have a Stag custom wound to fit my CC.

Tyler

[Butch Snyder]

Re: pickup for praise and worship music in a les paul...

What's the difference between secular and Christian music besides the lyric content? I play in my church's praise band and have used Strats, Ls Pauls, Teles, my Variax, etc... I play the same rig in church that I do in the clubs. Why would there be a difference?

[twoheadedboy]

Re: pickup for praise and worship music in a les paul...

There isn't really much of a difference between the two. However, c-rock guitar tones tend to be a little on the wussy side. Less bite, less punch, etc, especially if it's playing live in a church.

[Butch Snyder]

Re: pickup for praise and worship music in a les paul...

There isn't really much of a difference between the two. However, c-rock guitar tones tend to be a little on the wussy side. Less bite, less punch, etc, especially if it's playing live in a church.

Not mine....

[twoheadedboy]

Re: pickup for praise and worship music in a les paul...

I would consider you an exception then. Listen to any well-recorded live worship performance. The guitars will probably have all the life sucked out of them and be slightly buried in the mix.

[Butch Snyder]

Re: pickup for praise and worship music in a les paul...

I would consider you an exception then. Listen to any well-recorded live worship performance. The guitars will probably have all the life sucked out of them and be slightly buried in the mix.

Yep, you're right about that; and if I was the guitarist for the Lakewood Church band, it probably would be a lot more subdued than it is now. I wouldn't mind that; especially if I got to play with Israel Houghton. We play a lot of their songs and our worship leader lets me pretty much do as I want. It's a Nazarene church but they enjoy their rockin' guitar...

[twoheadedboy]

Re: pickup for praise and worship music in a les paul...

My church plays pretty modern stuff, but my congregation can't handle the rockin' guitar, so I end up using mostly clean, stratty sounds, and the occasional twangy, slightly overdriven humbucker sound. I'm about to get a guitar with p-90s. We'll see how that goes.

[Fuddy Duddy]

Re: pickup for praise and worship music in a les paul...

tone4days,

I got my model number a bit wrong--it is an i88.13--your Brian Moore is *exactly* the one I have (even the wood grain & color look exact)! Thanks for the confirmation/reassurance about the JB. Now I need to decide between the Jazz or the Alnico II Pro for the neck pup. Sounds like a tough decision!

while you are in there, you might want to consider putting in a 5 way switch instead of the 3 way switch ... you can drop a "P-type" megaswitch to get the 5 combinations found on PRS guitars ... every single one of the combinations is humbucking, and the #2 and #4 position are very fun indeed to approximate 'strat-ish' or 'tele-ish' tones ... wonderful for chimey clean chords (add a touch of chorus to taste )

Hmmm--I'm very intrigued by this idea! But I don't understand how all 5 positions could still be humbucking--with 2 humbuckers, aren't there only 3 possible pickup combinations? Wouldn't #2 and 4 need to be split coils in some way? Please let me know what your #2 and #4 positions are! Also, I tried to google the "P-type megaswitch" and couldn't find much info--do you know if it goes by a different name and where I could find one? Thanks!

[Fuddy Duddy]

Re: pickup for praise and worship music in a les paul...

What's the difference between secular and Christian music besides the lyric content? I play in my church's praise band and have used Strats, Ls Pauls, Teles, my Variax, etc... I play the same rig in church that I do in the clubs. Why would there be a difference?

Hi Butch,

You make a very good point! There really is no difference musically between Christian rock and secular rock. I guess I was thinking in a worship situation (for my church), I want to enhance the overall effect of the music without calling too much attention to myself. That being said, there certainly are times to just let it rip! But my original concern was that I didn't want pickups that would sound overly harsh or brittle to make me stick out like a sore thumb.

[Butch Snyder]

Re: pickup for praise and worship music in a les paul...

I guess I was thinking in a worship situation (for my church), I want to enhance the overall effect of the music without calling too much attention to myself.

That is absolutely the main idea...