ES 339 help needed

[kevinWI]

Hello, I have an epiphone ES339 that I want to use exclusively for 1950's rock. I triied a set of 59 PAF's and wasn't happy. then i put in a set of single coil phat cats and too chimey.
I am thinking about Antiquity's next, but wanted to run this by you friends first.
thanks as always for the advice.
kevin

[Lucius Paisley]

Re: ES 339 help needed

Any particular sound you're looking for? Song examples?

[Aceman]

Re: ES 339 help needed

What was wrong with the stock pups? I love those.

Also - what 50's rock? Some will be P90, some hum buckers, and some PAF's

If you want hum buckers, I'd say Seths.

[BluesIsBlood12]

Re: ES 339 help needed

Love the Ants in my 335, and I suspect Seths would be equally as good or better. Not sure how your smaller body size would potentially change the tone vs a 335, but Ants/Seths are good in pretty much everything. If you can't make Seths sound good then it's probably a YOU problem.

[Mincer]

Re: ES 339 help needed

Antiquities or Seths would be my choice. Both of them can nail any tone from the 50s...blues, rock, jazz, western swing.

[kevinWI]

Re: ES 339 help needed

good point guess i will have to buy a couple more guitars ha

[kevinWI]

Re: ES 339 help needed

antiquities were my choice also. i bought a ric 330 have a strat so thought i would convert my 335 from phat cats to antiquities. anyone used Lollars? pricey pups...

[GuitarStv]

Re: ES 339 help needed

What did you not like about the '59s?

[BluesIsBlood12]

Re: ES 339 help needed

good point guess i will have to buy a couple more guitars ha

I like where your head is at

[kevinWI]

Re: ES 339 help needed

59s are excellent i have a gibson sg standard 2012 and it sounded too close to the 339 with the 59s. sg is 490t's i believe? anyway i wanted to separate the sound between the two so i put sd phat cats in the 339 which are very nice, very chimey and bright. but just not quite right. so i thought lets try antiquities or possibly lollars. then i said to myself, self, get another single coil, and now a ric 330 is coming. ha anyway, its down to lollar imperials or sd antiquities. again the lollars are 2x the price and ive ALWAYS used SD pups so...

thing about pups is, i have a box full of SD sets ive tried, and they always end up in either one of my guitars or a friends. you cant really buy wrong or waste money cause they will get used somewhere.
the search for the holy grail is by far easier than the search for your perfect tone..

[Diego]

Re: ES 339 help needed

I used to own that exact same guitar and frankly, the stock pickups were excellent. Why change them to begin with?

[kevinWI]

Re: ES 339 help needed

anytime i buy a lowend guitar and this is a lowend guitar, i change all/most of the electronics and some hardware. pups, switches, pots, add graphtech string savers and nut, and replace the tuning mach. with gibson deluxe.
i suppose its a matter of preference/playability and sound. if your happy with a $500 guitar out of the box, great.
i look at the pup switch as a comparrison between seymour duncan and guitar fetish with stock epi pups on the GF end for quality.
no 2 players are alike and no ears are the same for sure. lastly i love trying new pups and seeing what it sounds like, and always the previous set gets used somewhere. no waste.

[kevinWI]

Re: ES 339 help needed

i have 2 Guild USA acoustics, gorgeous guitars, that came with Chinese tuning machines. while functional, they were not as accurate or tite as i like.
so i bought 2 sets of high end Kluson open backs and the diff is incredible.
i guess it depends also on how much you want to put into a guitar. ive gotten smarter as years go by on waste especially with cheaper guitars.