Thoughts on the Gibson 496r/500t

[jeremy]

i find hot pups dont usually sound great through small amps like that. slams the front end too hard and the speaker folds under the pressure

[rainsong86]

Overall I'm pleased, but again, I'm finding no one brand is better than any other. I would prefer these Gibsons over something like an Invader. But I would prefer the Full Shred/Parallel Axis models over some of the Gibsons. It really is a case by case basis for me.

I've got a guitar on the way that someone installed Fralin's "high output humbucker" set. Seems on topic to these other types of pickups talked about so I'll post how they sound in here

[Seashore]

i find hot pups dont usually sound great through small amps like that. slams the front end too hard and the speaker folds under the pressure

That's interesting. Both my heads are 100W and I play them through reasonably capable cabinets, albeit mostly at low volumes at home these days. I was just thinking about how higher output pickups seem to work better with my setup - not like Warpig high, I tried one of those and it was too much - but there seems to be some kind of tonal sweet spot with a hotter pickup into my amps that I can't find with lower output pickups no matter how much I fiddle with input gain. I get there with a boost sometimes, but it always seems to have a less dynamic and complex sound when I do that. Keeping in mind that this is just me, always in search of a particular kind of crunch. I wonder if I'd find more fun sounds with lower output pickups into a smaller amp and speaker.

[jeremy]

i was referring to the 1x8" amp mentioned, i find well made 100w amps are some of the most responsive beasts out there but many have a sweet spot that is way too loud for many people to gig with

[Inflames626]

The reason for my using such a small, old amp was convenience. I do all my guitar work at my kitchen table. My proper tone is in my DAW in another room.

The Peavey just died yesterday, as a matter of fact. It did emit random bursts of static, but it now emits a dial tone like sound and does not respond to inputs.

Peavey could probably fix it as they used to be close by here, but as they don't do much in Meridian, MS anymore and it would cost more to ship and fix than the amp is worth I'll just junk the amp.

I will probably just get a small belt clip amp to test that my solder joints are good and my pickups are working. I'll then take it to the DAW for a proper play through.

[Seashore]

i was referring to the 1x8" amp mentioned, i find well made 100w amps are some of the most responsive beasts out there but many have a sweet spot that is way too loud for many people to gig with

Yes, I understood, I was just wondering if I might actually get some mileage out of lower output pickups into a good low-watt amp for practice. I've got a VHT Pittbull 100 CL and a Traynor YGL-3 Mark III - very different heads, but both with a good enough master volume to give me solid recording tones at apartment volumes. I always figured there was no point to a "smaller" amp since I can just turn the bigger ones down, but maybe that's wrong. Also maybe helps explain my preference for high output pickups? I dunno. Thinking while I type, I guess.

[Rex_Rocker]

Yeah, honestly, muddy is the last thing I think of with the 500T.

Dirty? Yes. Aggressive? Yes. Over the top? Maybe. But definitely not muddy.

Yes, it's got its own thing going on, but in the grand scheme of things (compared to something entirely different like a PAF or something), it's honestly not THAT far off from a Distortion. Or a Custom, even if it contradicts my previous statement.

[rainsong86]

Got a NGD with this pickup set. At first I thought they were a little dark. So I checked the control cavity and saw that it had 500k pots.. so no problem there. But then I realised it has Graph Tech saddles... tone killers! I'll be putting the original zinc-coated brass saddles back on the ABR to bring it back to it's biting, chugging glory. Also... aren't these 3 ground wires I red X'd redundant since it's on a grounding control plate? It has push/pull tone pots installed that seem to be splitting to the slug coils.. didn't know a Gibson 95 Classic would come stock with 496r/500t that are 4 conductor.

[fretburner]

The 500T 496R is my 2nd fave Gibson pair (my fave is a set of BB Pros)

Awesome combo for hard rock to metal.

Added bonus: NOT picky on the guitar. Sounds really great regardless which guitar you drop it in.

Sent from my 2201116PG using Tapatalk

[Inflames626]

Update on this one guys: not sure if this counts as a zombie thread yet but just to clarify:

The guitar IS an Epiphone Explorer Gothic for sure. Guitar Center sold it to me used and mislabeled it as a Futura. However, the upper part (where the upper horn would be on a Strat) is just like an Explorer's whereas on the Futura it has that ridiculous elongated look to look, well, "futuristic."

Thoughts on this guitar after modding:
1) The stock bridge, again, is great. Pretty sure it is a rebranded Schaller with a zinc block. A Schaller OFR will be required if you retrofit as the bridge route is very, very small.

2) The bridge pickup route is very shallow. Long legged Gibson style pickups will be very hard to fit in there without riding high and may interfere with your Floyd Rose pullups by causing the strings to hit the bridge pickup. The neck pickup route is extremely deep by comparison for some reason.

3) For some reason Epi puts in linear pots for volume and audio for tone, but you do get a .047 cap stock if that's your preference. I have already swapped all these out as stated earlier in the thread.

Above all if you can find any of the Epi Gothic line from the 00s-10s I think they are really great playing (and looking) guitars. Unlike similar lines like the Ibanez Iron Labels, they are full featured and not missing neck pickups and other ridiculous design decisions.