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I'm looking for ideas on replacing the pickups in my 2004 Les Paul Custom ('57 Custom Shop Reissue). This one has the all-mahogany body, no maple cap, and ebony fretboard. I believe the stock pickups are '57 Classics. Basically, I would like the guitar to sound more like a Les Paul Standard. To my ears it sounds too bright and thin, lacking the full body I usually associate with a Standard. It took me awhile to appreciate the fact that these two models seem to have their own unique sounds. At first I thought my guitar was just particularly bright, but I have watched a number of videos of people demo-ing other LP Customs (especially Joel at Chicago Music Exchange) and I just don't like that tone as much, even in the hands of excellent players! I would say my guitar sounds fairly typical for a Custom, based on listening to other videos.
My tonal reference points are as follows: 1990's LP Standard with stock 490R/T pups which I think sounds great, well-balanced, versatile. 1980's Heritage H-140 which also sounds great now that I replaced the EMG 81's it had with Seymour Duncan '59's. I like the tone of the '59's, but they seem to have a moderate output similar to the '57 Classics in the Custom and less than the 490's in my Standard. I tried the moving the EMG's over to the Custom for awhile. I thought these also were too bright for my taste, but did like the fact that the EMG's tone controls were very linear and the guitar tone was preserved when rolling down the volume.
I suppose one obvious answer could be to just sell the Custom and replace it with a Standard, but I love the Black Beauty look and the feel of ebony board. The type of music I'm playing of late is mostly 80's power pop, rock, some punk-ish stuff (Replacements, Clash, Joe Jackson, Pixies, Bowie, Weezer). I've read a lot of the descriptions of the Duncan pickup offerings, but kind of hard to know how to compare when the pickups I own are all different brands. Even Gibson describes the '57 Classic as "warm" even though it doesn't sound that way in my guitar.
I'd like to have something to give a more full-bodied tone, ideally similar in output to the 490's so I could easily switch guitars in a live performance without having to change amp/pedal settings. Any advice would be appreciated--thanks!
My tonal reference points are as follows: 1990's LP Standard with stock 490R/T pups which I think sounds great, well-balanced, versatile. 1980's Heritage H-140 which also sounds great now that I replaced the EMG 81's it had with Seymour Duncan '59's. I like the tone of the '59's, but they seem to have a moderate output similar to the '57 Classics in the Custom and less than the 490's in my Standard. I tried the moving the EMG's over to the Custom for awhile. I thought these also were too bright for my taste, but did like the fact that the EMG's tone controls were very linear and the guitar tone was preserved when rolling down the volume.
I suppose one obvious answer could be to just sell the Custom and replace it with a Standard, but I love the Black Beauty look and the feel of ebony board. The type of music I'm playing of late is mostly 80's power pop, rock, some punk-ish stuff (Replacements, Clash, Joe Jackson, Pixies, Bowie, Weezer). I've read a lot of the descriptions of the Duncan pickup offerings, but kind of hard to know how to compare when the pickups I own are all different brands. Even Gibson describes the '57 Classic as "warm" even though it doesn't sound that way in my guitar.
I'd like to have something to give a more full-bodied tone, ideally similar in output to the 490's so I could easily switch guitars in a live performance without having to change amp/pedal settings. Any advice would be appreciated--thanks!
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