3 PU Les Paul; middle pickup neck type or bridge type? Any other advice?

S

slowtrain

New member
I noticed that the Les Paul Black Beauty with 3 pickups seems to have one bridge pickup and two neck pickups. I was thinking of using a Custom Custom in the bridge position, a bridge Pearly Gates in the center, and a neck Pearly gates in the neck position. I'm hoping to use a 6-way Free-Way ultra switch for neck, neck/middle, middle, middle/bridge, bridge, and all 3. Does anyone have any thoughts on this plan? I'm not sure about it. The only unconventional thing I've done with pickups was installing the Jimmy Page mod and Gibson 490R/498T pickups on my '98 Les Paul Elite. Btw, I'm looking for another Les Paul Elite if anyone has one gathering dust. Looking for blues/hard rock/classic rock tones.

Thanks in advance for any input.

-Jim
 
Re: 3 PU Les Paul; middle pickup neck type or bridge type? Any other advice?

Bridge. It's a weaker location for a HB as far as string nodes, and a bridge PU gives it a little more output.

I wire my HHH like this:
- Bridge PU - one push-pull for volume that also does coil cut. A second push-pull for tone that also does phase. This way you can switch which coil is on during coil cut (screw or slug).

- Middle PU - one push-pull volume that also does coil cut.

- Neck PU - one push-pull volume that also does coil cut.

This gives over 2 dozen PU/coil combinations, FAR more than any 'super' switch.
 
Re: 3 PU Les Paul; middle pickup neck type or bridge type? Any other advice?

Welcome to the forum.

If you are doing standard Gibson 3-PU wiring, use a neck pickup.

If you are doing something custom, especially some kind of wiring where you might use the middle pickup on it's own, use what you want depending on output and tone you want.
 
Re: 3 PU Les Paul; middle pickup neck type or bridge type? Any other advice?

Well, you can try a bridge in the middle position, I've never had a problem with a neck pup in the middle position.
 
Re: 3 PU Les Paul; middle pickup neck type or bridge type? Any other advice?

I still have the push-pull pots from the JP mod, and I'm going to use them for coil cut, parallel, or phase on the pickups, but I haven't decided how to use them yet. I didn't want to ask that too. I haven't heard much about people using parallel compared to coil cuts lately. It seems like coil cuts are much more popular. I was thinking of using a bridge and neck Pearly Gates, so I could get a classic rock sound. Maybe I'll use the Custom Custom in the middle. I'm definitely going to use the six position switch. Thanks for the suggestions.
 
Last edited:
Re: 3 PU Les Paul; middle pickup neck type or bridge type? Any other advice?

Whatever you choose, I would keep the middle pickup lower output than whatever is in the actual bridge position. Otherwise you might have trouble setting the heights between them to balance the sound. If the middle is equal or higher output than the bridge pickup, you'd probably end up having to set it at the bottom of the height screws to balance the sound.
 
Re: 3 PU Les Paul; middle pickup neck type or bridge type? Any other advice?

Neck. It is going to be very similar output location to the neck.
 
Re: 3 PU Les Paul; middle pickup neck type or bridge type? Any other advice?

:lmao: Typical Internet-forum advice.

Question: A or B?
First three answers: "A", "B", and "A or B".
 
Re: 3 PU Les Paul; middle pickup neck type or bridge type? Any other advice?

Rich_S said:
:lmao: Typical Internet-forum advice.

Question: A or B?
First three answers: "A", "B", and "A or B".
Click to expand...

And all of those answers are correct - because the correct answer depends on what the person is trying to achieve.
 
Re: 3 PU Les Paul; middle pickup neck type or bridge type? Any other advice?

The one time I modded a two pickup guitar, I added a BRIDGE pickup to the middle position. FWIW.

Here's a thought...since many people don't like that big bucker in the middle and say that it interferes with picking, perhaps you should try a fairly hot pickup, so that you could lower it, as far down as possible to keep it from interfering. So hot AND warm sounding? Dunno.

I'd love to find a Frampton Signature LP Custom. I'd use whatever he uses...and I'm sure I'd sound JUST LIKE PETER FRAMPTON!!! Or not...lol!

Good luck!

Bill
 
Re: 3 PU Les Paul; middle pickup neck type or bridge type? Any other advice?

Ok, it sounds like the neck got more votes. Thanks a lot for all the help. That was really fast! I wasn't expecting this forum to be so busy.
 
Re: 3 PU Les Paul; middle pickup neck type or bridge type? Any other advice?

I say use a neck pickup. Preferably a muddier one. I also have a Black Beauty, I ended up with EMG 81/85/60. I like the 85 in the middle a lot, perfect blend of mids and bass. I wire my pups so they each have a volume and a master tone. This way, I get the traditional 2 pup switching, middle blend and middle only.
 
Re: 3 PU Les Paul; middle pickup neck type or bridge type? Any other advice?

I used 3 bridge pickups, but I went for something different!

 
Re: 3 PU Les Paul; middle pickup neck type or bridge type? Any other advice?

slowtrain said:
Ok, it sounds like the neck got more votes.
Click to expand...

That's probably because Gibson usually put neck PU's there and is what people are used to seeing. But keep in mind Gibson also used 3-way switches in those guitars with no coil cut options, so in spite of having 6 coils available(!), they wired them so that you'd get the least possible versatility. And changes are slow because of having to dial up or down the middle PU's volume control. Work of the same guys that put neck PU's in the middle slot. With HHH's they wanted something to compete with the 3 PU's on Strats, but just didn't have any inspiration on how to do that effectively. With a little planning, they could have made HHH's much more useful to players and the concept might have caught on a lot better then it did.
 
Re: 3 PU Les Paul; middle pickup neck type or bridge type? Any other advice?

blueman335 said:
That's probably because Gibson usually put neck PU's there and is what people are used to seeing. But keep in mind Gibson also used 3-way switches in those guitars with no coil cut options, so in spite of having 6 coils available(!), they wired them so that you'd get the least possible versatility. And changes are slow because of having to dial up or down the middle PU's volume control. Work of the same guys that put neck PU's in the middle slot. With HHH's they wanted something to compete with the 3 PU's on Strats, but just didn't have any inspiration on how to do that effectively. With a little planning, they could have made HHH's much more useful to players and the concept might have caught on a lot better then it did.
Click to expand...

I will agree. The HHH setup in the LP black beauty was probably a matter of simplicity, which lead to its lack of tonal options. The strat is very versatile while keeping it simple. My setup covers lots of tones, but not so easy to dial in real quick. If I do another one, I would simplify it to just a few easy settings. Without coil splits your best setup would be to :

A: switch in/out middle Pup
B: Switch to get middle Pup alone

This would give 7 usable tones. I would also recommend that the mid pup does not have its own volume, just for simplicity.
 
Re: 3 PU Les Paul; middle pickup neck type or bridge type? Any other advice?

I looked at a 3 hum SG not too long ago and the middle hum was actually a bridge pup. This was an epiphone so maybe not the most accurate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top