Best humbuckers for hard rock, metal and blues rock?

[V1ntage]

I'm wanting a very classic tone, i'm a big fan of late 60's and 70's hard rock

The 2 best sets i've seen so far are the whole lotta humbucker and the pearly gates but wondering if anyone has any better suggestions that are more versatile and better at those genres. Can be 2 individual humbuckers doesn't have to be a set of the same 2.

Looking to put these into a les paul or sg style guitar and looking to use them with a vox ac30vr

 

[Thundermtn]

Re: Best humbuckers for hard rock, metal and blues rock?

Pearly gates neck for sure. Any flavor of PAF will really work in the bridge, I lean towards something with some sort of A5 mag though.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Best humbuckers for hard rock, metal and blues rock?

Custom bridge and 59 neck is an amazing combo for Les Pauls and SGs, especially if you intend to push you Marshall full stack to the very edge. The Whole Lotta Humbucker set is nice and fat, basically picture the tone from the song of which it was named (yes, I know Whole Lotta Love was done on a Telecaster, but it's a good reference point). The Pearly Gates set is praised for the neck pickup, the bridge is less often brought up, but that doesn't mean it's a bad pickup, some people just don't think it pairs too well with neck. The neck will be too dark or the bridge too bright. The Pearly Gates neck, Custom Custom bridge combo will fix this.

And a question, what do you mean by late 60s hard rock? Harder forms of rock didn't come around until the late 70s.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Best humbuckers for hard rock, metal and blues rock?

Pearly gates neck for sure. Any flavor of PAF will really work in the bridge, I lean towards something with some sort of A5 mag though.

Be careful with this though, the Pearly Gates is an A2 magnet which is dark and middy, A5 pickups for the most part tend to be bright and scooped. That's not a hard and fast rule, but it's a good generalization.

 

[V1ntage]

Re: Best humbuckers for hard rock, metal and blues rock?

some sort of A5 mag though.

Any particular ones?

 

[V1ntage]

Re: Best humbuckers for hard rock, metal and blues rock?

Custom bridge and 59 neck is an amazing combo for Les Pauls and SGs, especially if you intend to push you Marshall full stack to the very edge. The Whole Lotta Humbucker set is nice and fat, basically picture the tone from the song of which it was named (yes, I know Whole Lotta Love was done on a Telecaster, but it's a good reference point). The Pearly Gates set is praised for the neck pickup, the bridge is less often brought up, but that doesn't mean it's a bad pickup, some people just don't think it pairs too well with neck. The neck will be too dark or the bridge too bright. The Pearly Gates neck, Custom Custom bridge combo will fix this.

And a question, what do you mean by late 60s hard rock? Harder forms of rock didn't come around until the late 70s.

Late 60's as in the early zeppelin work, like communication breakdown and dazed and confused or mc5's kick out the jams. When I say hard rock most people tend to think guns and roses and van halen which I like but it's not the style i'm looking for.

I'll check out that combo of the PG neck and the custom custom bridge see how it sounds.

 

[Thundermtn]

Re: Best humbuckers for hard rock, metal and blues rock?

That's what I really like in a LP, cut through some of the creaminess on lead and flip around a bunch for a wide tonal variety in the neck. You are right though, it can be too much for some individual guitars. The original PAF's I've played have been bright sounding so it influences my ear for LP tones. Probably has to do with hot out of spec pots too in some of those.

OP, you can mag swap or get the Custom with a 5 in it.

 

[V1ntage]

Re: Best humbuckers for hard rock, metal and blues rock?

what do you mean by late 60s hard rock? Harder forms of rock didn't come around until the late 70s.

and you could also say the kinks 'all day and all of the night', 'you really got me' and the who's 'my generation' are early hard rock songs

 

[Thundermtn]

Re: Best humbuckers for hard rock, metal and blues rock?

Page's early stuff was with his dragon Tele, and he did studio work for the Kinks too. That sound is a single coil with some fuzz and wah, and LOUD.

 

[Thundermtn]

Re: Best humbuckers for hard rock, metal and blues rock?

 

[blueman335]

Re: Best humbuckers for hard rock, metal and blues rock?

Blues & late 60's/early 70's classic rock are my favorite genres to play. For those, PAF's or PAF-ish pickups work well, a lot of those players had PAF's in their guitars. My favorite Duncan's for that are Seth's, A2P's, & WLH. I'm also fond of '59's with an UOA5 in the bridge & an A4 in the neck (which should have been the Vintage Blues Set). For a hotter bridge, a C5 (SH-15) works well, as it also does with either an A8 (warm and powerful) or UOA5 in it (richer vintage tones).

PGN's have their fans, but some guys (like me) think the high end is too rounded and mellow in LP's. For me, the PG set has a bigger EQ gap than I care for *(bright bridge/warm neck).

If you're using an LP, be aware that '59N's with the stock A5 can sometimes be bassy/boomy as has been observed by various members (not really an issue in SG's). There's also been member comments that CC's (SH-11) have been too warm and dark in their LP's.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Best humbuckers for hard rock, metal and blues rock?

I’m going to say remove the covers from a set of Seth Lovers and go for those.

Removing the covers gives a tone that is noticeably stronger, more aggressive, more raw and, to me, simply more rock n roll.

There’s no humbuckers I like better than the Seth’s without covers...altho I am also a fan of the PG set.

 

[audiocheck]

Re: Best humbuckers for hard rock, metal and blues rock?

I'm wanting a very classic tone, i'm a big fan of late 60's and 70's hard rock

The 2 best sets i've seen so far are the whole lotta humbucker and the pearly gates but wondering if anyone has any better suggestions that are more versatile and better at those genres. Can be 2 individual humbuckers doesn't have to be a set of the same 2.

Looking to put these into a les paul or sg style guitar and looking to use them with a vox ac30vr

Off the shelf? set of 59's!!

 

[Jacew]

Re: Best humbuckers for hard rock, metal and blues rock?

Page's early stuff was with his dragon Tele, and hid did studio work for the Kinks too. That sound is a single coil with some fuzz and wah, and LOUD.

The Kinks hard rock tone was Dave Davies playing through razor cut speaker.

Little off topic, but what has Page done with Kinks?

 

[BlueSnMettle]

Re: Best humbuckers for hard rock, metal and blues rock?

I’m going to say remove the covers from a set of Seth Lovers and go for those.

Removing the covers gives a tone that is noticeably stronger, more aggressive, more raw and, to me, simply more rock n roll.

There’s no humbuckers I like better than the Seth’s without covers...altho I am also a fan of the PG set.

Haven't tried the Seth's w/o covers, thou I would take Lew's word as gold. I do however have the WLH's in my LP w/JP wiring and I couldn't be happier. Don't delve into much metal with them but believe they could handle it.

Peace,

Darrin

 

[Thundermtn]

Re: Best humbuckers for hard rock, metal and blues rock?

Little off topic, but what has Page done with Kinks?

I don't know which songs for sure.

In "It Might Get Loud", The Edge was asking what studio/hired gun stuff was actually true and he said some Kinks stuff, also the guitar work for the bond theme on Goldfinger.

 

[V1ntage]

Re: Best humbuckers for hard rock, metal and blues rock?

True but I think his sound got a lot harder when he switched to the les paul, plus I personally prefer humbuckers to the tele's single coils as I think it is far better for the genres I play, especially metal. Although he did drive some amazing tone out of the dragon tele ofc

 

[V1ntage]

Re: Best humbuckers for hard rock, metal and blues rock?

Blues & late 60's/early 70's classic rock are my favorite genres to play. For those, PAF's or PAF-ish pickups work well, a lot of those players had PAF's in their guitars. My favorite Duncan's for that are Seth's, A2P's, & WLH. I'm also fond of '59's with an UOA5 in the bridge & an A4 in the neck (which should have been the Vintage Blues Set). For a hotter bridge, a C5 (SH-15) works well, as it also does with either an A8 (warm and powerful) or UOA5 in it (richer vintage tones).

PGN's have their fans, but some guys (like me) think the high end is too rounded and mellow in LP's. For me, the PG set has a bigger EQ gap than I care for *(bright bridge/warm neck).

If you're using an LP, be aware that '59N's with the stock A5 can sometimes be bassy/boomy as has been observed by various members (not really an issue in SG's). There's also been member comments that CC's (SH-11) have been too warm and dark in their LP's.

Wow man a lot there to go on, i'll do some research see which I like best. Thanks

 

[V1ntage]

Re: Best humbuckers for hard rock, metal and blues rock?

I’m going to say remove the covers from a set of Seth Lovers and go for those.

Removing the covers gives a tone that is noticeably stronger, more aggressive, more raw and, to me, simply more rock n roll.

There’s no humbuckers I like better than the Seth’s without covers...altho I am also a fan of the PG set.

I'll check that out, cheers

 

[V1ntage]

Re: Best humbuckers for hard rock, metal and blues rock?

The Kinks hard rock tone was Dave Davies playing through razor cut speaker.

Little off topic, but what has Page done with Kinks?

He did a lot of session work, idk if his specific songs are known since he did so much uncredited work, I think he also did some work with the who I believe