Best mag swap to date

[gimmieinfo]

Not sure if i recall any pickup where i swapped magnets and found it to be undeniably better till now. Gibson classic 57+ bridge, swapped to A5. I know tone is subjective, but i bet most everyone who plays the kind of music i do would agree it's a huge improvement. Definitely the first time i took a pickup from just usable to wow with a mag swap. It has better clarity, smoother top end, much tighter lows, better balance, and best of all it's WAY more dynamic both as far as how much it cleans up with the volume and to a lesser degree, touch. When i roll down the volume to clean up (with treble bleeds) the cleans are way cleaner and rounder without any fizz, something i have never accomplished before in a HB LP. I also tried pearly gates and those were pretty nice but this bridge is worlds better to my ears. Tried A5 in the neck too but it couldn't have been more polar opposite of the bridge results. Couldn't swap that A2 back in fast enough, and truth be told the neck is fine with A2 but i just had to try it given how good it worked in the bridge. By the way, i don't know how much A5 bars vary so i guess that could make or break the results depending on where it;s from. Mine was out of a tonerider Birmingham.

 

[jeremy]

glad you found a swap that worked so well for you! i much prefer the pgb with a2, the top end gets too sharp for me with a5, but as we all know what works for one person may not work for the next.

 

[gimmieinfo]

glad you found a swap that worked so well for you! i much prefer the pgb with a2, the top end gets too sharp for me with a5, but as we all know what works for one person may not work for the next.

Well, i can imagine that but it worked amazingly well in the classic 57+ which is a hugely different pickup than the PG. I had PGs in it before but they were a bit over the top as high mids go without any low mids and lows to speak of. Oddly tho, while everyone was saying A5 would add a lot of brightness i found it didn't add any top end, it just changed it for the better. More like adding treble and suppressing some of the high mids so that the the overall brightness was about the same, just much smoother and more dynamic with plenty of lows and low mids.

 

[jeremy]

i think, at least for the pgb, it is going to be rig dependent. i typically run old fender amps without many pedals, none if i can get away with it. the mids of the a2 pgb work great into those amps, and also with the older style marshalls ive used, those being the jtm45 and 1987. the a5 did fill out the bottom end and reduce the upper mid, but it added a treble content i didnt like at all. i found to to be more harsh and less smooth through my rig.