Re: Best pickups for a Les Paul Baritone (for melodic crust punk)
Punkrot, I appreciate your dilemma. I play in a band that blends crust/doom/sludge and play a 1976 les paul standard. I'm lucky that my guitar has the original pickups - I have no dilemma, although I have wondered if it might be worthwhile to "upgrade" the pickups. I play through a Jet City Amelia and a Marshall 1964A cab. I use an EXH Glove distortion pedal to get more of a classic British-style overdrive tone. I use and MXR Micro Amp+ before the pedal to push the circuits. They both are in front of the amp in my signal chain. Based on what I hear and the feedback I receive from others, there is no way I'd go with modern pickups. The "T-Top" pickups in my guitar are plenty hot and responsive for crust. I think they're also helping make sure the sound isn't too saturated, compressed, tight and all those things that people who play crust hate about metal tones. I know this thread is old, but I would strongly encourage you to go with a vintage pickup and wonder where you are in your quest. Cheers.
Thanks for the message, and hail fellow crustie!
Sounds like you've got a great setup.
My pickup journey went Pegasus/Sentient (which sounded great in a DAW, but didn't thrill me through my amp); Lace Drop and Gains (which sounded awesome through my amp, and needed tons of EQing to be usable in the DAW); and now the Tom Anderson H3/H1 (which sound amazing no matter what I'm playing into). Despite this, I've since given up on using digital amp sims for recording practice demos — I just mic my amp because it sounds more real and requires less fussing around with settings.
Sound-wise, the H3/H1 are huge, warm, rich, dark, and very articulate. And unbelievably smooth, which I love. I basically just messaged Martyrdöd on Facebook and asked what pickups they use. They said for the record that they don't endorse any brands, but that this is what they're rocking at the moment.
I liked the Lace pups quite a bit, and I may pop them back in again for variety some day — especially now that I've got a new amp (Engl Fireball 100) — but the Toms are really a gem. It's that smoothness that gets me.
I really dig the sludgy sound, but the style I'm playing (lots of big chords with shifting notes played stupidly fast) tends to get lost with a loose rig. I love the loose sound, but seriously — what I'm playing becomes a complete mess that way. I also don't like dealing with pedals and effects — the only pedal in my chain at this point is a tuner pedal, which is just how I like it.
As for whether or not to try a pup swap for your guitar — it's your call. On the one hand, if it ain't broke don't fix it. On the other hand, aside from the cost of buying a set of quality pups, you have nothing to lose by experimenting, and you can always put your old pups back in whenever you want (pro-tip: save yourself future trouble by writing down the pickup heights and keeping the note with your pickups). The Lace Drop and Gains would definitely be good for a sludgy application (and would probably allow you to remove the MXR since those pickups definitely do not need a boost). In fact, Lace's demo of that pickup features the guitarist from a sludge/doom band called Sixteen playing a heap of heaviness. But if you like it smooth and rich, the Tom Anderson H3/H1 are magnificent (they're also what Mesa uses to test their amps, for what that's worth).
