dr.barlo
New member
Here is my modest opinion of those, based on the ones I came across.
I am selling a friends 04LP standard (locally, so there ain't no reason to get exicited) and it came with BBV (= BBpros) hb's. The guitar is a good one (still my 95LP is beating the hell out of it, :dance: I am soo happy you know) and has a thick tone. Still you can hear each string separately, which is a mighty cool thing.
A fellow guitar player (with whom I played in the past), who came to me to check out the guitar said that he gotta hear it with Burstbuckers, he is a gibson freak. He is in the process of buying the guitar, that is at the end of the day he liked what he heard. And I got to sell a set of my burstbuckers from my R7 (which now employs a set of Rolph's 59's, excellent pickups).
I also changed the pots(CTS500K's) and caps (hovlands). BTW I did not make any money on that, it just that I kept that LP like a month. That's it. :banghead: Still keep the other set of BB's (from my R8) that I thought were better, which I told him right into his face. Anyway....
Ok here is the deal: The bridge BBV wasn't bad at all. In fact I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it did not sound thin. The eq separation is great. I can hear individual strings separately even in most screaming double bends and/or when the tone is rolled down. As I am saying I was pleasantly surprised to find that out. That bridge BBV is not a bad pickup at all. (Still I wouldn't buy it in the aftermarket !)
On the other, the neck BBV was not good. It was too defined, too defined to be a neck LP tone you know. Shoot me! I also don't favor 59n's, and think that all of them need an a3 magnet. Anyway, that neck BBV was not my cup of tea.
BBV's were 8.20K bridge and 7.60K neck.
The BB's from my R7 which measure 8.35K bridge (BB2, a great value I love) and 7.80K neck (BB1). Have a2 magnets.
We liked the BB's way more. In my opinion in the neck BB1 killed BBV very clearly. It was rounder, and still had the definition. The individual strings could be heard separately, and the tone was round like any LP neck tone should be!
The conclusion about the bridge was not easy. Dont' get me wrong the difference was quite noticable, but it depends on one's preferences. BB2 is THICKER than BBV :duh:, but in a good way. It is not necessarily darker, don't get me wrong. It is bright as BBV is, all right, but in a a2 kinda way, that is it is not that edgey. More spongy. What I heard out of the BB2 reminded me a lot my favorite PGb (8.35K too).
BTW I don't know the deal with wax potting BB's. I guess aftermarket one are not wax potted, and as far as I can tell mine were (took one of the screw pieces out of the pickup to see what color the screw bobin is. disappointment, why can't I be lucky you know). No sqling issues on any of those.
Finally, I installed my beloved 8.35K PGb (from early 90's a custom shop one, long legs no logo). That guy who was checking the guitar out, wanted to buy it right on spot. Even offered $100.00, which I refused. That's only one of the 4 PGb's I kept (and indeed the best one) after buying/trading at least 12 of them (don't remember).
Wanted to share that with you guys.
Best,
B
I am selling a friends 04LP standard (locally, so there ain't no reason to get exicited) and it came with BBV (= BBpros) hb's. The guitar is a good one (still my 95LP is beating the hell out of it, :dance: I am soo happy you know) and has a thick tone. Still you can hear each string separately, which is a mighty cool thing.
A fellow guitar player (with whom I played in the past), who came to me to check out the guitar said that he gotta hear it with Burstbuckers, he is a gibson freak. He is in the process of buying the guitar, that is at the end of the day he liked what he heard. And I got to sell a set of my burstbuckers from my R7 (which now employs a set of Rolph's 59's, excellent pickups).
I also changed the pots(CTS500K's) and caps (hovlands). BTW I did not make any money on that, it just that I kept that LP like a month. That's it. :banghead: Still keep the other set of BB's (from my R8) that I thought were better, which I told him right into his face. Anyway....Ok here is the deal: The bridge BBV wasn't bad at all. In fact I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it did not sound thin. The eq separation is great. I can hear individual strings separately even in most screaming double bends and/or when the tone is rolled down. As I am saying I was pleasantly surprised to find that out. That bridge BBV is not a bad pickup at all. (Still I wouldn't buy it in the aftermarket
!)On the other, the neck BBV was not good. It was too defined, too defined to be a neck LP tone you know. Shoot me! I also don't favor 59n's, and think that all of them need an a3 magnet. Anyway, that neck BBV was not my cup of tea.
BBV's were 8.20K bridge and 7.60K neck.
The BB's from my R7 which measure 8.35K bridge (BB2, a great value I love) and 7.80K neck (BB1). Have a2 magnets.
We liked the BB's way more. In my opinion in the neck BB1 killed BBV very clearly. It was rounder, and still had the definition. The individual strings could be heard separately, and the tone was round like any LP neck tone should be!
The conclusion about the bridge was not easy. Dont' get me wrong the difference was quite noticable, but it depends on one's preferences. BB2 is THICKER than BBV :duh:, but in a good way. It is not necessarily darker, don't get me wrong. It is bright as BBV is, all right, but in a a2 kinda way, that is it is not that edgey. More spongy. What I heard out of the BB2 reminded me a lot my favorite PGb (8.35K too). BTW I don't know the deal with wax potting BB's. I guess aftermarket one are not wax potted, and as far as I can tell mine were (took one of the screw pieces out of the pickup to see what color the screw bobin is. disappointment, why can't I be lucky you know). No sqling issues on any of those.
Finally, I installed my beloved 8.35K PGb (from early 90's a custom shop one, long legs no logo). That guy who was checking the guitar out, wanted to buy it right on spot. Even offered $100.00, which I refused. That's only one of the 4 PGb's I kept (and indeed the best one) after buying/trading at least 12 of them (don't remember).
Wanted to share that with you guys.
Best,
B
Gibson did a great job of taking the mojo of an old guitar and spreading it all over new ones. I've played the Fender relics, and while cool, they didn't stack up to this particular guitar. 
