Epiphone Alnico Classic Pro Pickups

[Aceman]

So I have an Epiphone ES-339 Pro that has these pickups. Unlike extended store play experiences, I now have serious home time behind them.

Summary: Damn, I like these!

I use that guitar to play a lot of clean style on; Blues, Jazz, etc.. I do rock it out a bit, but not that much, and not that heavy. I've been playing it through either my Peavey Express, and a lot lately through my little Cube GX (Roland, Blackface, or Tweed sims, with just a spot of reverb).

I really like this pickups, and I'm pretty sure they will be staying. Nice PAF styling in tone and output. Very even sounding. I'd say more mids than a 59, but by no means mid-heavy. Still some PAF scoop as my ears hear them. The overall characteristic is faulty warm as A5 pups go. Nice clear highs on them though.

When split, notable power drop, but they are not very powerful so no surprise there. I like the single coil tone as well. I'm no serious single coil conneseur though so your opinion may vary a bit (or a lot.).

This guitar put out some very nice woody tones with these, which is exactly what I want for what I play on it. I REALLY dig using the "both on" position, and splitting one pup and blending it with the other. HB neck + Split bring blended in gives me some really natural sounding wood/air awesomeness! I don't play more than medium classic rock 70's gain on them, but they sound solid for that too.

Really like what Epiphone built here, regardless of the details. Anyone know the specs of these bad boys?

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Epiphone Alnico Classic Pro Pickups

Not sure on the specs, but I will say the pickups on the Dot Deluxe I had earlier this year were great. The stocks on my Classic Vibe Tele are awesome, too. The imports have really stepped up their game pickup-wise.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Epiphone Alnico Classic Pro Pickups

I'm telling you, if the budget guitars keep improving at the rate they have this past decade, by the next five years there will be no reason to buy any guitar that costs more than $1,000.

My Sterling Stingray bass cost me $300 and once set up was darn near perfect without any modification. I still haven't done anything to it yet, other than install strap locks. There's no way I could have found a bass like that 10 years ago at the same price point.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Epiphone Alnico Classic Pro Pickups

I *think* the pickups in your ES are similar to the ones I pulled from my brother's G400 (the G400 has a hotter bridge pickup, though). If so, they measure in at around 8.6k and have alnico mags. They do sound very good for what they are.

Epiphone really is making bettsr pickups. I swapped out the pickups in my Nighthawk Custom RI, but I did it mostly out of habit. The originals sounded VERY good, particularly the middle single.

 

[Discharged]

Re: Epiphone Alnico Classic Pro Pickups

Dear Ace: Ask and you shall receive:

























That's the ins and out of your Epi p'ups. Pretty good stock, excellent once modded with good screws, slugs and magnets matching the requested musical task. In this specific case, polished A3 in the neck and polished A2 in the bridge were used. The covers, keeper bars and baseplates are nickelsilver made, so no need for change into that dept.

The mags that come stock with these p'ups are chinese, polished A2s.

Even though made using the Probucker tech, these p'ups are OEM only, meaning they're not sold as aftermarket p'ups like the Probucker 2 and Probucker 3, which, BTW, I don't quite like'em nearly as much as the Alnico Classic Pro you've gotten with the ES-339. The DC readings in mine were 7.68K in the neck, 8.45K in the bridge... exactly like the Antiquity set I used to own.

Hope this helps,

Yours very truly,

 

[Zombiwoof]

Re: Epiphone Alnico Classic Pro Pickups

The older Epiphone humbuckers were way too hot, the new Pros are very nice PAF type HB's.
Al