Geppetto Camelot PAF's

mojosman

mojosman

New member
Does anyone have any experience good or bad with this Geppetto pickups company out of Texas? I know iPhone video is only so helpful when assessing pickups, and often the players talent and touch may have more to do with your perception than the actual tone; but that said, this video sounded like what I'm looking for.

Obviously I would really appreciate all of your input, and thoughts. My buddy has a Les Paul that I've always loved. He's tried to sell it to me before, but I've never had the money. He's a narrow 60's profile Les Paul guy, and this one has a baseball bat neck that feels a bit wide, and is chunky. I like the shape, he doesn't. Anyway, He's buying a really nice Teaburst Les Paul with a narrow neck, that is stripped. He offered me the big neck Les Paul stripped for dirt cheap. It currently has vintage wiring, a SD Custom Shop Bonamassa Skinner burst set in it, and upgraded bridge and tailpiece, which he will take and retain for his new guitar. The Skinner Burst set sounds great BTW.

I am thinking about what I want for pickups in the big necked Les Paul when I get it, and these sound pretty cool, and are $200/set. My other choice is to order SD custom Skinner Bursts like it has, or maybe a Custom Shop Pearly Gates set, which are both over $300 a set. Thanks in advance for your insight.

I play through Fender Tube amps, I'm not a high gain sort of guy. I like that the pickups in the video go from a bit of dirt to jazzy clean without getting muddy or losing any edge. Thanks again.


http://http://geppettoguitars.com/
 
Re: Geppetto Camelot PAF's

Rex_Rocker said:
Well, they claim to be authentic, but also scatter wound...
Click to expand...

That's a great point, but to be honest I've never played a real 1959 Les Paul, nor is it likely I will ever own one. For me, I just want my Les Paul to sound as close to the tone I hear from recordings of old Les Pauls, and how I think a Les Paul should sound. Historically correct isn't a factor to me as much as the tone is, but you are correct in that they shouldn't toss the word "authentic" around if that's not what it is. Seymour Duncan not only goes to great lengths to get period correct materials, they have the actual machine used on these pickups back in the 1950's. That's authentic.

My first Les Paul was a Studio faded. I loved the feel of the neck, and the way it played. The tone of the pickups just wasn't right. It sounded pretty good through pedals, or if you had an amp with some gain happening, but they sounded really vanilla when trying to play clean. Popped out the controls, pc board, and replaced the Gibson pickups with a Pearly Gates set and 500k CTS pots, with Sprague PIO caps and it was a different guitar. It sounded like what I thought a Les Paul should sound like.
 
Re: Geppetto Camelot PAF's

A lot of what you have to do to reproduce the tone using modern metals and wire becomes different to what the originals were - you have to compensate to achieve a certain goal. So many of the most accurate winders go to the trouble of getting both wire and magnets made to vintage specs in order to replicate all of the vintage machine wound aspects.
Scatter is one of those things you can incorporate into your processes in order to gain some depth to the tone.......making it more 3d rather than plain.
Of course there will be other tonal artefacts you don't want as well because of this choice (nothing comes for free). Each winder will make a choice of what aspects they like to hear/incorporate best.
 
Geppetto Camelot PAF's

85EB0E17-D7AA-402D-A9BF-23249530A308.jpg
Well the deal is done. This is my new to me 2013 Traditional Les Paul. After thinking things over I’ve decided to also buy my buddy’s Custom Shop Skinner Burst pickup set. They are wound by MJ and are number 193 of the original run of 800. He bought them originally for this guitar, and I know they sounded great in it. He eventually swapped them out to put into another Les Paul, but in the meantime he fell in love with a custom shop Pearly Gates set, so these became available.
B718F6F2-62A3-48BE-8EB9-8DBA8EE27D30.jpg
They cost nearly twice what the Gepetto pickups cost, but these aren’t a toss of the dice. I know these will deliver. Now I just need to gather the other parts and pieces to put this thing together. I can’t wait. I will post an NGD when it’s done
 
Last edited:
Re: Geppetto Camelot PAF's

mojosman said:
Does anyone have any experience good or bad with this Geppetto pickups company out of Texas? I know iPhone video is only so helpful when assessing pickups, and often the players talent and touch may have more to do with your perception than the actual tone; but that said, this video sounded like what I'm looking for.

Obviously I would really appreciate all of your input, and thoughts. My buddy has a Les Paul that I've always loved. He's tried to sell it to me before, but I've never had the money. He's a narrow 60's profile Les Paul guy, and this one has a baseball bat neck that feels a bit wide, and is chunky. I like the shape, he doesn't. Anyway, He's buying a really nice Teaburst Les Paul with a narrow neck, that is stripped. He offered me the big neck Les Paul stripped for dirt cheap. It currently has vintage wiring, a SD Custom Shop Bonamassa Skinner burst set in it, and upgraded bridge and tailpiece, which he will take and retain for his new guitar. The Skinner Burst set sounds great BTW.

I am thinking about what I want for pickups in the big necked Les Paul when I get it, and these sound pretty cool, and are $200/set. My other choice is to order SD custom Skinner Bursts like it has, or maybe a Custom Shop Pearly Gates set, which are both over $300 a set. Thanks in advance for your insight.

I play through Fender Tube amps, I'm not a high gain sort of guy. I like that the pickups in the video go from a bit of dirt to jazzy clean without getting muddy or losing any edge. Thanks again.


http://http://geppettoguitars.com/
Click to expand...

Is this guy a paid advertiser?

The filming in a random-looking room corner makes it look amateurish, almost faux-amateurish....but this guy is A LOT better than anyone Seymour Duncan ever paraded out to shill their stuff.

At playing, at youtube video creation, AND at presenting/advertising.

If this were politics, it'd be called astroturfing
 
Re: Geppetto Camelot PAF's

Adieu said:
Is this guy a paid advertiser?

The filming in a random-looking room corner makes it look amateurish, almost faux-amateurish....but this guy is A LOT better than anyone Seymour Duncan ever paraded out to shill their stuff.

At playing, at youtube video creation, AND at presenting/advertising.

If this were politics, it'd be called astroturfing
Click to expand...

Your point is well taken. Clearly this guy in the video is a pro, and could probably make any pickup set sound amazing. But in fairness I watched two videos of the Skinner Burst set, and the guy in those videos was someone you’ve likely heard of; Joe Bonamassa. So if the guy in the Geppetto video is a ringer, I’d say it was a fair fight.

 
Last edited:
Re: Geppetto Camelot PAF's

mojosman said:
Your point is well taken. Clearly this guy in the video is a pro, and could probably make any pickup set sound amazing. But in fairness I watched two videos of the Skinner Burst set, and the guy in those videos was someone you’ve likely heard of; Joe Bonamassa. So if the guy in the Geppetto video is a ringer, I’d say it was a fair fight.

Click to expand...

Nooooope

This video is cheesy trash.

Unless you're already idolizing whoever-the-heck anyway, he couldn't sell penny water to a man dying of thirst....

the other guy? He could sell steak knives to vegans. And they'd go home happy.
 
Re: Geppetto Camelot PAF's

I think you made the right choice with the Duncan’s.

It’s probably just me and/or the audio quality of that video but I was pretty unimpressed with the tones.
The playing was great but the tones sounded weak and trebly. (Not sure if weak is the right work here...)
 
Re: Geppetto Camelot PAF's

Well that video paints a completely different picture of the pickups.
They sounded wonderful here. Wow
 
Re: Geppetto Camelot PAF's

Darg thank you for sharing that. They did sound pretty good on that video.

On this guy’s Facebook page (Geppetto Guitar) he claims he will mail you a set of his pickups for just the cost of postage, and if you try them out and like them, you can pay him later. If you dislike them just mail them back. That sounds like a confident guy.
 
Last edited:
Re: Geppetto Camelot PAF's

Adieu said:
Is this guy a paid advertiser?

The filming in a random-looking room corner makes it look amateurish, almost faux-amateurish....but this guy is A LOT better than anyone Seymour Duncan ever paraded out to shill their stuff.

At playing, at youtube video creation, AND at presenting/advertising.

If this were politics, it'd be called astroturfing
Click to expand...

P.S.: Your suspicions have been confirmed. Out of curiosity I looked this guy up, and he was in Whitesnake at one time, was also in a band with a few former Grateful Dead members, does studio work in L.A., and in general has an impressive resume. On his personal web page he has a page for endorsements. If you scroll down Seymour Duncan comes up, and a few companies later: Geppetto Guitars. For what it's worth.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top