help turn my lonestar strat into a les paul

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powdermnky007

New member
Greetings,
I've done lots of research but need some input from the more experienced people here.

I have a lonestar american HSS strat. All stock. Alder body, 250k volume pot, 2 texas specials and 1 pearly gates humbucker.

I play through a Marshall JTM30 combo amp, upgrading to Egnater Tweaker or Marshall DSL40c late this year. I typically play hard rock on the humbucker. Stone Temple Pilots, Shinedown, Led Zepplin, Creed, Bush, Jet, AcDc, Pat Benetar, Robert Palmer, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Metallica, Guns N Roses, lots of stuff like that. You get the idea :)

I've never cared for the pearly gates sound, has too much mids imo. I guess I'm after more of a les paul type sound. A few weeks ago I changed the magnet out from A2 to A8 and while it definitely made it hotter, its still really mid heavy. It would probably be great if I was playing into a Fender amp... but I'm not. I roll the volume down to 9 and the tone down to 9, and that helps some, but any more than that and I lose the highs which I like. I guess I'm looking for a balanced les paul type sound.

So I've done LOADS of reasearch. Before changing to A8 magnet, I was planning on swapping to a duncan custom or custom 5 pickup. Today I noticed this pickup. DiMarzio DP224 AT1 Andy Timmons Humbucker Pickup White F-Spaced.

I really have no idea what pickup I need. The more I learn, the less I know. Can you guys make any recommendations based on my musical preferences? Can't afford another guitar, and I love my strat. Use the single coils a lot for blues.

Thank you in advance
 
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Re: help turn my lonestar strat into a les paul

If you find the PG too mid heavy I would suggest looking for a Gibson 57 bridge. Most people find them to be lacking a bit in the mids and upgrade to PGs or WLHs to get more of that mid punch. One of the reasons I am suggesting this pickup is they are pentiful and cheap on the used market. They are a great sounding pickup I took mine out because I play with a lot of bass and a lot of low-mids.
 
Re: help turn my lonestar strat into a les paul

welcome to the forum!

if thats a stock lonestar then you had a pearly gates + which is alnico 5 which shouldnt be overly middy, you sure its the stock pup? alnico 8 is really heavy on the mids so you are going the wrong direction with that magnet.

a c5 is a good match for the texas specials and isnt very middy. some say its very bright but with 250k pots that shouldnt be an issue. les pauls tend to be middy guitars so im a little confused here
 
Re: help turn my lonestar strat into a les paul

Maybe so. My mids are more piercing and less smooth and creamy. Harder to tame, even with the original pickup magnets. Keep the suggestions coming, please!!!
 
Re: help turn my lonestar strat into a les paul

upper mids can be piercing with some rigs, in others they give a nice creamy overdrive. do you have the old magnet handy? see if there is a black or blue mark on it
 
Re: help turn my lonestar strat into a les paul

Is this the mark? It's my original magnet. I bought the guitar new in the late 90s.
2016-08-19 17.39.06.jpg
 
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Re: help turn my lonestar strat into a les paul

"help turn my lonestar strat into a les paul"

Step 1: Sell your Lonestar strat
Step 2: Collect the money
Step 3: Collect more money
Step 4: Buy a Les Paul

On a (slightly) more serious note, if you don't like mids, don't go for the AT-1, and keep in mind that not many humbuckers sound good with 250K pots. If you are keeping the texas specials, you probably need to keep the 250k pots, although you could probably jump up to 300K's. Texas Specials are more mid-focused than something like the Fender 69 Customs, so they mesh well with A2 humbuckers. If you want less mids from the humbucker, the 59B is OK with 250k pots, and so is the Screaming Demon. I think both sound a tiny bit better with 500k pots, but strats are always compromises.
 
Re: help turn my lonestar strat into a les paul

LOL yeah i know :-X I'm considering it sadly if I can't get this worked out. Definitely keeping the Texas specials and 250k pots. I like mids... just looking for something more velvety. Like les paul on distortion. My pearly gates plus always seems harsh in comparison. Maybe mids is the wrong word... Just harsh, shrill, thin...

Thanks for the idea to look for magnet color marking. I had no idea about this!!
I found this on another forum. I needed to know if anyone here ever saw a pu's magnet with a color mark like duncan uses to ID his magnets grade?
for example his alnico II models have a blue mark on the edge of the magnet. his alnico 5's are marked in black,and ceramic in red.
seymour marks the north side of his magnets

Jeremy, you were correct. I assumed i already had an alnico II magnet in there, but I forgot about the PU being a pearly gates PLUS. I assume you recommend I swap to an alnico II?

Edit: Just went back to the seymour duncan page and even the normal pearly gates PU with alnico II magents is a little harsh. Probably a big improvement over what I have now though. But I really want it to be smoother. I use my bridge pickup on that guitar for all my rhythm too for hard rock. Single coils don't cut it for rockin'

So kinda narrowed it down to a Alnico II Pro HB - Custom 5 - DiMarzio AT1 Andy Timmons - JB? What do you think would play nicely with my 250k volume pot and be less ice picky and still have decent chugga chugga for rhythm? lol. The way I viewed pickups changed some since I now know I have an alnico V... makes a difference in my thought process.
Thank you!
 
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Re: help turn my lonestar strat into a les paul

yep a jb will sound good with 250ks. Still cuts and screams as much as anything else out there.
The other pickup worth looking at tho seeing as you want velvety and thick is the custom custom.
 
Re: help turn my lonestar strat into a les paul

DiMarzio Breed. Lots of mids, but not the piercing kind. It's designed to make a superstrat sound like a Les Paul
 
Re: help turn my lonestar strat into a les paul

You have a PG with an A2 and you swapped in an A8 and weren't happy. How about an UOA5 or regular A5 instead?

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk
 
Re: help turn my lonestar strat into a les paul

I was informed that I had a pearly gates plus with A5. :)
Researching options above, keep Em coming :)
 
Re: help turn my lonestar strat into a les paul

Outside option, only for the daring:. Regular thickness ceramic.

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Re: help turn my lonestar strat into a les paul

Demanic said:
Outside option, only for the daring:. Regular thickness ceramic.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

haha i did that to a pearly time ago, a nice medium output pickup for a blazing hot amp to play thrash and death metal, that thing had a tight metallic attack and a brash overall attitude perfect for keeping a chainsaw tone defined and sweet, but in no way warm, i would say Parallel Axis Trembucker 3, if you can go past the aesthetics you will be rewarded, as the pickup was designed for blues saraceno, a shredder who wanted a les paul tone out if his super strats, definitely worth looking on
 
Re: help turn my lonestar strat into a les paul

Mr. B said:
"help turn my lonestar strat into a les paul"

Step 1: Sell your Lonestar strat
Step 2: Collect the money
Step 3: Collect more money
Step 4: Buy a Les Paul

On a (slightly) more serious note....
Click to expand...

I know he was halfway kidding but seriously that's the right answer. You will be on a never-ending quest to make your Strat sound like a Les Paul.

If it were me, I'd buy a cheap used Les Paul (or even a decent used Epiphone LP) and install my favorite Brand X PAF pickups or even just leave the stock ones in. You will probably spend less money than trying to chase a sound you are likely never going to get out of your setup. And now you have two very unique sounding guitars instead of one trying to pose as the other one.
 
Re: help turn my lonestar strat into a les paul

i fooled around with a PGP some times ago, changing magnets, swapping into other guitars. This thing is the equivalent to a single coil in humbucker shape. Its always brite and seriously needs 250k pots and a tone pot. It was in a LP, had A2, uoa5, a8 magnets.
On the other hand a strat won't never sound like LP. The most warm sounding pickups i had were the Custom Custom, the Brobucker and some of the pickups of the Rio Grande brand. This just in case you want to keep you strat otherwise will these pickups too wooly in a LP imo.
 
Re: help turn my lonestar strat into a les paul

You can 'fake it' with pickups that might make the low end a bit more, or push the mids.....but in the end only a Les Paul will be the solution. There are too many base differences for this to work......unless your natural tone is so heavily driven it squashes all differences out so everything sounds the same.
 
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