Humbuckers for a bright guitar - alder, maple pau ferro 25.5"

[effectsman]

I have a Tele with HH pickups from the guitar builder in it. It is an alder body (a bit on the heavy side), maple neck and pau ferro fingerboard. It has a stop tail through bridge with 6 individual saddles. The pickups in there at present are PAF style with Alnico 2 magnets and which I think are around 8K.

I find when playing distorted chords, the top 3 or 4 strings sound a bit sharp or dissonant to me in their overtones. I love the sound of my Brother’s Les Paul through the exact same set up. Obviously the difference in woods and scale length make a big difference. The maple neck and alder body have a much brighter faster attack to the notes. I’ve tried EQing out the problem, or rolling down the tone control to 2 which helps. So I'm looking for a pickup which de-emphasises these frequencies and the inherent brightness of the woods. To make the guitar sound closer to a Les Paul the way the chords sound a bit more mellow than the longer scale guitars do.

Tones I’m shooting for are clean, low gain, classic rock and 80’s rock.

What can you recommend in humbuckers for a bright guitar?

Thanks

 

[jeremy]

Re: Humbuckers for a bright guitar - alder, maple pau ferro 25.5"

welcome to the forum!

if you are looking for clean, low gain, and classic rock then 8k alnico 2 paf's are right there but they are going to be bright. have you adjusted your amp settings? 500k controls in the guitar? do you like the over all sound but just want it smoother? id put 250k controls in before id swap pups. it will mellow out the top end noticeably and is inexpensive if you do the soldering yourself

 

[effectsman]

Re: Humbuckers for a bright guitar - alder, maple pau ferro 25.5"

welcome to the forum!

if you are looking for clean, low gain, and classic rock then 8k alnico 2 paf's are right there but they are going to be bright. have you adjusted your amp settings? 500k controls in the guitar? do you like the over all sound but just want it smoother? id put 250k controls in before id swap pups. it will mellow out the top end noticeably and is inexpensive if you do the soldering yourself

Thanks for the welcome, and the reply!

I've tried adjusting the amp settings. The guitar has one volume and one tone control, both being 500K pots. At the moment I keep the tone at 5 out of 10, and roll the volume up and down. But to get rid of some of the brightness I'm talking about on the high strings, I roll the tone down to 2, but then it starts to sound a bit muffled. I can try changing the pots though and see if that emphasises different frequencies. I just think that because these are PAF style pickups they probably work to brighten up a 24.75" scale mahogany based guitar, but because mine is 25.5" scale with alder body, maple neck it has a fast attack and is inherently bright. So I want a pick up with probably more mid range and less emphasised top end, as I don't need the pick up to emphasise the brightness.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Humbuckers for a bright guitar - alder, maple pau ferro 25.5"

The WLH set might be just the ticket here. Slightly stronger and middier than most PAF style pickups

 

[jeremy]

Re: Humbuckers for a bright guitar - alder, maple pau ferro 25.5"

the wlh is a fine set. it swap the pots first unless the op is looking for more power. going down to 250k will warm things up quite a bit

 

[Mincer]

Re: Humbuckers for a bright guitar - alder, maple pau ferro 25.5"

A Custom Custom in the bridge and Alnico II Pro in the neck would be my choice here- I use that exact combo in an alder-bodied guitar. Have a spare 250k pot or 2 to swap out if it still is too bright, and don't forget to start turning the knobs on the amp, too.

 

[elelpe]

Re: Humbuckers for a bright guitar - alder, maple pau ferro 25.5"

I know it's not HB set but I'd recommend PATB-3 - Phat Cat. This set looks unusual but if you're looking for warm sound and individuality, it delivers.