Re: IF i add new pickups to my Epiphone Les Paul II, what can make it crunch best?
Thank you for your service to our country.
So, do you mean crunch as in Rolling Stones/bluesy 70's crunch, or more modern crunch?
One pickup that often gets overlooked is the DiMarzio Norton. It's got a lot of the same characteristics of the Super Distortion, but with a touch less output and a more "vocal" quality to the tone. It's said to be DiMarzio's most versatile bridge humbucker.
As for Duncans, the Custom seems to be a favorite among a lot of people in the forum. I've never tried one, but I should at some point. I had a JB in an Epiphone Les Paul about ten years ago and it was a tad ice-picky, but it made the clean channel of my amp crunch up faster than the stock pickups in my Gibson LP Studio. The JB's are the most popular Duncan pickup, but sometimes it's hit or miss with them in a mahogany guitar.
Duncan Full Shred pickups are coming stock in a lot of Schecter Guitars nowadays. Chris Poland uses them, and they sound really good! It depends on what kind of music you're playing and your amp. If you want a "peel the paint off the back wall and make children in distant lands pee their pants" kind of tone, there's the Duncan Invader.
For lower gain, more traditional rock n roll type music, DiMarzio 36th Anniversary humbuckers are great. A lot of players say they hold their own against the more expensive high end stuff. And they only cost about $65.00, or a few dollars more for aged nickel covers. But if you got to youtube to check out reviews of these, avoid the Guitar World review with the blue backdrop. That one has bad sound. Larry DiMarzio has his own youtube channel and he answers a lot of questions in the comment section.
You may also want to change your volume and tone pots, but that won't make as much difference in the sound as a straight pickup change will.
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