Is it wrong to want my les paul to sound...well...more stratty

[Young Angus]

Before you attack i dont want it to sound like a strat, but ive been getting amazing strat tones through my ENGL with my warmoth strat and its dimarzio virtual vintage solo bridge, and then i plug in my les paul and while i absolutely love it to bits it seems too bassy distorted now after playing my strat...and its not that i just played it cos i havent whipped out the strat in a week now and have been playing the les paul non stop and i think i really need new pickups in it.

Its still got the stock BBpros and im starting to really hate them, they just sometimes make the guitar feel crap simply because of the sound they put out. Im thinking now not to go with something very high output, but still want it to be able to crank out the chunk, but i think my ENGL will kinda take care of most of the chunk

I was thinking now an Alnico 2 Pro set ala slash, because i really want lots of clarity from both pickups but still want the bridge especially to be able to chunk. And this way i was thinking that they arent high output humbuckers so they wont sound too bassy. Come to think of it though lots of duncans will probably satisfy, so long as they're not these BBpros!

What do you all think about that?

(i know....i STILL havent got pickups for my les paul....ive planted the money tree though so it should flower soon)

 

[JeffB]

Re: Is it wrong to want my les paul to sound...well...more stratty

Hmmm...IME over the years..trying to change X into Y is usually fruitless. I've come to appreciate each guitar for what it is...just like a girlfriend/wife/SO..always backfires when ya try to change them

As for your predicament...wanting some chug but a little less humbucker mud...what about those P-90 single coil Phat Cats or whatever? More beef than a strat, more stratty than a HB. Still can chug away.

 

[St_Genesius]

Re: Is it wrong to want my les paul to sound...well...more stratty

I think we all go through phases where we prefer one sort of sound to another...which is why we have multiple guitars. I'm in the midst of a HB-laden high gain mood right now, so my Tele is seeing much less use (despite its HB in the neck) because it doesn't quite do it as well as my Fake LP. I went through a semi-hollow phase in college, during which I played my Sheraton almost exclusively. Sometimes I become annoyed with electrics entirely and do nothing but play my Taylor...and about every three years or so, I get bored with guitar and go back home to my first love, bass, for months and months.

During each of these phases, I'm constantly thinking about how I can make my other instruments sound more like the one that I'm digging. Thankfully, I don't usally act on these impulses, because without fail my ears will eventually turn back in the other direction and I'll be glad that I've got those other sounds still intact.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Is it wrong to want my les paul to sound...well...more stratty

Before you attack i dont want it to sound like a strat, but ive been getting amazing strat tones through my ENGL with my warmoth strat and its dimarzio virtual vintage solo bridge, and then i plug in my les paul and while i absolutely love it to bits it seems too bassy distorted now after playing my strat...and its not that i just played it cos i havent whipped out the strat in a week now and have been playing the les paul non stop and i think i really need new pickups in it.
What do you all think about that?

I think: I rarely play my Les Paul (even though it has some of the best pickups on the planet in it) because it sounds exactly as you describe: "I plug in my les paul and while i absolutely love it to bits it seems too bassy distorted now after playing my strat". :laugh2:

It's why I play Teles and Strats mostly...and why Clapton (after first inventing Humbucker through a Marshall rock guitar tone!) quit playing Les Pauls and switched to Strats.

Let your LP be what it is...and just play your Strats more often.

Lew

 

[ranalli]

Re: Is it wrong to want my les paul to sound...well...more stratty

Dimarzio Humbucker from Hell in the neck.....that will definitely give you some good fat neck Strat tones....not exactly but the closests I've heard for something that isn't a strat.

 

[SABOTAGE]

Re: Is it wrong to want my les paul to sound...well...more stratty

Dimarzio Humbucker from Hell in the neck.....that will definitely give you some good fat neck Strat tones....not exactly but the closests I've heard for something that isn't a strat.

I agree! try a paf pro in the bridge and a HFH in the neck for a non traditional LP set up

 

[mongrollo]

Re: Is it wrong to want my les paul to sound...well...more stratty

Lew's it is a good suggestion... If I were you I would follow it.

But if you were me and you would like to step in every mistake here is a suggestion. I have made two pickups from both coils of a SM and I use them as neck and bridge pickups. To fill the holes of the missing coil I have used a cheese humbucker. The result it isn't a strat but a well defined low output with clarity and touch sensitivity. I would say the tone it is related to a P-90 but more on the strat side and with much less output. Or it could also be seen as a fat strat tone but without the higher output.

 

[Simon_F]

Re: Is it wrong to want my les paul to sound...well...more stratty

Do you still have the stock pots in your Les Paul? Changing to 500k audio taper volume pots from 300k linear taper really opened up the sound of my LP Standard. It doesn't sound like a Strat, but it does have more top end, slightly more output and generally sounds "clearer".

 

[Luke Duke]

Re: Is it wrong to want my les paul to sound...well...more stratty

The A2P in the bridge will be a good choice. I love mine! It has great clarity and definition with a character that really cuts through. I also have a jazz in the neck which makes for a warm but jangly sound with great articulation.

Some phat cats might be what the doctor ordered though. I love P90's due to their fatness and a single slices through the air like nothing else.

Luke

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Is it wrong to want my les paul to sound...well...more stratty

Do you still have the stock pots in your Les Paul? Changing to 500k audio taper volume pots from 300k linear taper really opened up the sound of my LP Standard. It doesn't sound like a Strat, but it does have more top end, slightly more output and generally sounds "clearer".

I did that for a guy a while back....he hated it afterwards and asked me to return it to stock. I was stunned. :smack: That's like telling Pamela Sue Anderson to put her clothes back on! :laugh2:

Some guys like a dull and wooly tone I guess...no accounting for taste. Me, I like to hear what I'm playing and not sound like I have a wool blanket over my speakers. 500K all the way...and the 50's mod too. Lew

 

[Hellion]

Re: Is it wrong to want my les paul to sound...well...more stratty

Another thing you could do is put a pickup in the bridge (I'm thinking a Jeff Beck, but depending on what you're looking for...) and use a push/pull pot to put the coils in parallel or series.

 

[mongrollo]

Re: Is it wrong to want my les paul to sound...well...more stratty

I have experience with this... I have been experimenting with hundred of differents wiring combinations to try to achieve a more straty tone from a pair of humbuckers. My conclusion is: Nothing will give you the strat tone but a strat. Everything was useless!!!

The closest thing I've got was the split Stag Mag. The second closest thing, but very far from the previous, was a split JB. But it only worked on the bridge spot, I have also tried split in the neck split and it was too fat and dark... No quack!!

 

[Hellion]

Re: Is it wrong to want my les paul to sound...well...more stratty

Yea, but he said that he didn't really want his LP to sound like a Strat, just more Strat-like. I agree with you, nothing else really has that tone, but you can approximate to a certain degree.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Is it wrong to want my les paul to sound...well...more stratty

Again, love it for what it is - one heavy slab of molten rock! I personally think strats are a bunch of strident, thin sounding, twang beasts from planet Screech. Does anyone remember the GP article on April Fools where they told someone how to convert an ES 335 into Malmsteen's sound? If you really want a particular sound, get the tool for the job....which sounds like a strat to me.

However - Mr. Jimmy Page had one bitchin' set of wiring done up to get those "tele" recorded sounds out of a Paul on stage. As for what pups to go with - Can't say. Check into the Jimmy Page wiring schematics.

Or the P-90 recommendation might work, Fatter than a strat, crispier than any PAul bucker I've heard.

And most people actually think the BB Pro's are some of Gibsons most decent pups in years, from what I see here. Must be you...

 

[gripweed]

Re: Is it wrong to want my les paul to sound...well...more stratty

I think: I rarely play my Les Paul (even though it has some of the best pickups on the planet in it) because it sounds exactly as you describe: "I plug in my les paul and while i absolutely love it to bits it seems too bassy distorted now after playing my strat". :laugh2:

It's why I play Teles and Strats mostly...and why Clapton (after first inventing Humbucker through a Marshall rock guitar tone!) quit playing Les Pauls and switched to Strats.

Let your LP be what it is...and just play your Strats more often.

Lew

Great suggestion! I prefer Fender style guitars but once in a while I like that Gibson style sound.

I wonder if the Lindy Fralin pickups might be closer to what you're looking for...

 

[msplines]

Re: Is it wrong to want my les paul to sound...well...more stratty

Had the same problem with the same guitar, spent ages experimenting and found two good solutions (different sounds, but both good results).
First thing is to change out the 300 pots for push/push 500s (push pulls are more robust, but frankly bloody awkward and almost unusable on stage when you are in a hurry and want more beef now) to split the buckers (or parallel, less noise but not as bright) - you might find that it's enough.
Second step is the pickups - I got excellent results from a Screaming Demon in the bridge and a JB in the neck and I use the JB split on the slug side almost all the time as it's very full and a bit plummy in HB mode for rythm work, but bootiful for full blooded lead work and very stratty when split under gain.
Trust me, it really works and you can pick up (sic) second hand JBs relatively cheap - everyone and their granny has got one lying around.
Another alternative (but noisier due to single coil hum) is Phat cats (I actually used Harmonic Design humbucker sized P90s and SD brought out series phart kits 2 months later - was I sick) which give you enough clang, bump and grind to get you arrested but are not really as "stratty" as the first combo.

 

[Martian]

Re: Is it wrong to want my les paul to sound...well...more stratty

Put treble bleed circuits on your LP's volume pots; lower the volume pots on your LP to say, 7, and then increase the treble on your amp.

 

[classicplayer]

Re: Is it wrong to want my les paul to sound...well...more stratty

I think we go through the process of thinking we are not quite satisfied with our current guitar(s) from time to time. Five years ago I bought my Les Paul Classic and just could not get comfortable with the higher output pickups and the resulting really fat sound they put out (especially since I'd been playing Fender Strats for a number of years). In time, however I came to appreciate just what it could do, and the varied tones in that Les Paul. I still enjoy listening to it, although I have ditched the ceramic pups and installed a set of Duncan '59s in it. It still is very fat sounding, but with these Duncans (which may be the equivilent of the BB Pros) I enjoy it even more. I find that by tweaking the amp and guitar's controls, I can find "Fender" like tones on the bridge pup easily (thin sounding and biting)

When I get tired of the humbucker sound, I switch over to the Strat which is all stock (2001 Amercian Standard) and I love its' particular sound too. Interesting though is that now if I had to part with one of the two guitars, I'd elect to keep the Lester, as I think I have learned to get thinner sounds from my pups. I just love the looks, the feel and the fact that I bought a guitar that seems to be put together very well.

No, it's not wrong to want to have your Lester sound like a Strat, per say, but enjoy the Lester for what it is and does and likewise the Strat.

Classicplayer

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Is it wrong to want my les paul to sound...well...more stratty

Jolly has a ton of Pauls with Duncans and likes the Jazz/Jazz combo the best.
59 Paul likes a pair of 59's
My most versatile LP's have C-5/59.

Try pickups along those lines. I've often fancied getting a nickel 59B/Jazz N set.

 

[Nightburst]

Re: Is it wrong to want my les paul to sound...well...more stratty

Man, just put a JB/Jazz set in there, wire it so you can split them and voila: a more stratty and les boomy sound.