Les Paul Custom with honky mids out of the bridge pup??

[Christopher Caruana]

Got a chance yesterday to take my LPC for a spin and I really turned up the volume on my lil Marshall MG15, and the bridge pup (stock 498t) had a really honky upper mid sound too it. The 490r is really muddy, which is no suprise, but Ive heard the 498t described as a lot of things....but honky is not one of them. Sounded stuffy and honky....the bass and treble were just kind of....blah sounding for lack of a better term. messed with the settings and couldnt get the honk to go away. I even scooped the mids, which helped a little, but it still had that upper mid honk to it. No real bite or thump to it.....just stuffy mids lol

so....im going to chnage pickups, but im not sure what for the bridge cuz idk if its the guitar that is mid heavy or the pickup.....OR both...and im kinda afraid to try another mid heavy pickup (I was thinking about going back to the suhr aldrich set which have lots of mids)

 

[Christopher Caruana]

Re: Les Paul Custom with honky mids out of the bridge pup??

Even tried adding my Majik box rocket fuel OD, which has 3 mid boost settings and it sounded really bad, very stuffy, more honk

 

[blueman335]

Re: Les Paul Custom with honky mids out of the bridge pup??

Ah, the old 498T/490R set. Bright scooped bridge, dark muffled neck. Truly a baffling combination if ever there was one, paired up by someone who forgot his hearing aid that day, and no one's ever fixed his mistake at the Gibson factory.

I have a couple 498T/490R pairs, bought used (taken out of guitars, imagine that!). Good PU's, with the right magnets. I like either an A8 or UOA5 in the bridge (A2 was too rounded on top), and an A5 in the neck (A4, A3, or UOA5 would work too). Then they sound like they belong together.

 

[Christopher Caruana]

Re: Les Paul Custom with honky mids out of the bridge pup??

Ah, the old 498T/490R set. Bright scooped bridge, dark muffled neck. Truly a baffling combination if ever there was one, paired up by someone who forgot his hearing aid that day, and no one's ever fixed his mistake at the Gibson factory.

I have a couple 498T/490R pairs, bought used (taken out of guitars, imagine that!). Good PU's, with the right magnets. I like either an A8 or UOA5 in the bridge (A2 was too rounded on top), and an A5 in the neck (A4, A3, or UOA5 would work too). Then they sound like they belong together.

wouldnt the A8 add mids tho? and I it doesnt sound scooped per say......just overbearing uuper mid stuffyness. In the gibson pickup foldout that came with my LP custom, the 498t is described as "similar to the '57+ with more emphesis in the mids and highs.

Maybe my LP is just more mid heavy than usual also??

 

[blueman335]

Re: Les Paul Custom with honky mids out of the bridge pup??

wouldnt the A8 add mids tho? and I it doesnt sound scooped per say......just overbearing uuper mid stuffyness. In the gibson pickup foldout that came with my LP custom, the 498t is described as "similar to the '57+ with more emphesis in the mids and highs.

Maybe my LP is just more mid heavy than usual also??

498T's are nothing like '57's. Whoever wrote that must have been inebriated.

Then try an A4 in the 498T. What one man calls 'upper' mids', I call treble.

 

[Christopher Caruana]

Re: Les Paul Custom with honky mids out of the bridge pup??

well it might not be "upper" mids, but its not really treble. Its mids for sure....but the mids are just kind of nasally sounding. It's kind of hard to explain. Im gonna try messing with the screw heights. maybe make the bass side screws higher. I have them all flat right now

 

[guitarkid]

Re: Les Paul Custom with honky mids out of the bridge pup??

Are you sure its not the amp, possibly?

 

[Christopher Caruana]

Re: Les Paul Custom with honky mids out of the bridge pup??

Are you sure its not the amp, possibly?

Well I hadnt been thinking about the amp because the LP classic i had before with the suhr aldrich pups sounds pretty awesome through it. But I wont count the amp out as the possible culprit. I just thought it a little odd because every I did some searching on older threads of people talking about how they dont like the 498t in a LP, but they always described it as being thin or harsh treble....nothing about nasally mid.

Spare pickups I have right now are :
AIIP (set)
distortion (b)
dirty fingers
CC (which I could easily turn into a C8, C5 or C)

......or might just go back to the Aldrich set that i had in my older LP before

Also thinking about the: '59b or maybe '59/C

 

[Christopher Caruana]

Re: Les Paul Custom with honky mids out of the bridge pup??

forgot to add, volume pots are still the stock gibson ones (300k's i think)

 

[formula73]

Re: Les Paul Custom with honky mids out of the bridge pup??

Well I hadnt been thinking about the amp because the LP classic i had before with the suhr aldrich pups sounds pretty awesome through it. But I wont count the amp out as the possible culprit. I just thought it a little odd because every I did some searching on older threads of people talking about how they dont like the 498t in a LP, but they always described it as being thin or harsh treble....nothing about nasally mid.

Spare pickups I have right now are :
AIIP (set)
distortion (b)
dirty fingers
CC (which I could easily turn into a C8, C5 or C)

......or might just go back to the Aldrich set that i had in my older LP before

Also thinking about the: '59b or maybe '59/C

I'd look at the amp before I went with different pups. I have a great little Behringer VTone practice amp on my desk but it does have an odd tone, all it's own, that can make everything sound a little bit nasally, too, especially when it's cranked. I think it has more to do with the little speaker, open back, and lack of power. Play through something else before you go swapping pups, if you're so inclined. I think the 498T is a great pup, better with an A2, but a great and underrated pup, nonetheless. I even like the 490R with it's stock A2, but then, I'm beginning to like my neck pups a little more...smooth.

Oh, and 500k volume/tone are your friend. I'm thinking of trying a couple of these no load pots for tones on something.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Les Paul Custom with honky mids out of the bridge pup??

The A8 adds low to true mids. The nasal honk is upper mids.