Re: Low magnetic pull humbuckers
I prefer to have my pickups close to the strings and I get a substantial amount of magnetic pull which distorts the low strings as I play higher up
By backing the pickups down I lose the sensitivity and touch that I want.
This actually makes very little sense. If having the pickup that high distorts the movement of the string so much that it is noticeable, how can that be giving you the sensitivity and touch?
Humbuckers have a lot less string pull than strat or tele style pickups because the actual magnet is down below the coils. If you are getting noticeable string pull then they must be really really close.
Perhaps you should think about a slightly different approach.
Most people raise their pickups if they want a loud, punchy and present sound with a lot of attack.
Using softer magnets like A2 and degaussed magnets definitely create a less powerful magnetic field, but also have a corresponding decrease in volume and punch.
So, by choosing a soft magnet and a vintage wind, you may find yourself raising the pickup even more than you would normally to make up for the drop in output and attack.
So you will be back at square one.
I think that in your case it might be worth experimenting with something that has a hotter wind, so you can get the punch, output and thickness but at a much lower height, so you get all of that but less string pull.
TO get that, especially if you play slide then it is worth looking at the custom custom model for a number of reasons:
1. It has an alnico II magnet so it has inherently less pull.
2. It has a hotter wind than paf style pickups so you can have the volume and attack you want.
3. All of the pickups with "custom" in their name sound excellent in SGs probably more so than any other guitar. They really add girth and heft to the thin body. They are also all the same pickup but with different magnets, so if you want to modify the tone, it is a simple magnet swap.
There are a couple of other things you might want to look at for your SG:
MOst gibsons use 300k pots these days (I'm not sure what comes in your exact model) so it is worth checking what value are currently in there. 500k pots are generally the best bet for humbuckers because they allow a slightly more punchy and present sound - exactly what a lot of people are after when they raise the pickups. If you do not have 500k pots, definitely get some in there- even more so of you are using A2 pickups.
In the neck, i would recommend an APH model to pair with the CC to give you a fat, warm, balanced and meaty slide sound using either pickup.
A2 pickups are really excellent for that singing, sustaining derek trucks/duane allman style of slide playing.
I have done a similar mod after some experimentation on my slide only SG standard and finally settled on a CC with an A259 model in the neck. Sustain for days and plenty of thickness. Really had the push to make a marshall crunch.
Here are a couple tracks i recorded using that combination into a JTM style marshall (amp was only on 3 or 4) no pedals: