“New” Gibson T Type pickups - any thoughts?
- Thread starter Blille
- Start date
Blille
Well-known member
Aceman
I am your doctor of love!
Why oh why do we focus on the most meh of pickups ever created?
Well, I guess some people dig them. Good for you if they work. Tone is where you find it!
I still say just get Duncan Jazz (Don't think I invented that). I think it is what a good T-Top would sound like.
Can't wait to see the $150 price tags on these...
Well, I guess some people dig them. Good for you if they work. Tone is where you find it!
I still say just get Duncan Jazz (Don't think I invented that). I think it is what a good T-Top would sound like.
Can't wait to see the $150 price tags on these...
Blille
Well-known member
“New” Gibson T Type pickups - any thoughts?
I am not chasing them. They come with the guitar so I’m just wondering if They are ok or I need to budget a pickup set and the pain of changing the pickups in a semi hollow into the price
I am not chasing them. They come with the guitar so I’m just wondering if They are ok or I need to budget a pickup set and the pain of changing the pickups in a semi hollow into the price
Aceman
I am your doctor of love!
I am not chasing them. They come with the guitar so I’m just wondering if They are ok or I need to budget a pickup set and the pain of changing the pickups in a semi hollow into the price
As always - give them a listen.
Based on what they (likely) are- you'll be able to cover the entire price by selling them at a budget compared to real T-Tops.
Full disclosure - I have an original T-Top in one of my Les Pauls in the neck.
beaubrummels
Well-known member
IME The only use I would have for a T-top loaded guitar is if
- I wanted to play Led Zeppelin covers, or...
- I had a Marshall Super Lead 100, or a Major, or Engl, or Bogner, et al, and planned to dime it in the house with some boost pedals
beaubrummels
Well-known member
Reading the copy and watching the video, they are actual Gibson T-tops, a custom run of pickups ordered by Chicago Music Exchange for their special run of 70's SGs. "The only reason we didn't call them T-tops is if you remove the covers, there's no T on the bobbins."
JamesPaul
Well-known member
I am not chasing them. They come with the guitar so I’m just wondering if They are ok or I need to budget a pickup set and the pain of changing the pickups in a semi hollow into the price
If I did not want those T-Top tones, I would keep looking for a semi hollow with pickups I did want.
freefrog
Well-known member
I am not chasing them. They come with the guitar so I’m just wondering if They are ok or I need to budget a pickup set and the pain of changing the pickups in a semi hollow into the price
Depends if the repro is accurate: Burstbuckers were meant to be P.A.F. copies but were finally made of different materials and don't sound like the real thing (Gibson did even use died poly wire to make believe it was plain enamel, apparently... at least it shouldn't be an issue with T-Top clones since the real ones hosted poly wire by design).
Depends also on which T-Tops were modeled: between early ones with patent stickers and the last ones with engraved baseplates, there's sometimes noticeable differences (denying the supposed consistency of T-Tops: some of the late ones have an obviously higher DCR than 7.5k and those are NOT the best sounding).
Depends finally on the rest of the circuit... Gibson mounted 300k and even 100k pots in the late 70's/ early 80's: having such controls is like playing with a tone pot permanently rolled off on a guitar with 500k's...
Now, all the T-Tops that I've lab tested (with their stock short thin mags and not dulled by low resistance pots) had in common a high Q factor, giving a sharp focused brightness that I've not met in any other humbucker.
Seems they were good enough for early Schenker, early Angus Young, late Jimmy Page, Randy Rhoads, BB King... Non limitative list.
One of my favourite neck PU's of all times is a patent sticker T-Top.
The LP Custom that I played in the early 80's had stock T-Tops and I had no troubles to obtain good sounds from it. It just needed a lil' help from a Boss OD. But it was certainly not worse to my young ears than the hot DiMarzio's previously mounted in my first LP copy...
Last but not least: when I worked on guitars with stock T-Tops, I've changed sometimes the 300k tone controls in no-load pots. It helps to awake the pickups (especially if they haves still their stock covers), revealing their bite and harmonic richness.
FWIW. YMMV.
Wound_Up
New member
5 secs on Google would get you tbis
https://solidguitar.fandom.com/wiki/SG_Standard_T-Type
They came in a CME special SG T-Type. Supposed to replicate T-Tops
Wound_Up
New member
beaubrummels
Well-known member
You are. But nowsdays, we have amps that make working with T-tops a much better experience.
Blille
Well-known member
If I did not want those T-Top tones, I would keep looking for a semi hollow with pickups I did want.
The guitar just sold while I was researching this so I will have to keep looking
JamesPaul
Well-known member
The guitar just sold while I was researching this so I will have to keep looking
There will be another one out there. Hopefully it will have pickups at no risk of needing swapped.
Nostalgia and re-writing history drives the guitar market.
