New pickups for my Gibson faded SG

Cdwillis

Cdwillis

New member
I’m looking to replace my pickups in my Gibson faded SG. I’ve done some digging on older posts, but it’s hard searching a two letter guitar query (SG!). ;)

The guitar came with the stock 490r neck pickup and a Dimarzio Evolution bridge humbucker. I swapped the Evo out and put a Duncan Custom I had laying in the parts drawer in it. I think I’d like something a little more vintage though. The 490r is a little dull and the Custom is a little screechy on the high end and a little too compressed.

I have some 500k pots to swap in that will probably open it a little bit so I’m not that worried about the 490r, but if I can get a decent deal on a neck/bridge set I’d love to try out some others.

Neck I’d like to keep it flutey sounding, think that Slash AFD sound. I use the neck mainly for single lines and solos, not really into the rhythm sound. That has me leaning towards the APH-1. Since the neck pickup is set further towards the bridge in the SG I'm not sure it'll be exactly the same, but I figure close enough?

For the bridge the tone I’m looking a warm without super honky midrange and sweet highs without screechy (or conversely dull). The bass doesn’t need to be super tight or anything. I play some punk inspired stuff, but not a lot of serious metal.

This is my short list of stuff I’ve been considering:

APH-1
APH-2 Slash
Pearly Gates
59s (swapping A2 or A4 mags potentially)

So what are you guys using in your SGs? Or just any general advice would be great.
 
Re: New pickups for my Gibson faded SG

Alnico 2 Pro or Slash for the neck seems obvious. Don't overthink that one.

For the bridge you could put an alnico 2 in the Custom to make a Custom Custom. I've had one in an SG before and I didn't find it honky. Makes a nice match for a smooth A2 neck pickup. Definitely sounds thicker than a vintage pickup, but rounder/softer than the Custom. Probably not vintage enough but maybe worth trying.

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Re: New pickups for my Gibson faded SG

I put pearly gates in mine, love ‘em.


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Re: New pickups for my Gibson faded SG

Hard to go wrong with an APH1 or APH2. Those are the bridge pickups in my two go-to guitars, a Les Paul and a Schecter Corsair (335 style). I would agree with trying an A2 magnet in the custom, I have that in my Strat right now and it works pretty well.
 
Re: New pickups for my Gibson faded SG

ibanezrocks said:
Alnico 2 Pro or Slash for the neck seems obvious. Don't overthink that one.

For the bridge you could put an alnico 2 in the Custom to make a Custom Custom. I've had one in an SG before and I didn't find it honky. Makes a nice match for a smooth A2 neck pickup. Definitely sounds thicker than a vintage pickup, but rounder/softer than the Custom. Probably not vintage enough but maybe worth trying.

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Click to expand...

I thought about swapping the custom's magnet, but figured it might be too fat with the shorter scale and mahogany neck/body. It's something to consider, a magnet is only a few bucks.

jimilee said:
I put pearly gates in mine, love ‘em.


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Click to expand...

Is there a pretty big difference between the bridge and neck tone? I've heard people say the bridge PG is pretty bright. How is the middle position sound?
 
Re: New pickups for my Gibson faded SG

Cdwillis said:
I thought about swapping the custom's magnet, but figured it might be too fat with the shorter scale and mahogany neck/body. It's something to consider, a magnet is only a few bucks.



Is there a pretty big difference between the bridge and neck tone? I've heard people say the bridge PG is pretty bright. How is the middle position sound?
Click to expand...

The neck is deep but not dark and the bridge is brighter but not too bright, so to me, the middle has warm vibrant tone with good clarity and definition.


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Re: New pickups for my Gibson faded SG

I think any demo has that issue. The SNS set is pretty remarkable, and it helps to have a remarkable player, too.
 
Re: New pickups for my Gibson faded SG

I tried several A2 pickups in my SG standard, and I found them overly warm for the most part, though the Seths stayed in for a while. WLH with A4s sounded best out of what I tried, so 59s with A4 might do it for you. The SNS set sounds incredible in that youtube video, so maybe my ears just like A4 in an SG. I probably should have tried some UOA5s though.
 
Re: New pickups for my Gibson faded SG

Thanks for your input y'all. I've been mulling it over throughout the day. Listened to the Saturday Night Special demo and the Pearly Gates demo then pulled the trigger on the Pearlys. Might try the SNS set further down the line because they did sound really good in all the clips I've heard.
 
Re: New pickups for my Gibson faded SG

I think that all those choices are great. But for myself, I'd go all out and run a Mayhem set. After all, each pickup has it's own tone control, right?
 
Re: New pickups for my Gibson faded SG

A have a pair of 59's in my SG. An old combo from late 80s. I find them a perfect fit for the SG.
 
Re: New pickups for my Gibson faded SG

jimilee said:
I play on the neck pickup mostly. I just tweak the amp.


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Click to expand...

Do you remember what values you had for caps and pots? I took the stock Gibson pots out. they measured all over the place (500k, 250k, 260k and 540k). Probably within certain tolerances I guess. The CTS pots I have measure 500k, 490k, 450k, and 440k, plus I've got two .022uf orange drop caps.
 
Re: New pickups for my Gibson faded SG

Cdwillis said:
Do you remember what values you had for caps and pots? I took the stock Gibson pots out. they measured all over the place (500k, 250k, 260k and 540k). Probably within certain tolerances I guess. The CTS pots I have measure 500k, 490k, 450k, and 440k, plus I've got two .022uf orange drop caps.
Click to expand...

I really don’t know, I left those stock, I just figured the pots were ~500k. I should really check.


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Re: New pickups for my Gibson faded SG

You could always drop in an A2 mag, and then half, or full air the custom. The mag would be a few $$$, and the airing essentially nothing.
 
Re: New pickups for my Gibson faded SG

Cdwillis said:
Do you remember what values you had for caps and pots? I took the stock Gibson pots out. they measured all over the place (500k, 250k, 260k and 540k). Probably within certain tolerances I guess. The CTS pots I have measure 500k, 490k, 450k, and 440k, plus I've got two .022uf orange drop caps.
Click to expand...

Those were 500k audio pots for the tones and 300k linear pots for the volumes, they read off (low/high) because of the 20% tolerance. I don't know why Gibson kept putting the 300k volume pots in most of the guitars for years, but replacing them with good 500k pots IMO is the thing to do. A lot of players change out the stock pickups, not knowing that just changing to 500k pots for the volumes would make the guitars sound much better in most cases, with the stock pickups.
Al
 
Re: New pickups for my Gibson faded SG

EmiAba said:
A have a pair of 59's in my SG. An old combo from late 80s. I find them a perfect fit for the SG.
Click to expand...


+1. SG's tend to be middy because of the mahogany & rosewood, and that can match well with '59's, which have a lot of treble and bass with scooped mids. Gives a balanced EQ.
 
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