I'm currently waiting on some 'Slash' BBs to come to me. They're second hand and I'll be trying them in a guitar with no tone controls, so I can't vouch for how they may sound with the special capacitors that Gibson are claiming the stock guitars come with, and I can't say I'm looking forward tot hem exactly, but I have a long history with the various BB models so I need to complete the collection.
Of course I'll reserve statements about their sound until I've actually played with them, but seeing this thread did remind me of a strange quote in
an interview I read about the Slash guitars earlier this year:
This raises several questions and is why I'm not particularly looking forward to trying them. I have a feeling they're just a standard Burstbucker #2 and #3 set but exclusively made uncovered and potted. (And possibly within tighter tolerances.)
The Gibson Burstbucker #1, #2 and #3 already do use A2 magnets and are
massively mismatched. They also tend to vary a lot unit-to-unit, so each number is just a ballpark of what to expect. This mimics the frankly sloppy way original PAFs were made. They can't be "modified" to use an A2 when they already do use A2. The Burstbucker Pro uses A5, but that also has quite closely-matched coils; the fact they're saying these have A2 magnets
and have mismatched coils means that even if they started with the Pro model as their base, they've ended up back at the #1-3 design.
Gibson have stopped making the previously-standard Burstbucker 1-3 and instead now make the 61 set, which is closer to the Pro. (In fact they're near-identical, just the 61 has the screw coil stronger and the Pro has the slug coil stronger.) It could well be that they discontinued the 1-3 in order the relaunch that design as the Slash model.
I'll A/B them with some other BB models and some SDs once they arrive, but that's my expectation right now: same old product, new endorsement to push the price up.
