I always try A2 bridge PU's with 500K's first, to see what I have to work with. Good lord PGB's are bright! Just not the sound I want with 500K's. Maybe it was the wood of the individual instruments, but my A2P LP sounds much better than my PG LP. I get more treble from my A2PN than my PGN; the neck is where I'm a treble junkie. I've recently been replacing 500K's with one or two 1-meg pots on some of my LP necks to get more high end. On the bridge, I need a sharp edge, and especially love pick noise, but want a fist inside the glove; midrange and low-end power. I don't want my solos to flit around up high like a butterfly, I want them to hit people in the gut. I guess I'm going in the opposite direction than the crowd. I'm playing British blues style, which precious few other local players here ever do. There are those that suspect that either I know nothing about guitar tone or that I have some sort of hearing deficiency, but it's not just me. I almost always get people telling me how much they like my tones, band and audience, so the tones are nice at home and on stage. That's what tells me I'm not crazy. Something's working.
To me, PAF's should sound great in an LP. That's the testing ground. Those fat LP bodies and short necks fill in the mids and give sustain. And that's what my heroes played. I'm not going to get that with a Strat. When I play out, I usually take an LP or two, and with them having various combinations of Duncan, Gibson, Fralin, Lollar, DMz, and Smits PAF's, I just I don't seem to take the one with PG's. In spite of everything some believe and hold dear, people do like my tones. It defies all reason and logic! And yes, maybe the musicians go for different tones in their own playing, but they shake my hand and want to know I get my sound. I've been told that they like the contrast of me alongside a Strat player. That both guitars are easier to hear. You know too, some of these guys are putting PGN's in brighter woods; maybe they'd think differently about them if they were in an LP. That's where I hear them straying a bit too far towards the warm and mellow side.
