Pickup dilemma

[gtrshop]

This here would be my first post to the forums. I live in beautiful "cottage country" in Ontario, Canada. Hi all...

I have three guitars that I'm thinking I need to do something about my pups. The first one is a 1978 Les Paul Custom. I've had replacement pickups in it for years, but finding the tone just not quite what I want anymore. The bridge pup is a Bill Lawrence XL500 or something like that. It's been in there since the early 90's. The neck pup is a traditional Dimarzio. I think it's a dual sound, without being hooked up as a dual sound, so I think it is running as a super distortion. The BL lacks low end or mids (maybe both) it has good output, but it's a bit bright. I'm finding the Dimarzio is sounding a bit mushy. For this guitar I was thinking of the S/D Slash pups... not that I'm a huge Slash, but because they seemed to match my requirements.

My other guitar with a pup problem is a 1981 L/P Firebrand (Pelham blue). I've been told that I have the sought after Shaw pups in this guitar, which is great I suppose (I don't get hung up on that stuff). The guitar has an almost SG - like quality to it, from being the thinner body style. The reason I want to consider a pup replacement on this one is that the neck pickup seems to be malfunctioning. I would simply like to replace whatever is in the neck position with something similar in tone and gain. There is a definite loss of output when switching from bridge to neck, and the amount of drive falls off also. The neck pup almost has a single coil quality to it.

Lastly, I have a '98 Godin LGX/SA with SD's. Godin tells me the neck pup is a jazz pup, which explains why it's output is off from the bridge one. I like the bridge pickup, so am wondering what I should replace the jazz one with.

Generally I play classic rock. A to Z as it were, anything from the 80's 90's too that tickles my fancy. I like listening to everything from Deep Purple, Zep, AC/DC, Journey, Aerosmith, GnR... Colin James, Eric Clapton, David Gilmour/Pink Floyd. I do not try to emulate their sound.

Would love to discover something to rejuvenate these guitars.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Pickup dilemma

For LP's, from a classic rock/blues perspective, PAF's are a match made in heaven. Duncan makes some of the best. Seth's are particularly good.

 

[DonP]

Re: Pickup dilemma

I live in beautiful "cottage country" in Ontario, Canada. Hi all...

Hi I wish I did.

1st: I think you have the pickups backwards in your LP. Try putting the BL in the neck and the Super D in the bridge. Why? The Super D is fat and will fatten up the bridge. The BL with the blades has good clear clean tone to get rid of the mush.

2nd: Don't go replacing the pickup until you find out if it may be the wiring, pickup selector switch, wiring, etc.

3rd: What is the bridge pickup in the Godin? Just remember the hotter the neck, the higher the chances for mud. If you really want hotter, try to keep it bright. Don't stick a fat high output pickup like a Super D in the neck as was done in your first guitar. A Super 2 would have been a better choice.

 

[gtrshop]

Re: Pickup dilemma

Interesting comments about my p/up placement in the Custom. I used to have a pair of Dimarzio Super II's in there, one of them is now the middle pickup in my Standard.

I'm no sure since it's been quite a while it's been like this whether the BL went into the bridge position because the leads we too short to go the other way around. I hate the thought of splice a bit of wire to get it to reach if that actually is the case.

One other thing I kind of noticed... what should I be running for caps in the Custom? Seems I grabbed a couple form my parts bin and threw them in there, can't even read the value anymore. A considerable amount of tinkering has gone into this thing over the years...not all of it was necessarily good

I was messing with the Godin this morning and aside from sustain (or lack thereof) I think I've managed to equalize the pickup heights between B and N for a more consistent sound. I think I can live with that.

S~