Re: pickup suggestions for epiphone dot!
Hi guys! Hope you're all well. I've been playing a little more and my skills seem to be returning as my Chemo Brain seems to be diminishing. Had me worried there for a while - I thought maybe I wouldn't be able to make music again.
Beautiful guitar! I'd go for a set of
nickel covered PG's for that Epi.
My favorite boutique humbuckers are the Tom Holmes alnico 2 HB's and my favorite regular production humbuckers are Seymour's alnico 2 Pearly Gates.
I have the Holmes HB's in my 2000 ES-335. I've compared them to the Holmes designed 57 Classics in my other 2000 ES-335 and I've compared them to the Pearly Gates pickups in my Strat: a 24 3/4" scale MIJ Strat with a rosewood fingerboard - same scale as the 335.
They
all sound great and I can create soulful music with any of them. The 57 Classics are in no way second rate pickups although I prefer the Duncan PG and the Holmes HB's. If the 57 Classics sound muffled it may be because that's what using a 250K or 300K volume pot with paf style humbuckers sounds like to me: muffled.
I no longer own a Les Paul but I did replace the 300K pots and .047 ceramic caps with 500K pots and .02 Orange Drops in my Les Paul that used to own, That change made the 57 Classics sound much more open and the .02 caps seemed to leave more mids in the tone when I rolled the tone control down some to get those 60's Clapton and Beck tones I like. Huge improvement and a much more detailed tone than the stock wiring...at least for me.
The Duncan Pearly Gates HB's are similar to the Tom Holmes pickups and for 1/3 of the price of the Holmes HB's! Jeremy has commented on this as well.
PG's have never sounded harsh or to bright to me in any of my guitars and I always use 500K pots and .02 caps with humbuckers. But putting nickel covers on them will give them a slightly warmer tone than uncovered and nickel covers just look "right" on the 335.
Here's a link to a discussion about this subject:
http://www.gibson-talk.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-11954.html
