Pickup upgrade for Epiphone Les Paul (hard rock/metal)

[jeremy]

i have a fender mustang thats 24" as well. its also strung with 13s

 

[Chistopher]

Maybe my first neck I make will be a proper 22" scale Fender style.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

And a lot of Gibson's use a 24 9/16" scale length instead of the advertised 24.75" , especially the historically accurate ones. I don't think Epiphone ever has.

The more I get into guitar making, the more I realize the generalizations people make about guitars line up with some lesser known measurements

I was aware that Gibsons were slightly shorter, but I didn't know which were. I'll take some measurements tonight with my Les Pauls.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Where are you supposed to measure the scale lenght? I measured from the edge of the nut to the saddle, and it's different on all strings, but on average, it's 24.75 on mine?

 

[MikeS]

Where are you supposed to measure the scale lenght? I measured from the edge of the nut to the saddle, and it's different on all strings, but on average, it's 24.75 on mine?

Measure from the nut to the crown of the 12th fret and double it so you don't factor in any compensation of the saddles and angled TOM.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Oh, it's 24 9/16 in that case, indeed. I suppose I have my saddles pushed back more because I tune low and I used heavy-ish strings.

 

[MikeS]

I have a BOSS Katana 3 50W.

I've not played a Katana 3, but with modeling amps I'm more concerned with the EQ in my pickups than I am output.

My experience has not been that the JB sounds muffled or that the Custom is flat. When you characterize it as "characterless" I think I understand where you're coming from - it's a very subjective and hard to define term but one that I attribute to a lot of ceramic pickups (ironically, I've always thought the Custom was far from the worst offenders).

I'm still going to put in a plug for the 59 Custom Hybrid. It has a very mild scoop, some of that warmth from the 59 and some of that brighter top end from the Custom series. It's capable of a wide range of styles, and with a modeling amp I'm not at all concerned about a slightly lower (but still above vintage) output.

 

[weepingminotaur]

Agreed. The BW also responds very well to the VOL knob; rolling it back gives you a more classic vibe.

Absolutely, and I should have mentioned that. It's eminently usable even when the volume knob isn't at max.

 

[marcello252]

And a lot of Gibson's use a 24 9/16" scale length instead of the advertised 24.75"

OT european rant: this imperial system still gives me headache after years and years

 

[Chistopher]

OT european rant: this imperial system still gives me headache after years and years

It actually has nothing to do with Eur*pe. It's just they divided the measured the line for each fret to be 1/18th of the remaining neck length, which is close to the number that guarantees the 12th fret is in the middle of the guitar. The actual number is 1 over the 12th root of 2, which is close to 17.8. If you like capacitors and resistors, thats the 12-TET series which is also used to determine nominal component values. That 0.2 error adds up per fret. Nominally a Gibson neck is 24.57, sometimes they end up being 24.562

If you want that in the King's units (God save him), the numbers are still bad, 628.65 and 624.08. Even if the nominal scale length was a clean number such as 600, the final length would actually end up as 595.68 mm

 

[marcello252]

What drives me mad is not the double decimal, it is the fraction reading, in 10 base you can more or less have a guess with a little mental math, with fractions in base 8 or 12 or 16, often mixed, it's very very difficult for me, but I bet it's difficult for you guys using Imperial too

 

[Chistopher]

With decimals you don't get as many clean subdivision. 10 cleanly divides into halves, but that's it. If you are writing this doesn’t matter, and is actually proffered. 8.368 - 4.223 is a lot easier to do than 8 and 46/125 - 4 and 223/1000.

But when it comes to physically building things, fractions that are powers of 2 win because of how many different ways there are to subdivide that don't require any math. Every power of two can be divided by a factor of any power of 2 less than it.

Also not to get too nerdy, but outside of us having 10 fingers, base 10 sucks. If I was around back then I would have championed base 12. Cleanly divides into halves, thirds, quarters, and sixths. That's actually why we use it for clocks.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

OT european rant: this imperial system still gives me headache after years and years

I don't like the measuring anything in inches either. But scale lenght I'm so used to it being expressed in inches that it made sense to me.

 

[marcello252]

With decimals you don't get as many clean subdivision

And that's a point I've never thought about where decimal metric system wins, you don't always need clear subdivision in an analog world, it's just an approximation, why do you need exactly 1/12? How can you be sure the half is really a half? So let's do it easy, 10m, you want a tenth? 1m, you want a 100th? 0.1m you just have to move a comma, lot easier.
But, before going down in a rabbit hole where everyone has his point, I officially retire my OT rant, excuse me

 

[Aceman]

I was gonna say try the Distortion. I think lack of mids is the problem you were having with the C5.

That said, I'm an old man, and I defer to the kids whop are suggesting a Black Winter instead. I really need to try some of those.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I was gonna say try the Distortion. I think lack of mids is the problem you were having with the C5.

That said, I'm an old man, and I defer to the kids whop are suggesting a Black Winter instead. I really need to try some of those.

I think you'd dig the BW if you tried it. If you like the Distortion and the 500T, the BW is along those lines, but with some extra power, attack, and aggression.

 

[Aceman]

I think you'd dig the BW if you tried it. If you like the Distortion and the 500T, the BW is along those lines, but with some extra power, attack, and aggression.

My comment there is how much more power, attack, and aggression do you need?

I question your description of those also. What I hear people say is that it is a more flexible, progressive pickup. And I don;t think power, attack, and aggression would do that.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

My comment there is how much more power, attack, and aggression do you need?

I question your description of those also. What I hear people say is that it is a more flexible, progressive pickup. And I don;t think power, attack, and aggression would do that.

Well, to quote Mr. Yngwie Malmsteen, "More is more."

I don't question the versatility people mention it has, but I also feel like it undermines how heavy and aggressive it really is doing what it's meant for. I don't think of it as a "refined" pickup so much as a sledgehammer when doing the chuggs.

JMO/JME, of course, but I've had the BW and the 500T and Distortion in the same guitar(s) at times. They're all cool, but BW is the hottest and most attacky.

 

[strat dude]

I would know as I have not tried them but the specs do not suggest versatility, but I am a cave man so what do I know. And the only chugging I do (well not any more) is a beer.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

Yeah, the thing is I doubt it was designed with versatility in mind. I think that was just a happy accident. But that's just my theory. I don't really need or want versatilty from my pickups anyways.