Pickups for a thin sounding Les Paul?

E

Eric Dahlberg

New member
I have a Yamaha "lawsuit era" Les Paul that is a bit thin sounding. More PRS than Gibson, if that makes any sense. It has a maple top (not laminated, fortunately) and an agathis back, which I believe is the cause of it. Does anyone have recommendations for pickups to smoothen and fatten up the sound? I have an Antiquity in my 61 SG and a Custom 5 in my Orville Les Paul, both of which sound great, but I think this guitar will need more low-end and midrange to get to those levels.
 
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Re: Pickups for a thin sounding Les Paul?

Besides pickups you have to look for brass metal parts on your guitar. Most helpful for me were a brass stoptail piece and longer steel studs on it. It delivered more fundamental bass and made a much fuller sound. A brass bridge added a tiny bit too, but was not worth the investment.
Pickups i liked best were the WLH for a vintage sound and Distortion for more heavy styles of music. I also made a direct comparism with the Duncan Custom. The DC were clearer, the DD a more compressed and bolder.
 
Re: Pickups for a thin sounding Les Paul?

I have two guitars that are LP style that I found to be a bit bright (one of them is an Ibanez lawsuit era LP actually)....I put a Duncan Custom SH-5 in the lawsuit, and an Invader SH-8b in the other, and they worked out really well for me in giving them more output without being too bright and treble-y. Not sure if those are "smooth" enough for what you're looking for though, I'm using them more in a heavier harder rock context. The SH-8b in particular really thickened up the tone of the guitar in the way that I was hoping for.
 
Re: Pickups for a thin sounding Les Paul?

thick core or pure nickel strings will help. GHS or Dunlop are the first two companies that come to mind. As well as thicker picks than you're used to will help.

brass parts can help absolutely. Guitarfetish is a great place to start, on a telecaster I recently saw a video and it was very night and day with saddle materials I'll have a video below. As always if a bridge upgrade is worth your time make sure it's something that excites you and more than likely it'll fit other guitars if it's something you sell down the road so keep the original.
https://www.guitarfetish.com/search.asp?keyword=tuneomatic

to add thickness to a guitar i'd go with a higher inductance in the pickup. Sadly not many pickup makers mention inductance so the safe bet is a slightly hotter pickup. If it's too high of an output lower the height down. If it's too muddy (dark / compressed) adjust the pole pieces and you're set.

I wouldn't change the capacitor as if it's thin sounding at a more than likely 0.047uf. If you do stick with polyester the cheap green or red ones. The rule with capacitors is the smaller the value the less compression and more brightness and vice versa.

this is the video on saddles on a tele to give an idea how much of a difference it can make
 
Re: Pickups for a thin sounding Les Paul?

hamerfan said:
Besides pickups you have to look for brass metal parts on your guitar. Most helpful for me were a brass stoptail piece and longer steel studs on it. It delivered more fundamental bass and made a much fuller sound. A brass bridge added a tiny bit too, but was not worth the investment.
Click to expand...

Interesting result.

In the video posted by shadowfire90, the brass saddles sounded very bright to me, and yet seemed to have good clean, rich and solid bass and more upper mids than the others. As you say..."a much fuller sound". The graphite saddles were by far the worst sounding...muffled, wet-blanket tone. Aluminum was bright but also very thin sounding, not much body/fullness which made it sound like it was the brightest.

Brass would be the very clear choice for me, but not enough to solve the "thin" problem of the OP. "I think this guitar will need more low-end and midrange to get to those levels". It sounds like an Alt8 is going to be the solution. The Invader is probably going a step too far. The Custom or the Distortion are good choices but NOT with the ceramic magnets...UOA5 or A8 would be my choice in those pups to fatten them up.
 
Re: Pickups for a thin sounding Les Paul?

Believe me, the pickups will not fully solve the problem. You need more mass and an element that connects the mass to the body. Long steel studs and a brass tailpiece, Grover tuners and a brass bridge. Keep in mind that tele vid only showed the changing of tiny pieces.
 
Re: Pickups for a thin sounding Les Paul?

What gauge strings do you have on it? Thicker strings are the fastest, cheapest, and most reversible mod you can do to a guitar. Provided you only go up a size or two, you won't need to do any work with the nut or truss rod.
 
Re: Pickups for a thin sounding Les Paul?

Thank you, all!

I just now ordered a brass tailpiece and some alnico 8 magnets. I tried to order a brass bridge, as well, but it was back-ordered. Also, I have some DR Pure Blues 11's laying around and will give those a shot. I'll report back once everything is installed.
 
Re: Pickups for a thin sounding Les Paul?

RevDoom73 said:
I have two guitars that are LP style that I found to be a bit bright (one of them is an Ibanez lawsuit era LP actually)....I put a Duncan Custom SH-5 in the lawsuit, and an Invader SH-8b in the other, and they worked out really well for me in giving them more output without being too bright and treble-y. Not sure if those are "smooth" enough for what you're looking for though, I'm using them more in a heavier harder rock context. The SH-8b in particular really thickened up the tone of the guitar in the way that I was hoping for.
Click to expand...

SH-5 is suprisingly smooth for a ceramic. Mine is on the glassy side. I usually like a more aggressive pickup, but I'm keeping mine in for now cause it's really good, even though not what I normally go for.
 
Re: Pickups for a thin sounding Les Paul?

Something that helped a friend's LP sound fatter is a good setup. If the action is too low, the strings won't ring out as full and get choked out. Same if the neck doesn't have enough relief. Check the nut slots and make sure there is no binding up there and strings are sitting as they should. Pickup height even has an affect on whether it sounds thin or not in addition to the pole piece heights. And of course, strings. I love the Ernie Ball Rock and Roll Slinkies (10-46). Pure nickel wrap with a warmer sound. Little things can make a big difference.
 
Re: Pickups for a thin sounding Les Paul?

Thanks again for your help, everyone. I took much of the advice given and was able to fatten the sound by swapping the original pickups’ magnets with alnico 8’s, swapping the tailpiece with a brass one, and raising the action. The tone is a bit dull now, in a Dimarzio Super Distortion sort of way, but that's still a lot better than before. I’ll try some Alnico 5’s next to see if that strikes a good balance.
 
Re: Pickups for a thin sounding Les Paul?

Eric Dahlberg said:
Thanks again for your help, everyone. I took much of the advice given and was able to fatten the sound by swapping the original pickups’ magnets with alnico 8’s, swapping the tailpiece with a brass one, and raising the action. The tone is a bit dull now, in a Dimarzio Super Distortion sort of way, but that's still a lot better than before. I’ll try some Alnico 5’s next to see if that strikes a good balance.
Click to expand...

Have a Dimarzio Gravity Storm FS that might just do the trick in the bridge of that guitar. I had the Gravity Storm in my Carvin ST 300 which is a really fat sounding guitar and swapped it for a Hybrid. Ever the Hybrid is pretty dark in that guitar. The GS had a really thick low mid and smooth highs without mud and it would be really nice in a guitar that was on the thinner side I just don't have a home for it right now. Super responsive to touch and really a smooth sweet sounding pickup and still kinda thinking about keeping it because it is so unique.
Sale thread.
https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?339417-Pickup-Purge!
 
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Re: Pickups for a thin sounding Les Paul?

Did you find a reasonably priced brass tailpiece that didn’t require any modification? I wouldn’t mind trying one on a thin-sounding Gibson I have, but I couldn’t seem to find a direct replacement in chrome covered brass for under $75.
 
Re: Pickups for a thin sounding Les Paul?

I'm late to the game . . . but the PATB-1 Parallel Axis set is the answer. Nuff said.
 
Re: Pickups for a thin sounding Les Paul?

SweetClyde99 said:
Did you find a reasonably priced brass tailpiece that didn’t require any modification? I wouldn’t mind trying one on a thin-sounding Gibson I have, but I couldn’t seem to find a direct replacement in chrome covered brass for under $75.
Click to expand...

I bought the Guitar Fetish. They overcharged on shipping and I had to install new inserts.
 
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