Probably unanswerable question...

[larryguitar]

So, with a 24 3/4" scale, ebony FB, mahogany body, 3/4" maple cap and one piece mahogany neck, here's the question:

What is the QUINTESSENTAIL Les Paul humbucker set? Not the best, not your favorite, but the one which best captures what a LP 'should' sound like?

Larry

 

[ICTGoober]

Yes. Unanswerable.

 

[Lucius Paisley]

Hot Rodded Set. W/o covers, obviously.

 

[EmiAba]

You'll get 100 out of 100 different answers

 

[freefrog]

A pair of original P.A.F.'s?....

 

[Blille]

A2Pros, obvi.

I thought this was going to be hard like picking between ash and alder (ash, btw).

 

[Leon Of Late]

Since I have (2) guitars exactly as described, with beautiful ebony fretboards, as well as a Les Paul, I will throw in my $.02.

Custom Shop Pearly Gates Set

 

[eclecticsynergy]

You'd have to say by what standard you're judging.
Most period correct? (and which period?)
Most versatile?
Most consistent in subtly differing individual guitars?
Most compatible with various different amp/pedal rigs?

Then there are the more specific descriptors - as mentioned, you could get a hundred different top priorities.
Biggest? Driest? Pluckiest? Chunkiest? Crunchiest? Airiest? Fattest? Sweetest? Woodiest? Chimey-est? Smoothest?
Most aggressive? Most detailed? Most touch responsive? Best volume cleanup? Best string-to-string definition?

That being said, unless the guitar is an outlier tonally it'd be hard to go wrong with the Whole Lotta set.
Or the Slash set. Or Saturday Night Specials. Or a Pearly Gates set. Or a set of good old 59s.
Each great in its own way, and all good choices for a typical LP type.

 

[Mincer]

See, for me, it would be the Antiquity, or one of the newer MJ Limited Edition sets.

 

[Chistopher]

With a 24 3/4" scale, ebony FB, mahogany body, 3/4" maple cap and one piece mahogany neck I'd say the closest you're going to get to The Les Paul sound would be with some sort of "humbucker" guitar pickup. That's what they put in them back in the day, and are what you will find in most of the Les Pauls that major records were cut on.

 

[GuitarStv]

A PAF type pickup is the quintessential Les Paul sound. Problem is that covers a pretty wide range as original PAFs had a variation of wire turns and magnets used. In Seymour Duncan's line something like a '59, Pearly Gates, Seth Lover or Antiquity would get you in the ballpark. . . but all sound different from one another.

 

[beaubrummels]

Queenbucker

 

[Clint 55]

Something clanky.

 

[Securb]

Gibson put everything from active pickups, and vintage spec to high-output Dirty Fingers in Les Pauls. There is no "Les Paul" pickup. You need to decide what you are looking for tonally. Even if you look at the current offerings on Gibson.com you will notice there is no one pickup dedicated to the Les Paul.

 

[GilmourD]

A pair of original P.A.F.'s?....

But which ones, since they varied so much? Peter Green's PAFs? Jimmy Page's PAFs? Peter Frampton's PAFs? Eddie Van Halen's stupidly hot PAF?

 

[freefrog]

But which ones, since they varied so much? Peter Green's PAFs? Jimmy Page's PAFs? Peter Frampton's PAFs? Eddie Van Halen's stupidly hot PAF?

What makes special the examples that you evoke, IMHO, is an ensemble of factors exceeding the specs of the pickups alone (I'll avoid here a tedious list of specs : people will "get the picture", whose most obvious aspects are that EVH had his pickup in a Strat, without cover nor tone pot, slanted and maybe rewound by him).

But I'll venture to state that in my own subjective perception and experience, vintage Gibson pickups by themselves (all other factors being equal) have a common DNA, at least as strong if not more noticeable than their differences... and that many supposed clones miss the mark to my ears, even if most of them have something interesting to offer - example: even if "PAF" is a DiMarzio trademark, the DiMarzio clones that I've tried or heard don't sound exactly like real "P.A.F."'s... with their dots changing how the acronym is pronounced and symbolizing the differences that I perceive: apparently anecdotical but practically programatic of a clear change in the actual "voicing" noticed. ;-)

IME. IMHO. YMMV.

 

[Cdwillis]

Without hesitation I'd say Pearly Gates.

 

[Gtrjunior]

We all know that tone is in the…..

Oh wait….that’s not he question.

 

[Artie]

Anybody got a link to a YT vid of the "quintessential" LP tone? Curious minds want to know. :newangel:

 

[larryguitar]

Anybody got a link to a YT vid of the "quintessential" LP tone? Curious minds want to know. :newangel:

I guess it would be fair if I gave mine, right?

Larry