Hey guys,
I am sure you have been asked this question already a few times before, but this seems to be the best place to ask it.
I have got a 1993 Gibson LP Studio LITE running into a '78 Marshall 2150 Combo (basically a Superlead-Combo with Mastervolume). Here are the specs of the guitar and amp:
Gibson LP Studio LITE
- alder top with HOLLOWED OUT mahagony back which is filled with balsa (chromite) wood
- '60s Slim Taper neck /w ebony fretboard
- Gibson 496R & 500T high output ceramic pick ups
Marshall 2150
- 100W
- Superlead layout
- 4 EL34, 3 12ax7
- unlabeled speaker (probably stock, dunno the brand)
Now I am having a little problem: I cant turn the gain on the amp more than twelve o'clock or the sound becomes an uncontrollable muddy monster. This is probably due to the high output PU (apparently the hottest Gibson is making), which just seem to literally torture the amp. Now what I was going to do, what a suprise, was changing the pickups to hopefully being able to achieve all those sweet tones usually coming from that kind of amp (right now i am just able to get a dull clean-, a decent crunch- and, as described above, this sort of "distortion"). Usually this amp is supposed to go from a really nice tubey clean to an Angus Young crunch...
What I want to achieve is quite a task. My new pickups shall be able to go from
- a springy clean (maybe additional coil-splitting would be an idea here)
to
- this kind of Travis-like ringing overdrive (their main guitarist Andy Dunlop runs a '70s LP with Mini-Humbuckers into an Orange AD120)
to
- a nice '70s overdrive/crunch
to
- nice lead tones a la Slash and the Darkness
(and maybe) to
- grinding distortion (just got an offer from that nice emo-core band...)
For the last two ones I gonna use a Radial Tonebone Hot British, coz the amp's gain by itself wouldnt get me enough drive. Also to be mentioned is that since the LP is partly filled with that balsa-/chromite block (its really nice, believe me, i ve heard many crap sounding light-weight guitars but this
one is massive in sound!), the overall sound is more... hmm maybe more balanced than you would exspect it from a LP. It takes a bit away from that massive, (in my opinion) often uncontrollable huge bottom end and also cuts the mids a bit, while it is promoting the treble a little bit more. The sound actually tends to have a little bit (but just a little bit) the flavor of a semi-hollowbody.
So now my question is: What are the right pick ups for me? Oh and by the way, do Seymour Duncans Humbuckers actually fit straight into the PU slots of Gibson LPs?
Cheers for reading all this and waiting for your suggestions!
Martin
I am sure you have been asked this question already a few times before, but this seems to be the best place to ask it.
I have got a 1993 Gibson LP Studio LITE running into a '78 Marshall 2150 Combo (basically a Superlead-Combo with Mastervolume). Here are the specs of the guitar and amp:
Gibson LP Studio LITE
- alder top with HOLLOWED OUT mahagony back which is filled with balsa (chromite) wood
- '60s Slim Taper neck /w ebony fretboard
- Gibson 496R & 500T high output ceramic pick ups
Marshall 2150
- 100W
- Superlead layout
- 4 EL34, 3 12ax7
- unlabeled speaker (probably stock, dunno the brand)
Now I am having a little problem: I cant turn the gain on the amp more than twelve o'clock or the sound becomes an uncontrollable muddy monster. This is probably due to the high output PU (apparently the hottest Gibson is making), which just seem to literally torture the amp. Now what I was going to do, what a suprise, was changing the pickups to hopefully being able to achieve all those sweet tones usually coming from that kind of amp (right now i am just able to get a dull clean-, a decent crunch- and, as described above, this sort of "distortion"). Usually this amp is supposed to go from a really nice tubey clean to an Angus Young crunch...
What I want to achieve is quite a task. My new pickups shall be able to go from
- a springy clean (maybe additional coil-splitting would be an idea here)
to
- this kind of Travis-like ringing overdrive (their main guitarist Andy Dunlop runs a '70s LP with Mini-Humbuckers into an Orange AD120)
to
- a nice '70s overdrive/crunch
to
- nice lead tones a la Slash and the Darkness
(and maybe) to
- grinding distortion (just got an offer from that nice emo-core band...)
For the last two ones I gonna use a Radial Tonebone Hot British, coz the amp's gain by itself wouldnt get me enough drive. Also to be mentioned is that since the LP is partly filled with that balsa-/chromite block (its really nice, believe me, i ve heard many crap sounding light-weight guitars but this
one is massive in sound!), the overall sound is more... hmm maybe more balanced than you would exspect it from a LP. It takes a bit away from that massive, (in my opinion) often uncontrollable huge bottom end and also cuts the mids a bit, while it is promoting the treble a little bit more. The sound actually tends to have a little bit (but just a little bit) the flavor of a semi-hollowbody.
So now my question is: What are the right pick ups for me? Oh and by the way, do Seymour Duncans Humbuckers actually fit straight into the PU slots of Gibson LPs?
Cheers for reading all this and waiting for your suggestions!
Martin
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