Rio Grande BBQ???

flipside

flipside

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I'm thinking about putting one of these im the bridge of my Les Paul, what do you guys think of this pup, anybody have any experience with it? How does it compare tonally to the JB? (the other contender) Thanks in advance fellas
 
Re: Rio Grande BBQ???

Personally, Iv never played it, but lots of people say that it's kind of a cross between a JB and a C5. Big bottom with present mids is what a lot of people talk about. It sounds like a good thing if you want a big, thick sound from a Lester.
 
Re: Rio Grande BBQ???

I HAVE A LOVE HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH MY BBQ. I love everyhting about it except the rounded top end. Italmost sounds like a tone knob is on 8 all the time. I just got home from trying a 1 meg pot with a bunch of different resistors to try and brighten it up. It helped but I think I am going to need a 600k pot to get my tone. The 1 meg with a 1.5 meg resistor got my reading to 600k but it sounded like there was a resistor there slightly instead of full on open tone if thst makes sense. I wonder if the Rio muy grande is what I am looking for as it is supposed to be a more full range pickup from what they tell me at rio grande pickups. I also have the crunchbox and it is a little brighter but has a ceramic magnet. I swapped the ceramic for an a5 and its better but still round in the highs unlike the DD. The thickness of these pups is great though and the lows are too. Hope you find your tone. I am still tweaking although its minor things now. LOL
 
Re: Rio Grande BBQ???

KLINKDETROIT said:
I HAVE A LOVE HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH MY BBQ. I love everyhting about it except the rounded top end. Italmost sounds like a tone knob is on 8 all the time. I just got home from trying a 1 meg pot with a bunch of different resistors to try and brighten it up. It helped but I think I am going to need a 600k pot to get my tone. The 1 meg with a 1.5 meg resistor got my reading to 600k but it sounded like there was a resistor there slightly instead of full on open tone if thst makes sense. I wonder if the Rio muy grande is what I am looking for as it is supposed to be a more full range pickup from what they tell me at rio grande pickups. I also have the crunchbox and it is a little brighter but has a ceramic magnet. I swapped the ceramic for an a5 and its better but still round in the highs unlike the DD. The thickness of these pups is great though and the lows are too. Hope you find your tone. I am still tweaking although its minor things now. LOL
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If you want brighter, the Muy Grande wil definately et you there. I had a Tallboy/Muy Grande set in my Carvin foor a while. It sounded great, but it reminded me more of a big single coil than a traditional 'bucker sound. It had very clean, piano-like highs with slightly scooped mids and explosive treble response. It was almost steely sounding; not a bad sound, but it wasn't very friendly. :burnout:
 
Re: Rio Grande BBQ???

The BBQ can sound different in each guitar. It sounded very dark in my Dean Evo but sounded bright in my LP Standard. In fact it sounded best with a 300k volume pot in my LP. The best I found was the C-5 with 300k volume pot - sounds HUGE!
 
Re: Rio Grande BBQ???

I had a BBQ in my Hamer Special FM. While it was a good pickup, it just wasn't what I liked. It did sound like a fatter JB, had a lot of the same upper midrange character. I swapped it for a Custom/Custom, and was much happier with the tone.

The good things about the BBQ, the harmonics were very easy to coax out of it. And it stayed tight in the bottom end, very good for heavier riffs.
 
Re: Rio Grande BBQ???

KlinkDetroit, why don't you just "Hybrid" your pickup with one coil from a BBQ, and one coil from a DD? Or whichever pickup is sharp enough for you? That should do the trick.
 
Re: Rio Grande BBQ???

Does it sound as good as the JB when it comes to guitar solos? I want a thicker sound from the bottom three strings, and the JB can't do that. How about the BBQ?
 
Re: Rio Grande BBQ???

Three pikcups that are similar are the JB, BBQ, and WCR Shredder. The Shredder is like a JB without the upper mid spike so it works well with 500k pots. The BBQ is fatter than the JB and has mucho bottom!
 
Re: Rio Grande BBQ???

Hmm I may try that but I I sold the distortion I had and dont really want to mess anything up. I just bought a furman power factor pro and it seems to brighten things up enough for now.
 
Re: Rio Grande BBQ???

I have a BBQ in my main les paul.
with my particular setup it is A+! I've had better luck with it than the JB. It doesn't sound much like the JB to me.

I just tried a JB in a new les paul I bought, it came stock. I don't like it. To me it would only be good for soloing. To bright and has a mid range boost that I don't like. It also lacks good low end and is a little to hot for my tastes. With my marshall DLS 100 the JB just doesn't do it.

The BBQ has good clarity cleans up good, and has better low end than the JB. The BBQ doesn't have that extreme mid range honk like the Jb does and is not as high output like the JB.

J
 
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Re: Rio Grande BBQ???

Another good choice in the same league is the WCR Shredder since it is like the JB but with less pronounced mids and a slightly fatter bass.
 
Re: Rio Grande BBQ???

flipside said:
I'm thinking about putting one of these im the bridge of my Les Paul, what do you guys think of this pup, anybody have any experience with it? How does it compare tonally to the JB? (the other contender) Thanks in advance fellas
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I think its great.
No I don't have any experience with this pup an I have no idea how it compares tonally to the JB.
Hope this helps.
 
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