Seth Lover pickups for heavier music

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Napthol

New member
I'm becoming more interested in trying a pair of Seth Lover humbuckers in my Les Paul. But I play mostly late 70's and 80's metal and hard rock stuff. Would these pickups work okay for that style?
 
They are pretty versatile pickups and sound good to me at 80's rock levels of gain.

You do have to be careful about is feedback - if you play at very high volumes with lots of gain they have a tendency to squeal. At lower stage volumes with higher gain or lower gain with higher volume this hasn't been a problem for me. The other thing to be aware of is the Seth bridge is bright and requires judicious use of the tone knob. If you just turn your volume and tone to 10 you might be disappointed. It's a good pickup to keep your tone around 6 or so and turn it up or down as required by the music.
 
Lots of preamp gain and volume doesn't work with the Seths at all. They aren't potted, so they will squeal. They will do great up to Plexi levels of gain, but something like a JCM800 will be squeal city, much less more modern gainy amps. If you want a potted PAF-type, look at the good ol' 59, Saturday Night Special, High Voltage, or Whole Lotta Humbucker.
 
Seths are honky too. Just voiced that way. IME with the Seth in a couple different guitars. I'd take Mincer's advice and go with a more neutral PAF unless you really want that particular old timey sound. Maybe the honk gets covered up at high gain but at clean levels I found it challenging to dial the honk out.
 
The problem with the '59 as I was told many years ago by people on this forum is that the bridge can be trebly and spikey. I tried it and sure enough that's how it sounded.
 
Napthol said:
The problem with the '59 as I was told many years ago by people on this forum is that the bridge can be trebly and spikey. I tried it and sure enough that's how it sounded.
Click to expand...

Judicious use of the tone knob is pretty essential with most PAF style bridge pickups. That trebly stuff stops being a problem at around 6 on the tone knob.
 
I've tried using the Seth Lovers for higher gain stuff, and much like Mincer and everyone said here they were just too difficult to tame noise-wise.
Sounded mostly great for leads though, again if you know how to wrangle the squealing, which I found the tone knob worked wonders for.
But ultimately I'd avoid those and go for other lower output pickups that can handle it.
The Whole Lotta Humbucker is particularly good for getting classic PAF tones that adapt well to late 70s/80s hard rock & metal.
 
Napthol said:
The problem with the '59 as I was told many years ago by people on this forum is that the bridge can be trebly and spikey. I tried it and sure enough that's how it sounded.
Click to expand...

An Alnico II Pro or Slash in the bridge is anything but trebly or spikey.
 
Napthol said:
The problem with the '59 as I was told many years ago by people on this forum is that the bridge can be trebly and spikey. I tried it and sure enough that's how it sounded.
Click to expand...

The Seth bridge is even thinner than the 59. Mincer's recs would probably be better if you want vintage but still some substance to it.
 
Okay Thanks I will stay away from the Seth Lovers. I do have an APH-1 sitting in my box. I hope it's not too bassy. I remember many years ago I put Alnico II Pro's in both positions in my Gibson Les Paul Standard, and from what I recall was that the bridge sounded just fine but the neck was too warm and bassy.

I do have some magnets I can mess with too.
 
APH-1 should do very well for you IMO. The one you have sitting around is the neck?
A5 mag would make it a Jazz neck, nice in a Les Paul.
I think the bridge APH-1 (or the Slash, a slightly overwound version) will be great at the bridge.
 
Last edited:
Napthol said:
Okay Thanks I will stay away from the Seth Lovers. I do have an APH-1 sitting in my box. I hope it's not too bassy. I remember many years ago I put Alnico II Pro's in both positions in my Gibson Les Paul Standard, and from what I recall was that the bridge sounded just fine but the neck was too warm and bassy.

I do have some magnets I can mess with too.
Click to expand...

The APH-1 isn't bassy at all...it has more mids than anything, and I'd describe it as flutey or buttery.
 
ive had the aph1n be kinda bassy in the neck, not bad but not what i wanted. i ended up putting in higher value pots to raise the resonant peak and it was much better. if you have a lp with 300k pots, its easy for the neck pup to be a bit bassy
 
Yah, pots make a difference. I nearly always prefer 500K for humbuckers.
I suspect 300K may have been spec'd to warm up T-tops when they were standard in most Gibsons.
 
for the neck, 500k. for bridge pups sometimes 300k is fine but i wait to adjust till i play the guitar enough to get a good feeling for it
 
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