Sound clips of Custom 8 in Gibson SG, PRS guitar, or ESP single cutaway guitar?

N

nikosteph

New member
Does anyone have any sound clips of the Custom with the Alnico 8, in either a Gibson SG, any American-made PRS, or an ESP single cutaway (or similar) guitar? I'm considering all these (among others) as lighter, faster-playing replacements for my Les Paul Studio (which has a C8, and I absolutely love it), but it's hard to really judge whether they'd sound "right" from online clips that have either the stock pickups or other replacements (e.g. JB).

I figure with all the (very justified!) love for the C8 on these forums, there must be some sound clips floating around so I can get a sense of what these guitars will sound like before making the investment and then immediately voiding the return policy by swapping the pickups :).

Thanks a lot!
 
Re: Sound clips of Custom 8 in Gibson SG, PRS guitar, or ESP single cutaway guitar?

No need to mod the pickup and void the warranty. The Alnico 8 Custom can be ordered as a 'shop floor custom'. One dealer who has them in stock quite often is banjomikez.
 
Re: Sound clips of Custom 8 in Gibson SG, PRS guitar, or ESP single cutaway guitar?

Yeah you wont be able to tell that sort of detail from an online clip. Clips are good to get a vague notion of how something sounds but what one dudes prs sounds like on youtube wont sound like your SG at home at all. If you already have the C8 in a LP you got all the reference you need.
 
Re: Sound clips of Custom 8 in Gibson SG, PRS guitar, or ESP single cutaway guitar?

Oh sorry, I meant I am worried about voiding the guitar's return policy by swapping the pickups, since whenever I get one of this type I want to get a fairly nice one. I'm pretty confident that the Custom 8 is the way to go, I'm just curious how it sounds in these guitars before making the plunge and getting one. I know that sound clips won't be perfect, but it's more out of general curiosity :-)
 
Re: Sound clips of Custom 8 in Gibson SG, PRS guitar, or ESP single cutaway guitar?

But im just saying you really wont be able to tell until you try it in the guitar thats in your hands. You can get a rough idea from clips but you have a rough idea already. You could get 2 different Les Pauls or any other model of guitar that sounds worlds apart.

Not to mention a successful demo on youtube is less about the minutiae of the equipment being played and more about the recording process. A nice mic in a good room with a good camera into some good software will make a much larger difference in the quality of sound than the difference between 2 guitars of the same model. Even the best most boutique equipment will sound like butt on youtube if its recorded on a cellphone using the built in mic 6 feet away in a hardwood room with no post processing done to it.

Sadly the nature of guitars all sounding a tiny bit different from one another means you really wont know what it sounds like until its in your hands.
 
Re: Sound clips of Custom 8 in Gibson SG, PRS guitar, or ESP single cutaway guitar?

Yeah, I totally hear you (no pun intended :)), I guess part of the reason is I'm slowly becoming kind of a gear geek, so any excuse to listen to more cool clips would be fun! And the fine folks on these forums often post pretty decent clips so I figured it was worth a shot.

I guess my main worry is that I'm gonna drop a bunch of money on a nice guitar whose stock pickups I don't like, counting on the pup swap to be that "magic touch", and then be disappointed and stuck with an overpriced hunk of wood! Case in point, I don't like Burstbucker pickups in a Les Paul, but all the Custom pickups I tried were pure magic, keeping all the good parts of the guitar's tone and smoothing out all the bad elements of the Burstbucker.

With PRS guitars, I find most of the clips online (and I've listened to many, including high-quality ones) make the guitar sound "raspy", and not quite thick enough, and I've played a couple in real life to know that this is a general trend. However, all of these were with stock pickups, so perhaps a nice SD pup would change that but I have no way to know. I guess what I'd be looking for is if that intrinsic "raspiness" was still there in a clip of a PRS with a Custom 8, or not.
 
Last edited:
Re: Sound clips of Custom 8 in Gibson SG, PRS guitar, or ESP single cutaway guitar?

It's your money. Do with it what you want.


Sent from my armored battle station using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top