Swap pickups or guitars?

[Sam SG]

Awhile back i made a post about swapping the 490r/490t set in my SG. The most appealing suggestion seemed to be the Whole Lotta HB set.
But then i hemmed and hawwed cause i have to remove the bridge to get the batwing gaurd off. Throwing off the whole setup.
Well fast forward i recently been playing my Ohagan shark which has a Dimarzio paf in the neck. I really love the clarity and openness of it. Then i pickup the SG and notice it more dark spongy and hazy. Yet if i want to rip full throttle leads the 490s kinda kick ass...its just rythms some thing sound great others not so much and they dont clean up as well.
But really should i just play another axe and keep the SG stock and pull out the SG for full throttle lead stuff? Or go through the major surgury to make it more versatile....but possibly lose the squishy full throttle aspect i love sbout it??

 

[Jermo3178]

The question is... do you want a guitar that plays a lot of things ok? or a guitar that can only do 1 thing well?

I vote change them... from what I know the bridge just pops off.
You can measure the posts to be spot on. Or count the turns as you twist the post down to the body.
Then after you're done, you put them back and twist all the way down and count your turns as you
come back up to the original height. At that point, everything else can be worked out from a proper setup.

 

[Securb]

Jermo is spot on, and I will add that this could be a great opportunity to learn how to do a proper setup. It is not hard. Take pictures of things before you remove them so you know the orientation of the bridge and other nuances. The most PITA thing about a setup is the intonation, which you shouldn't have to do again, and if so, it is easy. There are plenty of YouTube videos to guide you. I would also suggest getting a digital caliper to measure, which can be found for ~$10 online.

 

[magillver]

Just tossing this out there, but have you played around with the height of the pickups in the SG? Same concept that Jermo was saying about counting turns of the adjustment screws. I've found a fair number of guitars that just sounded 'okay', greatly improved with just a few turns of the height adjustment screws. I usually adjust the pups down close to the body/pickguard, then slowly bring them up one turn at a time, then listen to it carefully at each point. There's often a 'sweet spot' that you hit, where it just opens up. As you get close to that point, you can go up or down ½ turn out even ¼ turn to fine tune the sound you like...

 

[Chistopher]

I only read the title, but onstage it is faster to just swap the guitars.

 

[Sam SG]

Oh yea i set up all my guitars and pickup heights. Its just that I( once its set) OCD little action tweaks to i got it exact. And i really hate to agravate the OCD once its were i love it. Lol
Yea ive spent allot of time on height adjustment too. I think its the A2 sound that im hearing as more dark. The DiMarzio paf i notice more sparkle more clearish...like my A5 P90 guitars. The A2 490s are more bluesy and squishy. They really do sound good BUT i think the paf is more versatile overall,but tgere is a certain bluesy mojo the SG has now with the 490s that I do like now Allot.