Vintage classic rock humbucker for a Strat

D

dmaneleven

New member
I recently aquired a THD Univalve and it gives me some really nice vintage tones. From sweet Class A Cleans to Bluesy OD to Plexi like Distortion. I've has an Evo, Distortion, JB in the bridge but I'm not satisfied with those tones. Anybody recommend a good PAF style for say, Gibbons tones 60's 70's Classic rock tones?
 
Re: Vintage classic rock humbucker for a Strat

Hit the bay and get a T-top. Optionally, closest duncan is an A2P.
 
Re: Vintage classic rock humbucker for a Strat

A2P with an a5? Nice to know. That really nails the T-top sound?
 
Re: Vintage classic rock humbucker for a Strat

dmaneleven said:
I recently aquired a THD Univalve and it gives me some really nice vintage tones. From sweet Class A Cleans to Bluesy OD to Plexi like Distortion. I've has an Evo, Distortion, JB in the bridge but I'm not satisfied with those tones. Anybody recommend a good PAF style for say, Gibbons tones 60's 70's Classic rock tones?
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I take it then that you mean "Gibsons" not "Gibbons"? The guys are recommending Pearly Gates pickups because they're styled after the pickups in Billy Gibbons
50's sunburst Les Paul.

You're looking for a bridge humbucker apparently that sounds like a 70's Gibson?

Duncan PAF style humbuckers are the Seth Lover, Pearly Gates, 59 and Antiquity.

All are based on 50's Gibson PAF pickups - Gibson didn't make PAF style pickups in the 60's and the 70's. That's why Christopher and Ace are telling you to look for a Gibson T-Top pickup on Ebay - that's what Gibson used in the 60's and 70's.

I'm going to say a Duncan 59 Trembucker. It's alnico 5 like the T-Top but a has fuller sound and wider polepiece spacing to match the wider string spacing of a Fender vs a Gibbons. Oops! I meant Gibson.
 
Re: Vintage classic rock humbucker for a Strat

Your guitar being a Strat, I'd recommend the PATB-3 because it's warmer than a standard PAF-style. If you want to get as close as possible to Les Paul sounds with your Strat, that should be your best bet.
 
Re: Vintage classic rock humbucker for a Strat

Gonna play devil's advocate here..... why try getting a Gibson-esque sound out of a Strat? I think you may be setting yourself up for disappointment.
 
Re: Vintage classic rock humbucker for a Strat

OlinMusic said:
I agree! I put a 57 Classic in one Strat partscaster and it sounds pretty good!

I heard the Parallel Axis sounds like a Les Paul in a Strat. Any thoughts?
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well no matter what pickup you put in a strat, it will never sound like a LP just because they are different animals

a strat's shape and a LP shape......different
a strats wood and a LP wood.......different

pretty much the entire make-up of each guitar is different. You cant get one to sound like the other
 
Re: Vintage classic rock humbucker for a Strat

i agree. my strat with the 59 set didn't sound like a les paul, but it was a huge improvement over the single coil sound. sorry, i just dont like the sound of strats in general. the 59 does give a good vintage paf sound to a strat, but you can still tell its a strat.
 
Re: Vintage classic rock humbucker for a Strat

tenniso said:
i agree. my strat with the 59 set didn't sound like a les paul, but it was a huge improvement over the single coil sound. sorry, i just dont like the sound of strats in general. the 59 does give a good vintage paf sound to a strat, but you can still tell its a strat.
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I could never get into strats either. I here a strat with single coils or even look at a strat with single coils and i just wanna...:earl:

Im a humbucker type guy

Humbuckers are just ballsy and full sounding. They just have this mojo that a single coil lacks to my ears
 
Re: Vintage classic rock humbucker for a Strat

Jay 77 said:
Gonna play devil's advocate here..... why try getting a Gibson-esque sound out of a Strat? I think you may be setting yourself up for disappointment.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what Eddie Van Halen's goal was tho - worked out for Eddie. :1:
 
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Re: Vintage classic rock humbucker for a Strat

I think there is more to the Gibson tone than just pickups. There is a large differnce in construction between a strat and a les paul. The Gibson has a single cut mahogany body with a maple cap and a glued in mahogany neck and a totaly different tom bridge. The strat is an alder or ash body basicly double cut with a bolt on maple neck and a tremlo bridge. The scale length of the two guitars is also different which affects the tone too. Even with identical pickups and strings the guitars would sound different from each other. Thats not to say that you can't get a strat to sound good with humbuckers, a strat with humbuckers will sound different than a strat with single coils and many prefer a humbucker in the bridge position of a strat over a single coil in the same position. With the right humbuckers, amp, amp settings and maybe pedal settings you could get somewhat close enough and achieve the tone you want. But the right pickup, amp and amp settings for the Les Paul may not be the same for the strat to geta similar tone.
 
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