El Supremo
New member
And not going back. Big surprise huh?
Now, I always liked the '59 set in my LPC but some minor challenges would arise when plugged straight into the amp. I also looked at other brands of vintage hot pickups, but the WLH seemed a little more appealing for my needs. And so, after being supplied with the info I needed from the forum and a few days of needless procrastinating I finally ordered them.
Received the Whole Lotta Humbuckers this afternoon. Measured and installed them. Did a quick run through plugging into the low input of my JMP with the same strings to check if everything was fine and to adjust the height. Left the guitar to recuperate from the procedure and made dinner.
Just did a run through with the guitar plugged straight into the high input.
The string to string balance of '59 set wasn't the best for me as the wound strings were kinda bassy and the plain strings too thin for me. When picking hard, I would get an icepicky spike at times. The WLH set had none of this.
Playing some runs from top to bottom, there is a clarity on the wound and a certain wamth on the plain strings that makes everything sounding just that more balanced and fluent in all three positions.
The pickup to pickup balance of the '59 set was a bit off for me. When switching to the neck pickup, I always got hit with an overpowering bass response that could only be solved via stomping an eq pedal or a Tubescreamer.
The neck WLH has a much more balanced eq and so again, playing a run from the first fret up to last and switching pickups midway is a much more fluent transition than before. I'm really impressed with this one as somehow I just keep playing everything on the neck, including rhythms. Last time I did that was (way back in time) on the T-Top neck of my Gibson Firebrand LP.
The WLH set has noticeably more mids, but certainly not in a nasal kinda way. Everythings sounds fuller and contradictory to what one might expect from a fuller sounding pickup, the sound was a lot clearer to. The palm mutes are tight and I can hear every string playing a full chord.
Cleanup is very good. It doesn't get that scooped but woody sound typical of a '59. Instead, the warmth seems to come more from the lower mids whilst retaining articulation with nice harmonic content. The neck has a creamier sound to it but again, still articulate and clear.
Pick attack is defined, responsive to dynamics and has a very distinct sound to it.
So to sum things up:
The Whole Lotta Humbuckers actually have far less in common with the '59 than I expected. It's a whole different vibe altogether and although it was kind of a shock to the system hearing this new set of pickups, it was something that I could get used to very rapidly. It almost sounds like a completely new guitar to me where everything is now more balanced to me tone wise as well as volume wise. That typical scooped woody clean sound isn't there anymore, but the guitar's inherent acoustic qualities do still very much come through with this set of pickups.
Great cleans, excellent definition and the added push in output and mid response make leads really sing in a vocal like manner whilst distorted rhythms crunch just that much more.
I'm off to play. Gonna try some fuzzes and such tomorrow.
Big thanks to everybody who got me up to date on these pickups!
Now, I always liked the '59 set in my LPC but some minor challenges would arise when plugged straight into the amp. I also looked at other brands of vintage hot pickups, but the WLH seemed a little more appealing for my needs. And so, after being supplied with the info I needed from the forum and a few days of needless procrastinating I finally ordered them.
Received the Whole Lotta Humbuckers this afternoon. Measured and installed them. Did a quick run through plugging into the low input of my JMP with the same strings to check if everything was fine and to adjust the height. Left the guitar to recuperate from the procedure and made dinner.
Just did a run through with the guitar plugged straight into the high input.
The string to string balance of '59 set wasn't the best for me as the wound strings were kinda bassy and the plain strings too thin for me. When picking hard, I would get an icepicky spike at times. The WLH set had none of this.
Playing some runs from top to bottom, there is a clarity on the wound and a certain wamth on the plain strings that makes everything sounding just that more balanced and fluent in all three positions.
The pickup to pickup balance of the '59 set was a bit off for me. When switching to the neck pickup, I always got hit with an overpowering bass response that could only be solved via stomping an eq pedal or a Tubescreamer.
The neck WLH has a much more balanced eq and so again, playing a run from the first fret up to last and switching pickups midway is a much more fluent transition than before. I'm really impressed with this one as somehow I just keep playing everything on the neck, including rhythms. Last time I did that was (way back in time) on the T-Top neck of my Gibson Firebrand LP.
The WLH set has noticeably more mids, but certainly not in a nasal kinda way. Everythings sounds fuller and contradictory to what one might expect from a fuller sounding pickup, the sound was a lot clearer to. The palm mutes are tight and I can hear every string playing a full chord.
Cleanup is very good. It doesn't get that scooped but woody sound typical of a '59. Instead, the warmth seems to come more from the lower mids whilst retaining articulation with nice harmonic content. The neck has a creamier sound to it but again, still articulate and clear.
Pick attack is defined, responsive to dynamics and has a very distinct sound to it.
So to sum things up:
The Whole Lotta Humbuckers actually have far less in common with the '59 than I expected. It's a whole different vibe altogether and although it was kind of a shock to the system hearing this new set of pickups, it was something that I could get used to very rapidly. It almost sounds like a completely new guitar to me where everything is now more balanced to me tone wise as well as volume wise. That typical scooped woody clean sound isn't there anymore, but the guitar's inherent acoustic qualities do still very much come through with this set of pickups.
Great cleans, excellent definition and the added push in output and mid response make leads really sing in a vocal like manner whilst distorted rhythms crunch just that much more.
I'm off to play. Gonna try some fuzzes and such tomorrow.
Big thanks to everybody who got me up to date on these pickups!
