What are T-Top pickups

Re: What are T-Top pickups

I totally love the T-Tops in my 1977 LP Custom. I use a DSL100 1/2 stack. I have the clean channel fully dimed, and the boost on. Gives me the perfect "Boys are back in town" tone. Also great for AC/DC, GnR, etc...
 
Re: What are T-Top pickups

Got an SG from the early 70s. Does sound good in the neck, but the bridge just doesn't open up. It sounds choked. No "kaw" or "aw" comes from the bridge position.
 
Re: What are T-Top pickups

Now that some T-tops are 30+ years old, they are older than the PAF's were in the 50's Les Pauls in the 70's. Magnets should have "softened" by now. Now they are "vintage". ;)
 
Re: What are T-Top pickups

I like the one in the bridge of my 78 LP Custom...it's the only bridge pickup I have that I can hit as hard as I want and not get brash high end. Tho one in the neck is smooth and the low output lets me wind up the amp more. I find that I fight the guitar controls less, and just ride them more with the T-tops, if that makes any sense.
 
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Re: What are T-Top pickups

Sorry for the stupid question,but are t-top pickups everyone talks about for Les paul guitars?
I'm interested too because they have a unique sound. Love them on Judas Priest "Sad Wings of Destiny" album and Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen"
 
Re: What are T-Top pickups

I'm interested too because they have a unique sound. Love them on Judas Priest "Sad Wings of Destiny" album and Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen"

not Les Paul specific. They came stock in every Gibson equipped guitar with regular spaced humbuckers from about 1965 to 1980.
So SGs, Les Pauls, ES-355,...
 
Re: What are T-Top pickups

Interesting coincidence!

I just made an Antiquity neck humbucker into a "T-Top" yesterday.

I removed the 2 1/2" roughcast Alnico 2 magnet MJ had installed, and replaced it with a 2 3/8" roughcast Alnico 5 magnet from AddictionFX.

I also removed the 2 1/2" roughcast A2 magnet from the bridge Antiquity and installed a 2 1/2" roughcast Alnico 5 magnet.

I like the change.

In the 70's I gigged with a 1960 Gibson ES-355 like BB King's. It was all original except the neck pickup had been replaced with a gold T-Top.

The bridge pickup was still the original paf...probably Alnico 5.

I loved that pickup combination.

The neck pickup was great for jazzy chords and had a Larry Carlton kind of tone for solos. With overdrive the tone was breathy and open and not so nasal as some humbuckers can be.

That guitar was stolen when I moved to Denver from Detroit and I never saw it again and I've missed it ever since.

Anyways: if a player is using Alnico 5 humbuckers and needs a little more clarity from the neck pickup, change the 2 1/2" magnet in the neck pickup to a 2 3/8" T-Top style magnet.

You'll get the drive and push of Alnico 5 but a clearer sound.

I prefer roughcast magnets like I've found in my Antiquity pickups and original pafs.
 
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Re: What are T-Top pickups

Technically, you've actually made a 1960 PAF, or a Pat#.

Actually short magnets did make their way into some 1959 PAF's, but 1960 was a time when there was a much greater uptake. Of course the pat# pickups had the short A5 pretty much all the way through.
 
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