What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

Gearjoneser

Gearjoneser

Gear Ho
I have an '89 35th Anniversary Les Paul Black Beauty 3 pickup model made out of solid mahogany with an ebony fretboard.

I don't play the guitar as a main player, but more as a luxury ride now and then. I've tried a few Duncan combinations as well as the stock 57 Classics.

The positions are bridge, bridge/middle, and neck, and I'm leaving it that way, although I'd like to hear what some of you might do with the wiring.

I want to hear what pickup set you'd choose, and what type of amp rig you'd consider ideal with that pickup combo.

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Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

I would want a Brobucker in the bridge/Treble position.

Wiring? The Peter Frampton circuit.
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

59vustom hybrid bridge, 59jazz hybrid neck, phat cat alnico5 middle.

My own wiring so I can have the neck and bridge as usual, with their own pots, but with the benefits of the middle added if I so desire.
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

Wiring? Standard Les Paul B - B/N - N and change one of the tone knobs to volume for blending the middle pickup to any toggle switch position.
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

Well, I would get rid of that middle pup. Had an old SG/Les Paul Custom BITD and it drove me nuts.

However, solid mahogany and assuming it has that thick smokey tone going on..I woukd be going crisp and nothing too heavy on mids regardless of brand. Something like a TTop/Shaw or various modern day clones.

Actually, try some short roughcast A5 mags in your 57s first. That will get it closer to the Ttop ballpark, but with more output.
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

I had a '58 three humbucker Les Paul Custom for a while around 1970. I think it was '58...I don't remember exactly. But it did have the three original paf humbuckers that were in it when it left the Gibson factory in 1958.

I couldn't hang with those "fretless wonder" frets so I eventually sold it. Gibson used to grind the frets down to nothing in those guitars which made string bending a real PITA. I guess Les Paul preferred playing lickity split up and down the fingerboard to string bending.

The middle pickup really got in the way of my pick but I loved the sound of the bridge pickup and middle pickup combined.

So if I had one I'd want paf style humbuckers in it. I'd want the middle and bridge pickups to be wound the same and the neck pickup to be underwound just a tad.

Antiquitys might be cool. Don't know if mine had alnico 2 or alnico 5 in it, but these days I like alnico 2 paf style buckers like the Antiquity, Seth Lover, nickel covered Pearly Gates or the Tom Holmes pickups I have in my ES-335 and PRS Custom 22.
 
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Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

'57 classics sound better with 500k pots if you want to try that first.

Personally I like antiquities in my Les Pauls.
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

elelpe said:
Wiring? Standard Les Paul B - B/N - N and change one of the tone knobs to volume for blending the middle pickup to any toggle switch position.
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I was going to suggest exactly that! You could also do a Master volume with two tones if you prefer that.
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

Lewguitar said:
So if I had one I'd want paf style humbuckers in it. I'd want the middle and bridge pickups to be wound the same and the neck pickup to be underwound just a tad.

Antiquitys might be cool. Don't know if mine had alnico 2 or alnico 5 in it, but these days I like alnico 2 paf style buckers like the Antiquity, Seth Lover, nickel covered Pearly Gates or the Tom Holmes pickups I have in my ES-335 and PRS Custom 22.
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Since 2011's User Group Day when I acquired two gold Brobucker Bridges, I've had a Brobucker Bridge, 57 Classic Neck, Brobucker Bridge in neck. The bridge sounds great, the middle is decent, and the Brobucker bridge in the neck is a bit too hot. Your post about bridge and middle being the same just gave me the great idea of replacing the middle with a Bro bridge. I think I'm going to go with Brobucker B, Brobucker B, Pearly Gates neck. The Brobucker and C/59 are my favorite Duncan bridge humbuckers. The PGn is my favorite neck pickup.

A2 usually sounds too buttery for my taste in solid mahogany unless it's a Pearly Gates.
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

Distortion Bridge, Distortion or 59 neck, Phat Cat in the middle. I just bought an Epiphone SG-400 custom (3 hum) that I'm using foor blues right now. If the Alnico 2's didn't sound so good, then I'd have probably replaced them with a Custom 5 in the bridge, a 59 in the neck, and a Phat cat in the middle.
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

PG+
PGb
PGn

Wire a push/pull to use either the neck or middle for the toggle switch up position.

Switch down: Bridge, bridge/neck, neck
Switch up: Bridge, bridge/middle, middle
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

BUT..... How many other pickups have 3 equally progressed models? Maybe BB3/BB2/BB1.

Or just use a FSb/demon/FSn
 
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Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

I depends on how bright the thing is naturally. I like a big black LPC with an aggressive drive like out of the '78 model but it can be too sharp. Antiquity neck and middle.

I think you should be careful about a Phat Cat in the middle. It has two magnets and then it's getting awfully close to the other pickup's magnetic field.

Of course there's also Phat Staple :)
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

3 humbucker Gibsons are a pain in the neck anyway...

The factory wiring is very limited and 99% of the mods for wiring them are just as limited and the middle pickup is almost always in the way...

However I like the way they look!

If I had a 3 pickup LPC I'd use the same 6 position switch Gibson used in the Jimmy Page LPC form a few years ago.

1-neck
2-neck & bridge
3-bridge
4-neck & middle
5-neck & middle & bridge
6-middle & bridge

On the controls I'd go with 3 volumes and a master tone or keep it even more simple with a master volume and a master tone and 2 dead knobs...

As for pickups a set of 3 Antiquities sounds like a fine start to me. I love 'em in my burst so I can't see that being a bad place to go!

EDIT: I'd use 2 neck pickups and a bridge pickup if it were me...
 
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Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

Gearjoneser said:
Since 2011's User Group Day when I acquired two gold Brobucker Bridges, I've had a Brobucker Bridge, 57 Classic Neck, Brobucker Bridge in neck. The bridge sounds great, the middle is decent, and the Brobucker bridge in the neck is a bit too hot. Your post about bridge and middle being the same just gave me the great idea of replacing the middle with a Bro bridge. I think I'm going to go with Brobucker B, Brobucker B, Pearly Gates neck. The Brobucker and C/59 are my favorite Duncan bridge humbuckers. The PGn is my favorite neck pickup.

A2 usually sounds too buttery for my taste in solid mahogany unless it's a Pearly Gates.
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Sounds good to me. Go for it.

I had an insight when I replaced the pots in my PRS. I had about twenty CTS 500K pots and for the first time I tested them and found that most were about 460K and only a very few were actually 500K. For the first time I chose all pots that actually measured 500K. The result is that the alnico 2 pickups in my PRS sound brighter and clearer than when I had the same pickups in my Les Paul with 500K pots that I did not measure first. I spoke to my brother Bruce about this and he said "That's right. 500K pots are actually 460K." If alnico 2 humbuckers sound to buttery, 500K pots that actually measure 500K might be the solution.
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

How cruncy do you want to get?

A Pearly Gates is always a good choice for neck, as is an Alnico II Pro (or Alnico II Pro Slash depending on your cover/potting preference). With it being solid mohogany with no maple cap to add brightness, I would think the PG would be ideal for the neck.

Big solid mohogany works well with high output ceramic pickups in my experience. A Duncan Custom or Duncan Distortion would provide some amazing crunch.

You could take a similar idea to the 59/Custom hybrid and put one in bridge and one in middle, so you can go from classic to classic/crunchy when going from bridge to bridge/middle position.

So, Pearly Gates for the neck position, a '59 for the middle position, and a Duncan Custom for the bridge position will give you a pretty versitile sweep from neck to crunch.
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

Lewguitar said:
Sounds good to me. Go for it.

I had an insight when I replaced the pots in my PRS. I had about twenty CTS 500K pots and for the first time I tested them and found that most were about 460K and only a very few were actually 500K. For the first time I chose all pots that actually measured 500K. The result is that the alnico 2 pickups in my PRS sound brighter and clearer than when I had the same pickups in my Les Paul with 500K pots that I did not measure first. I spoke to my brother Bruce about this and he said "That's right. 500K pots are actually 460K." If alnico 2 humbuckers sound to buttery, 500K pots that actually measure 500K might be the solution.
Click to expand...

I use a 551k potentiometer for my one of my guitars with an Alnico II Pro; it definitely helps the top from sounding too rounded.
 
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