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

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

What would I put in there? A 1/4 stick of dynamite and blast that middle pup out.
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

Neck to bridge: Phat Staple, Pearly Gates neck (double black with gold poles and gold trim ring), Phat Cat (with a gold trim ring instead of the "solid" cover)...and "proper" three-way switching with a neck on switch and V/T/T/T controls.
 
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Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

there's a lot of hate for middle humbuckers, and a LOT of people were discouraging me from adding a middle humbucker to one of my guitars. but i dont regret it even a little bit.
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

Gearjoneser said:
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That's a beauty.

I would go with Antiquities (I have those in my Custom), or Joe Bonamassa's
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

rumblebox said:
there's a lot of hate for middle humbuckers, and a LOT of people were discouraging me from adding a middle humbucker to one of my guitars. but i dont regret it even a little bit.
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The only issue I have three humbuckers is that it feels crowded to my pick and my picking hand. But I LOVE the sound of the middle and bridge humbucker combined. It's a really cool and useful tone.
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

Gearjoneser said:
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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Sorry to be way late on contributing to this, but in the interest of a future individual's search I thought I'd add my thoughts & info. I bought one of the 35th Anniversary Customs brand new in 1990. Beautifully made, if heavy guitar. The original pickups in mine were patent number stamped single lead humbuckers, Gibson's 490R were in the neck & middle and a 498T in the bridge. They complimented the dark sounding all-mahogany guitar quite well. I replaced them with Gibson's '57 Classic PAF clones when those were first released in '91. In my opinion the '57 Classics were a step backwards. The guitar lost punch in the bridge posiotion, and the other two settings were basically a "no change noted." I didn't play the guitar much and ended up selling it around '93. I must have forgotten the pickup swap as I still have the three originals in my parts stash. I'd have usually given the buyer the original pickups. So, anyway the are in my stash waiting for a good home. Hope this helps anyone looking for a good swap-out for the 35th.
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

Neck: '59N
Middle: Phat Cat Neck model or a Screamin Demon
Bridge: Custom (of course)
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

outside of rewiring it to get more pup combinations, I would in traditional wiring do:

Neck: PGn
Middle: APH-1n
Bridge: 59b

This would be my choice but may not work for others.
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

3 HB sized P90's & see what a strat lp hybrid would be like?
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

Gonna borrow from another idea–Pearly Gates set with a Phat Cat in the middle. Would look great with the spacing of the screw/pole pieces (the phat cat is a P90 and the screws are in the middle)

I have a Warmoth with a Pearly Gates bridge paired with a Phat Cat neck and I love the combo!

Awesome guitar btw!
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

wow, zombie thread takin off!
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

I change my earlier vote to BB3/BB2/BB1

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

I've never played a 3 pickup LP.... I wonder how the bridge and middle, depending on pickup combo, would sound for funk and soul... I'd throw lower output style pickups in it, not totally sure which models though. I've had the PGn before and loved it as well as a 59 with an A4. I'd go for either of those in the neck with some sort of A2 in the middle and an A5 type in the bridge...
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

Mine is from 1976
Bridge : SH-5
Middle : Stock T pickup
Neck : replaced T pickup which is likely era-correct

3-way: Bridge, bridge+middle, neck

Neck volume and tone controls moved to the bottom. Bridge/bridge+middle volume and tone moved to the top where I feel they belong.

I love bridge+middle for cleans.

I'm considering experimenting with mag swaps for the SH-5 such as an A5 or A8 (less likely) or getting a 59/Custom hybrid, but I still love the tone as is.

I'm perfectly happy with the neck and middle pickups. In the event that I had to change them I'd probably go for a typical stock PAF or slight variant in order to account for the ebony fretboard or otherwise add some mojo, assuming I couldn't find a stock replacement.

I would *never* drop the bridge+middle configuration. Never!!!
 
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Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

I know this thread is a bit moldy but I just acquired a Epiphone Les Paul Custom Limited Edition 3 Plus....(long name)
It came modded with a DM Distortion bridge, stock Alnico Classic middle and DM PAF neck.
I happen to have new SD PGn, PGb and SH5 laying around. I also have a 57+ too and all have chrome covers. The DMs are open.
The hardware is all black and I wanted to go all chrome. I also have all new Faber stop and bridge to go on it. I'm debating on the Gibson deluxe tuners with the greenish tuners or the Grovers with chrome tuners.

So what combination do you think would work best with what I have and should I keep the wiring stock or do something else based on the pickups? I could order chrome covers for the DMs if they might be a better option but I like SDs best and never liked the 57+.

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

treyhaislip said:
Gonna borrow from another idea–Pearly Gates set with a Phat Cat in the middle. Would look great with the spacing of the screw/pole pieces (the phat cat is a P90 and the screws are in the middle)

I have a Warmoth with a Pearly Gates bridge paired with a Phat Cat neck and I love the combo
Click to expand...


I tried a Phat CatB in the middle of an SG Custom, and it was pretty weak with the stock A2's. I think that position needs more output ( in wind or magnets) with a HB or HB-sized P-90, as their magnetic fields don't seem to be in an optimal position under the string nodes.

Got to admit, HHH guitars look great, especially with gold hardware, but they never caught on with players, probably because most guys have trouble picking with all those HB's jammed together and don't want to change their right hand style, the middle PU has to be dialed in and out with it's volume control (which is slow on stage), and because the lame way Gibson/Epiphone wire them: 3-way switch, 6 coils, and no push pulls. Pitiful. No wonder why there's so little interest.

Some clever member posted last year about wiring HHH guitars with push-pulls on the volume controls so that you could combine: 1) the screw coil from the neck with the slug coil from the middle, 2) the slug coil from the bridge with the screw coil from the middle, and 3) the screw coil from the neck with the slug coil from the bridge. Those pairings create 'virtual HB's' like positions 2 and 4 on a Strat 5-way. That's a lot more versatility, probably 20 combinations between the three PU's in HB and single coil modes. If you used a push-pull on the tone pot, you could also get out of phase, adding more combinations. This would be an HHH equivalent to the Jimmy Page system on a HH.
 
Re: What would you put in a 3 pickup LP Black Beauty?

I would go PGn, PGb and Custom.

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

I have a custom shop set of Dino Cazares Retribution Blackouts in brushed nickel covers on my three hum LP Custom
 
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