What's the most strat like humbucker for a Les Paul?

[GuitarStv]

After an awful lot of tweaking of screws and pickup position I just can't gel with the antiquity set I've got in my Orpheo Les Paul. The neck is too soft in the highs and both the bridge and the neck are too middy for my tastes. Swapping an A3 into the neck is a little better, but they just don't have enough snap or twang for my tastes.

I want an alternate sound to my single coil guitars so don't exactly want to jam another single in there . . . but I guess I want a humbucker that's leaning pretty hard to the single coil direction. Something with bright highs, and decent lows. Lower output preferred. I've had good luck with the '59 neck . . . maybe a '59 or Jazz set? What do you think?

 

[Mincer]

Maybe a Stag Mag?

 

[Chistopher]

HFH neck and Bluesbucker bridge

 

[GuitarStv]

I've read about the bluesbucker bridge - it's intriguing. I thought 'humbucker from hell' would be a metal thing, no?

 

[jeremy]

jazz set ticks all those boxes. still sounds like a bucker, but good highs, tight lows. more output than the antiquity, but still low output for a bucker. the 59 set is great too if you want a more paf flavor

 

[jeremy]

I've read about the bluesbucker bridge - it's intriguing. I thought 'humbucker from hell' would be a metal thing, no?

no, its bright and thin. supposed to sound single coil like. it sorta does, but not really. its a nice neck pup

 

[ehdwuld]

Jazz in parallel

Split it sounds very single coil-ish

Hang on I'll post a video

 

[switchman]

There's lots of options. Depends how far towards Strat-ty you want to go.

You could go to the extreme of the Custom Shop Strat In Humbucker form factor but I don't think you want to.

Rather than just some type of brighter PAF variation have you considered entirely different designs?

The Phat Cat is one.

A Firebird or a mini-humbucker with conversion ring are other options.

Or the Psyclone (Filtertron style) does come in humbucker form factor but doesn't get much press.

All of these are going to be brighter than an Antiquity with their own character in between a Strat or PAF.

Even more Strat-ty options are the Porter WRH or Fralin Twangmaster.

 

[justFred]

IMO it’s easier to get a Les Paul + Les Paul sound out of a Strat or a Tele…easier on the back as well.

 

[Securb]

Pearly Gates neck splits very Straty

 

[Binnerscot]

HFH neck and Bluesbucker bridge

My first thoughts too on HFH

 

[ehdwuld]

Here's my comparison of a single coil vs a Jazz split and in parallel vs a Donlis split and parallel

 

[GuitarStv]

IMO it’s easier to get a Les Paul + Les Paul sound out of a Strat or a Tele…easier on the back as well.

This has been my finding as well. I can get Les Paul tones out of singles reasonably well by playing with the tone controls and popping on enough gain. The hum can be annoying though sometimes.

But sometimes I want to look like Jimmy Page dammit. Or at least like I stole his guitar.

 

[Coma]

Jazz in parallel

Split it sounds very single coil-ish

Hang on I'll post a video

Jazz in parallel ain't half-bad. The volume drop is annoying, though.

@GuitarStv It comes down a lot to the amp and speakers too, I think. If they aren't fendery bright, you might not get quite all the way there, so to speak. But a jazz in parallel certainly has a lot of SC character to it. And far less noise than a true split.

 

[Snake Aces]

Jazz. Jazz split is great too. Sure, there is a volume drop, but there are other ways right deal with that. I also think the WLH split is underrated. But I don't think the WLH is quite what you're looking for overall.