Re: WLH vs 59/Custom Hybrid
Well, IMO part of that is because it's half custom, which is drastically different depending on what magnet is in it.
The custom, and the custom custom, and the custom 5, are all very different pickups IME.
I can compare the 59/custom with the pearly gates, with the p-rails bridge, with the defunct dimarzio virtual hot paf, and with a custom wound unpotted double screw 9k/A2 pickup that was designed to be like a lower output EVH.
The Pearly Gates has the delicious upper-midrange growl to it. Through my amp cranked (18w marshall copy), it sounds more distorted than it really is because of that character. It's almost like a telecaster pickup, really. It's very cutting and clear, even though it's A2.
By contrast, the 59/Custom is definitely higher output, but it sounds cleaner, even through the same amp at the same settings (dimed, basically). You can play softly and it will clean up with you. Even though the PGb does this same thing, it doesn't do it in the same way. The 59/custom (mine has UOA5) has this sort of "give" to it that when you play soft, really comes out. When you lay into it, it sounds bigger almost, kind of like you have a harmonic expander or something. To give you an idea, the PGb is really focused, which is great for playing in a situation where there are a lot of instruments competing for a few frequencies. I mean, even with just a bassist and a drummer, it sounds huge, but with the 59/Custom, there's just - I dunno. There's just a lot of everything, and it seems more like the sound is a background, whereas the PGb is more focused.
The dimarzio virtual hot PAF used an A5 magnet, but had these little nylon spacers underneath the bobbins, as well as having slugs that were shaved down to the same diameter as the screws underneath the bobbin, so physically the magnet is separated from both the slug and screw coil about the same. That pickup, in my strat, had this really tasty "chewy" character that was very thick and middy but didn't have the 'growl' that the pgb does. It's probably the closest I've played to the WLH, and I didn't play it in my les paul, just a strat. But, it was what prompted me to get a double-screw 9k pickup from JS moore. The irony, is that I liked the VHPAF better then, but I don't know if I would now. It really imbued its own character into the sound, but the character was a pretty good one.
The double screw pickup, I ended up keeping for a while in my strat - that was when I had an antiquity surfer II in the neck and middle positions. Those were good pickups, don't get me wrong, but I think perhaps because of the maple board in my guitar I just didn't really bond with them as I should have. I'm not certain, though, it was a long time ago. Maybe I would like them more today than I did then. At any rate, the double screw pickup was F-spaced, and with polished A2, it was very soft, with a less pronounced midrange. I'm not sure I liked it all that much to be honest, because it wasn't very long before I swapped it out for the p-rails, which is what I have in there now. It didn't really have great character, which I'm sure the Custom Shop EVH does.
The surfers got replaced with strabro 90s, which are hotter (even tapped) and I seem to like A5 strat pickups closer to the mid-7k range, but again my rig has changed a lot since the antiquity surfers, so I should probably give them another chance.
At any rate, if I were a guessing man (and I am), I would guess that the WLH is going to be (1) lower output, (2) more focused, with more midrange, and (3) less rich harmonically, and also (4) won't split as well.
Anyway, that's my .02, and then some haha.
