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Best pick up for les paul


pug doyle

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Just bought my 1st LP 2008 Gold Top standard with burstbucker pro with alnico V pickups. Have heard some bad things about these. Are there better suited ones out there??

 

 

2008 LP Std Gold Top

Gibson SG Std

Gibson ES-339

Fender Std Amer Strat

Fender Vintage Hot Rod '52 Tele

Taylor T-5 Std

Tayor T-3/B

Taylor 315CE

Taylor 654 CE 12 string

B-28 B.C. Rich acoustic

 

Marshall JVM 410-H

Fender Deluxe Reverb

Line 6 Spider III 30

Line 6 Spider III 15

Ultrasound Pro 250

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Of course they are, but that's completely subjective in many ways; price, likes.

 

Do you want boutique/custom pickups or standard production pickups?

Low, moderate or high output pickups?

Vintage voiced or modern voiced?

Style of music?

You could go either Gibson, Seymour Duncan, Lindy Fralin, DiMarzio, WCR..

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I agree with the rest, depends also on the style of music. I personally like Dimarzio, I've had them in all of my 10 guitars, some since the mide 70's when they first came out. For hard rock and metal, I love the Dimarzio Super Distortion in the bridge position. The Tone Zone is also one of my favorites and all around great pick up with plenty of power. You also have to take into consideration the type of amp you are using with it, solid state or tube. Keep in mind that you'll be looking at tone quality like lows, mid range and highs. Pick up manufacturers list the range of all their pick ups so you can choose which one best meets your needs for the music you'll most likely be playing with the guitar. I happen to have a 75 Gold Top Deluxe and I have a Dimnarzio Super Distortion in the bridge and a PAF in the neck and it sounds great for metal, hard rock and even blues in the rhythm position with your toggle switch. Go read up on each companies products and they usually give a sample sound bite on their website of the expected sound of the pick up. Good luck

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Best pickup for a les paul hmmmmm

 

This one time I went into a guitar store and saw a really fine Les Paul Traditional on the wall. I said to it " Hey I love how the sun makes you sparkle" ...She came home with me that day and we are married ...no kids yet but we are working on it lmao

 

 

Pickups should go to your preferences and playing style. We can't tell you what you are gonna like but can offer some suggestions. I personally love the 57's that came on my Traditional . I know some people on here swear by semour duncan, gibson, and dimarzio.

 

My suggestion is to check out Wolftone

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Welcome to the forum.

 

Did you already try the stock pickups? Did you not like them?

 

Play around with your amp settings a little and see if you get the sound you want.

 

If after countless efforts you can't then go out and look for different pickups if that's what you want to do.

 

 

 

 

A note about dream tone:

 

Your dream tone doesn't come out of a pickup set, a type of wood, an amp brand, a tube model, an fx box, or a pick alone. It comes from all the factors involved in the whole process. From how you hold the pick to how you strum them strings, then to how the strings resonate and how the guitar's mass and shape affect it. Of course, then pickups come into play, as does the cable you are using and the amp.

 

The amp will sound different and give you certain tonal variations because of little things as positioning in the room, tube brand, circuit type, speaker, cabinet size, and lots of other things.

 

Then of course there's the main factor: your fingers and your style. Most of the time you'll probaly sound like you on any setup (given time to set it up as you like). Same as any known player with a signature sound will sound just like him regardless of him using a $100.000 setup or a starter pack.

 

 

In short: whoever said by changing 1 factor out of 50 you could actually make a huge improvement, lied.

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I still admire Bostons sound' date=' a very solid state sound but it fit the music perfectly.[/quote']

 

 

Boston sounds modern now....nevermind the 70's

 

 

but regarding the pickups i would just play around with the stock pickups for awhile...if you still are not convinced go with some dimarzios

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welcome to the burstbuckers suck club, couldn't get them out of my 2008 standard fast enough!!!!

 

i went with a Seymour Duncan CUSTOM CUSTOM and a '59 , absolutely perfect for me ,exactly the sound in my head now comes out of my amp!

 

but as others have said , look around for your self first, find your own sound, there's a million pups out there.

the second thing to do , after you switch out those burstbuckers, is to set fire to them and put it out with a sledgehammer

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i just installed a wcr crossroads neck and darkburst bridge in my R8. they are awesome. pricey, but awesome. and jim will ship them in 2 days or less....no 3 week wait time like with most other boutique winders.

 

tons of others though: Throbaks, Dr Vintage, Wolfetones, SD, Lollar, Fralin, BareKnuckle, Shed, Sheptones, Guitarforce, Zhangbuckers, Peter Florance VooDoo, and probably a bunch i am forgetting.

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Fenn' date=' something I don't quite get is why most reissue owners rush to change the pickups... at the price they sell for, shouldn't they already come with good pickups?[/quote']

 

i was in no rush. i have had the guitar for almost 2 years. here's my opinion, based on my own experience and what i have read at MLP and LPF.

 

i thought my R8 sounded amazing when i bought it...even better than the R9. then i swapped the pots/caps in the R9 after a year of ownership. the guy who did the swap adjusted the pickups. and whatever he did, he made the stock BBs absolutely sing. and suddenly, my R8 didnt sound as good. so i had him put an RS kit in the the R8 and told him to work his magic on the R8. but it didnt work like on the R9. for one, my R8 is very heavy and i think that makes it darker and a bit muddy in the neck. so i swapped the pickups.

 

as for these other guys, here's my thoughts:

 

1) i think a lot of them want the closest vintage pickup they can get. i mean, some of these guys pay $200 for reproduction pickup rings.....thats nuts imo, but to each their own.

 

2) i also think that Burstbuckers are similar to real PAFs in one way: they dont all sound the same. it does appear that sometimes gibson gets them right and sometimes not.

 

3) internet forums are constantly hyping something. i admit it, i fell for the hype once and was disappointed (of course, i was replacing the gibson ceramics, which i hated, in my LP Classic). and i think people want to be cool and be part of the newest fad.

 

4) people dont know how to adjust the pickups themselves

 

5) some people dont know how to eq an amp or use their guitar pots

 

6) people often chase tones that were recorded in the 60s/70s that are next to impossible to reproduce in your own house.

 

7) its fun to tinker

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These days there are so many PAF replicas out there that it's ridiculous. SD makes the Seth Lovers, AND the antiquities. Dimarzio just came out with some anniversary PAFs. Lollar and Fralin make some. And then there are small custom winding operations, and of course the Gibson 57 classics, burstbuckers, etc.

 

All are after a very elusive sound that mainly resulted from production inconsistencies.

 

anyway, there is no best pickup. it's usually easier to just work with what you've got, changing pickup height and amp eq to get the sound you want, as the search for the perfect pickup is a long and often fruitless venture.

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