Pickups: Making my SG Std. warmer, rounder, bluesier, sweeter... sounding

[Telephonist]

Hi,

 

I do own a 1997 SG Standard which has the stock 490R/498T pickups in it. While the 490R is ok (ok, not great!) to my ears, I just can´t cope with the 498T. To me it sounds like thru a megaphone, especially compared to the 490R. I find it to be tinny and harsh and too mid-rangey.

 

I do play a lot of clean, bluesy stuff and I want pickups that sound sweet, woody, warm and round but not lacking highs, which means, that they should be crisp, maybe even a bit twangy, too. I don´t need pickups for hard overdriven sounds. I want rather old school sounding, low output ones.

 

So what pickups would you recommend for that sound? And would you swap them both or just the bridge PU, because the 490R is already one of the pickups that sounds closest to what I´m searching for (some say, that there´s not a real noticeable difference between the 490R and the 57 classic for example, so I can save that money... But maybe you have different experiences.)

 

Let me know what you think! Thanks!!!

Daniel

 

P.S. I do have a 52 Hot Rod Tele which has the Firebird mini humbucker in the neck position (not the Les Paul Deluxe type with pole-pieces). This pickup is really cool for the kind of sound I´m after, but I guess I want a full-sized humbucker, just because it´s easier to put it in. I´ve been thinking about a p-94 as well, but I fear they are even more mid-rangey than the 498T. Or can they produce "my sound", what do you think?

[drizzt]

I put Seymour Duncan SH1 '59 set on my Standard and it sounds great. Another very tempting option (a bit more expensive) is the Bareknuckles Mississippi Queens set - check it out - it is a P90 in humbucker size but the neck and the bridge have different alnico magnets. I might try it on and fit the SD set on another guitar.

[kevoT]

P 94s, they can replicate the sound of the p90s without any re-routing needed. I'd only buy this one if you like the sound of P90s, this is the one for you!

[mildperv]

First thing I would do is lower the bridge pickup considerably. I find that is the main cause for bridge P/Us to be tinny. You may have to lower it more than seems logical. Use your ears and not your eyes for this adjustment.

[CaptainNemo68]

Either a '57 classic or a 490T in place of the 498T would work well if lowering the 498 doesn't suit you.

[EVOL!]

My vote is for the 57. Great cleans.

[tbonesullivan]

Well... you ARE playing on an SG, a guitar known for bring bright and mid-rangey. it is going to have that natural characteristic no matter which pickups you put in it. I have two SGs, one with a 498T, and one with 57 classics, and the 498T is definitely beefier but also rounder sounding. the 57 is more spanky and while it has less output it is brighter sounding.

[Blackie]

Also be advised that the bridge position no matter the pickup has the treble characteristics.

[BigKahune]

Another vote for 57 Classic.

[L5Larry]

You don't mention your amp. The type and model of amp your using is an important part of this equation, and VERY important in your overall sound. From what you describe, it sounds to me like you need an amplifier upgrade.

[sellen]

A couple of years ago i to said to myself, whats wrong with my sg speciale it sound cold and harsh. i bought new pickups and tweaked the set-up down and up. In my case the problem was me. when my playing got better, my sound got better(i still a kinda crappy player) And i learned how to set up my sg to my specs, how to dial my guitar volume, treble and amp-settings. Don't say this is the case with you, but i just don't think Gibson sg standard sound thin and harsh. For me nothing beat the sound and feel of a sg,

[tom brown]

I had a sg 3 faded and had that problem and what i did was adjusted the bridge pickup until it was out of tone range, then using one full turn on each screw, brought it back into sound range...then i actually backed off a half turn to darken it a little more....

 

Also. if you use the amp, or guitar tone control it will darken it quite a bit.....personally, if you like everything else about the guitar, and i know its hard to find the right one at times, consider putting different tone capacitors in it along with new volume and tone controls....I don't believe you will regret the investment...

 

I also have a sg 3 with the "57" classic plus in the bridge, and the 57's are also bright with everything else gibson has installed affecting tone on that guitar.....

 

The other thing alot of people are saying now is the pure nickel guitar strings make the sg's less bright, which i will try next and make a report........

[Telephonist]

Well, thanks for all your answers.

 

What I really found interesting is the idea with the pure nickel strings. Thanks to Tom Brown. Sometimes it´s so easy, but you just don´t think about it. I will try this first.

 

By the way, I installed the 490R (neck PU) in the bridge position yesterday. I thought it might be good, because it´s a low output PU. But it was terrible! ;-) It had NO TONE at all, just "quack quack". But not in a good way, like a Strat in the in-between-settings of the PU-selector. It had just the quack, and no tone to it. Sounded like the frogs at the lake I use to go swimming in summer! ;-)))

 

This raised more questions, than it gave answers to me actually. I always thought a low out PU would be good for what I search for, but in this case it was even worse. I´m confused...

[tbonesullivan]

you know... part of that might be that the neck pickup is designed to go in the neck position, and has different specs than the bridge pickup. Also the pole pieces are in different locations.

 

now, what kind of setup are you playing this through? And what kind of sound are you expecting to get out of the BRIDGE position? If you want to get warm and bluesy, the bridge pickup on an SG is not where you usually look for that.

[EADGBE]

I've got Duncan JB which was a real improvement over the 490T. Sounds beefier but definitely at its best when overdriven a bit. I have parallel switching option which brings out better (thinner but more harmonic) cleans. Jazz/JB set made the guitar a lot more versatile, although the 490R neck was maybe a bit beefier (and a lot more muddy).

[Telephonist]

@tbonesullivan: I play my SG thru an old German amp from the 60ies. It´s called Dynacord Twen, and it´s very similar to a Fender Tweed Deluxe/Vibrolux/Tremolux or maybe a Brownface Princeton. It has about 17 watts so you can crank it without making the windows break (and a tremolo effectin it). It´s the best amp I´ve ever had, so touch sensitive, you wouldn´t believe it.

 

Of course, when you want a bluesy sound, the neckPU is your way to go, but I just want the bridgePU sound more like the neckPU´s brother and not like a complete different animal. The 490R and the 498T are so different, that you could think you switch guitars and not just PUs, when you switch between those two PUs. It should be more of a unity (even if that means making my SG less versatile).

 

@EADGBE: The Duncan Jazz was also a PU I did consider. I liked the soundsamples on their homepage very much. Do you think those samples sound like the PU sounds in reality?

 

And thanks again to all of you!!! :-)

[FennRx]

WCR Crossroads. makes every pickup gibson makes sound like poop

[sellen]

Check out Bare Knuckle pickups The mule I got a set of bare knuckle steve stevens signature pickups in my 61 reissue sg. Great pickups.

[AndrewR]

Hi - I like Bare Knuckles Pickups as well

 

I have Mississippi Queens (hottish P90 types in a humbucker size casing) in an Explorer, and Riff Raffs (a mid-60s to late-70s "patent received" kind of humbucker) in a Faded SG.

 

But, it depends on your guitar itself - I bought the Faded SG for the pickups. They'd been in an Epi SG and were very bright. I tried a load of Fadeds, some of which sounded quite tinny and bright unamplified, and then I hit this one and it was warm and plummy - that was the one I was looking for.

 

The Riff Raffs do the job you want in my SG - but the bridge always is a bit more "pokey" than the neck anyway.

 

I agree with the pickup heights thing - you've got to fiddle with them. Although I like Bare Knuckles, and nearly always replace stock with them, you can get a lot closer to what you want with the stock pickups by tweaking the heights.

 

I agree with the pure nickels idea - although I decided against them after a while, they took too much top for me (this was on a strat, never tried them on an SG).

 

I also agree with a change in capacitors. My SG with Riff Raffs really came together when I swapped the capacitors for Vitamin-Q paper-in-oil. I've tried this in several guitars - it doesn't always work, but in this SG it does. PIO capacitors take a miniscule amount of top off, even with the tones fully open, and they reduce the output from the guitar a bit (in comparison to standard ceramic caps or Orange Drops). It kind of sounds "more vintage" when it works. With some guitars/pickups that's great, but others it can seem a bit muddy or lack-lustre.

 

The other thing is, and although I've been playing for years, I've only recently figured this out with humbuckers - do you use the volumes and tones on the guitar much? I always used to do this loads on strats and teles, but for some reason on humbucker guitars I'd just treat the volume like an on/off.

 

In the good old days, people like Duane Allman, Paul Kossoff, etc, etc, jacked the amp up and then turned the guitar volume down - that's how lots of those warmer/rounder/etc sounds were actually made. It seemed obvious to me to treat a strat like that, and always has done, but it took me a lot to figure out you could do the same with humbuckers... If you've already figured it out, cool, but if not, try setting your guitar volumes and tones to 7-8 and only then dialling in your amp, experiment a bit with it and see what happens... you might find the bridge gives you more of what you expected like that... (and you can still wind it up to 10 when you want that extra bite/push)

[Jeff-7]

+1 on the BKPs