hfmrock Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Hey everyone, I recently bought an Epiphone Elitist Les Paul Standard Plus (which I absolutely love, by the way). This guitar sounds incredible, and the stock pickups sound really great. But I'd like to know what you all feel are the best aftermarket pickups for a guitar like mine. I play in a christian rock band (check us out at www.hfmrock.com or www.myspace.com/hfmrock) and we play alternative rock, with a sound similar to copeland or goo goo dolls. The stock pickups work great for the slower stuff, but lately our songwriting style has gone more in the direction of Weezer or Foo Fighters. What, in your opinion, would be the best pickups to replace the stock for the genre of music I play? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hbucker Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 I have the same guitar in honeyburst (looks like the guitar in my avatar). Congratulations! It's a great guitar. After living with it for a couple of years, I decided that I didn't like the bridge pickup that came with my Elitist. It was too bright, too harsh and did not maintain definition very well when I used higher gain. I decided to replace both pickups just so I would have a matching set when I was done. I also decided to go more in a vintage direction since I have several guitars with more modern pickups and didn't need another one. I figured my LP would be my "vintage" styled guitar. After doing a fair amount of research I decided to buy a set of Manlius, Fat Diane pickups from a winder I was referred to in another forum. www.manliusguitar.com His prices are excellent for hand wound pickups and I've been very pleased with the warmth, response and balance of these pickups. They have a very strong mid range bight that only emerges when you apply some overdrive. The surprise is that they handle a variety of amp settings much better than the stock pickups did. So the guitar is actually more versatile now than it was with the stock pickups that were designed to be versatile. Go figure. I can personally recommend the Fat Dianes but you need to do your own research. On the cheap side, GFS Vintage '59's are pretty good. Awesome for the price. Of course there are the DiMarzios and Duncans of the world too. Just decide what kind of pickup you want, what your budget is and then start poking around to find out what pickups fit your requirements. I guarantee there is a product out there for you. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slagg Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 if only the best will do checkout wb p'ups costly ,yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderstruck507 Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 Not sure why you want to change them personally. They're Gibson 490r neck and 498t bridge by the way. Not familiar with the tone of Goo Goo Dolls or especially Foo Fighters since I dont listen to the GGDs and hate the Foo Fighters, but the only other way to change them and it still be an "upgrade" IMO would be vintage sounding humbuckers. Don't see any point changing modern pickups of such high quality for other modern pickups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slagg Posted February 20, 2008 Share Posted February 20, 2008 wb's are early spec "vintage pafs".modeled after a 50's lp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hbucker Posted February 21, 2008 Share Posted February 21, 2008 Not sure why you want to change them personally. They're Gibson 490r neck and 498t bridge by the way. Not familiar with the tone of Goo Goo Dolls or especially Foo Fighters since I dont listen to the GGDs and hate the Foo Fighters' date=' but the only other way to change them and it still be an "upgrade" IMO would be vintage sounding humbuckers. Don't see any point changing modern pickups of such high quality for other modern pickups.[/quote'] Changed mine because the bridge really could not compete with any of the pickups in my other guitars. I know they're Gibson pickups and I believe you are correct, they are the 490r & 498t. My main problem was with the 498t. It just couldn't compete and I figured I'd replace it with something that had it's own voice and wasn't trying to compete with my other, "modern" guitars. And I can't see keeping something that I don't like the sound of just because it was made by Gibson. Makes no sense to me. The 490 was fine. No real problems here. I just wanted a matching set of vintage style pickups so I replace it too. Thing is, there is a great big wonderful world of pickups out there for all tastes and price points. If someone has a little cash and a soldering iron I see no reason to settle for pickups that don't take you where you want to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MI_Canuck Posted February 21, 2008 Share Posted February 21, 2008 Hey everyone' date=' I recently bought an Epiphone Elitist Les Paul Standard Plus (which I absolutely love, by the way). This guitar sounds incredible, and the stock pickups sound really great. But I'd like to know what you all feel are the best aftermarket pickups for a guitar like mine. I play in a christian rock band (check us out at www.hfmrock.com or www.myspace.com/hfmrock) and we play alternative rock, with a sound similar to copeland or goo goo dolls. The stock pickups work great for the slower stuff, but lately our songwriting style has gone more in the direction of Weezer or Foo Fighters. What, in your opinion, would be the best pickups to replace the stock for the genre of music I play? Thanks.[/quote'] Seymour Duncans without a doubt... By far the best selection and best aftermarket pickups for the money! You could go: Jazz (N)/Custom '59 (N)/ Custom5 Pearly Gates set Jazz (N)/JB Distortion set etc. etc. Or whatever combination will get you your sound... there is so much to choose from to taylor your sound with SD's... there's surely something for you check out: http://www.seymourduncan.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=3 a TON of knowledge there... peace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickblues1 Posted February 21, 2008 Share Posted February 21, 2008 Are you sure it's the pickups fault for not sounding like - whoever. Maybe, just maybe, it's the amp and pedals fault. You have to ask yourself, "Do I have the same equipment?" Sound is more in the amp than the pups if you start with good pups. Unless your in a tribute band, sounding close is good enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hbucker Posted February 21, 2008 Share Posted February 21, 2008 Are you sure it's the pickups fault for not sounding like - whoever. Maybe' date=' just maybe, it's the amp and pedals fault. You have to ask yourself, "Do I have the same equipment?" Sound is more in the amp than the pups if you start with good pups. Unless your in a tribute band, sounding close is good enough.[/quote'] Are you referring to my posts? If not, ignore what follows. If you are, maybe what follows will clear things up. I'm surprised this is getting the responses it is. I have 5 electric guitars ranging from a Tele to my Elitist to a Music Man EVH. I've owned several more than that over the past 15 years. I got my first electric in 1974. I've built a couple of my own guitars. One of them is pretty darn good. Trust me, I'm not a big deal because of all this. I'm just aware of what I like and what I don't like. And I'm not afraid to tweak things so that they "fit" me better. If it were my amp, pedals, cables, etc. why would my other guitars sound fine to me? FWIW I play a Peavey Classic 100 through a couple of different cabs depending on the situation. The guitars I have with modern pickups sound awesome through my rig. I don't need another "modern" sounding guitar. Especially when that guitar doesn't sound as good as 3 of the guitars I already own with regard to modern tones. I chose to make my LP more "vintage" sounding and ironically enough, it became more versatile than it was before and more pleasing to play NOT because I made it sound like my other guitars but because I gave it a more unique voice that was still consistent with the LP vibe. That's all. It handles much more of what my rig can throw at it than the stock pickups could. That's a subjective statement but it's my stuff so I want it to sound the way I want it to sound. When everything else in my rig is fine, including my other guitars, why would I spend thousands replacing other gear when I can spend a couple hundred tweaking the voice of one guitar? And I'm not saying the stock pickups were bad. I'm saying they didn't fit in with my collection and my tastes as well as I wanted them to. It isn't a big deal as far as I'm concerned. Your results may vary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderstruck507 Posted February 21, 2008 Share Posted February 21, 2008 hbucker: I wasn't targeting your response, you mentioned going to a vintage sound, which is something I have debated doing with one of my elitists. I was just saying the original poster should really consider whether the desired sound can be achieved with other tinkering on knobs of the guitar/amp/ect before dropping tons of cash on pickups that will likely be of little improvement. However, if a more vintage type sound is desired a switch is very plausible...even though through my marshall with minimal gain and by reducing the volume and tone a hair on my guitar controls I can get a more vintage tone, it is still modern sounding at heart. Hell, I swapped a GFS zebra into my lp because it looked cool. (I rarely play on it anyway, wanted the look, and it was only $30 to my door) Lately I'm considering another one for the bridge just because with what playing I have done on it, the hot vintage tone my neck pickup has with lots of bite is getting appealing. I had a bad experience with an Angus Young sig pickup that has made me weary of swapping though. The AY sounded somewhat muddy, had almost HALF the volume of the elitist pickups, lacked high end, and still managed to sound less like AC/DC than the stock elitist pickup. My GFS in the LP retains all the volume and bite of the stock 490r, but adds that vintage creaminess in the middle so the tone still has all the high and low end of the 490r, but doesn't sound so "characterless" to me with my setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hbucker Posted February 21, 2008 Share Posted February 21, 2008 hbucker: I wasn't targeting your response Cool. No hard feelings here. Just trying to make things clear. I hear where you're coming from on the stock pickups. I tried tweaking for at least a year and then figured I'd go another direction. I know many people love those pickups though. That's what I'm counting on when I try to sell mine I try not to make too big of a deal out of GFS pickups, especially around Gibson people... B) But the really are good pickups, especially for the money. I really do believe they compete well with the DiMarzios and Duncans of the world and they're dirt cheap. It's nice to have them as an option. I'm very tickled with my Manlius pickups. Is that your SS on your signature? Nice! I have a friend who just bought a restored '69 Camaro. I haven't seen it yet though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderstruck507 Posted February 21, 2008 Share Posted February 21, 2008 I can just imagine the gibson guys flaming GFS... yup thats my other baby before the last accident, all the bodywork is back to normal but it needs a repaint now since they couldn't properly colormatch it due to the type of hardener used originally, its my daily driver car though, even gets 20+ mpg highway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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