New pickups for epi Black Beauty

[jeffrey92]

After confirming the authenticity of my guitar, it has dawned on me that I should get some new pickups. The sound I'm looking for is rock, hard rock, and nu rock/metal. Like, with the distortion, but not a really crunchy metal, a little more smooth. I guess it would be preferable that the pickups are golden cause of the theme of gold hardware, but the sound is more important. so ya anything thats good for low tones and rhythm but can also do lead.

 

I guess what I've laid out is pretty broad, but hopefully you guys can point me in the right direction. I've heard a lot of people go for the gibson custom '57's, but should I go for something hotter? Should I get two '57's, one for the bridge and then the neck? my friend has his epi lp with emg's (81 or 85 I think but not sure) and I like the sound of those, but they don't come in gold I don't think.

 

as you can probably tell I'm not an expert on pickups or electric guitars in general, so hopefully I can get some pointers.

 

Money is someone a factor, but not really, I want this baby to sound nice !

 

ps. perhaps I can get gold cases for the emgs somehow (not sure if its possible)? also, I know the emgs are probably pretty hot, but if they have better tonal quality thats whats important cause I can just turn down the distortion. finally, what should I do about that middle pickup? I don't mind it being there and it looks cool, but would it be a good idea to get the guitar fixed up so that the middle pickup has its own knob?

[V-Type]

If thats a 3 pickup black beauty then youre gonna spend a bit of coin on 3 replacements.

Id actually get the Duncan Distortion Set and keep the middle pickup Epi. Dont let the Distortion name fool you it is versatile and does so much more than just gain. You could also get the Duncan 59 set but may not be hot enough for some Metal players. They are very articulate pickups IMO.

And Ive always loved the sound of the 3 Dimarzio Super Distortions in the Frehley LPC and they arent that expensive either.

The Gibson pickups are Wonderfull but are quite expensive and at new prices 3 will easily be over $300 bucks.

GFS's are another alternative. High quality tones at half the price of most big makers. Lots of guys swear these go toe to toe with any brand.

Cool guitar and enjoy that Beauty.

[dfarrell]

I have a 3 pickup G-400 and I found the stock wiring confusing, to say the least. I now have it wired so that the pickup switch works like a regular 2 pickup model (so the the bridge or the neck or both neck and bridge pickups can be turned on) with the middle pickup controlled by a push-pull pot. It is much easier to use now and the sounds I get with it are much more useable. As far as replacement pickups go- I really want to keep the gold hardware look, so anything I put in there needs to have a gold cover. I've ordered 1 pickup from GFS to try out- if I like them, I'll order more. Once I have it in, I'll let you know if I like it or not.

[antwhi2001]

Mainly thanks to e-bay I've had the chance to use a wide range of good humbuckers over the last 18 months; Burstbuckers, Burstbucker Pro, Seymour Duncan SH1 and Pearly Gates Plus, Kent Armstrong, and of course Epi (good, but not great). In some cases I've even had the opportunity to compare different pups on the same guitars,switching them around to get the best combination. So if I was you.....

 

1) Leave the middle Epi pup alone. It's a reasonably good neck pup and fine in that position. Also, a more expensive pup in that position won't give you much in variety of tones anyway. Save the cash for the other 2 pups.

 

2) Either the SD SH1 or Burstbucker #1 in neck position. Nice warm smooth classic Gibson tone.

 

3) SD Pearly Gates Plus or the 15k version of the Kent Armstrong for the bridge position. On it's own, it would give plenty of bite for more aggressive modern sounds. In combination with the others it's a good all round heavy rock sound.

 

4) Buy the uncovered versions of whichever neck and bridge pup and swap the covers from the Epi ones onto them. They will fit and it'll ensure you get a good match. Put them in a wax bath for 10 minutes at 150 degrees before refitting them to the guitar (if unsure about how to do this, google Lindy Fralin wax potting!).

 

5) Sell the Epi neck and bridge pup on the Bay as a matched set, someone will buy them for a project.

[carverman]

After confirming the authenticity of my guitar' date=' it has dawned on me that I should get some new pickups. The sound I'm looking for is rock, hard rock, and nu rock/metal. Like, with the distortion, but not a really crunchy metal, a little more smooth. I guess it would be preferable that the pickups are golden cause of the theme of gold hardware, but the sound is more important. so ya anything thats good for low tones and rhythm but can also do lead.

 

I guess what I've laid out is pretty broad, but hopefully you guys can point me in the right direction. I've heard a lot of people go for the gibson custom '57's, but should I go for something hotter?

 

ps. perhaps I can get gold cases for the emgs somehow (not sure if its possible)? also, I know the emgs are probably pretty hot, but if they have better tonal quality thats whats important cause I can just turn down the distortion. finally, what should I do about that middle pickup? I don't mind it being there and it looks cool, but would it be a good idea to get the guitar fixed up so that the middle pickup has its own knob?[/quote']

 

With an Epi LP Custom, you can spend as much as you want customizing it even more.

I think the gold cases are available separately. check out guitarpartsresource.com

pricey at $29-32 bucks..you can get complete GFS p_ups for those prices.

 

It's possible to hotrod the middle p_up with it's own volume,

but that means enlarging the control cavity to to accomodate the 5th pot and that could only estetically

good inline with the two volumes.

 

Gibson Classic 57s are very nice..GFS vintage 59s are very close for a lot less coin..but as they say, if

you want the real thing, ya gotta pay a bit more. Gibson Burst Buckers I/II are also a good choice

as well as Seymore Duncan Pearly Gates...I may make a final choice someday,but it's fun to try out

different things. Since I'm building my own Spotlight Special, I'm reserving the best choice for it and

hottrodding my Epi LP Custom with a Sustainiac neck driver/p_up and a use the standard Epi CH57

for the bridge to mellow it out a bit. I really like that Gary Moore supersustain that he gets on his

LP custom, but I can't afford the Marshall stacks to overdrive it to get that kind of sustain..never

mind the neighbors complaining.

[antwhi2001]

If you don't want the tricky job of fitting in a 5th pot, you can re-wire to 3 volumes and 1 master tone, there are diagrams on websites. That's what I did, and actually most of the time I ended up dialing the middle pup down to zero (with a 3-way selector switch it was permanently "on" otherwise).

 

You can pick up the gold pup covers seperately but the finish varies slightly from batch to batch, so if that's going to bother you, keep the original set together.

 

I sold the guitar last week, it's one of those I just know I'm going to regret....

[jcwillow777]

If you don't want the tricky job of fitting in a 5th pot' date=' you can re-wire to 3 volumes and 1 master tone, there are diagrams on websites. That's what I did, and actually most of the time I ended up dialing the middle pup down to zero (with a 3-way selector switch it was permanently "on" otherwise).

[/quote']

 

Here are some wiring diagrams. They have 2 options for guitars with 3 humbuckers.

 

http://www.guitarelectronics.zoovy.com/category/wiringresources.22pickupdiagrams/

[jeffrey92]

thanks guys! About that middle pickup... is there any way I can make it useful?

 

im not too bad at soddering so I'll probably just make 3 volume pots and 1 tone, seeing as most of the variety I get is from the selector anyways. I could add a 5th pot but I'm pretty inexperienced with modifying guitars

 

going off of what you guys said, I'd choose the gibson '57 and the kent armstrong pickups. I'm fine with paying 100 or more a pop so are the emgs still out of the question? is there anyway to fit a gold casing on them? The other thing is they might be a bit too metal sounding for me. I'm not looking for the super high gain metal sound, but more of a smooth rock/hard rock sound. like something that can play rhythm, not lead, and not get in the way too much on just power chords, but can still make a nice sound on higher notes.

 

also, if it is too hard to get a 5th pot, which tone should I take out?

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=hKJMhUwhbJQ <-- just off the top of my head this is kind what I'm looking for. of course, I need it to have more distortion, but something kind of smooth and not so metal

[antwhi2001]

You can take out whichever tone you prefer and wire all 3 pups to the remaining one as a master.

 

If you want a 3rd pup that increases your range of tones, you could try a Pete Townshend mod....a middle pup with coil split. This will require a small 2 or 3 way DPTP toggle switch to be added, and also requires the middle pup to be one with 4 conductor wires, not 2. I think he used SDs or DiMarzios (most Gibson and Epi pups are 2 conductor). The wiring/soldering is a little more complex but can be done with patience. This was Townshends' favoured configuration in the mid/late 70s - listen to the Quadrophenia album for example, a very distinctive chords sound.

[carverman]

If you don't want the tricky job of fitting in a 5th pot' date=' you can re-wire to 3 volumes and 1 master tone, there are diagrams on websites. That's what I did, and actually most of the time I ended up dialing the middle pup down to zero (with a 3-way selector switch it was permanently "on" otherwise).

 

You can pick up the gold pup covers seperately but the finish varies slightly from batch to batch, so if that's going to bother you, keep the original set together.

 

I sold the guitar last week, it's one of those I just know I'm going to regret....[/quote']

 

Yes, thats another way. Seymore Duncan has all kinds of configuration pictorials that you

can download. I like haveing separate tone controls on mine though.

I like the gold finish on the big blondes, but it starts to wear off very quickly

on the newer LPs. I'm going to chrome on my next guitar, not only is it cheaper, but

you don't have to worry about polishing it after you've finished playing them.