New PUPS for ES-175 reissue

[Hec Paul]

:wacko: Ooops, title should have read, New pup suggestions for ES-175 reissue :wacko:

 

I just got a new ES-175 reissue the other day and I'm finding the stock pups a bit lacking, I just can't find a great tone with both pups on.

 

Has anyone replaced the stock pups on one of these with something sweeter sounding, I don't plan on doing any overdriveing, I just want to keep

it clean and warm with some real nice tone, a bit vague maybe but that's how I'd describe what I'm looking for.

 

I have thought about getting something like a pair of PAF (ish) spec pups, maybe the Irongear Blues Engines, cheap and cheerful but get great reviews

and should be a fair bit better sounding than the stock pups.

 

Everything else about the guitar is fantastic, the craftsmanship, it feels great, quite a bit of weight to it and it sounds ok unplugged, just the pups

are a bit iffy.

 

Any suggestions for new pups would be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers

 

HP

[Cyclone83]

Hi Hec Paul,

 

well I can't tell you by own experience, but I plan to switch the originals by Gibson P90 in humbucker shape on mine. This should come pretty close to the Gibson ES175 and these PUs are great for warm bluesy sounds as for distorted Rock sounds ^^

[Whitmore Willy]

HP,

As Cyclone stated, Humbucker style P-90s are very popular among many people.

Another popular combination is often using a humbucker style P-90 in the neck and PAF style in the bridge. Neck P-90s tend to have a very rounded tone.

 

As to brand, well, there are so many out there and I have very or no little experience with most.

I do have some Gibson pickups in a couple of guitars. They are good pickups but, at that price range you have many choices.

 

I have also had good luck with GFS pickups.

Many on this forum use them:

http://www.guitarfetish.com/GFS-Guitar-Pickups_c_7.html

They ship international and have a tab at the bottom of the page that explains it.

What I do not know is what your shipping charges would actually come to.

 

If the shipping rate is reasonable then you might want to consider that at $30 to $40 U.S. the pickups are fairly inexpensive. If you tried them and did not like them you could probably sell them and not loose much money.

 

Willy

[brianh]

Has anyone replaced the stock pups on one of these with something sweeter sounding, I don't plan on doing any overdriveing, I just want to keep

it clean and warm with some real nice tone, a bit vague maybe but that's how I'd describe what I'm looking for.

Just wondering what type of strings you're using. I've got flatwounds on mine and it sounds fine, exactly like a jazzbox should.

 

Might be worth a try before you go to all the trouble and expense of swapping out the pups.

 

If you do decide to install new pickups, make sure to upgrade the switch, jack, pots and wire. Switchcraft and CTS.

[Hec Paul]

Hi Guys, thanks for all the great info, it's really good to have some opinions to compare with my own.

 

I will be replacing the pots, wiring etc at a later date, as I see through the f holes that there are some small push fit

connectors for the pups etc, I'll bin these later when I put in CTS pots and Orange drop caps perhaps, it should improve

the final tone of the guitar.

 

I'm still swaying towards PAF type humbuckers, I had P90's on a LP 50's Tribute, I didn't get on with them, too much hummmmmmmmmmm,

so they were soon changed to GFS mini humbuckers, which sound great, by the way.

 

I'm putting on Rotosound Purple 12's, they're nickel and round wound, I might try some flats to see what it could sound like,

what make and guage of flats do you have on your's, brianh?

 

I'll keep you posted and let you all know what I end up with, soon hopefully.

 

Cheers

 

HP