please help: Looking for pickup advice

[JeffBlue]

Seymour Duncan Jazz in the neck position is smooth as silk. JB or Pearly Gates in the bridge are a mainstay among many players.

 

[geezberry]

Dick is smooth as silk.

I use the Jazz in my R7 i love it. No mud

 

[Mark V Guitars]

I'd go Chevy...but that's just me. Oh wait, sorry. Thought this was the "I Love My Truck" forum.

 

[st.bede]

I would think about trying to match a Seymour Duncan HB with a TV Jones and also split the HB. In my mind this would give you a lot of tonal variation and be useful for looping. I would go HB neck and TV Jones bridge but I could see that also working the opposite way too.

 

[Gargamel647]

Seymour Duncan alnico 2 (slash). Awesome sauce

 

[kevinpaul]

You have perfectly fine guitar, the engineers that put it together are smart guys. Sell the guitar and buy one you can play. You may be second guessing experts forever a no win deal.

 

[icantbuyafender]

Lower the neck pup... Tho the 498T seems like what you'd want. However I like the 490T. It's an alnico II variant of the 498T. Much Less harsh.

If it's gotta be seymour, try the vintage blues ('59n/b) set or the APH-1 set.

Can't go wrong with either.

 

[Chadd]

Seymour Duncan Jazz in the neck position is smooth as silk. JB or Pearly Gates in the bridge are a mainstay among many players.

I love a Jazz in the neck as well, an APH1 would work if you want less high end. For the bridge I would go Custom or Custom Custom if you want a little more mid in the bridge.

 

[VanR]

Duncan JB is the answer to all pickup questions.

 

[rjshare]

i have put a sd jazz/jb combo on an epiphone Sheraton, which is obviously nothing like a les paul, but they are a good pairing and very versatile. the jazz especially is a very underrated pup and you shouldnt be fooled by the name.

 

[ARandall]

Its odd you find the 490R harsh....usually they are described as muffled, especially by comparison with the 498T.

I'd say the Slash set, or maybe the Custom bridge/Jazz neck. The latter has a more clear neck pickup and a hotter and crunchier bridge pickup.

 

[TheNorman]

wow! thats a lot of answers. Thank you, guys! I'm gonna have to answer some questions first:

I use different amps on different gigs and occasions but at home for home recording I use a Yamaha THR 10 amp because its quite versatile and I connect it to my computer via USB. I use the crunch-channel most of the time for my personal sound and I boost it with an MXR custom badass 78 if needed.

I only said I as looking into Duncans because they seem like the obvious choice if you want to make you les paul sound better. For an Ibanez I'd look into Dimarzios but maybe I'm wrong and the brand doesn't matter.

Many people said that I should stick with my 490r/498t combo. But I don't know... isn't it possible to give my favorite guitar even better pickups? In fact I'm looking for a very round neck tone so from what I've read and heard I might go with either the APH-1 or APH-2 for the neck. The jazz is often described as jangly or something, isn't it? I don't like jangly, I like creamy.

For the bridge I'm looking for a more aggressive pickup to match it. But please don't say I should go with the Slash set because I'm looking for a contrast! I want a more modern or just different pickup for the bridge cause I'm not only playing classic hard rock.
So what would be a good match for a alnico 2 pro? Alternate 6? Customcustom? Screaming demon? Anything else?

And is the slash signature pickup good for clean tones as well?

 

[Funkwire]

I recorded this as a demo for my amp, an Egnater Rebel 30. I used my 2008 LP Studio, with the stock 490R/498T pickups. Take a listen and see what you think. To my ears, I get a good, warm tone from the neck and plenty of bite from the bridge. I keep the pickups fairly low and EQ the amp to the neck pickup. Then I back off the tone control on the bridge pickup to take away the ice-pick tone.

Rebel 30 Demo

If you really want to buy new pickups, that's cool...but there's nothing wrong with the ones you have.

Instead of playing your leads on the neck pickup, try putting the pickup selector switch in the middle, and turn the tone knob all the way down on the neck pickup...the famous 'woman tone' setting. Gets that nice throaty sound that cuts through but isn't shrill.

 

[splatter]

do yourself a favor and buy boutique pickups you will be glad you did .something like bare knuckles or WCR You can find them used on TGP for around $110 each.Stick them in try them out if you don't like them you can sell them for what you paid for them .

Or you can go buy new seymore duncans or dimarzios and then if you don't like them you can sell them for 1/2 what you paid . Seems like a no brainer to me .

Actually dimarzio does this thing where you can trade their pups back in for another dimarzio within 30 days of purchase . problem with this is I never found one I like .

 

[frankv]

The problem with giving pickup advice is no two pickups sound exactly alike. Then add the guitars wood and hardware.. and you have a variation that can not be used to judge your particular situation.

Here's my advice. Go on ebay and get a few sets. Used pickups are priced less then half original cost and some have a MAKE OFFER option. Then install these sets you picked up and evaluate. After you find the sound you are looking for sell the ones you didn't use.. sometimes makeing a small profit..

This is the very best advice anyone can give you.