Best replacement pickups for Epi humbuckers?

[kiramdear]

That brings up another question, about the ratings on Alnico magnets. They are on a scale of one to five for hotness, with two being the strength of sixties' pickups, and three or more heading into metal territory, or something like that?

[tennis_nick]

I'm not sure there's a real correlation, I haven't really looked into it, but from what I've gathered, an Alnico 2 or 3 tends to sound smoother

[chuck_king]

My understanding also is that the various Alnico species are different, but not some sort of linear progression. You see lots of pickups using Alnico 2, 3, or 5, but I haven't heard much about pickups using Alnico 1 or 4.

[kiramdear]

Thanks for all the help, guys.

I stripped the Sheraton for a good cleaning (the final crud from the old owner) and found that the pickups are the Epiphone '57CH kind that are stock in all the Epi Dots and in some of the LPs.

I'm finding the neck sound to be more versatile with some minor tweaking. Could have more definition, in general.

[deaconblues]

Funny, I almost exclusively use the neck position on my Les Paul. I just like that smooth, jazzy, understated tone. It is a bit hard to dial in, but changing the wiring to "'50s style" with the caps on different tabs on the pots really brightened it up.

The rating of Alnico magnets refers to the ratios of Aluminum, Nickel, Iron, and Cobalt (AlNICo) to each other. Don't think of it as a 'hotness scale,' just understand that they all have different properties. Alnico II and Alnico V are most common. Alnico II is the traditional sweet-sounding PAF magnet, while V gives a harder, edgier sound.

And that's about the limit of my knowledge of magnets!

[kiramdear]

The neck pickup wants to go from smooth and jazzy on low gain, to thick and punchy on higher gain. I'm looking for a tubular, bongy, full-throated sound.

[jingle_jangle]

Tubular? Bongy? Sore-throated?

[kiramdear]

ROFL!

[deaconblues]

"Bongy?" You might need something besides a guitar...

Seriously, though, I agree that a P90 is what you want to look for.

[kiramdear]

Haha, thanks, guys, all we need now is Wayang ...

Yeah, for the neck pickup I think I'm leaning toward a p-90. I need more clarity and sensitivity from that one.

[jingle_jangle]

Clarity? Sensitivity?

[kiramdear]

WellllllllLLLLLL?

I guess my lexicon is not properly activated today

"Don't bogart that Jag, my friend, ..."

[jingle_jangle]

You misinterpret...To me it looks like Mr. Arnaz is saying, "Clarity? Sensivity?" It's all in the facial expression and stance, y'see.

Ohhhh. I guess you gotta be there. In my head, I mean...

Never mind.

[kiramdear]

Sorry, I know the feeling Welcome to my head! Abandon hope all ye who enter ...

[whojamfan]

Working for years in music stores, I've had the luxury to personally try a bazillion pickups, as well as install them in customers instruments. Doing this has provided me some great insight and experience in choosing my own, and recommending for others, pickups to use in your guitars/basses. In the early 90s I had an Epiphone Les Paul that I gutted and replaced all of the electronics with Gibson parts and threw in a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge, and a Jazz in the neck. The guitar sounded light years better, and the addition of the bone nut made this guitar play and sound awesome. Just when I got this guitar perfect, my white Gibson Les Paul Custom showed up and I sold 3 guitars and payed the difference to get it. Whoo hoo, still stoked on this guitar, and that was almost 20 years ago.

The pickups that came in this guitar sounded great, if you wanted to be Randy Rhodes. Randy has a great sound, but I can't use it, so I replaced the pickups. I used a variety of Seymour Duncan and Gibson pickups, nothing quite did it, but I got tired of swapping every few weeks or so, and just let it ride. Fender comes out with these DeArmond humbuckers that look a lot like Gretsch pickups, so I slapped in a pair. Wow, very nice and bright, plenty of tone and 4 wire options. I used these for quite a while, untill what I tought was the gold plating rubbing off was the tape peeling. Tape? Egadz on tape, it's supposed to be metal, and once the tape started disintegrating, they started looking really shotty. Out they came. Next I had Bill Lawrence XL500s(the man in Carona California, not the company DBA)in my Les Paul Custom for years. Very bright, clear, strong pickups, perfect for driving long cables and effects, and multiple leads for almost endless wiring options that all sounded usuable. These pickups are ideal for high gain applications, as they retain clarity in even the most distorted/overdriven situations, and allow for more of a hi-fi response than just the traditionally "nasal" sound most humbuckers have. Truly a nice and versatile pickup, wish they had one to fit Ricks.

I started integrating my Ricks in to our live set(cover band), and the volume difference was very extreme. I, like many of you, saw these GFS pickups advertised, so I bought a pair of the gold Liverpool ones, and wired them in. Very pretty pickup that didn't sound too bad, so I kept them in for a bit. I wasn't really happy with them, as they didn't balance as well with the Ricks as I had hoped.

So, I slapped some Seymour Duncan Alnico Pro 2s in my Les Paul hoping it would make the output and tone in the same ballpark as my Ricks. Bingo, gave the Paul some really sweet tones, as well as let me set my amp and pedals at the same levels as my Ricks, so I would just switch guitars, not reset amps and effects every time I use a different guitar. I can't believe how juicy my neck pickup has become, and the touch response and articulation are a pleasant surprise. Unless I go back out on the road with only a super high gain amp to use, I won't be slapping those Lawrence pickups back in my Paul.

I have Bills PBass pickup in myPbass, and it sounds absolutely great to me, so she'll be staying.