Epiphone pickup bottom plate ?

[copperheadroads]

Odd screws even # 4 mounting screws or something like that bigger than #3-48
I use a epi les paul for a test guitar as well

[billyz]

I know the spacing is a little narrow but ,I was thinking that 8.52k neck pickup might sound ok in the bridge position

That is what I was thinking as well.

OK, big update. I just had a client drop off his guitar for a pickup change. He had, lo and behold, a set of Epi humbuckers a friend gave him ( some friend, ha). The guitar is a fender Jagmaster. he wanted the stock pu's replaced with the epi's. So I did as he required . the bridge sounded ok, but the neck was very muddy. I did notice alot of wax inside the pu under the cover. Even I don't think that is the problem. The bridge sounded ok even though it measured hot ,13.5K or so.

I was not impressed with the mounting screws either .

Well, I bit the bullet and put an old set of Burstbuckers from my Les Paul in the old epi paul. After rewiring to vintage spec it sounds better than those Pu's sounded in the 59 historic.
I took them out of the 59RI before I rewired it to vintage spec . so I don't think I gave them a fair shake. I now think the vintage wiring has a lot more to do with how the pickups sound than I did at first. I only rewired it originally to get rid of the linear taper pots which really suck in their control. That is when I decided to rewire it to 50's style. I wish I had done one thing at a time to really know what is affecting what.

The guy is going to give me his former Jagmaster PU's. They measure 7.5K+ each, not bad, But I noticed they both have ceramic magnets. They seem to have nickle silver bottom plates too. Would an Alnico mag make them any good ?

[David Schwab]

I did notice alot of wax inside the pu under the cover.

That's to prevent the cover from causing feedback.

...But I noticed they both have ceramic magnets. They seem to have nickle silver bottom plates too. Would an Alnico mag make them any good ?

Good is subjective. Some pickups sound great with ceramic magnets. Alnico will give a smoother top end. Did you try them as they are?

[fieldwrangler]

That's to prevent the cover from causing feedback.



Good is subjective. Some pickups sound great with ceramic magnets. Alnico will give a smoother top end. Did you try them as they are?

IMHO, those are 5 very concise and useful sentences, all of which I agree with to the max.

[Mike McCardle]

I have a set of those. I just took the covers off and melted off the extra wax with a hair dryer - replaced the magnets with some A5 bars I got from AllStar Magnetics and they sound pretty good in my Stineberger Spirit. The bobbins/spacing is too big for the magnets, but I cheated the low-e string a little and it's not bad - I would have no problem giging with those pickups. However, statements about throwing good after bad do apply IMO, so you don't want to rewind these or try to find new covers/bases for them - they just are not going to be worth it - better off just doing the minor stuff and they will sound a lot better: The covers have to go though.

Also, with the A5s in these I mount them a little on the low side and adjust the poles a little higher too - that helps too.