HB Suggestions for Les Paul

[PlayItAll]

Hello All!

I have a newer model Les Paul Studio that came with Burstbucker Pro pickups. At first, I liked them, but after playing the guitar for a couple of months, I became dissatisfied.

The problem for me is that I play mostly jazz and blues with cleaner-type tones. The rhythm BB is too muddy without enough high end articulation and the bridge BB is too brittle and thin sounding. I tried everything - I raised and lowered the pickups, I messed with the adjustable poles, I tried a 300k pot for the bridge volume control, experimented with different "blends" of the two pickups, various capacitors, removed the cover from the neck pickup in an attempt to brighten it. All my efforts fell short. I even tried switching the neck a bridge pickup positions but heard no improvement. These things sound great for harder distorted tones, but I can't get what I'm looking for with the amp set for lower gain.

The guitar sounds wonderful unplugged. Very open and loud sounding. Maybe these BB are simply too hot for my setup?

Anyway, does anyone have a suggestion for a replacement pickup (s). I'd like to at least replace the neck pickup with something that will give me a clear, articulate tone without the muddiness.

Thanks in advance.
Ed

[black_labb]

does the middle position get closer to the sound you want?

what about using a 1meg pot for the neck position

[madialex]

Hmmmm, well lets see, Possum, Wolfe, Spence, Jason, Nightwinder, Mick, umm the list goes on and on.......

[soundmasterg]

This forum has traditionally shied away from the makers of pickups touting their own products. You can do well with probably any of the boutique maker's pickups. Check out their sites or you tube videos and see if you like any over the others. Good choices that I have experience with in no particular order are Possum's (www.sdpickups.com), Lollar's (www.lollarguitars.com), Wolfe's (www.wolfetone.com). There are lots of others out there too.

Greg

[Spence]

Boutique Winder's List

You should have a look at the winders mentioned in this thread :

http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/tone...ders-list.html

Don't be limited by someone's favourites or the rantings of pickup maker's stalkers that appear on some forums. Email or phone people and talk about what it is you actually want. Don't settle on something that just happens to be on the shelf and don't buy something because Slash uses them so they must be good enough for you. Common sense but it's easy to be rail-roaded into wasting your money.