How would the 496R and 500T pickups sound through my Rec?

[Elixir]

I'm considering going with a Gibson with 496R in the neck and a 500T in the bridge. How would this sound through my Roadster?

I have a guitar with your typical duncans in there (SH4, TB) and it sounds pretty good. I haven't tried a set of EMG's through this amp though and I was wondering maybe I should consider a guitar with EMG's instead of another passive set?

I know the explorers come with the 496R in the neck and a 500T in the bridge and they sound pretty big through most anything.... I'm just worried extremely hot pickups like this might make things too dark and muddy.


Any thoughts?

 

[jdurso]

I'm considering going with a Gibson with 496R in the neck and a 500T in the bridge. How would this sound through my Roadster?

I have a guitar with your typical duncans in there (SH4, TB) and it sounds pretty good. I haven't tried a set of EMG's through this amp though and I was wondering maybe I should consider a guitar with EMG's instead of another passive set?

I know the explorers come with the 496R in the neck and a 500T in the bridge and they sound pretty big through most anything.... I'm just worried extremely hot pickups like this might make things too dark and muddy.


Any thoughts?

I wouldnt think a hot pickup would make things money if its setup right. The darkness in your guitars tone will be more influenced by the body and neck wood than necessarily your pickups. I've found if you have a darker sound guitar (my McCarty being one of them due to the rosewood neck), balancing that with a brighter pickup really yields some great results. Also in terms of the pickup/guitar relationship, make sure you pick the pickup you wnat more for its character than the output. You can always boost your signal before it gets to the amp to achieve the right amount of output. Getting the right charcteristics in the pickup is the key. With that said you may want to look into a PRS RP pickup... they have those in their Modern Eagles and they sound friggin sweet.

 

[daveyboy]

The 496/500 combo is very cool. That said I played that setup for a long time in my LP Classic(mahogany body/maple cap/rosewood board). And after tweaking the amp eq and futzing with the pickups height/polepieces/angle etc for a loooooooong time, I just could never get the high end to where I liked it. I know people always say the 500t is super bright but it never sounded "open" enuff for me. The high end, while there, on the 500t is I dunno, in a strange spot/freq range for me, too low or something, more like tons of upper mids. Maybe it's a combo of being so overwound and hot and the ceramic pickups. I swapped them out for an EMG 81/85 and have been very happy for almost a year now. They sound more neutral/hi fi to me with tons of high and low end, that may be a plus or minus based on what your looking for. The EMGs are tighter as well if thats important. There also very sensitive to height adjustments, I keep mine set almost like passives and they are clear as a bell. Hope that helps a bit.

-dave

 

[clutch71]

I have that set in my 67 Reissue V, Mahogany w/ Ebony neck. It's my favorite guitar. It sounded great through both my Recoverb and Dual Rec. I think it would do just fine through the Roadster. Though I've tried it in different tunings (BADGBE,DADGBE, half, whole step down, and drop C) I prefer it standard.

I never found it bright or dark. It's not as mid spiky as other pups I have, but I like it anyway.

 

[CJG]

The 500T will be very good with the Roadster and I wouldn't worry about it getting muddy. For a hot pickup it's very bright! Worth a try!!

CJ

 

[JW123]

I play classics and own a Triple and a Roadster.

I set my amps fairly hot and then run the guitar volume in the 2-4 area for rythym, for leads I will open them up more. I set the tone controls for both pickups around 7. Takes a little of the spikeness out. If you are a dimer player and just turn everything to ten I would say get a weaker pickup. You probably wont be happy with these pickups if you dime the guitar.

Good Luck

I have 2 classics and thats all I play live anymore.