I need help choosing.

[nathan28]

Hey guys I just purchased a les paul standard 60's neck, its has the bursbucker pro pickups(burstbucker V) and I hate them, they sustain forever which is great, but with high gain settings they get harsh, when i try to back out the harshness with the amps eq it gets muddy. I have used for years a gibson explorer pro with emg-81 bridge an a emg-85 in the neck and I love the sound. Its awesome. Im wanting to go passive so i dont have two guitars with the same pickups or the same sound. I have been looking at some seymour duncans like the jb,59. what do you guys think?

 

[Elpelotero]

that's generally the best place to start, the JB setup. Dimarzios are great also...great modern sounds.

 

[David.W]

Id drop in a 496/498 by Gibson. There customs and studios are stock with them and they are very good. I hate the burstbuckers as well, sounds like sludge with high gain settings. The 498t ( i think its 't') is great with high gain, I run a triple rec modern channel and its great, articulate crunchy name it, its a nice combo. You may look into a 500 if you need a hotter output. Id stick with the Gibson selection though, just my OCD.

 

[chrisefekt]

Try the JB out. I have used EMG 81/85's for years in my metal band, through a dual rectifier of course. Love the sound, but have since started another band...more doomy, old scholl rock. I put the JB's in place of the EMG's (in my old explorer) and am really diggin' the way it sounds. So much so that I have been using that guitar for all styles of music. Used the Bill Lawrence L-500 and XL-500 for a couple of years and they sound O.K. but not as balanced for my taste. Like some of the gibson pickups, 490 and 500T's are good. Most of my V's and Explorers came with the Gibson Dirty Fingers pickups...I didn't like them at all. Try the JB and trust me...it's a great passive pickup.

Chris

 

[nathan28]

sounds good man. thanks for the help. it looks like i will be getting a jb

 

[lailer75]

is the explorer pro an ash body? if so emg`s in your paul will still sound diffr`nt than your emg loaded explorer pro. i find that it is true emg`s can make all cheap guitars sound similar, but whem they are installed in quality instuments, their tonal persoallity still shines through. sorry i`m just emg biased i guess. they just make my tripl come alive!

 

[cliff hetfield]

i removed my bb pros in my les paul vintage mahogany. i put a set of 496r/500t. im loving them. articulate, punchy, hot, but not insane. just great. im REALLY pleased with them at this point.
and remember you can adjust the heights of your pickups to compensate for too much or not enough output.
in the neck position, turning the volume knob down from 10 to 8 really cleans up the sound but stays fat, and gives you an awesome hot-bluesy 'clutch' like tone.
bb pros had slightly greater cleans but the 496 sounds great now clean since tweaking the amp a bit.

and the 490/498t are great too. i have them in my lp studio.
both are great pickup sets, and it stays gibson too. i kinda like that.

hope this helps you a little.

 

[MesaENGR412]

i put a set of 496r/500t. im loving them. articulate, punchy, hot,

That's what I would recommend. That or the 490/498t. Both are great, the 500 set is a little hotter, b/c of the ceramic magnets. I like ceramic magnet humbuckers because to me they are a little more aggresive, and have a tighter attack than the alnico's. But, if you're wanting something completely different than the EMG's, especially the 81, then you may want to try the Alnico pups. Good luck man. Also, you might want to give some Seymour Duncan's a look over, their website is very informative and gives good sound clips.

-AJH

 

[Daxman73]

There are a lot of great suggestions hear...Here's another +1 for the JB...Mesa amps, for some unforeseen reason, absolutely LOVE the JB pick up...If they get too treblely on you, just put a 250k in place of the 500k, but you could Eq this as well...Just another suggestion.