Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum

Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: carlaz on June 28, 2005, 04:52:28 PM

Title: Gibson stock pickups?
Post by: carlaz on June 28, 2005, 04:52:28 PM
This is a dumbass question, but it just occured to me that, since I am a complete muppet, I actually have no idea what the Gibson pickups in my LP Std are. I mean, they could be 490N/490T pair, but I suppose there could be 498T or something in there.  I've always just thought of them as "silvery-metal covered stock pickups". Does anyone know what a bog-standard 1990 Gibson LP Std would have been loaded with at the factory?  I got the guitar used, but not very used, and I don't think there had been any modifications made to it by the prior owner.

Being sure of what I have would likely be useful background knowledge when trying to pick out BKOP replacements!
Title: Gibson stock pickups?
Post by: Ced777 on June 28, 2005, 05:17:52 PM
90's Gibson LP std: 498T + 490N. Good pickups but far from BKP, IMHO.
Title: Gibson stock pickups?
Post by: _tom_ on June 29, 2005, 08:29:45 PM
slap some mules in that bad boy :twisted:
Title: Gibson stock pickups?
Post by: dooogz on June 29, 2005, 08:32:06 PM
Quote from: Ced777
90's Gibson LP std: 498T + 490N. Good pickups but far from BKP, IMHO.


Yeha i recieved a pair of these and put them in my epi, sounded ok, but at the time i just wanted duncans, so i did, sounded slightly better, and logically the next step would be BK's ;) i wish!
Title: Gibson stock pickups?
Post by: Skybone on June 29, 2005, 10:21:54 PM
I used to have a mid 90's LP Studio. Stock, both it and the Standard came with a 490R and a 498T Alnico V humbuckers.

While I had it, I bought my blue Tokai Love Rock, and loaded a Seymour Duncan 59 neck & JB bridge pickup as the Tokai's stock one's were real un-potted PAF replica's, and so had a tendency to squeal a bit! In comparison, the Studio's sound was simply outclassed by the SD loaded Tokai (plus better playability/look/etc).

My Tokai really sings, now that it's proudly wearing a pair of BKP Black Dog's. The change has given it a raucous rock 'n' roll bark.
Title: Gibson stock pickups?
Post by: rinse_master on June 30, 2005, 09:42:48 AM
I had a 498T & 490N in my studio, not Too bad, but do sound rather flat sounding when compared to others, but some people really like them, each to their own.
Title: Gibson stock pickups?
Post by: Ratrod on June 30, 2005, 11:04:16 AM
Had them in my LP. I transferred them to my Epi Explorer along with all the electronics. They sounded pretty good in it.
Title: Gibson stock pickups?
Post by: carlaz on June 30, 2005, 01:06:09 PM
Quote from: _tom_
slap some mules in that bad boy :twisted:

Yeah, I vacillate back and forth between Mules or some yet hotter BKPs almost hourly! (It's so easy to start being seduced by the word "Warpig", ya know!  :twisted: It all seems to depend on which post I've read most recently ;) ....

Anyway, thanks for the tips folks -- seems pretty certain that 498T and 490R is what I got. They've always seemed good enough that I've never had the courage to take the plunge on anything else, but that said I've never been happy with their definition -- crank up the gain and things soon start to feel unnecessarily mushy to me.

Anyone know the specs for the various Gibson pickups?  I've googled about a bit without finding a lot of hard info.  The 490R seems to have an Alnico II, the 498T an Alnico Vs; the 498T must have resistance around 14K, the 490R maybe half that?

I've got to buckle down and understand what I've got so I can better figure out which in BKPland pups will take me where I want to go :)
Title: Gibson stock pickups?
Post by: rinse_master on June 30, 2005, 02:33:20 PM
Quote from: carlaz
Anyone know the specs for the various Gibson pickups?  I've googled about a bit without finding a lot of hard info.  The 490R seems to have an Alnico II, the 498T an Alnico Vs; the 498T must have resistance around 14K, the 490R maybe half that?


A guy over at the SD forum posted this a while back: 498t (~14.00-14.50K a5) bridge and 490R (~7.50-8.00K a2) neck.

Other than that I don't know of any other specs for Gibson pickups...