Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: indysmith on June 18, 2007, 04:50:57 PM
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Okay I want some new pickups for my Les Paul.
Right now it sounds very weak and trebbly with flubby bass and NO mids. SD '59s are hideous. It's annoying because it resonates so well, and playing unplugged i always expect to plug in and get a nice fat LP tone, and all i get is this weedy shitee.
I want something higher output (just enough to push the amp), with huge thick mids, and a big tight bass.
Basically i want it to sound like a Les Paul - i want it to growl and bite. It's got to sound fat and thick!
Are Holy Divers going to be too thick in a big fat Greco Les Paul? If so what are my alternatives? maybe an abraxas would be my bag?
Thanks.
EDIT: It's got to be quite a tight pickup - it's a big guitar and i don't know why but i want it to sound controlled. I'm happy with my smaller strat styled guitars being a bit chaotic.
I'm even considering the AV warpig - my friend's got one in his ibanez - awesome mids and a nice tight bass, whilst still sounding organic...
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Antag will be along to say HDs won't be too thick in an LP.
For classic LP tone, but hotter and bigger, I would say Crawlers. I don't own a set, but they're what I'll be getting for my own Japanese (ObG) LP. The neck is the same as the Abraxas neck (which I do have, and it's perfect), but I think the bridge will be a bit more snarly and aggressive than the Abraxas bridge.
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good call philly - i hadn't even considered those. I'll listen to some clips :) thanks
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Antag will be along to say HDs won't be too thick in an LP.
Am I really that predictable? :)
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Have you considered the Rebel Yells? They're very fat and thick with a lot of mids!
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Antag will be along to say HDs won't be too thick in an LP.
Am I really that predictable? :)
As if by magic, a man appeared... :wink:
(http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p216/phillyq/BN02-TH.jpg)
No, not at all. But you are Mister Holy Diver. And Eric Hellstyle is the Holy Diver Kid.
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Have you considered the Rebel Yells? They're very fat and thick with a lot of mids!
yeah they were my first thought but i think they'd be too bright for what i'm after
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Mules are classic LP tone all over - checkout the clips I've posted in the last week, they're all Mules and I'd say they're pretty beefy.
If you really want something hotter, I'd say Crawlers - they have a more modern feel, more output and more mids (used to have 'em in my LP before the Mules)
:twisted:
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didn't vivian campbell use a les paul for the holy diver album? not that this fact should affect your decision too much ;)
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didn't vivian campbell use a les paul for the holy diver album? not that this fact should affect your decision too much ;)
thats what i thought, but everyone says they're too fat in LP stylee guitars...
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Mules are classic LP tone all over - checkout the clips I've posted in the last week, they're all Mules and I'd say they're pretty beefy.
If you really want something hotter, I'd say Crawlers - they have a more modern feel, more output and more mids (used to have 'em in my LP before the Mules)
:twisted:
already checked your clips dude - AWESOME classic rock sounds. my JCM800 is a whole load brighter than your superbass though, and i'm after something a wee bit hotter - i think the crawler is probably the one for me.
I always like the sound when other people play lower output pickups... but when i do i'm never satisfied - i just want more ooomph. odd :?
EDIT: just checked the Crawler demos on the main site. WOW - they're what i want. Thread over, thanks for your help guys.
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Just one more thing - how do the crawlers clean up? is it possible to get convincing PAF tones by rolling the volume down??
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Just one more thing - how do the crawlers clean up? is it possible to get convincing PAF tones by rolling the volume down??
they clean up fine - they're hot but don't feel like a hot pickup in the way the Nailbomb does for instance. so 'yes' (in a nutshell), they do the hot-PAF thing very well indeed.
:twisted:
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I don't want to destroy your recently acquired clarity, but just for consideration I'd have a close look at BlackDogs. Mids aplenty and classic rock tone. I'd pair a BD bridge with a Mule neck.
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holy diver sounds awesome in my les paul
yes it is too thick, but in a good way! :D
but if you're planning to downtune it the sound will get ULTRA THICK :lol:
it doesn't lose any clarity and definition even if you tune it a lot of steps down
it just gets bigger and scarier :twisted:
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No, not at all. But you are Mister Holy Diver. And Eric Hellstyle is the Holy Diver Kid.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
i did like it :oops:
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I love the Crawlers in my LP: classic vibe, super sexy neck, and a bridge with extra oomph to cut through. Plus they clean up very well indeed.
Still, that said, I would have thought HDs would sound fine in an LP-style!
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too late for anything else now! i'm totally sold on crawlers :P now just gotta save. i got too many guitars to put BKPs in... everyone else seems to have the problem the other way round!
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Sorry, can't resist an alternative but it seems like the sound you're after is similar to the one I was after so to my mind it has to be a set of Cold Sweats. I think it depends on just how much you want it to cut through the mahogany of your guitar. I wanted a fat and organic sound but something that was also sharp and cutting. I like to think of it as a classic Gibson growl but that may not mean the same thing to the rest of you. I was swayed to Cold Sweats mainly because based on the sound I described it was the pup that Tim suggested and as we already know, Tim is very rarely wrong. Furthermore, Tim firmly believes they are a good match for a Les Paul because he has them in a Les Paul himself and loves them. They take shed loads of distortion for Metal, do Classic Rock perfectly and clean up nicely. On top of that, you said you wanted that classic fat Gibson sound and these things are based on the Gibson Dirty Fingers used by John Sykes in his Les Paul Custom. How much more Gibson+ could you want? Hell, mine sounds like that and I play an Ibanez!
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hmmm - yu may be right. I've never been big on the sounds of Ceramic magnets - and i think they may be a bit modern for me but i'd love to try some.
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How thick is too thick? :-)
I commented in this (http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8492) recent thread on HD in LPs - hope it helps