NPD: Old Guard Pickups in my LP Trad.

[Hammerheart]

I pulled the trigger on the Old Guard humbuckers. They arrived this morning, have gone straight into my Les Paul and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve tried all sorts in this guitar and never really been that happy. I’m really pleased to have found my “ballpark” with regard to the kind of pickups that I like.

I find it quite hard to pick pups with all the esoteric terminology around them. In my head I’ve settled on how I feel they push my amps into the distortion I like. I think growl (low mids), roar (mids) and snarl (upper mids) make the most sense to me.

Trying pups over the years in my les Paul I found Stock classic 57s, nice neck but a bit too wooly and I didn’t like the bridge. I’ve tried Stormy Mondays which were really nice but I just needed a bit more output.
I’ve tried Mules (returned to BKP to swap for stormys) and Holy Divers (loved in my Strat but not in the LP). Both had too much roar (upper mids?) for my liking. I actually really liked my Warpigs in this guitar but it’s not the look or the setup I wanted.

I'm really pleased with the Old Guards. Plenty of low mid growl without any of the high mid raspy snarl that I'm not a big fan of. They have the nice sweet top end that I liked about Stormy Mondays and classic 57s too. I'm thinking that must be an alnico 2 thing? Fantastic well rounded clean tone. It's the best this Les Paul has ever sounded. Hopefully now I can stop meddling with it. These really are nice pickups.

Oddly enough I have a new recent Gibson SG with the new T-Type pickups in it which I really like. It has to be said they sound very similar to my new Old Guards. They live in a very similar tonal space. The T-Types are just a little bit brighter in the top end but I'm guessing that's down to the guitar they are in. Overall I'm pretty happy with them. Thankfully a stock set I won't be looking at changing.

I’m now looking for some for my other Gibson 61 SG standard to replace the 61T/R set in there. I’m really not a fan of them.

I could just grab another set of Old Guards for the SG but where’s the fun in that? 
The stock 60s Burstbucker 61T/R set have too much high mid snarl for me. I’m really not a fan of that upper mid overdrive. In my reading of the BKP pup descriptions it sounds like the burstbuckers pickups might be in the Raff Raff ballpark? If so I’ll avoid that territory. It's not for me.

Would you think Black Dogs might be a similar ballpark but different flavour that might suit an SG with (what I now think must be) my love of lower mid growl? I’m into bands like Graveyard, Kadavar and other more vintage voiced noise and tune to C# and D.

[darrenw5094]

The Black Dog has its extra mids in the lower mids, not in the uppers, so maybe that is what you want. Although your next project is in an SG which is more middy naturally than a Les Paul.

[timmy_pix]

Interesting that you hear similarities in the Old Guards and the T-types. I've got an SG with the T-types and while I love the bridge, I cannot stand the neck pickup, it sounds like it's got a blanket over it. I put an Old Guard neck in and it opened right up, but then sounded much more modern compared to the T-type bridge - more instant attack and a touch more compressed. Much better pick attack though, so overall I preferred it, but seeing as I love the bridge I'm trying to find a better match.

As for your other SG, you might have trouble finding pickups without that upper-mid push, as that tends to be a sweet spot for making single notes sing. The Riff Raffs are pretty open, but do have a bit of that snarl which means they respond well to high gain - the site description even goes out of the way to point out the focused upper mids.

Honestly I'd suggest the Stormies if you hadn't already said they weren't hot enough for you. The Black Dog has thick mids, and yes, the weight is more in the low mids, but, having A/Bed them, the upper mids are very similar to the Mules, so if you didn't like the midrange of the Mules, I'd hazard you probably wouldn't like the Black Dogs either.

The one thing BKP don't do is an Alnico 3 option, and I think an A3 PAF/T-top style pickup may be exactly what you need, given your dislike of too much midrange but wanting something that can take high gain well. The A3 pickups I've tried take to gain really well, while not pushing the focus on the midrange - now obviously the wind plays a massive part in how pickups respond, but I've played a few A3 pickups and they share a characteristic of balanced response and clarity without having any of the extremes of other magnet types - A2 tends to have a sweet top end and can get flubby, A4 tends to have a fairly distinctive crunchy attack, and A5 tends to be crisper.

You could try magswapping a BKP set or see what other options might suit, but I'm not going to go into promoting other brands on the BKP forum.

Your best bet is probably to email BKP with your requirements and see what they say, they'll be able to offer better advice on their range than any of us. They always respond quickly and their suggestions are usually spot on.

[CLund]

I agree with timmy...   I have had great luck with mag swapping some of my pickups, including the BK ones.    I had a VHII in a strat style HSS and thought it was a little too ice-picky, needed to smooth out a little, so swapped the A5 for an A2 and it's fantastic now.   Also swapped a HD neck to an A2, which made it a little smoother.     Don't have any SG style guitars, so can't really help with the pickups there, but best of luck!

[ericsabbath]

both old guards and t-types are inspired by the late 70's t-tops (and 70's dimarzio pafs)
they are symmetrically wound with 42 AWG SPN wire

the design innovation about the old guards is that they have alnico 2 instead of alnico 5, and the bridge pickup is also overwound in comparison, so they tend to sound rounder on the top, a little thicker in the lows and also middier (towards a more modern sound, a bit like PRS McCarties, for example, which have alnico 4 instead, and are even more overwound)

[Hammerheart]

Just checking in. Thought I'd update the post. I went for Black Dogs in my SG in the end and I love them. They really suit the guitar. I actually really love the low mid grunt. Exactly what I was looking for.