I may need pups for a 1980 Aria Pro II Leopard (LS-900 or 1000). Japanese lawsuit Les Paul, 1 piece Honduran mahogany back, 2 piece flamed maple cap, 1 piece mahogany neck, Brazilian rosewood board, long neck tenon. Weighs in over 11 pounds. 500k pots and still has the original 30 year old DiMarzio PAFs in it.
Unplugged, the guitar is VERY loud (only way it might get louder is if it were an acoustic) and balanced. Extremely rich sounding, with resonance and sustain to die for. Plugged in, the bridge pick up is fairly nice tonally. Balanced, doesn't overemphasize any part of the tone, maybe just slightly dull in the highs. The neck though is boomy and woofy.......way too much lows, scooped sounding mids, and mudbucker highs. On top of that, they both squeal like piggies (no, not Warpigs :lol:), the neck worse than the bridge.
Lots of questions raised by this. Have the pups just gone microphonic? Were those old DiMarzios PAFs unpotted (these have chrome covers, and I've not broken the soldering on them to peak beneath the hood)? Could the caps on the tone pots be sucking some of the missing frequencies out of it? What BKPs would you recommend for a very resonant guitar with a LOT of lows? Was looking toward something in the vintage hot, to medium/hot range. First thoughts were VHIIs, Abraxas, Rebel Yells, or Emeralds (in no particular order). I also considered the Nailbomb wired in series/parallel. I'm open minded though......tell me what you'd do and why. And yes, I'll still refer to rule one, after you've all had your say. LOL! She's begging for some kind of upgrade.......
