Yet another new guy asking for help choosing some pickups! :)

[adem]

Hey all, this is my first post here and my knowledge of pickups is not so vast at the moment! I have a musical project called Panic Dance (www.myspace.com/panicdanceuk) in which my guitar style is mainly reggae (bright high frequency up strokes) but I do delve into a bit of distortion every now and then (perhaps the track "Don't Panic, Just Dance" is the best to show the two styles I mainly play).
I model everything live using Guitar Rig and/or a Pod guitar pedal (I used to swear by marshall amps/cabs but since going solo I prefer to keep travel light).

I just recently bought an Epiphone Les Paul Custom because I love the feel of it, however the stock pickups sound like they have several feet of blankets over the top. I don't like them at all, it sounds muddy and horrible and  definitely not suited to the "sparkle" I'm used to!

I was thinking about trying to get some Gibson P90's in there until I found this (incredible) website (Tim seems to be a bit of a legend doesn't he? lol) and I listened to a sample of someone on here playing reggae using The Mule humbuckers both in bridge and neck.

Does anybody out there with far superior knowledge (doesn't take much!) than myself feel kind enough to help guide me? Are there any downsides to The Mule? It sounded like it has quite a good range of frequencies in the high end which is mainly what I'm after, but I don't want it to sound too harsh on the ears, though at  the same time I need a good bass response without the whole thing sounding too muddy.

Which is better all round? The P90's or The Mule, or is there a better suited option out there?

Any help at all would be awesome, I wanna do a LOT of research before I fork out a couple hundred for some pickups :)

Cheers

[BigB]

Hi and welcome

Err, a bit OT, but the comment from these Kaizen guys (http://www.myspace.com/kaizen) embed some stuff that plays over your own music. You may want to do something about it   8)

Now back on topic...

From experience with "vintage hot" BKP 'buckers on a somehow "difficult" (all-maple going-thru neck) guitar that was both harsh on the bridge and muddy on the neck with the stock pups, and "raw vintage" BKP single coil on a Telecaster, I just can't believe Mules could sound neither harsh nor muddy on any LP. IMHO they are your safer bet. I did play quite a lot of reggae, and a good vintage PAF set on a LP will give you both the cut and sparkle for clean/slightly overdriven skank stuff and the fatness and tightness (and power) for more distorted riffs and leads.

I have much less experience with P90 (whatever brand), and only on whole mahogany guitars played on fully cranked tubes, so I can't say if they'd fit your needs. Seems a more risky choice to me, but could possibly work fine too and then it could be exactly what you're after, so I'll leave it to some more knowledgeable guy to comment on this.

Sorry, probably not as helpful as I would hope  :?
 

[kevinr]

Go for the Mules and for that single coil stuff just add a push pull switch/pot and you will have all the sparkle as well, you can't go wrong.

[adem]

Thanks BigB! That's what I get for not logging into my myspace frequently! lol :D

The only real thing that was swaying me towards the P90's was that Marley used to play a les paul with p90's live and he had a good sound. Though after listening to The mule on clean I really think that's closer to what I'm trying to achieve!

One more question kevinr, is it possible to add a push pull pot to the mules? I'm a major newb to the electronics of it all! :)
Thanks again for the help

[BigB]

The only real thing that was swaying me towards the P90's was that Marley used to play a les paul with p90's live and he had a good sound.

All-mahogany LP - not quite the same guitar as yours.

Though after listening to The mule on clean I really think that's closer to what I'm trying to achieve!

One more question kevinr, is it possible to add a push pull pot to the mules? I'm a major newb to the electronics of it all! :)
Thanks again for the help

You need 4 conductors wiring, which is not mentionned on the product page for the Mules. You can very certainly ask Tim to make them with 4 conductors for serie/parallel or split-coil wiring, but I'm not sure whether this would be that useful on Mules. AFAIK, these options work better with hotter pups.

Anyway - before buying, check with Tim.

[kevinr]

I have my Mules fitted with a push/pull coil split and work fine, just like any humbucker that you split you loose some volume.

[roland_rat]

Welcome to the forum. 


+1 to

I have my Mules fitted with a push/pull coil split and work fine, just like any humbucker that you split you loose some volume.

great pickups and very versitile

[adem]

I see, thanks every body for the good advice!!

Just one more question, the only pickups I've looked at that had the push/pull pots were EMG 89's which are active. Are all pickups with this feature active or can you get passive variants also?

Thanks again everyone :)

[BigB]

Just one more question, the only pickups I've looked at that had the push/pull pots were EMG 89's which are active. Are all pickups with this feature active or can you get passive variants also?

A push-pull pot by itself is just the combination of a pot and a 2-ways switch. You can have the same features with a plain pot and a plain switch - but that means drilling a couple holes in your guitar.  Also, what the switch does depends on the whole wiring.

I don't have the first clue about what the switch did on your EMG 89 / active pup example, but anyway: the idea here is to use the switch with a 4-conductor pup to have both the "normal" humbucker mode (the two coils serial) and "another option" which can be either both coils parallel or one single coil only.

FWIW, all BKPs are traditionnal passive pups.

HTH