Bright sounding Les Paul

[David]

I run a 2010 Les Paul Studio - Chambered. It has stock pickup 498t/496r. Sound is thin has no authority to it.
Amp is a Randall rm100 with 2 6l6 and 2 el34 power tubes. Wondering what pickup would thicken up the bottom.

[TheyCallMeVolume]

First ones that come to mind for me are Holy Divers or Black Dogs. Depends on a lot of things though. What are you using it for?

[Telerocker]

Depends on what styles you play.
Black Dog for thick, open vintagehot PAF-tones.
The Diver could be an option for modern styles, does have not that much bass.
A good compromise would be an Abraxas, which has PAF-pedigree and is able to do modern rock too.

[ericsabbath]

alnico nailbomb for the bridge, vhII for the neck

[darkbluemurder]

I am not familiar with the Gibson 498T but the Holydiver does not have too much bass. For that purpose I would look to the Alnico Nailbomb, the Miracle Man or the Alnico Warpig.

I am also not familiar with the 496R. VHII neck is a good match for the Alnico Nailbomb in the bridge. For the other two I would choose something hotter, i.e. go for the calibrated set.

Cheers Stephan

[David]

Style wise - self titled Alice In Chains-three legged dog  Also like Anthrax, Soundgarden. Consider No More Tears album to be "perfect" tone. I do use cleans- both pickups for clean( vol around 6/7 each, one pick up for slight break up cleans, vol 8/9.  Mostly standard tuning, lowest I go is drop D.

[ericsabbath]

I am not familiar with the Gibson 498T but the Holydiver does not have too much bass. For that purpose I would look to the Alnico Nailbomb, the Miracle Man or the Alnico Warpig.

I am also not familiar with the 496R. VHII neck is a good match for the Alnico Nailbomb in the bridge. For the other two I would choose something hotter, i.e. go for the calibrated set.

Cheers Stephan

stock neck pup should be a 490r
496r is ceramic and way hotter

[ericsabbath]

Style wise - self titled Alice In Chains-three legged dog  Also like Anthrax, Soundgarden. Consider No More Tears album to be "perfect" tone. I do use cleans- both pickups for clean( vol around 6/7 each, one pick up for slight break up cleans, vol 8/9.  Mostly standard tuning, lowest I go is drop D.

still alnico bomb/vhii, imo
maybe a neck miracle man in the bridge, if you want a fatter and darker tone (a lot like scott ian's custom shop pickup, by the way)

[David]

490 it is. The Miracle Man set did strike my attention originally. Just didnt know if 1. it would be thick enough and 2. how diverse it is.

[ericsabbath]

the regular ceramic bridge miracle man has a lot of treble, although it's not a bright voiced pickup
the neck alnico version is a little less hot than the bridge, but fatter and darker, definitely more appropriate for your objectives
they're actually the same pickup with different magnets

[David]

Would there be any issues with using alnico Miracle Man for both bridge and neck.

One thing I don't want is a large volume drop when switching from bridge to neck.

[ericsabbath]

Would there be any issues with using alnico Miracle Man for both bridge and neck.

One thing I don't want is a large volume drop when switching from bridge to neck.

probably, depending on height settings
I wouldn't go with the MM on the neck position in any of your cases, anyway
I'd stay between 8k and 10k

the neck vhII might be a good match for the alnico miracle man as well

[darkbluemurder]

the neck vhII might be a good match for the alnico miracle man as well

I guess that is right. Tim once recommended to me to use the Crawler neck with the Miracle Man bridge as that would be a good combination as well. So I don't really think you would have too much output drop.

Because it has thicker wire, the VHII should be hotter than the Cold Sweat neck which was a bit low in output compared to the Miracle Man bridge.

Cheers Stephan