I was hoping to get a pickup recommendation for my '59 reissue Les Paul. I play mostly heavy blues and hard/instrumental rock with medium/high gain. Currently using a Seymour Duncan Jazz in the neck with a SH-14 Custom 5 in the bridge, and they are definitely in the ballpark of what I am looking for, but aren't quite right.
The Jazz is absolutely fantastic and definitely want something with the same high end sparkle, I love how clear and snappy the pickup sounds. But what I *really* love is how smooth and liquid it sounds under gain. It's got a nice vocal 'wah' kind of tone but it's not muddly or boomy at all. I like to make use of both my volume and tone constantly so I want something that won't get muddly when I do that. I generally roll the tone back to <5 for leads and have both controls at about halfway for a clean tone.
And by contrast I hardly ever use the volume pot on the bridge pickup. I want basically the opposite of the neck. I want something fat, thick and aggressive. The Custom 5's output and tight bass are really nice, but the midrange is scooped and the highs are not quite smooth enough for me. I want something that responds to hard pick attack and I like lots of high mids and harmonic overtones. I like to roll the tone pot back to about half way for my lead tone and I want a pickup that will have enough highs to cut through but I hate treble with any 'sizzle' (by sizzle I mean something like Slash' rhythm tone, one of my favorite players, but that high end grit is exactly the opposite of what I want. Also this only applies to his bridge rhythm/crunchy tone, I like his lead tones just fine.).
I am currently strictly a bedroom player. The guitar is mahogany/maple/rosewood obviously. Plugging it in to a Blues Jr.
If anymore info is needed just let me know.
I also plan to replace all the electronics with new electronics including push/pulls to tap them.
Thanks very much for any reccomendation!
