New hot pickup for my Epiphone Les Paul

[hunter]

Hija all,

many of you still know my BlackDog clips from the players section.
Now the vintage thing gets a little boring and my soldering skills getting rusty, I'm wondering what I should do:

1. Get a hot bridge PU in my Les Paul. Which would be good for some more crazy stuff? A good tone when split/played clean would be useful for band work. I plan to keep the BlackDog in the neck, I like if the neck has much less gain than the bridge anyway. The BDs do sound good though ... acoustically, the guitar is rather dark sounding. Would Warpig, RebelYell, MM, HolyDiver, .... be a good choice?

2. Replace the stock pickups on my (basswood body/alder neck) MusicMan Axis (which are supposed to be sought after and famous) with something a bit more ballsy? I am hesitating to touch it actually as it is so well crafted and the heavy rhythm sound is awesome.

Any opinions?

[Afghan Dave]

I know how you feel. I've got an Epi LP Custom and I really wanna bang a Miracle Man in there but I promissed myself I'd buy Rebel Yells for a PRS next.

I think a MM or a Cold Sweat would sound awsome in an Epi.

Hang on I'm talking myself into the Cold Sweat... I'm gonna do something bad and spend cash I don't have if I keep watching this thread.

Go for a Cold Sweat!

[Dave Simpson]

Nailbomb is also really cool. I got a chance to do some recording this weekend with my Mule, Cold Sweat and Nailbomb loaded Les Paul's. The Nailbomb was very impressive. It could handle whatever sound we were trying to cover. :twisted:

[TwilightOdyssey]

I'm not so sure a Cold Sweat would be ideal in a basswood body ...

[TwilightOdyssey]

@ Dave Simpson: Dude, do you have a full Mother's Milk set?

[Dave Simpson]

It's a Mule in the bridge and Mother's Milk in the middle and neck position. I'm too much of a wimp to go full single coils. :lol:

[Afghan Dave]

I think leave the MusicMan Axis alone (that's basswood).

In addition to my previous recommendation (Cold Sweat) I'd also consider the Crawler in the bridge of the LP - I think this is quite an overlooked pickup and could blend well with the Blackdog neck.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Crawler + Les Paul = tasty!

[Afghan Dave]

I've just been looking again at the spec of the Crawler and I'm sure this is a good way to go.

Plus Ben agrees.. Result!  :D

[hunter]

Just checked the Crawler clips. This is quite dark and sweet to my ears, would that be an accurate description? Might be lots of fun for lead playing but will it cut it for rhythm crunch?

And yeah, maybe I shouldn't thouch the Axis, but then again, there is this VHII set and that's quite tempting ...

[_tom_]

VHIIs sound awesome, I played some in a PRS at music live last year and they had a nice crunch, good output level and just a generally nice tone, I preferred them to the Abraxas pickups (and maybe even Mules :o) because they have more edge/crunch to them.. I think im gassing for a set of VHII's to try in the LP again  :lol:

[Johnny Mac]

1. Get a hot bridge PU in my Les Paul. Which would be good for some more crazy stuff?

Any opinions?

Warpig?

[carlaz]

Just checked the Crawler clips. This is quite dark and sweet to my ears, would that be an accurate description? Might be lots of fun for lead playing but will it cut it for rhythm crunch?

Crawlers are great in LPs, and I don't think they'd have much problem with rhythm crunch.  They're quite a bit hotter than PAF, but have something of that vintage vibe plus a bit more midrange grunt to cut on through.  The Abraxas is similar, but sweeter than the Crawler.  I've got Crawlers in my LP Std and find they're strong all-rounders that handle classic rock/bluesy tones up into classic and doomy metal tones.  Good stuff.  The Rebel Yell might be another reasonable choice -- it's a bit more midrangey yet, I think, but I've really only heard the Steve Stevens clips (which are bound to sound pretty good in any case! ;)).