Neck and Bridge Pickups for LP question

[Chawk]

Hello,

I'm a first time poster to this forum long time reader so I guess I'll get right to the point.

First off, I play a Gibson Les Paul Studio through a Top Hat 2x12 Club Royale with a TS-9 and a Budda Phatman Overdrive. I'm looking for a set of pickups with extreme nasal, growly midrange with beefy bassy low end. However, I don't want to sacrifice the tightness, brightness and articulation of the highs and palm mutes. I play with a decent amount of gain, definitely crunchy and tight but not quite in the metal range, more stoner rock/hard rock/British garage/indie rock.  Is there a humbucker set out there that can give me the crisp single coil, telecaster-like clarity for high end chords and single note leads with the cutting nasaly midrange and tight palm muted low end for rhythm that only a humbucker can achieve?

Secondly, will a Bareknuckle pickup with an alnico V magnet be noticeably different tonally from the stock 498t "hot alnico" bridge pickup that is already in the guitar.

That aside, from the posts that I've read so far while researching these needs, I've come to the conclusion that my best bet might be a Mississippi Queen P90 in the neck and either a Holydiver, Crawler, Mule or possibly a Black Dog in the bridge.  My only worry with that is the P90's output is too low in comparison to a humbucker stlye pickup that  it'll be distracting when playing live when switching between the two.  Any thoughts?

Also, does covered vs. uncovered make a truly noticeable difference tonally?

Thanks for reading!

Matt

[HTH AMPS]

The only BKP that has a pronounced nasal midrange is the Nailbomb - mine has a pronounced mid spike, tight bass and crisp treble response.

I wouldn't say the Holydiver, Crawler, Mule or Black Dog pickups you listed achieve what you listed.  'Maybe' the Crawler, but it's more PAF in nature than the Nailbomb which has a definate contemporary tone to the Crawler's hot-vintage voicing.

If you want snarly mids with some single coil twang/clarity, you might just be better off with MQs in the neck and bridge.

 :twisted:

[TwilightOdyssey]

Welcome.

I think you are spot on in your observations -- Black Dog bridge and MQ neck.

I'm in NYC, also, as well as a few other forum bros. Between us we have tons of BKs. Maybe we can meet up for a jam and you can try em out here before you pull the trigger.

[ericsabbath]

riff raff :?:

[gwEm]

riff raff :?:

riff raff is pretty flat mid EQ-wise. its firey but transparent.

[Chawk]

Thanks to everyone for your quick responses to my pickup queries!!

Your suggestions have really helped me narrow down what seemed like a pretty daunting task of finding the perfect pups for me. Especially since a player can write a ten page thesis on what their perfect sound is and until you hear it you never really know quite what they mean. So I appreciate the feedback.

I will definitely be doing more research on the the Nailbomb, Crawler and Black Dog for the bridge. The Riff Raff is intriguing but from the demos I've heard of it it seemed a little flat. Though that might have just been the recordings or the amp it was going through. I'll have to look into that one some more.

Does anyone know if there are A/B comparison recordings out there of a guitar with non-bareknuckle pickups installed vs. bareknuckle pickups ?

BTW... Twilight.. thanks for the offer. I'm always looking to meet more musicians in NYC. And definitely looking for more gear-heads like myself.  My band is called Giftshop. Come check us out sometime when we play our next gig. www.myspace.com/giftshopnyc

Matt

[TwilightOdyssey]

Now playing ... catchy tunes!!


My band is called ... Twilight Odyssey ( www.myspace.com/twilightodyssey ). We have a female singer, too. Different style, tho! :)

[TwilightOdyssey]

Now that I've given your songs a couple of spins, I still think your original idea will work perfectly: Black Dog bridge, Mississippi Queen neck for the win!

[Iron Horse]

OT, but I just had to say this - Twilight Odyssey, yer bands clips sound GREAT! just like the stuff I listen to (RAINBOW, Maiden, all those god damn great 70's and 80's hard rock groups). Keep it up! :twisted:  :twisted:  :twisted:  :shock:

E. and your singer sounds like old Helloween! (Murderer!)

[Yamhammer]

Chawk: Why aren't you going for a calibrated set of MQ's?

I'm not sure if the combination P90/humbucker will work properly...I think you can better have the MQ's in both positions for having a better overall balance and more useful mid position. I'm going to put a set of MQ's (AIV/AV) in my Les Paul because I think they'll have a better balance between neck/bridge due to the fact they're calibrated. I like my Gibson bridge humbucker (A5) a lot for higher gain stuff, but I'm scared it won't work properly with a P-90 in the neck.

[ailean]

My wife uses a P90 neck and Nailbomb bridge, gives her a good array of sounds to play with, they balance well, the P90's output is fine against a Nailbomb bridge.

[Yamhammer]

My wife uses a P90 neck and Nailbomb bridge, gives her a good array of sounds to play with, they balance well, the P90's output is fine against a Nailbomb bridge.

Thanks, but can you tell me more about the mid position on clean settings?

I'd like to know how they sound together when playing clean....do they sound 'bell-like' and 'sweet' together?

[ailean]

The Nailbomb bridge is probably a bit too hot to be called 'Bell like' or 'Sweet' (15.9K). The P90 neck gives you that, the Nailbomb adds a bit more grunge to the sound so you'd probably end up using the P90 for cleans and going to mid position or bridge for the heavier stuff. The P90 also distorts well.

My wifes combo is actaually a HSH, the single coil being a Piledriver, and for clean she mostly uses that or the P90. The Nailbomb breaks up earlier then the P90 (of course) so it's useful for adding a little distortion while retaining some of the purity of the P90 sound.

For playing a lot of cleans I probably wouldn't go Nailbomb bridge, but if you want to be able to get a broader range of sounds then it complements the P90 very nicely.

As ever it's a trade off.

[Pickup Artist]

I have wondered what to put in a Les Paul Studio myself, but for a different style of music.

As well as BKP,  SD, EMG and a few more obscure makes, in the end I decided that the guitar is so beautiful I can't change anything on it. The only thing I can change is the truss rod cover to remove the word 'Studio' to the blank Gibson truss rod cover. I actually prefer it to the more expensive LP Standard which I've got rid of from my collection.

I've decided to assemble a few warmoths and do all my experiments in them instead.

I might remove the pickguard one day though.