Newbie Les Paul Bridge Pickup Advice

[tim_caesar]

Hi there,

I am a newbie to this forum, but a long time lurker and I wondered if you good people could give me some advice?

My main guitar is a Music Man Axis, and I am 100% happy with it in every way.

I recently bought a chambered Les Paul Studio faded, all mahogany, fitted with Burstbucker Pro's. The neck unit is fantastic but the bridge pickup was not enough output for me. It sounded about right, but just not enough grunt.

I bought a BK Miracle Man pickup and put it in the bridge slot, and the output problem was solved straight away. Its tonally about right, but I do find it a little thin sounding, especially when you play leads on the top three strings.  Any suggestions? I really want the guitar to sound something like the Music Man in bridge, or at least in that kind of ballpark.

Many thanks!

Tim.

[MDV]

I dont know what the music man sounds like stock

But

Thin Miracle man? Hmmmm. Thats a new one.

First, try changing the height of the pickup.

Then, rotate the pickup in the ring 180 degrees so that the screws pole bobbin is the closest to the neck. This will increase your low end.

If thats not enough, increase the height of the screws.

If you STILL cant find the sound you want, then the obvious option is the painkiller. After that, if you want to go A5 your options are holy diver and naibomb, in that order of priority, I think. Reserve the use of warpigs only after steeling oneself against the inevitable torrent of mayhem they'll provide (it'll probably burn your music man to a cinder).

[Philly Q]

Welcome to the forum!  :)

I'm not sure what pickup to suggest, but I know the Axis pickup is similar to a DiMarzio Tone Zone, which has TONS of bass and mids.

Whereas the Miracle Man is quite... I want to say "scooped", but sometimes people get hot under the collar about that term.  Let's say it has more emphasis on bass and treble than midrange.

Of course an LP and an Axis are constructed completely differently, but I think you need something with more mids.

[tim_caesar]

I dont know what the music man sounds like stock

But

Thin Miracle man? Hmmmm. Thats a new one.

First, try changing the height of the pickup.

Then, rotate the pickup in the ring 180 degrees so that the screws pole bobbin is the closest to the neck. This will increase your low end.

If thats not enough, increase the height of the screws.

If you STILL cant find the sound you want, then the obvious option is the painkiller. After that, if you want to go A5 your options are holy diver and naibomb, in that order of priority, I think. Reserve the use of warpigs only after steeling oneself against the inevitable torrent of mayhem they'll provide (it'll probably burn your music man to a cinder).

I will try lowering it. Its very high at the moment. Is there an optimum height that I should think about? Also I never thought of spinning it round. Will it be a subtle effect or quite pronounced?

Thanks for you advice!

[MDV]

Oh, yeah!

Welcome newbie!

I mean, errrr Tim....wait, NO! You cant be 'tim'. That would be confusing. Ceasar. That'll do.

Given that phil has helped out with the specs:

Tone zone closest equivelent - Holy diver

Extra low end and mids of the slab of mahogany that is a les paul - Painkiller. (it has more high mids and general cut and presence, and loads of bass)

I think either would do you though.

P.S. I hate tonezones. Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.

[MDV]

I dont know what the music man sounds like stock

But

Thin Miracle man? Hmmmm. Thats a new one.

First, try changing the height of the pickup.

Then, rotate the pickup in the ring 180 degrees so that the screws pole bobbin is the closest to the neck. This will increase your low end.

If thats not enough, increase the height of the screws.

If you STILL cant find the sound you want, then the obvious option is the painkiller. After that, if you want to go A5 your options are holy diver and naibomb, in that order of priority, I think. Reserve the use of warpigs only after steeling oneself against the inevitable torrent of mayhem they'll provide (it'll probably burn your music man to a cinder).

I will try lowering it. Its very high at the moment. Is there an optimum height that I should think about? Also I never thought of spinning it round. Will it be a subtle effect or quite pronounced?

Thanks for you advice!

There is no optimum height. Its what sounds good to you. With the strength of the MM magnet, I wouldnt have it closer than 2.5 to 3mm though. If you lower it is will be less hot, but you'll allow more of the tone of the guitar into the sound. With a les paul, its going to warm the tone up if its lower.

Flipping it is a pronounced effect.

And youre welcome!

[Philly Q]

P.S. I hate tonezones. Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.

Agree with you there, Mark, they're horrible in set-neck mahogany guitars.   But I had an Axis Sport, and in that the EVH/Axis pickup did, I must admit, sound excellent.

(The Axis pickups aren't identical to the TZ, they're only made for EB/MM, but DiMarzio say the TZ is the nearest equivalent in their standard line)

[MDV]

Well mayhaps the music man pickups are better/better matched to the guitar

I have uniformly found tonezones to be muddy, lifeless abominations of a pickup. I might even like them less than JBs (honky!!).

Nonetheless, if the MM is nearly-there-but-a-little-thin, then I'm pretty sure that the MM can be configured to sound as Ceasar wants. Or at least much closer. Not trying to do BK out of a sale here, but I doubt a new pickup is required - BKs are unusually sensitive to setup changes.

[tim_caesar]

Well....

I just got back from a gig and tried the various things suggested this evening before going out. Regardless of how I twiddled it, it still sounded very trebly in my guitar. In fact, the more I played it this evening, the more I realised its lacking mids.  So from what you kind people have said, I think a Holy Diver is the one. The Burstbucker Pro in the neck is an Alnico pickup, so maybe I should go with this in the bridge too.

Its been mentioned that the Tone Zone would be very muddy in a Les Paul. Would I be right in thinking that the Holy Diver would give nicely suited to my Les Paul? I would have thought so!  :lol:

[ericsabbath]

Tone zone closest equivelent - Holy diver

if you're considering only bridge models, I agree
but the miracle man neck in the bridge position sounds a lot closer
the holy diver a lot more top end than the tone zone and it's not as middy and bassy
the miracle man neck has a bit more output, low end and mids than the holy diver and that nasal highs of the tone zone
sounds very good in the bridge, but I'd never do it in a les paul
it worked very nice in a mahogany cort katana, though
the warpig neck sounds very close too

[Will]

IMO you wouldn't want to be putting a Holy Diver in an all mahogany LP, I am actually making the switch from bridge HD to a MM set, which should be done by the end of this week. But thats an LP custom type with maple neck / 'board, already quite a bright guitar
I would think if you want a Holy Diver, you best check that the Gibson pots are all 500k

[tim_caesar]

Hi there,

I got an email from Tim, and he suggests either the Holydiver or the Nailbomb would be a good choice for what I am looking for.

From the description, the Nailbomb sounds a little bit too over the top.  Does anyone have experience of one in a Les Paul?

[MDV]

Dont let the name mislead you - NBs are very cabable of metal, and have that sort of flavour, but they do rockier and bluesier stuff very well indeed. Extremely versatile.

Alas mine were in a basswood/maple/rosewood explorer, so acoustically nothing like a LP.

[ericsabbath]

some nailbomb + les paul videos:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=CKUEaDk0juU
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DYmWfaxjw8Q
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VKkMxJiCjTU

[indysmith]

some nailbomb + les paul videos:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=CKUEaDk0juU

Really??