Hello to everyone and advice needed :)

[Chris_182]

First off sorry for the name im not very creative when it comes to names :)

Im currently playing a epiphone les paul studio with alnico classic humbuckers into a marshall mg 50 dfx and have a a stock gibson sg aswell. Im upgrading the pups on my main guitar (epi) and aftr chattin with some local guitar store staff theyve sent me this way...

I play mostly pop-punk (after reading about here i know ur loving me more and more :P) focusing on blink 182/boxcar racer kinda sounds.

I was going to go for a Gibson Dirty Fingers bridge/Invader in the neck combo but both treble seeing as i will personally never use bassy tones. But now after checking out some sound bites im thinking off VHII/Mules.

But im still worried im going to turn out with a far to bass heavy tone because im playing a les paul Which pickups out of VHII/Mule/Invader/Dirty Fingers is going to give me the best result for pop-punk in a les paul? I know tom Delonge used an invader in his strat signature and now has dirty fingers in his es-333 sig.

Any ideas?

Chris

[Will]

Well, where to start.
Pop-punk... you probably have the best gear for that already ;)
I can't give too much advice, don't play the style, and none of the BKP's you are interested in. But I do have some Dirty Fingers, really don't think they do what you are looking for.

Would it not be worth upgrading the SG first? or possibly a tube amp?

[Scotty477]

I have to go with Will here.

Consider an amp change, before you look at pickups.

I'm assuming that you're playing live, and if that is the case I would recommend getting a tube amp first and then see what your pickup requirements are.

The benefits of doing this are that you will get a very balanced tone that you can tweak to the upper (treble) side if you like,  but will still have the bass depth that the audience will hear and feel as well.

You could possibly look at the following amps for a pop/punk style;

Marshall DSL401
Marshall TSL601
Peavey Valveking 112/212
Orange RK30C
Laney VC-30 112/212

After that a choice of BKP pups would come into play. Something bright but punchy, like Riff Raff or Emerald would suit well, as would the Rebel Yell.

[shaman]

...I have come to believe, firmly, that a Mule is the best all around pup there is...."If I was stranded on a ....." kind of pup

[Fikealox]

I'm loving my Mules, too :D Definitely my favourite BKPs so far

[Chris_182]

hey thanks for the fast answers, should of said before im upgrading me amp soon as aswell. But because im on minimum wage tubes are a little bit out of my price range something sub £400 ideally so pretty much gotta stick to Solid state with pre-amp tubes. Was considering a marshall mg100 half stack, or a line 6 spider 3,  there both around £350 and thats gonna take me a while to save. So for now im just re-puping the les paul . Thtll only take a few weeks.

Probably should also say that my epi les paul obliterates the sound of my sg thats why im upping that first. Also when i say pop punk-i dont mean this mostly clean lots of wierd effects stuff. Its more loud, cruching palm muted lines and some serious distortion but not ear piercing.

[MrBump]

Just to carry on deviating from the initial topic of this thread, I'd have to say that £400 on Ebay should get you something decent and gigable from an amp perspective...  Probably something with Marshall on the front and valves inside.

Mark.

[Chris_182]

not too fond of gettin stuff off ebay or the net in general i have to play it before hand. Ive heard bad stories of people buying amps off of ebay and they being basically shite.

[badgermark]

Your best bet would probably be the Nailbomb. Pretty biting yet still got some meat for the chugging rhythms. Don't let the rest of these metalers and oldies put you off, pop punk is amazing. Don't discount the Orange Tiny Terror for an amp, you will need a pedal to drive it, but they are plenty loud for rehearsal and gigging.

[Will]

If I were you, I would be looking at a certain channel switching JCM800 in seconds out ;)

That should be able to give you two faily decent sounds.

Pickups: quite a hot vintage thing I am guessing would suite. Maybe the cold sweat would actually be a good bet (BKP's take of a Dirty Fingers user), I am guessing the added bite and reduced bottom end would give an aggressive sound that could smooth out.
This is just what I imagine a CS is like, I am very unsure about upgrading my DF's

[Chris_182]

the coldsweats sound great more or less perfect for what im after. the nailbombs just too over the top for my liking.
Thanks for the help thus far :)

[AdamB]

Why do you use the Epi Les Paul over the Gibson SG?

[Chris_182]

It sounds better. I think its one gibson bodged up and made an epi cause its far far far supperior to any epi ive playd before. I know that gibson grade there guitars a b c, a and b being acceptable and anything c being sent off to epiphone to be finished, theres a little chip on the underside where the hosuing for the pickup selector is, thatd be enough for gibson to make it a c as its not perfect. Guess im lucky lol.

[AdamB]

I'm not to sure of your ABC theory, never heard of it before, and Gibson Les Pauls, and Epi Les Pauls are quite different in apperance.

Anyways, if you don't like the SG, i'd sell that, get a valve head, something like a Marshall DSL and 1960 4 x 12, that'd improve your tone much more than changing the pickups now through your current set up. Although changing pickups is a good idea

[Doog]

you can get a marshall dsl401 for ~£400 if you shop around

as for the pickups, my own take on the pop-punk sound would be to use slightly lower output pickups and drive the amp harder, so I'm not sure the cold sweat would suit (I have a cold sweat pair in my epi sg and whilst they sound awesome, it's not exactly pop-punk in my mind).  I think a vhII set would be ideal for this.  if you're set on getting a higher output pickup though, I think a nailbomb would probably work better for you than the cold sweat.  also bear in mind that you can get tim to precisely tailor the pickup to the sound you have in mind

also, slightly random: you're not the chris182 that posts on the sigames forums are you?