Les Paul VOS - replace pickups or not?

[fbloke]

Hello folks.

This morning I happily spunked nearly half of my redundancy cheque on a 57 Goldtop VOS darkback.  It's rather nice.  PDT_016

Does anyone else here have a VOS Les Paul?  I think it sounds great but I'd like to hear from anyone who has replaced the standard Burstbucker 1 and 2 with BKP's or other pickups which improved the tone of the guitar. 

Cheers,

Mike

[gingataff]

Do you think she's a keeper?
If so, and if you like the tone but want more from it, I'd say it's worth a punt on some new pups.

If you think you might want to sell it sometime soon, or if you are quite happy with the current tone I think you should live with it for a while and let the guitar speak to you about what she wants to do.

[Matt77]

Give it 6 months to a year to see how the guitars tone changes.

Good way to spend the cash!
I would do the same

[lulusg]

Have you got any other Les Paul with BKPs to compare them to?. Those are very nice guitars! The ones that we have tried are great looking and great sounding instruments, but in no way they have the mojo of the RYs in a LP std. I have a set of Emerald's that only and only are going to a custom shop or a VOS Goldtop! Five yrs from now. Hey fbloke can you get some photos!! Congratulations!!

[Jonny]

This morning I happily spunked nearly half of my redundancy cheque on a 57 Goldtop VOS darkback.  It's rather nice.  PDT_016

$%&# YEAH! lol..

And BKPs aren't everything. I wouldn't change them, especially on a VOS. Keep the value in it.

[Will]

If you like it, keep it. Unless you REALLY want to tweak and play around.

I tried a '57 BB custom in a shop with similar pickups (but 3 pup model); I thought the bridge was a bit thin, but the bridge + middle produced such a perfect tone its unbelievable! Enough cut and body at the same time

[Doctor X]

I've got a Gibson 58 VOS and I changed the burstbuckers to PG Blues.  I certainly don't regret it!  I got over £100 for the 'aged' burstbukers on ebay.  I say do it!

[Ian Price]

I spent a fairly substantial amount of money on a couple of custom shops guitars this year. I wouldn't have dreamt of changing the pups on them. Partly to preserve the value and the other part is that they sounded perfectly fine already and needed no tinkering.

I would think more than twice before replacing the pups on a top of the range model.

[Ian Price]

and well done on getting the guitar. Pics etc.

[hunter]

R7s are a bargain if you consider that it's basically the same make as an R8 or R9. And they look cool, too. Well done!

Pics!!

[Doctor X]

If resale value is important then just make sure you keep hold of the burstbuckers so that you can change back again if you decide to part with it.

[Plexi Ken]

This won't be much help but when I replaced the Burstbucker Pros on my LP Std with PG Blues, the difference in clarity was phenomenal.

[fbloke]

Thanks for the helpful replies everyone, the answer has become clear after a pro set up and a lot of amp tinkering:

1. Get the setup and intonation right and bang a set of 11's on.

2. On the amp ( a Rivera on the Fender-ish channel), drop the mids a bit, bring the treble up a lot and reduce the bass to 5. Increase the master volume, drop the other volume a bit.  Hey presto!  Big, fat 57 Les Paul tone with clarity, chunky woody mids and a very deep, thick and dare-I-say-it pert bottom end.  Somewhere between Peter Green on "Ramblin' Pony" and Billy Gibbons on "Brown Sugar".  I just did a love wee in my pants.

Mike.