BKPs for Les Paul

[Paulocaster]

First time poster, here...

I'm looking to put BKPs in a Gibson Les Paul and hoping that some of you will have some solid recommendations. I play blues, classic and modern/heavy rock, and alternative. I like vintage-voiced pickups but with some more output, so I've been looking at the Vintage Hot options (though I am open to looking at other options, too). I really like the Abraxas for the bridge, but I am worried a calibrated set will make the neck sound too muddy since it's an LP. For the neck, I want something that sounds decent and articulate for chords on clean and light crunch, but can also be good for warm soloing with high gain. Emerald? Crawler?

Any suggestions would much appreciated. Thanks!

[Kiichi]

I recently fitted one of my guitars with BKPs to make it an old school rock / blues machine and kinda do what you do (well, less clean, but hey) so here is my view.

I think Mule might be the way to go. I love the hell out of my neck, amazing clean sound for chords, and for solos just smooth and warm, very bluesy, but can easily be used for metal too in my opinion. It very close to classic 59Pafs which always go great with LPs. Extremely versatile sound with vintage character.

I heard many great things about the Mule bridge too, its supposed to be versatile as well, but I got myself a Rebell Yell which might suit you as very well too, as it is somewhere between modern and vintage (iīd say vintagegy voice with modern punch and cut). Itīs pretty bright (going good in a Paul I think, in my Ibanez S it could often be darker but I fix that by adding my middle Single Coil) with pretty tight base (not in a modern metal way though, just present and controlled) and great overtones. Mids are where this things shines. Itīs dirty, agressive and just screams ROCK ME at you. Also great cutting dirty solo sound (I actually like playing my dirty blues things on it a lot).


Those two (plus Irish Tour middle) work wonders for me. Very broad spectrum in one guitar and all in all just beautiful. I think it would sound amazing in

[HTH AMPS]

I play the Abraxas neck in a Les Paul and it's definitely NOT muddy - its clearer than the Mule neck I had before it for sure.

btw, for anyone who has issues with neck pickups being too muddy, it might be worth trying a 'bass cut' instead of a 'treble cut' on the tone knob of that pickup.  See G&L wiring diagrams for ideas on this.

[Telerocker]

You can always ask for an AV Mule-neck, which will be more cutting then the AIV-version.

[Paulocaster]

Thank you, all. This is very helpful.