Swapped my LP's Miracle Man for Riff Raffs

[FELINEGUITARS]

I have a Les Paul style guitar that I built a while back and fitted BKP Miracle Man in plain black covers.
Here she is with them fitted:


To be fair the reason I had that particular set was due to an administrative mix up at BKP HQ , but Ben persuaded me to keep them  as they'd look cool.
Now don't get me wrong - these pickups rocked in this guitar and with it's maple neck it was a perfect choice for some Zakk Wylde type riffage.
But I thought I have a few guitars with Miracle Man and Cold Sweat pickups in, whilst none of my guitars have had Riff Raffs in at all , and that is pretty remiss....and it means that folks can't try out Riff Raffs  in a guitar to see if they'll be a good choice to buy.

So today I bit the bullet and swapped out the MiracleMan set (which I will put in Seconds Out as ex-demo or shop soiled)
and replaced them with a nice open set of Riff Raffs.
Now straight away I am liking the look (even before I plugged in).
On this guitar with it having such a plain fingerboard - the polepieces give it some welcome extra visual  detailing.




Now whilst I'm there with the soldering iron I decided to do another mod .
At the time of assembling this beast BKP didn't offer special capacitors so I put a pair of orange drop 0.022uF caps on the tone controls - I did use 50s wiring though.
So today I swapped the Orange Drops for the HUGE Jensen /BKP caps
I used a 0.022uF on the bridge pickup and a 0.015uF on the neck.




But what of the sound I hear you ask
GOOD QUESTION!

Quite a revelation I must confess and I'm loving it (although I may have a few small reservations here and there - only because I do love the Miracle Man set).
Instantly the guitar sounds more like a musical instrument capable of melodic sweet tones rather than the brutal yet beautiful weapon of sonic destruction it was before.

It is quite a transformation  and I'll have to get used to the new identity that this guitar has......

Played clean you can hear the big difference that will be it's new strength!

The Miracle Man does struggle a bit with cleaning up - with the volume rolled off the tone is a touch wooden - it's a bit like having a Bugatti Veyron and being forced to drive at 30 miles an hour in traffic, whilst the Riff Raffs make it seem like the most natural thing in the world to play like that .
In fact you have more latitude to choose a style of clean depending on how you play and how you use the tone controls etc, compared to the feeling with the miracle man that you are sort of faking it and just waiting for the chance to dial in some killer gain.

With gain the riff Raffs are nice but maybe you need to set your amp a bit warmer to get the best from it as I had mine still set for the fuller mids of the MM and had to roll in a bit more mids for the overdrive, and I was rewarded with some classic rock tones, although I did miss the ease with which the Miracle man takes over when the going gets hot.

Using the car analogy again - with the riff raffs it's like taking an old E type jag and pushing the needle past 100mph - you really feel the effects and have to hold on tight and pray she holds together, whilst the Miracle man is like that Bugatti or another powerful car - you barely notice as you clock through 100mph and glide smoothly up to 150mph.

Some petrolheads may argue which is the more thrilling or satisfying - both have their charms here.

Remember that the Riff Raff is effectively like the Gibson Patent number pickup that followed on from the PAF.
Around 1961 there were some changes with Gibson humbuckers
The switch to a short Alnico 5 magnet resulted in a punchy pickup, and with the apparent introduction of a winding machine with an auto shut-off, coils stopped being so randomly overwound as they were in the preceding years, resulting in a pickup with less fat mids than the aforementioned pickups.

The Patent number pickups ran till late 70s (maybe beyond?) and were found in most Gibson electrics .
So Randy Rhoads '74 LP custom had such pickups and Y&T's Dave Meniketti's 1968 LP had them too, and Schenker's 70s V andf Angus' SG (and loads I haven't mentioned).

I think the Riff Raff represents this pretty well, and the sound is a mix of punchy and a little more open at the same time.

Now one trick I've seen done is that with the added clarity you can use the middle position a lot more than maybe you would with Mules
I have watched Y&T  for years and seen this done but it never sounded as good or the same with hot pickups, but with the Riff Raffs it works well:
With just the bridge pickup on you can get quite a biting tone  which crunches well, but add the neck to the mix and you get a fatter AC/DC -ish kind of tone - great for background riffs and chord work

In some ways the differences are like the differences between the Rhoads tone and the Zakk Wylde tone.

The jury's still out but I'm enjoying this new identity a lot (and thankfully I still have a Miracle Man equipped LP to play as well)

[dave_mc]

very nice :)

I like the open poles better too (normally i like covered pups on lps)

[PhilKing]

The Patent number pickups ran till late 70s (maybe beyond?) and were found in most Gibson electrics .
So Randy Rhoads '74 LP custom had such pickups and Y&T's Dave Meniketti's 1968 LP had them too, and Schenker's 70s V andf Angus' SG (and loads I haven't mentioned)

Didn't T-Tops come in around 65, with a different wire in 66 or so?  They ran till the mid-70's.

[Mr. Air]

Yeah the open poles looks great on the guitar!

[PhilKing]

btw: the Riff Raffs do look a lot better.

[FELINEGUITARS]

Didn't T-Tops come in around 65, with a different wire in 66 or so?  They ran till the mid-70's.

Ooh - maybe they did
I was going by what Tim told me years ago - maybe he's revised his understanding too
Don't T-tops have AWG42 then? and still have the pat number on the base?
I thought it was just a stamping on the plastic work of the bobbin to help make assembly easier

What was the change in wire Phil?
Was the insulation that changed?

[FernandoDuarte]

Great review!! :)
Was thiking between a A5 Mule or Riff-Raff for my LP. What do you think of the RR playing things like Lynyrd, Aerosmith, Guns n Roses?

[PhilKing]

I think it was the coating that changed, I know Tim was experimenting with a T-Top set (I have them and I think they are great).  The other difference was the covers, the shape and thickness changed I think.  It's also when they went to chrome.

Wikipedia says this:
In about 1963, Gibson switched to polyurethane-coated wire to cut costs, changing the wire color from purple to red.In addition these pickups were also given a new sticker that had the "Patent No" written on it, as opposed to "Patent Applied For" About 1965-1968, automatic pickup winding machines came into use, thus making pickups that had a consistent number of turns and a fixed DC resistance. After about 1967, the original PAF design changed. These pickups are referred to as "Pre-T-tops". Gibson began to stamp the patent number on some PAF stickers after they obtained a patent (U.S. Patent 2,896,491) for the PAF pickups. Most humbuckers were labelled with U.S. Patent 2,737,842 until 1962 and the number shown on the pickups, which actually is a patent for a Gibson trapeze tailpiece bridge and not for a pickup at all. Both true PAFs and incorrect patent marked PAFs are fairly rare today and make an expensive vintage collectors item. By the early 70s Gibson began putting a T-shaped toolmark on their pickups' bobbins. This helped the workers make sure that the bobbin was facing the correct way during assembly. During the production of this pickup many original specifications changed, like the use of a wooden maple spacer (replaced by plastic), and the thickness of the magnet (got thinner). These pickups are referred to as "T-tops". Production of these pickups continued until the late 70s/early 80s.

However I have T-Tops on my 68 335, so I think they came in the late 60's not early 70's

[FELINEGUITARS]

Thanks Phil
I see what you mean - the wire insulation changed
Is that the same as Polysol or is that something different again

Vintage Gibson Humbuckers Specs:

1956 – 1957 (“PAF”): Long (2.5”) Alnico 2, 3, 4 and 5 magnets used randomly, brushed stainless steel cover, *no* PAF sticker, automatic traverse wound with manual-stop (until bobbin was “full”), #42 plain enamel wire (purple), individual coil ohm differences, black leads on coils, ohms vary from low 7k to high 9k, black PAF-style bobbins (“square in circle” with holes). PAFs first installed on Gibson lap-steels in ‘56 and then guitars in ‘57.

1957 – 1961 (“PAF”): Long Alnico 2, 3, 4 and 5 used randomly (A2 most common), nickel cover, “Patent Applied For” sticker, automatic traverse-wound with manual-stop, #42 plain enamel wire (purple), individual coil ohm differences, black leads on both coils, ohms vary greatly – generally between 7k and 10k, black and cream (early-’59 thru mid-‘60), all bobbins black again by late ’60, PAF-style pickup bobbins.

1961 – 1962 (Late “PAF”): Smaller (2.37”) Alnico 5 magnet used for remaining production (all transitioned by July ’61), nickel cover, PAF sticker, automatic traverse-wound with manual-stop, #42 plain enamel wire (purple), black leads on both coils, individual coil ohm differences, ohms averaged 8.0k by ‘62, PAF-style bobbins.

1962 – 1964 (“Patent no.”): Alnico 5, nickel cover, “patent no.” sticker (mid-’62), polyurethane wire (starting ‘63), black/white lead wires, “auto-stop” winding starts circa-’62, PAF-style bobbins, usually 7.6k – 8.0k ohm.

1965 – 1967 (Late “Patent no.”): Alnico 5, polyurethane wire, “patent no.” sticker, bobbin wires white, Chrome cover (starts mid-’65), more durable and flatter bobbins with no “square in circle” hole circa-‘65, ohms usually between 7.4k – 8.0k. Gold-plated PAFs used in arch-top electrics as late as 1965 – “Varitone” guitars had gold-plated pickups with one pickup having a reversed magnet. This pickup style was used far less than nickel-plated pickups, thus inventory lasted thru 1965.

1967 – 1980 (“T-top”): “T” on bobbin top, Chrome cover, Alnico 5, polyurethane wire, automated winding begins ‘65 – ‘68, some ’69 – ’73 pickup covers embossed “Gibson”, “patent no.” sticker on baseplate ’67 – ’74, (patent number metal-stamped beginning 1974), ink stamp with date ’77 – ’80, ohms average 7.5k – consistently reading between 7.3k – 8.0k.

pinched from http://musicalilluminism.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/vintage-gibson-humbucker-specs-and-general-pickup-tech/

[FELINEGUITARS]

Great review!! :)
Was thiking between a A5 Mule or Riff-Raff for my LP. What do you think of the RR playing things like Lynyrd, Aerosmith, Guns n Roses?

I'd try an A5 mule with a short magnet - have one on another guitar and I love it

[FernandoDuarte]

Thanks Jonathan! :)

[Telerocker]

This guitars looks better with the open poles. Thx for the good review.  :)