Incoming NGD - Epiphone Les Paul Custom - Need Pickups!

[Keven]

Allright, so i scored a fairly nice deal on an alpine white epiphone les paul custom, and it, of course, needs BKP's.

I don't quite know what i plan to do with the guitar, but of course at heart i am a heavy metal lover, but as some may know, i favor the lower outputs over the contemporary range.

I shot an email to tim, and he basically said, for a bright les paul, black dog set, for a darker one, riff raff bridge and mule neck.

what are your thoughts? i play heavy metal, blues, jazz and fusion. part of me wants to go for a PG blues set since i am  HUGE gary moore fan, but also i know myself and i like to have a bit of midrange bark to my pickups, nothing too sweet and polite.

currently it's alpine white with gold hardware, i plan to change all the hardware to black and treat it with black battleworn covers, nice plan or blasphemy?

cheers!

[Telerocker]

I would follow Tim. The question is how bright is the EPI.

[Keven]

I'm definitely heading towards tim's choice. besides, i love the black dog anyway. got it on my 7 string, on the way for my 8 string too.

that's the point thought, how bright is it. i've been fooled once by mahogany with my 8 string, not twice!

[Telerocker]

The Black Dog has enough highs and if you value the midrange bark these are the ones in the vintagehot-category, but you already know that  :)

[dingleberry]

Definitely depends on the year of the production, 2004 - earlier epi customs actually have maple caps afaik

You'll probably have to wait til you get the guitar in order to test the relative brightness

[Keven]

i'm going to get my paws on it tommorow so i'm quite curious to see the specimen.

i'd love it to be bright to treat it with a black dog :)

what do you guys reckon would be a hotter black dog, suppose i want to go for the contemporary range? (i really like my C-Bomb)

[dingleberry]

Holydiver is supposed to be a hotter and slightly brighter Black Dog to my understanding.  I've got one in an epi prophecy custom it sounds fantastic for thrash metal.  Keep in mind is wired in a single vol no tone pot circuit

I've got an open coil black bobbin HD bridge w/53 mm spacing up for grabs, pm if interested it'll be in the seconds out bin before too long.

[Keven]

so after getting the epi, i'm heading for the holy diver direction. the body is heavy and seems to resonate a bit stiffly, doesn't have that hollow mahogany sound, so i'll give it a nudge in the right direction by going hotter. plus, i already have 2 guitars with black dogs.

battleworn camo covers and i asked tim if it was possible to go for a yellower camo look (like the warpig photo on the official site) to match the gold hardware. i'll let you know how that goes.

[Telerocker]

Now you're in the contemporary range   :) but Holydivers sound to me still quite organic and clean up well too. Like the BD's they provide this huge midrange and fat solotones, just with more hair and balls  :lol: (sorry for the language).

[Keven]

I don't mind having different flavors of good tone. recently got a blackhawk into for a jackson of mine and it sounds great so far. need to play with it some more.

[Cpt_Gonzo]

I have a set of HDs in my, rather bright, Les Paul and they smoke.

Still figuring out a wiring issue (I tend to screw up ground connections on CTS pots, don't ask me why. Using the japanese pots again now...) but so far they really brought the guitar to life!

[TheyCallMeVolume]

Good choice on the HD's. Hope you love em!