Pickups for a bright 1978 Les Paul Custom. Mule or Abraxas?

[Gary_Goo]

I'm looking for new pickups for my 1978 Les Paul Custom. With its maple neck and ebony fingerboard its quite a bright guitar. At the moment it has uncovered Stormy Mondays (purely as I already had some laying around) in it. The problem is theyre just too bright in there and are a little too hollow in the mids at the bridge and a little soft in the bottom end once overdriven for what I'd like.
I want both good clean and dirty tones. I'll be using this guitar as something versatile to play anything from pop, classic rock to punk rock, but no metal. I'll also be getting these pickups with aged covers to match the originals that came with the guitar.
The current recommendations are Mules, VHII and Abraxas. I've ruled out the VHII as I just didn't like the clips I heard, so its a toss up between the other two.
I don't fear top end, but I'm wary that Mules, although fatter sounding than Stormy Mondays, will still be too bright. My worry with the Abraxas is that the bridge will have a little too much mid in there.
Any suggestions/comments would be appreciated, especially from Abraxas users, as they seem to be a somewhat overlooked and less popular pickup.

[TheyCallMeVolume]

If SM's are too bright, there's not a whole lot you can do there. Try a covered Mule?

[gwEm]

Black Dogs are darker voiced.

Stormy Mondays are definitely a little loose in the bass end, it can be a good characteristic for those jazzy moments, but not always.

[ericsabbath]

black dogs love maple necks

[Gary_Goo]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, but I'm not sure you're really getting the point of my original post or answering my original question.
Uncovered Stormy Mondays are bright pickups even though Alnico II has a sweet top end. Add to that hollow mids and theyre very clean and clear sounding pickups. Covered Mules may be the answer, but its already been suggested to me and pointed out that if I find the SM's too bright then Mules may be too bright also.
I've had Black Dogs in another Les Paul, tried the bridge pickup in this guitar and now theyre in my parts box. They just weren't for me. Even though its darker its still quite an aggressive pickup and a bit too unnaturally middy for my taste. I don't disregard them automatically, as if something sounds good it sounds good, but I've never liked any of the Alnico V pickups I've tried.
I'm looking for something well balanced, that tames the top end enough not to be harsh, but doesn't particularly sound forced or have an overly pronounced eq, hence wanting to know about the Abraxas really.

[ericsabbath]

dog is very midrangy indeed, specially with a maple neck

mules are bright, but not overly bright
the vhii's have a quite strong treble and bass response
maybe the abraxas might work

[PhilKing]

I've got Abraxas pickups in 2 guitars, an old 79 Hamer Sunburst and a 2001 PRS Singlecut.  They are a really nice sounding hot vintage humbucker.  I swapped out Crawlers from the singlecut, as they weren't giving me the sounds I was looking for (they are a very balanced pickup but I wanted a bit more PAF character).  The AIV magnet is more polite than the AV and helps give some better note clarity with drive.  I also have Black Dogs in an old 53 LP conversion that I originally put the Abraxas into.  The Black Dogs are a more mid happy pickup and work well in the 53, as it weighs about 7.5lbs.  With a bit more weight, the Abraxas works really well.  I also have Emeralds, Mules, VHII's, Stormy Mondays, PG Blues, Rebel Yells, Miracle Men and some more custom BK's in a range of LP & PRS guitars.   I have Emeralds in one of my Customs, but it is an all mahogany body, so they work really well in it.  They might be a little bright for you if SM's are bright in the guitar. 

[bandmaster188]

just put an abraxas set in my lp standard, replacing the stock burstbuckers. my initial thought was that the guitar sounded quite a bit darker in comparison to the burstbuckers. not in a bad way at all though. i would describe it as thicker with more weight to it now. so the abraxas set could be the way to go. i'm really loving them and the neck pickup is so clear and sweet sounding.

[Miracle Man]

Do you have 500k volume pots in your guitar? You should try a 300k pot in there first, it will tone down the top end and the midrange will seem a bit fuller that way.

You could also just solder different value resistors to the outside terminals of the volume pot and use a parallel resistor calculator you can find online to figure out what value sounds right to you (example: 500k pot with 500k resistor across terminals simulates a 250k pot... plus you can try all the values inbetween this way).

This is probably the cheapest experiment that might give you great results. I know Tim and other BKP staff usually suggest 500k (or 550k) pots with their pickups, but there are no hard rules with this stuff. IIRC, there are several forum members that like 300k pots with BKP humbuckers in some cases (me included).

A few weeks ago I replaced a 550k (measured 548k) pot with a 500k (measured 498k) pot to tone down the brightness of an Emerald bridge humbucker. That 50k difference definitely did the trick 

[Alex]

black dog gets my vote too!

[BigB]

I know Tim and other BKP staff usually suggest 500k (or 550k) pots with their pickups, but there are no hard rules with this stuff.

FWIW, Tim himself recently suggested 300K pots to tame the hi end of a bright LP.

@Gary: I have no experience with the Abraxas myself, but they are often described (by users and the BKP team) as mostly overwound Mules so they might just be what you're after.

[ericsabbath]

I don't think they're actually overwound
the abraxas bridge model has a thinner wire gauge, so it has a hotter dc reading
neck model is pretty close to the neck mule

[Gibson 1964]

I'm looking for new pickups for my 1978 Les Paul Custom. With its maple neck and ebony fingerboard its quite a bright guitar. At the moment it has uncovered Stormy Mondays (purely as I already had some laying around) in it. The problem is theyre just too bright in there and are a little too hollow in the mids at the bridge and a little soft in the bottom end once overdriven for what I'd like.
I want both good clean and dirty tones. I'll be using this guitar as something versatile to play anything from pop, classic rock to punk rock, but no metal. I'll also be getting these pickups with aged covers to match the originals that came with the guitar.
The current recommendations are Mules, VHII and Abraxas. I've ruled out the VHII as I just didn't like the clips I heard, so its a toss up between the other two.
I don't fear top end, but I'm wary that Mules, although fatter sounding than Stormy Mondays, will still be too bright. My worry with the Abraxas is that the bridge will have a little too much mid in there.
Any suggestions/comments would be appreciated, especially from Abraxas users, as they seem to be a somewhat overlooked and less popular pickup.

To me, it sounds like you are describing the abraxas, though if you are too worried about the mids, I would go mules. Heck, I want a pair of unpotted mules at some point.

I have the abraxas and I think it tends to have a good paf sound, more singing than some, and a little less high end presence than some.  But to me, it sounds like you are describing an abraxas.

[timmy_b]

I don't think they're actually overwound
the abraxas bridge model has a thinner wire gauge, so it has a hotter dc reading
neck model is pretty close to the neck mule

..absolutely correct, they use a different wire gauge, which affects the voicing by a fair bit.

In this case, I would recommend the mules AND the pot switchout. There is nothing wrong at all with the Abraxas in a guitar like this, but I just get the impression that you like the SMs apart from the brightness and I'm mindful that it's a big jump in output from the Stormy to an Abraxas. If you want something a little hotter, then by all means give the Abraxas a go, you will definitely find a broader, fatter tone from an alnico4-driven pickup

[Gary_Goo]

Thanks everyone. I have a 1983 LP Custom with the same maple neck construction that has SM's in and sounds great, but I'm not particularly favouring the SM tone or indeed trying to stay close to it. I also have a LP Standard that I've been considering switching to Mules at some point. I don't want all of these guitars to sound too similar, so having one with hotter pickups wouldn't be the worst thing in the world and its not like the Abraxas is stupidly hot.
I'm not really sure that helps me pick which one to try first, but I think it does help to know people's actual playing experiences with these pickups and it seems either will do a good job. The Abraxas seems to be the lesser used of the two, but I see that people still rate it as a versatile set. I did think the neck pickup tones sounded nicer than the Mule in the clips, so maybe it's worth giving a try.
Thanks again for the objective opinions.