anyone ever use the lp custom lite?

[oncesolemn]

Billy confirmed he employs 498s, in Guitarist and again in Total Guitar I believe, earlier this year..

I guess this pickup responds well with a very particular playing style and attack..While it won't work for a majority, it can perform with a few-Billy, as well as my rather less talented fingers to name but two!

[littleredguitars2]

its not a BAD pickup. it works well for a lot of people. but i can see why a lot of people including myself would choose to change it. i'm pretty sure the only guitars i've used them in were the 2 SG standards i had. and while i liked the sound at the time, if i still had it, i'd probably switch it for something else. maybe a holy diver or something

[oncesolemn]

The Holydiver is actually the pickup I swapped my 498 for, out of a Les Paul! :D

[Dave Sloven]

The 498T is a bit thin sounding and lacks definition compared to a BKP.  On the whole though I much preferred it to the 490R in the neck, which I really hated.  Overly warm and wooly sounding.  I have no idea why some people like it, but there seem to be a lot of fans.  Different styles I guess.  Needless to say the Cold Sweats are a MASSIVE improvement!!!!!

I know people say that the 498T has a decent amount of output but with the 300K pots that come with SGs from the factory I didn't notice the output. I changed pickups and pots at the same time so I'm not sure how much was caused by the pots.  Anyway I liked the 498T it a LOT more than the 490R, which I avoided

[Philly Q]

The 498T is a bit thin sounding and lacks definition compared to a BKP.  On the whole though I much preferred it to the 490R in the neck, which I really hated.  Overly warm and wooly sounding.  I have no idea why some people like it, but there seem to be a lot of fans.  Different styles I guess.  Needless to say the Cold Sweats are a MASSIVE improvement!!!!!

I quite like the 490R.  But I like warm and woolly.  :lol:

[Dave Sloven]

I've you love the sonic equivalent of a sheep, it's for you ;)

Personally I have a low tolerance for warm and woolly in the context of what I generally play.  I didn't mind it that much clean, but then it wasn't amazing either.  Distorted it was @ss

[littleredguitars2]

Yeah I almost never used the 490

[Dave Sloven]

Believe me, if you had an SG Standard still you would want a Cold Sweat or Rebel Yell set for those '80s sounds. The Holy Diver has a reputation for being muddy in SGs.  The Miracle Man is also reputed to be excellent in the SG, and in fact it seems like the guitar best suited to the MM in many ways.

But yeah I'm always surprised that the 490R doesn't get as much flak as the 498T.  I found the 490R almost unusable in terms of sound.  That Gibson has this as a standard set in SGs is puzzling.

[Philly Q]

A thinner, lighter Les Paul Custom was almost a brilliant idea.  If this had an ebony - or even richlite - board I'd be all over it (I would, though, pull out the stupid coil split switch and add a second tone control).

OK, I know this is a really old thread, but.... I got over my reservations about the rosewood board. 

The guitar ticked so many boxes for me, I just had to get one.

[Dmoney]

damn. There aren't many guitars these days I really care about, but I'd love a custom lite. I really want one in the metallic kinda pink though. still. I am a jealous guy right now. If you ever want to move that on... hit me up.

[Philly Q]

damn. There aren't many guitars these days I really care about, but I'd love a custom lite. I really want one in the metallic kinda pink though. still. I am a jealous guy right now. If you ever want to move that on... hit me up.

It's probably only a matter of time....  :lol:

But no, I'm liking it a lot at the moment.  The thin body makes a huge difference, not just to the weight but even more to the way the guitar feels - it's so much more manageable, more like an SG or PRS.

The pink ones are cool, but eBay prices for them are too high.  There's some guy who lists his on eBay every now and then for some ludicrous price, about $10,000 I think.  Of course he hasn't sold it!

The 2013 model has pluses and minuses compared with the '80s version - you lose the ebony board (although I doubt rosewood sounds any worse) but gain a bigger '50s neck profile (although I wouldn't mind if it was a bit more chunky, to be honest).

[Lew]

Lovely  8) keeping it stock? Or changing pickups?

[Philly Q]

Lovely  8) keeping it stock? Or changing pickups?

Not quite an NGD thread, but....  :lol:

Stock for now, but I still have my set of Emeralds, it would be silly not to try them at some point.

I think the coil split switch looks ridiculous, but don't want to commit to drilling any holes just yet.

[Dave Sloven]

Is the coil split switch in the same location as a bridge tone pot would be?  If so I would enlarge the hole to fit a tone pot and install push-push tone pots if I wanted coil splits.

Emeralds would be nice, but take care to not install an overly bright capacitor on the bridge pickup.  Might be one more reason to get away from the master tone format

On my most recent harness I went for modern wiring, a treble bleed, and a 0.033uf poly cap just because it's quite a bright guitar (SG Junior) and 500K pots might be overkill for a P-90. I'll see.  I have a 0.022uf cap on standby if it ends up too dark.

[Philly Q]

Is the coil split switch in the same location as a bridge tone pot would be?  If so I would enlarge the hole to fit a tone pot and install push-push tone pots if I wanted coil splits.

Yep, it's exactly where the bridge tone control would be, so an easy mod to replace it with a pot but I'm a bit hesitant - only because once I've enlarged the hole there's no going back.  I don't really like to do irreversible mods after all the silly things I did when I was young (fitting Kahlers etc).

If I do it, I might opt for a push-pull or push-push coil split, but the body may actually be too thin to fit a push-pull pot.