swapping pickups in my sg standard

[johnny2fingers]

I have two guitars, one's a sg 61 reissue with classic stock 57's in it
the other one is 2007 sg standard with stock pickups also


i front a band and love playing guitar and having my leads and solos pop when i finally decide to take one. i usually use the bridge pickup to get the solos to pop. personally i'd never want to use a boost pedal to make that happen, i'd rather solely use the guitars capabilities.


i am inspired by the likes of tony iommi, chuck berry and jimi hendrix. tonally i love angus young (from the george young and harry vanda days)


i generally enjoy the overall tone of the classic 57's over the stocks pickups of the standard but i'm thinking about purchasing a bridge pickup so i don't get buried during times when the band gets all excited and leaning towards a black dog or a riff raff or a mule....

any suggestions or guidance would be more than welcome and appreciated =]

thanks

-j2f

[darrenw5094]

I would say the Mule would cover the bases best, slightly scooped but compensated with the SG. The RR would also work and obvious for the ACDC thing. But the Black Dog is fairly middy and might not sit well in the SG. The Hot Vintage sets are not advised in SG's in general, but some might disagree.

[littleredguitars2]

if you want something similar in voicing to the classic 57 you're probably going to want the mule. i havent used one but everyone hear says its like a classic 57 but better in pretty much every aspect.

[Slartibartfarst42]

The vast majority of what you talk about suggests something from the vintage line. The Riff Raff and the Mule were the first ones to leap to mind. The reference to Jimi Hendrix obviously suggests single coils so a humbucker that would coil split would be nice too. The trouble is that the vintage pickups aren't really hot enough to split well. As an alternative to the Mule I'd therefore also suggest taking a look at the Abraxas, which is basically a Mule with a good bit more power so should coil split a lot better. There was a thread a while back from a guy who put an Abraxas in an SG with some very good results. Of course, the odd one out in your list is Tony Iommi because his name suggests a Warpig, which is anything but vintage.

It seems to me that you have a few choices here. If you want to keep things vintage in nature and not worry too much about coil splits or Tony Iommi, put a Mule in one and a Riff Raff in the other. If you want a bit more versatility so that you can use coil splits and keep a PAF nature while also being able to delve into Heavy Rock and even some Metal, put an Abraxas in one and a Riff Raff in the other. If you want the extremes in your two guitars, put a Warpig in one and either a Mule or Riff Raff in the other.

Once you have that sorted out, your neck pickups will start to sound quite poor and then you'll be back to find out which neck options go with whatever you choose for the bridge in each guitar  :D

[darrenw5094]

Then you will want a new guitar and more BKP and on and on.

[Telerocker]

Mules! And you might consider a boost. I just purchased a TC Electronic Spark Boost (four knobs, three toggle-modes), which is a very versatile boost for no money. It even has a gain knob to get a fine crunchy tone.

[johnny2fingers]

Firstly thanks for all the input!

Telerocker: I do actually have a TC elec spark mini boost actually, just a one knob volume boost. 

personally i'd like to feel less reliant on it.

when i mentioned hendrix i was referring to the way he expresses himself with feedback, i can never get the modern pickups to have a nice warm feed back like the classic 57s

normally when i have my volume knobs, the neck is at 4-7 and the bridge is 9-10

why are vintage hot not advised in an SG?

[Dave Sloven]

Apparently out of the vintage hot range the Black Dog works well (maybe someone can confirm this?)

Some pickups can get either muddy or very middy/hairy when installed in SGs.  Any pickup with strong low (or perhaps 'mid-low') mids is best avoided in an SG unless you specifically want that kind of sound - the A-Bomb is an example, the Painkiller is probably another - and maybe some of the Vintage Hot ones have the same issue.

I started a thread somewhere asking which pickups would be good in SGs but didn't get much by way of answers, although I did compile the collected wisdom of this site there the best I could.

https://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=30557.0

Black Dog was the only one in the vintage hot range that I found good reports on in an SG.

From the contemporary range Crawler and Holy Diver pickups had bad reports.   I couldn't find any information for the Blackhawks in this application.  With the exception of the Rebel Yell and the A-Pig the preference was clearly for a ceramic bridge pickup: Cold Sweat, Miracle Man, C-Bomb, C-Pig.  Painkiller and Aftermath were uncertain, with very little information.  I've heard a video of a Painkiller in an SG and didn't like it.  A-Bomb is the pickup with the most mixed reports in an SG.  Depends a lot on a combination of factors.

I didn't find any examples of PG Blues in an SG but all of the vintage ones that were mentioned had good reports in SGs.

If you want something hotter but still vintage sounding I would go Black Dog, if you want hotter and more '80s sounding go Rebel Yell or Cold Sweat.  Doesn't sound like you are in the market for a Miracle Man, but they have extremely good reports in SGs. 

[Slartibartfarst42]

why are vintage hot not advised in an SG?

To be honest I'm not sure. It's the perceived wisdom I've read on here a few times yet it sounds like the Black Dog will work in an SG and there's certainly been a thread where an Abraxas worked well. That's 50% of the vintage hots that work ok so they can't be that bad. Like everything else, I guess it's just picking the best pickup option for a given guitar and application.

[johnny2fingers]

so after lots of thought, i'm really leaning towards getting a set of stormy mondays,

i was leaning towards a sm neck and a riff raff bridge, but in my head it seems like it'd be closer to a T480 (or whatever the stock gibson pickup is)

i know  i love the tone of the classic 57's and i think this will just be a little more articulate and with the same soul....
so i'm leanin g towards a calibrated set of stormy monday....
that's where my brain is at right now anyway...........

[ericsabbath]

they're nothing like the 498t and way superior to the 490t/490r

[johnny2fingers]

okay, ya and upon further reading it's like the riff raff's brighten things up... i do think i'm gonna get a sm in the neck riff raff in the bridge. I AM EXCITED!