i have a Gibson les paul standard Goldtop what BKP to replace stock

[Kiichi]

I have a PG Blues set in my Goldtop and love it for Blues and Classic Rock playing.  Many of the original songs in this era were lower output humbuckers, and the classic Fleetwood Mac tones are solidly built into this set (not to mention it was used by Gary Moore too).

Oh my yes, how could I forget those. Absolutly a phantastic option too.

[peter]

thanks for all replyes i checked out crawler neck on soundclips sweet so im gonna get crawler i think superb on clean and distorted neck that is bridge was poor in performance so still looking for bridge but its probably gonna be rebel yell bridge :D

[Kiichi]

Crawler neck with an RY bridge could be a bit of a missmatch in my mind. The Crawler neck is sweet and powerful, but also rather compressed and full. Somewhat unlike the RY. Now this might just be what you are going for but consider that The Mule works great, the Abraxas is a fatter, hotter mule which also works great and then the Crawler neck is even hotter and fatter, so that might be a bit too much for the RY bridge which is not the fattest of HBs and has that upper mid spike. Very different.

Edit: The softness of the bass of the Crawler neck also needs to be noted. Again, the RY has a quite different character there.

[peter]

ok how would pg bridge and crawler neck do?

[Dave Sloven]

You definitely want more output on the bridge pickup than on the neck.  The neck will always be naturally louder so there is a real danger of it overpowering a bridge pickup of the same output rating.

If you like the sound of the Crawler neck, and you like the idea of a higher output bridge like the Rebel Yell but want something that sonically fits with the Crawler neck I would recommend the Crawler set.

All of the humbucker sets have been tested in LPs and all of the clips for them are recorded in an LP, so the clip should provide a good indication of what each pickup will sound like.  What it does not tell you is how they will sound together.  Calibrated sets though are always a safe bet.

[peter]

thanks a bit tired today but yeah crawler set it is i think

[Slartibartfarst42]

I didn't realise when I started to read this thread that the tastes and opinions of myself and Kiichi are now so close that we're merging into one person!  :D I'll need to say something that provides a bit of distance between us.

I've heard nothing but good things about the Rebel Yell in a Les Paul but for me, it's too much of a Rock pickup for what you want and it seems to me that the hotter you go, the further you move away from the classic Gibson Les Paul voicing that the OP is after. Providing the guitar isn't hugely dark and you do want some power in the pickup, putting a Crawler in the bridge is the obvious solution. It's hot and has some real growl to it but unlike other pups in the contemporary section, it's not massively tight and retains more of the PAF DNA than the others. Of all the pickups I've tried, the Crawler gives you the largest operating window, though I believe the Mule and Abraxas are also very good at that. You can play Blues with it, Blues Rock, Classic Rock and it will even take you into some early Metal styles. There's a real richness to its tone that is simply sublime. If you weren't going to get the Crawler in the bridge, I'd only really be looking at the Abraxas or Mule, though I find Kiici's suggestion of a Black Dog to be a really interesting one. If you want vintage tone in the neck, I'd just use a Mule regardless of which of these bridge pickups you select.

So that I don't distance myself too much from my good friend Kiichi, I'm also going to say that whatever pickups you choose, remember to spend time playing around with the height of the pickup as Bare Knuckles are incredibly sensitive to height adjustment. You can also do a great deal to tweak your tone by lowering the height of the pickup but raising the height of the pole pieces as this can do wonders in adding note definition and losing a bit of bass.  8)

[Telerocker]

We're talking Les Paul here. I would not go with a Crawler-neck unless the guitar has a bright timbre. The Crawler-neck can smoother a LP. I think blues/ bluesrock ask for an open, deepsounding, dynamic, balanced PAF, which good chime in the inbetween-setting. I would really look once more at the PG Blues and Mule. If you want to rock a bit too: Mules. I get great hardrock-tones with Mules. 

[Kiichi]

I didn't realise when I started to read this thread that the tastes and opinions of myself and Kiichi are now so close that we're merging into one person!  :D I'll need to say something that provides a bit of distance between us.

I've heard nothing but good things about the Rebel Yell in a Les Paul but for me, it's too much of a Rock pickup for what you want and it seems to me that the hotter you go, the further you move away from the classic Gibson Les Paul voicing that the OP is after. Providing the guitar isn't hugely dark and you do want some power in the pickup, putting a Crawler in the bridge is the obvious solution. It's hot and has some real growl to it but unlike other pups in the contemporary section, it's not massively tight and retains more of the PAF DNA than the others. Of all the pickups I've tried, the Crawler gives you the largest operating window, though I believe the Mule and Abraxas are also very good at that. You can play Blues with it, Blues Rock, Classic Rock and it will even take you into some early Metal styles. There's a real richness to its tone that is simply sublime. If you weren't going to get the Crawler in the bridge, I'd only really be looking at the Abraxas or Mule, though I find Kiici's suggestion of a Black Dog to be a really interesting one. If you want vintage tone in the neck, I'd just use a Mule regardless of which of these bridge pickups you select.

So that I don't distance myself too much from my good friend Kiichi, I'm also going to say that whatever pickups you choose, remember to spend time playing around with the height of the pickup as Bare Knuckles are incredibly sensitive to height adjustment. You can also do a great deal to tweak your tone by lowering the height of the pickup but raising the height of the pole pieces as this can do wonders in adding note definition and losing a bit of bass.  8)

Ah yes, height adjustment!!!!  :lol:

Also you canīt really distance yourself too much from me with a Crawler recommendation when I was one of the (if the not the single) largest pushers for you to get one in the first place.  8)

However I am more with telerocker on this I must say, to a good part cause this is after all a LP. RY is cool, but on the modern side, but for true blues rock the Mule is hard to beat and the PG Blues I forgot is a no brainer too.

[Slartibartfarst42]

Yes, you did indeed push hard for me to get a Crawler bridge and for that I am forever in your debt because it's just fantastic.

I'd agree that for true Blues and Blues Rock tone, the Mule or Abraxas might be best (I'd have thought the PG was more Blues than Blues Rock but I've never tried it myself) but surely if you want to go hotter and get that tone, the Crawler has to be a more obvious choice than the far more modern and Rocky Rebel Yell? Just because it's a Les Paul surely doesn't mean it has to be a Rebel Yell.

Anyway, it's not like we're a million miles apart. We agree that the Mule would be awesome and I am happy to defer to your experience in suggesting that the PG would be a good and more Bluesy option. As a hotter version of the Mule, I doubt you'd argue too much with a suggestion of an Abraxas so it's really only in the more contemporary interpretation of what he's after where we differ. I see the argument for the Rebel Yell perfectly well and if the emphasis is on Rock, I think it would be a very good choice, but if the emphasis is more on Blues Rock and a more PAF tone, I still think the Crawler is a more viable option.  :D

[Kiichi]

If you only you would have also liked the Crawler neck as much...well canīt have a perfect record. ;)

Oh the Crawler is viable in this case, no doubt. Could work wonderfully. I just advise caution in a LP. In a brigter, thinner guitar I would have less reservations. I am trying to extend Telerockers warning about the Crawler neck in a LP. We all know LP is not LP, so it can work perfectly, but the richness of the Crawler plus the richness of a LP can be too much and "smother" it. If the Crawler is the weapong of choice you gotta make sure the timbre works with it, cause that is the difference between bliss and "meh".

The Mule, Abraxas and PG blues are just much safer in a LP. Heck you can put the mule in anything and it will be great.

[Telerocker]

I think it's a matter how open and articulate the OP wants his pickups to be. The Crawler is a great and my doing-all-tones-pickup in my strat, but compared to Mules it's quite compressed. And if you have a thick sounding LP you don't have to go hot anyway.

[Slartibartfarst42]

In my defense, I did qualify my suggestion of a Crawler by stating that 'Providing the guitar isn't hugely dark' but I do think that in many Les Pauls it could work fine. When I first got the Crawler my immediate thought was that it would only work if the Les Paul had a thick maple cap but I've had to refine that since. OK, my Les Paul copy is only a cheap Vintage but it's entirely mahogany and I have no doubt at all that the Crawler would sound awesome in it. It all depends on the individual guitar but I think in many cases the description on the website is accurate and it will work in both Strats and Les Pauls. 

[Kiichi]

Well looks like we are like 99% on the same page after all, just had to read through it properly.  :o

I can just sign everything you just sayd as usual. Oh yeah, Telerocker too.

[Telerocker]

Yeah, we don't disagree at all, I think. Slarti you're right about why the Crawler was designed. Geoff Whitehorn wanted a pickup that would do great in a strat and a LP. Personally I think it excels in alder/ash-bolt-ons and can work good to very good in bright or - at least - not dark LP's.

Back to the OP. It would be nice if he refines his requirements.