Les paul custom lite- new pick up to fattening/beef up the sound

[panoth]

ive just got my new gibson les paul custom lite. Its a slimmer body version of the usual les paul custom with 490R and 498T pup on.

While i am very satisfied with a more comfortable size and weight of this custom lite, it also sound thinner than the original les paul custom. Especially when I'm playing solo or single note. Therefore i want to change the pick ups to make it sound fuller and closer (possibly closest) to the original les paul custom

Please help advise me which Bare Knuckle set of pick ups would do the job???
 i have never tried Bare Knuckle before but I've been hearing so many good thing about it.

I am playing classic rock to heavy rock type of music. Need to play clean tone also on some slow ballad songs.

After looking in this website info on each pick up i am interested in

- War pig
- Holy driver
- Nailbomb
- JUGGERNAUT 

Thank you for your help in advance

[Slartibartfarst42]

Out of those four I'd say it had to be either the Holydiver or alnico Nailbomb but they're good at different things so it depends on the exact style you want and how bright the guitar is.

[ericsabbath]

Black dog or holy diver
Or the crawler

But "classic" and "heavy" isn't specific enough for definitive answers
Also, amps and pedals matter a lot

[CommonCourtesy]

I've just had the Aftermath put into my Les Paul and its awesome! The mids proper leap up and low end is more meaty, the guitar barks now instead of whimpers.

I've also put a Nailbomb in another Les Paul and its very zingy and bright. Still very good and maintains clarity.

As the posters say above, depends what style you want.

[Telerocker]

With a highgainamp you could pick a vintagehot pickup like the middy Black Dog. Otherwise a Crawler or a Holy Diver,

[panoth]

i am playing the custom lite with blackstar HT Dual pedal for overdrive/distortion going into a fender hotrod deluxe amplifier. So no highgain heads with big cab or anything just simple combo set. However, the Pa system that im playing through is quite big. the current issue is the complaint from my FOH sound engineer. he said that whenever i pick the custom lite to play it sounds thinner than my normal les paul custom through the PA system especially when im doing the solo. i know the simple solution would be stick to the normal custom( thats what the sound guy said anyway) but ive already felt in love with the comfort that lite version provided. Thus im trying to find the way to keep my custom lite in the setlist.

a few of you have mentioned Crawler how is that compare to holy driver/ nailbomb or JUGGERNAUT. what are their main difference?

and would Warpig be too bassy for my purpose or just to put it to a les paul lite? 

thank you very much for your suggestions above

[Slartibartfarst42]

I discuss the difference between the Holydiver and Crawler pickups extensively here:

https://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=31081.0

Compared to these two the Nailbomb and Juggernaut sound much more modern, aggressive and tight.

[gwEm]

what about some examples of bands you'd like to sound like?

BKP definitely has something in their range for you. You say classic/heavy rock - that tends to guide towards something like the Crawler. If you mean some type of metal, I'm sure we can look at the more aggressive side of the range.

Lots of BKPs might do what you want :)

[Alex]

Black Dog or Holy Diver would be my choice, as I don't know the Warpig or Juggernaut (yet).

[Slartibartfarst42]

Yeah, I would say that for the styles you mention, the Holydiver, Crawler and Black Dog are all excellent choices.

[Arthurus]

I have the Juggernaut, and I don't think this would be the right pickup. I have to agree with what the others said - either the Crawler or the Holydiver. The Black Dog would also be nice I think.
It may not be the pickups you deserved, but these are the pickups you need.  :lol:

[nkay]

I just bought a Gibson Les Paul Custom Lite myself. Although it lacks a bit of the real low end and depth you get from a full thickness Les Paul, I thought it sounded very resonant myself with some great controlled bass with more sparkle on top. Sort of a halfway between a Les Paul and bolt-on neck Strat style.

I put in the Holy Divers for what I play (mostly metal although they do hard rock just fine), and they sound freakin' amazing in this guitar. I wasn't too happy with that pickup in previous superstrats that I tried, but in this guitar it just shines and I think it's the perfect guitar for  the Diver's EQ curve, whereas a big thick Les Paul would be too thick and muddy, and a superstat not enough ooomph (from my experience).

Otherwise I would also recommend the Black Dog. I have it in a Les Paul Traditional that was a little thin/plinky on top for single notes in the high range, and this pickup thickened it right up. So I think it would work too. It's much more grindy and deeper sounding than the Holy Diver, and of course being lower output in the hot PAF range, but it takes crazy gain and I can imagine it would sound excellent in the Custom Lite as well.