Hello,
I had a few questions regarding pickup recommendations to go into a few of my guitars.
The first guitar is a Gibson Historic 335 ’59 RI: The guitar itself is pretty balanced sound wise and is pretty lively unplugged. I currently have a set of Peter Florance Voodoo ’59 humbuckers, which are good, but I feel like the bridge lacks a little clarity, snap, and oomph. The neck is almost there for me as far as tone and feel go. I have replaced the pots and caps with .22 PIO caps and 500k (550 range marked) pots and 50’s wiring. The tone I am after is a little more ballsy than what a traditional semi-hollow body bridge tone is usually thought of. I am definitely a big fan of Noel Gallagher’s later Oasis tones he got from his 355. Especially the following clips where Gem Archer is playing the 355.
https://youtu.be/24WGlLc2dDkhttps://youtu.be/aTazU6cea6M I’m also a big fan of John Squire’s sound from the second Stone Roses album, most notably on Love Spreads.
https://youtu.be/ct-qa6SjRZo I also like the sounds that Nick McCabe gets on the second Verve album and Johnny Marr’s 355 sounds.
https://youtu.be/PgsPAsno4OUThe Neck- I really enjoy the Clapton Cream era tones. Sweet, round, and clear throughout the volume knob, balanced and does not lose the definition when the amp and guitar get wound up.
The second guitar is a ’95 Gibson LP Studio: This guitar seems to get better with age. I’ve had this one for the last 14-15 years. It is pretty balanced for the most part, but not as full as the 335 unplugged, which I usually attribute to this being solid and heavier. I've had the stock 490 and 498 Gibson set, a Seymour Duncan set in this: APH Pro 2 in the neck and a JB in the bridge, and currently have a Wolfetone set Dr. V Neck with a full strength A2 mag, and a Marshall A5 bridge The JB is a little to screaming for me a lot of the time, but was great when I needed that higher output. The APH IIneck sounds great, but it does not have the feel and touch response. The wolfetone set really brought out the best of this guitar, which I was on the fence about selling. Though I have been noticing there is a certain frequency in these pickups which can either be
really pleasing or
really hard to tune out. Unfortunately I've been unable to dial this out on my guitar or amp(s).
The sounds I’m going for are pretty much the same as above for the bridge pick up:
https://youtu.be/j6lmbHnh_Z0Plus the whole Page, Billy Gibbons, classic Les Paul wielding rock staples, etc. Clarity and edge
The same sounds/feel go for the neck pickup above. I have installed the same kind of wiring harness that is in the 335
The third guitar is a Fender Am. Series Telecaster. This is an alder body and rosewood board guitar. The guitar itself is pretty chimey and ballsy. I am looking to accentuate those attributes. Some tele-ish sounds I am going for are in the video clips below.
https://youtu.be/aO7mxofsQXQhttps://youtu.be/CwPQFOoPHLw I really enjoy the Beck and Page Yardbird sound and Early Zep Page Tele tones. I also like Steve Cropper’s Green Onion sound. I am not really into the super traditional tele sound, but to have some of the woodiness, “cluck” and spank is welcome. More of the rock and roll “telecaster sound”. I have a three-way switch and 250-280k pots and an .22 Orange drop capacitor for wiring currently. I am looking to maybe put a PIO cap of the same value or a .47pf in when I upgrade
I spoke with Ben at BKP, and he recommended the Mule Neck and Riff Raff Bridge set for both Gibsons. If I wanted a hair more aggression for the LP he recommended the Black Dog. For the Tele Ben was pretty adamant on the Brown Sugar set, which surprised me on how great those sound. Almost like a Riff Raff single coil for Teles.
I should mention that my amps are as follows:
a JMI era Vox AC15 inspired 1x12 combo with the EF86 preamp channel and the dark/normal channel with a Celestion Alnico Blue RI
A 6G6-B Fender Blonde Bassman inspired amp running through a Fender Supersonic 2x12 cab with Scumback 65 watt PVC Scumnicos in a 8 ohm load. This amp is somewhere between the 6G6-B, a bigger AC30, and a JTM-45 JTM-50 Bass sound, I had a JTM-50 1986 circuit repro for a while and these two were very very close in sound.
My pedal board consists of a couple OD pedals, a range master type boost pedal, some Tonebender style fuzz pedals, tremolo, univibe, and a couple vintage analog delay pedals
I just wanted to see what the general consensus is on these pickups. I don't know if any of you have tried/used the Wolfetone or Florance pickups I mentioned, but any insight how the BKP's recommended compare/contrast would be great. Also, any Brown Sugar insight would be welcomed. It was hard to find some clips on the BS set, but what I've dug up had me sold pretty fast. I was looking at the Yardbird and Flat 50's bridge and Flat 52 neck, but the BS seemed to have the ballsiness and chime that would suit my Tele to a "T"!! I've had a few sets in this tele. They've been either too sterile, to hi-fi, and just flat out lifeless and uninspiring. The Brown Sugars seem like the saving grace for this tele!
