New Pickups for ALL My Guitars! Need recommendations!

[fuzzy.pinetree]

I'm looking to replace the pickups in all of my guitars, mostly cause I feel it's time for some change, they've all been the same for 10+ years.

First guitar is a Les Paul Traditional. It started with stock Gibson humbuckers w/ coil splits and a db boost. Took all of that out almost immediately after getting the guitar and put in a set of Seth Lover's w/ 50's wiring and a treble bleed circuit. I like the Lover's and they've done well for the last 10 years, but it's time for an upgrade. I'd like something that can do ambient clean stuff and brutal doomy heavy stuff, but the EQ of the Silo seems a bit lacking in the top end. I'm not gonna be setting it up for split coils or anything so having those capabilities aren't important to me.

Second guitar is a partscaster I built a few years ago. The body is from a Fender Jim Root tele, so it's solid mahogany with the finish stripped. Maple neck with Goncalo Alves fretboard. It's currently got Gibson P94 humbucker sized P90's in it, with a treble bleed circuit. They sound okay at best. The neck pickup is way too dark for that guitar, just so much low end and not much balance. The bridge pickup is better, but hardly any dynamic range with them. I'd like to put some HSP90's in it, and I'm considering the Nantucket or Mississippi Queen but I'm not sure which, or if a different one would be better?

Third guitar is a Custom Shop '60 Strat. It's still got the stock pickups, Texas Special's with a 1/2 blender, but I definitely want something different. I need a beefier bridge pickup, the current one is good but I'd like more sustain/output and just overall more useable. I use the bridge pup a lot for leads with quite a bit of gain, think Andy Timmons style tones. The middle pickup is fine, I don't use it much except for positions 2 & 4 occasionally. The neck pickup could do with a little more "woodiness" or "hollowness", it get's muddy with gain and doesn't clean up all too well.

[Dave Sloven]

Not sure about the second and third guitars, but if you are looking for Paradise Lost type doom tones the Black Hawks are the ticket

[b.gandt]

Re HSP90s, I understand that the Mississippi and Nantucket are fairly similar pickups.  A BKP employee did say that the Nantucket neck has a wee bit more cut...if I understood him correctly.

I use a Nantucket in the bridge of a mahoganey body and neck Hamer.  Through a 68 Plexi clone it can nail the crunch you hear at the opening of AC/DC's It A Long Way To The Top, and is just really great at that general sound.  That's plugged straight in.  It does well getting heavier sounds with an OD box.

I'm using a Supermassive in the bridge of another Hamer with a similar body/neck.  This is probably my favorite, medium output gives it a bit more grind that the Nantucket, but it's not crazy hot by any means.

Will I play mostly my own writing, I use sounds typically found in the harder edged classic rock, sometimes a bit more.  Both pickups can do this, but the Supermassive does it better for me, becaus I prefer straight in, and the extra grind really helps.  Not that I can't get there with the Nantucker too...

The Nantucker does clean better, but I'm mostly crunch, so it's not a big deal either way for me.

Both are killer pickups, and can be ordered in the HSP90 format.

[Nolly]

First guitar is a Les Paul Traditional. It started with stock Gibson humbuckers w/ coil splits and a db boost. Took all of that out almost immediately after getting the guitar and put in a set of Seth Lover's w/ 50's wiring and a treble bleed circuit. I like the Lover's and they've done well for the last 10 years, but it's time for an upgrade. I'd like something that can do ambient clean stuff and brutal doomy heavy stuff, but the EQ of the Silo seems a bit lacking in the top end. I'm not gonna be setting it up for split coils or anything so having those capabilities aren't important to me.

I think for this guitar you'd be well served with a set of Nailbombs (alnico bridge). They're just about at the limit of the output range where you keep an organic feel and dynamics. The bridge pickup is thick and gutsy, it'll do an amazing job for the doom stuff you're alluding to, and if you keep the treble bleed circuit in the guitar it'll also clean up very nicely too. The neck pickup is famously quite toothy and articulate, great for cleans and also really defined under gain, which can be a real boon in an LP's neck position.

Second guitar is a partscaster I built a few years ago. The body is from a Fender Jim Root tele, so it's solid mahogany with the finish stripped. Maple neck with Goncalo Alves fretboard. It's currently got Gibson P94 humbucker sized P90's in it, with a treble bleed circuit. They sound okay at best. The neck pickup is way too dark for that guitar, just so much low end and not much balance. The bridge pickup is better, but hardly any dynamic range with them. I'd like to put some HSP90's in it, and I'm considering the Nantucket or Mississippi Queen but I'm not sure which, or if a different one would be better?

I think you're right to be looking at the Nantucket or MQ here, rather than going any hotter. The Nantuckets are wound just a bit hotter than the MQs, and notably the neck Nantucket has an Alnico 5 magnet vs the 4 of the MQ, which grants it a more controlled midrange and low end - I'd say that'd be worth having for you given your current issues with the neck position. Just bear in mind that P90s often do have loads of bass extension, with two magnets driving one fat coil they have a really full bandwidth. You could consider wiring a capacitor in line with the neck pickup to cut some bass if this continues to be a issue for you.

Third guitar is a Custom Shop '60 Strat. It's still got the stock pickups, Texas Special's with a 1/2 blender, but I definitely want something different. I need a beefier bridge pickup, the current one is good but I'd like more sustain/output and just overall more useable. I use the bridge pup a lot for leads with quite a bit of gain, think Andy Timmons style tones. The middle pickup is fine, I don't use it much except for positions 2 & 4 occasionally. The neck pickup could do with a little more "woodiness" or "hollowness", it get's muddy with gain and doesn't clean up all too well.

I'd recommend you go with the '62 Veneer Board middle and neck pickups - amazing woody tone from those. In the bridge you could go for a Trilogy Suite for a much beefier sound (don't overthink the disparity in output, they work really well as a set), but as you probably know, you'll never get a true humbucker sound from an angled single coil. If you did ever feel like converting the guitar to have a bridge humbucker, I'd highly recommend the Polymath or Crawler for Andy Timmons tones.

[julio77]

I think you're right to be looking at the Nantucket or MQ here, rather than going any hotter. The Nantuckets are wound just a bit hotter than the MQs, and notably the neck Nantucket has an Alnico 5 magnet vs the 4 of the MQ, which grants it a more controlled midrange and low end - I'd say that'd be worth having for you given your current issues with the neck position. Just bear in mind that P90s often do have loads of bass extension, with two magnets driving one fat coil they have a really full bandwidth. You could consider wiring a capacitor in line with the neck pickup to cut some bass if this continues to be a issue for you.

@Nolly : what kind of capacitor are you refering to in order to cut some bass from a pickup ?
Thank you