Gibson Les Paul
Moderator: The Captain
- Zuff-1A
- Posts: 1271
- Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2011 2:55 pm
- Location: Estonia, Tallinn
Gibson Les Paul
Hey all who modded your Les Paul's
Just interesting what mods and pickups you tried and what
works best?
I bought recently 1991 Standard and replaced all Nashville
system against Faber (solid steel one piece bridge posts and
ABR-1 bridge.
Result: tone is fuller and nicer, now without tiny metal overtones.
Removed metal plate and replaced also vol pot's against 500K pots and ceramic disc caps against original bumble bees + 50's wiring.
Result: huge difference to better, more detailed (brighter but sweeter) tone. Especially good feels cap change!
Tried lot pickups (loaned from friends):
Sheptone 59' set (bit weak and dry sounding)
Kloppman 61 set (good overall but without special character)
Dave Stephens HD59' set, (amazing neck! bridge was not my taste)
Slash Singature set (too powerful without detail, bit muddy)
Best set was
Raw Vintage RV-5760 in bridge and original (8K or so, 498?) in neck
60-s T-Top will coming soon, will try it in neck...
Guitar have super responsive and loud tone, more bright side because thinner 60's neck.
Quite funky overall and not massive or woody like newer Historics.
Very playable guitar!
Just interesting what mods and pickups you tried and what
works best?
I bought recently 1991 Standard and replaced all Nashville
system against Faber (solid steel one piece bridge posts and
ABR-1 bridge.
Result: tone is fuller and nicer, now without tiny metal overtones.
Removed metal plate and replaced also vol pot's against 500K pots and ceramic disc caps against original bumble bees + 50's wiring.
Result: huge difference to better, more detailed (brighter but sweeter) tone. Especially good feels cap change!
Tried lot pickups (loaned from friends):
Sheptone 59' set (bit weak and dry sounding)
Kloppman 61 set (good overall but without special character)
Dave Stephens HD59' set, (amazing neck! bridge was not my taste)
Slash Singature set (too powerful without detail, bit muddy)
Best set was
Raw Vintage RV-5760 in bridge and original (8K or so, 498?) in neck
60-s T-Top will coming soon, will try it in neck...
Guitar have super responsive and loud tone, more bright side because thinner 60's neck.
Quite funky overall and not massive or woody like newer Historics.
Very playable guitar!
- Doctor X
- Posts: 515
- Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2008 5:14 pm
- Location: Brighton, East Sussex
Re: Gibson Les Paul
I've got an R8 that's about 10 yrs old. I've tried a couple of sets of Bareknuckle Pickups in it: Mules and PG Blues. It's got OX4's in it at the moment, which are better, but I'm going to move those into my ES-335 and will replace them with a set of Monty's PAF's that I've ordered.
I've also replaced the pots/caps with one of the RS Guitarworks vintage things, but I'm fucked if I could tell any difference.
I've also replaced the pots/caps with one of the RS Guitarworks vintage things, but I'm fucked if I could tell any difference.
- devnulljp
- Posts: 7159
- Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2008 10:02 am
- Location: Gulf Islands, BC, Canada
Re: Gibson Les Paul
I tried a bunch of different pickups in my R8 and a Tokai Love Rock.
Reilander PAFs are nice, but gold medal goes to ReWind PAF2s, so that's what ended p going in them both.
I also have a nice set of OX4s but currently no home for them.
Reilander PAFs are nice, but gold medal goes to ReWind PAF2s, so that's what ended p going in them both.
I also have a nice set of OX4s but currently no home for them.
Dear Bongo, No.
Good deals with all these guys
Good deals with all these guys
- thebends9
- Posts: 511
- Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2015 4:20 pm
Re: Gibson Les Paul
I have a mid 90's studio - Replaced all pots/caps with a RSGuitarworks vintage kit.
Also dropped Seymour Duncan custom shop Pearly Gates pickups. It sounds great, however I have an issue with the fret height. I may look into a refret w/smaller frets.
Also dropped Seymour Duncan custom shop Pearly Gates pickups. It sounds great, however I have an issue with the fret height. I may look into a refret w/smaller frets.
The Captain wrote: If you find a 'fake' transistor in a D*A*M pedal I will literally eat my own dick. Confident I am.
- Mr. Legit
- Posts: 69
- Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2014 8:39 am
- Location: West United States
Re: Gibson Les Paul
I am interested to hear your thoughts on the Dave Stephen's pickups? What about the bridge did you not like? I was about to order a set but the wait times are ridiculous. Nonetheless, I have tried just about every winder known, and for me, Wizz pickups seem to take the cake! A friend of mine has OX4's in his guitar and they are great. I am currently happy with the stock Custom Buckers in my guitar though. You can perhaps mod the plastics and such? It depends though, for me I want a vintage Les Paul vibe going on.
- Laundromat
- Posts: 2673
- Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2009 4:13 pm
- Location: Finland
Re: Gibson Les Paul
Is Dave Stephens the guy who's a bit of a loony? I've heard good things about OX4 and he seems to actually deliver shit in a timely manner. Same can't be said about Shed, who has kept me waiting since October and isn't replying to my emails right now.
I really liked a set of Sheptone Tributes I had in the past, but my last order went completely down the shitter. We agreed on a pair where both pickups are wound the same, which I tend to prefer. I was sent a pair with the normal balancing, along with hardware for a pair of strat pickups. None of my emails about it were acknowledged.
There's no real need for a refret since material can be removed easily. Take it to a competent luthier and have him recrown the frets for a round profile that they should've been in the first place. I'd do this even before deciding about lowering the height, since the difference will feel like day and night.
I really liked a set of Sheptone Tributes I had in the past, but my last order went completely down the shitter. We agreed on a pair where both pickups are wound the same, which I tend to prefer. I was sent a pair with the normal balancing, along with hardware for a pair of strat pickups. None of my emails about it were acknowledged.
This is probably the biggest gripe with the more modern Gibsons I've played. It seems that they just roughly level the frets and then do fuck-all about it, which leaves them shaped like a railroad track or a street curb.thebends9 wrote:It sounds great, however I have an issue with the fret height. I may look into a refret w/smaller frets.
There's no real need for a refret since material can be removed easily. Take it to a competent luthier and have him recrown the frets for a round profile that they should've been in the first place. I'd do this even before deciding about lowering the height, since the difference will feel like day and night.
Condolences, the bums lost!
- Stu
- Posts: 3153
- Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2008 9:35 pm
Re: Gibson Les Paul
Good advice. I have a '92 Standard which I bought new and the frets were completely flat on top. It's much nicer to play with properly crowned frets. The string alignment was also terrible, so I ended up plugging the Nashville holes and redrilling for an ABR-1. Tailpiece is now a Pigtail, but still with the original studs and anchors. I also dumped the metal plate and 300k pots in favour of 500k pots with '50s wiring, and rewired it with braided wire.Laundromat wrote:Take it to a competent luthier and have him recrown the frets for a round profile that they should've been in the first place. I'd do this even before deciding about lowering the height, since the difference will feel like day and night.
Pickups:
Stock 490R/498T - nothing special.
Duncan '59 bridge - muddy in the bridge position, worked better for me as a neck pickup
'57 Classics - ice pick treble
Duncan Antiquities - dull, weak and lifeless
Duncan Antiquities with '57 Classic magnets - much better with stronger magnets, kept these in for a while
Decal T-Tops - liked these too
OX4 - best by far, and the first to give me the sound I'd had in my head
I'm still curious about Wizz pickups, but the OX4s are the first set that's enabled this LP to hold its own against my '64 SG.
- redeyeflight
- Posts: 6939
- Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:48 pm
- Location: Seattle
- Zuff-1A
- Posts: 1271
- Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2011 2:55 pm
- Location: Estonia, Tallinn
Re: Gibson Les Paul
I think Dave Stephens is best if we talking 50-s PAF tone. He's current stuff is much better than older.Mr. Legit wrote:I am interested to hear your thoughts on the Dave Stephen's pickups? What about the bridge did you not like? I was about to order a set but the wait times are ridiculous. Nonetheless, I have tried just about every winder known, and for me, Wizz pickups seem to take the cake! A friend of mine has OX4's in his guitar and they are great. I am currently happy with the stock Custom Buckers in my guitar though. You can perhaps mod the plastics and such? It depends though, for me I want a vintage Les Paul vibe going on.
I had his VLIII set and tried also Jimmy Page set (sold by forum fellow DaCod) then HD61 (bridge only) and now I tried my friend's HD 59 set. I can say about HD59 bridge it is too high reading for my taste near 9K. Maybe bit too angry or too bold or too full sounding and not the best pickup for fuzz or drive pedals. But still articulate and very dynamic, drives amp well. Neck was super great (I do not have idea what would be better) Liked HD 61 bridge a lot but had problems match it with non Stephens neck.
Now he have couple interesting new set's 57HD low reading, single coil like throaty tone and Black Beauty HD (similar to 59HD but with lower reading 8,5 bridge).
Price is very high though.
What I understand if you are not happy with your Les Paul electric tone but like guitar's acoustic tone and feel you must try lot different pickups. Never give up with Les Paul.
here is nice higher price PAF comparison including Dave Stephens, Wizz etc:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-NGySD ... 2e2BXpM8ng
***
If anybody interested my friend sells same Sheptone set for 200€ (2013 made zebra 59 PAF set bridge 8,6 and neck 7,8 or so )
- Zuff-1A
- Posts: 1271
- Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2011 2:55 pm
- Location: Estonia, Tallinn
Re: Gibson Les Paul
Stu wrote:Good advice. I have a '92 Standard which I bought new and the frets were completely flat on top. It's much nicer to play with properly crowned frets. The string alignment was also terrible, so I ended up plugging the Nashville holes and redrilling for an ABR-1. Tailpiece is now a Pigtail, but still with the original studs and anchors. I also dumped the metal plate and 300k pots in favour of 500k pots with '50s wiring, and rewired it with braided wire.Laundromat wrote:Take it to a competent luthier and have him recrown the frets for a round profile that they should've been in the first place. I'd do this even before deciding about lowering the height, since the difference will feel like day and night.
Pickups:
Stock 490R/498T - nothing special.
Duncan '59 bridge - muddy in the bridge position, worked better for me as a neck pickup
'57 Classics - ice pick treble
Duncan Antiquities - dull, weak and lifeless
Duncan Antiquities with '57 Classic magnets - much better with stronger magnets, kept these in for a while
Decal T-Tops - liked these too
OX4 - best by far, and the first to give me the sound I'd had in my head
I'm still curious about Wizz pickups, but the OX4s are the first set that's enabled this LP to hold its own against my '64 SG.
There is now special Nashville replacements posts by Faber -
one piece steel. Easy "drop in" install, no drilling needed.
I can recommend them all who don't like Nashville system (btw
my LP stays lot better in tune after bridge and bridge post's replacements, because Nashville bridge post's move little back and toward inside bushings)
Only thing - these Faber Nashville replacements posts works only with special Faber ABR-1. Because Nashville bridge measures bit different from regular ABR-1
http://www.tokaiguitar.de/xtcommerce/pr ... pair-.html
Last edited by Zuff-1A on Sun Apr 02, 2017 8:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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