by RUSSET » 19 May 2010, 07:27
Hi Chris,
We can be quite fickle on this site. With our hearing, obviously not a 100% anymore, like when we were younger, it is probably not as easy as we thought to distinguish fine sonic differences. Like you, a mate of mine is always trying out & changing the pickups on his Strats & Teles, but often ends up with the originals back in again. My belief is that if you have a decent set of Alnicos that are not in any way 'overwound', say between 5 - 6 K, you will get a vintage-style sound. I bought a very nice Epiphone Les Paul in the '90s, which looked gorgeous & felt great to play. The sound it made, however was not quite what you would call Toneful. I changed the Epi humbuckers (about 12-13K) to some Wilkinson Vintage humbuckers (about 8K)
& magic ! It really did sound like a proper Gibson Les Paul. It is now quite toneful & in the right ballpark. Choosing pickups is a very personal thing & particularly for your own personal guitar, which may be slightly different to the next man's, although they appear identical on the surface.
I have Fender CS '54s on my two main Strats, but they both sound slightly different. I have Fender 57-62 vintage in my Mex Classic Player & that's great too. I have in my Squier 'Biffy Clyro' Strat, the original Squier Alnico III/V mixed pickups, & they work brilliantly for me too. Am I easy to please; I don't know, but if I am happy about my sound, then that's all that matters to me.
Regards, Tony.
