pickup conundrum.

[movinginslomo]

Long story short, 2018 les paul tribute goldtop body off stratosphere. Added black plastics, grover keystones and 50's wiring. Put some zebra open coil GFS fat pats in it I had previously in another guitar. Now on to the point. The neck pickup has slugs and polepiece screws. The bridge only has slugs. After receiving them from gfs a few years ago now I e-mailed them to say "hey my bridge pickup doesn't have adjustable screws" and their reply was it's an older model, functions the same, we can take it back and give you one with screws like the photo. I said "nah if it's functionally the same I'll leave it" but not having the screws has always.. bothered me, like it makes the pickup look cheap. It sounds great. Now I could if I was really hell bent, buy the screws and block piece and carefully add them in, but that risks damaging the pickup trying to remove the slugs. Now I could buy a new bridge pickup from gfs and make sure they have the screws since they weren't a matched set (what makes a set "matched" anyways?) or am I just being an anal corksniffer about it and should be like "fuck it sounds great this guitar's gonna get beat up anyways" What would you people do?

[HamSandwich]

I could be mistaken, but I don't think GFS matches pickups, and I also don't think matching pickups is a real thing. Maybe you can get pickups that have outputs/resistances that go well together, but I don't think they test out pickups and match like vacuum tubes.

Personally I'd leave it alone. If it really bothered you, get the new pickup and see if it sounds just as good to you. It's not a huge investment, but I'd personally just sick with what sound good.

[Zigcat]

Pickup matching = setting the correct height

[jimilee]

I got a 490r and 498t for sale!


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[Zigcat]

I got a 490r and 498t for sale!


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Yes, get these!

[culturejam]

For keeping things cheap (not boutique), I'd recommend either Dimarzio Air Classics or 36th Anniversary or Duncan Antiquity or Pearly Gates.

Being able to adjust the height of the pole pieces can be important on some guitars and with some pickup combos. I'd definitely want it.

[jimilee]

Hit up timbo, he can kind of help you tailor what you're looking for.


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[flanagan0718]

I got a 490r and 498t for sale!


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Get these! If not...how much do you want Jimi?


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[brucer]

Re: your "What would you people do?" question, I'd first adjust the height and bass>treble side angle of the pickups (bridge first, then neck to match/balance/complement the bridge) and see if I could get the sound/tone I was after.  If I couldn't, then I'd Google a lot to see what pickups might take me in the direction I was missing in the pickups I had (i.e. more or less ... whatever ...).  If that turned out to be jimilee's 490r and 498t, then I'd look at those for sure (or the SD 59 bridge and SD Jazz neck that I'll be posting after my Creamery pickups get here!).  If not, there's lots out there to choose from and all reviews I've read say it's mighty hard to go wrong with timbo_93631's pickups.  My 2 bits.

[blearyeyes]

Hard to pick pickups. I've always loved Seymour Duncan pickups.  My son has a Gibson SG and got great tones out of it.  From Uber heavy to great clean neck sounds.  I was interested so I looked up what came in the SG a bought a pair used. Same set Jimi's selling. I dropped the Gibson neck and a restored 70s Jeff Beck into the bridge of a $400 Epi Les Paul.  Man I love that guitar.

[blearyeyes]

I really want a set Seymour pearly gates.

[movinginslomo]

Thank you guys, but alas I have no money to spend right now, maybe in the future or after tax returns. If you haven't sold the pickups before I get my returns I may hit you up Jimi. and yea, I always wondered where they got off calling sets "matched" like what are they matching? Complimentary ohm values? Compensated winadage? Aside from aesthetics what do you match? Ah so much mojo BS in the guitar world. I'm going to make custom tailored guitar cables. You send me your audition tape and I'll decide if I want to "custom tailor" a guitar cable for your rig. "Well see sir, I'd have to tone match the cable...."

[gordo]

I've always thought of "matching" as balancing the output between the neck and bridge, which is kinda dumb because I tend to do that with the height adjustment.  Well, unless they're really out of whack and I rename it a "feature".

There's SO much good stuff out there now but I've been getting some really nice results with the GFS "Slick" pickups.  I've been leaning on lower output stuff lately and the Slick Old-Schools are great.

My Hamer has a factory stock SD Seth Lover in the neck and JB in the bridge.  I'm knocked out with the Seth and am considering putting one in the bridge as well.  I see what all the PAF fuss is about.