Pickup Advice For My Epiphone Les Paul Custom

[Charvel1975]

Hello, I have a stock epiphone les paul custom with the stock pickups and I want to swap out both pickups.

I'm mostly a Metal player but I've heard a lot of good things about the Suhr Doug Aldrich pickup set that it's geared for a lot of different types of music and I also seen one guy that had a Dimarzio PAF Pro in the neck and a Tone Zone in the bridge that sounded really good. I was just wanting to know what combination of pickups worked well for you epiphone les paul custom owners out there, thanks!!

 

[Charvel1975]

Hello, I have a stock epiphone les paul custom with the stock pickups and I want to swap out both pickups.

I'm mostly a Metal player but I've heard a lot of good things about the Suhr Doug Aldrich pickup set that it's geared for a lot of different types of music and I also seen one guy that had a Dimarzio PAF Pro in the neck and a Tone Zone in the bridge that sounded really good. I was just wanting to know what combination of pickups worked well for you epiphone les paul custom owners out there, thanks!!

Bump, wanted to know if anyone too has had any experience with the matched set of Dimarzio D-Activator pickups in epiphone les paul customs?

 

[D-Rock]

The D-Activators are clear, hot and tight sounding. I'm sure they will sound very good in a heavy mahogany bodied guitar.

 

[Vince Sansevere]

EMG's man. NO PICKUPS can touch the tone and clairity of EMG pickups and believe me, i've tried them all. Don't waste your time with the pretenders and go straight for the KING!

 

[BlinkTwice]

I put a emg 81/85 set in an epi les paul custom years and years ago and it sounded great.

 

[headlessdeadguy]

EMG's man. NO PICKUPS can touch the tone and clairity of EMG pickups and believe me, i've tried them all. Don't waste your time with the pretenders and go straight for the KING!

I was an EMG fiend since they came out and believe me they are not "the king". For tone/ clarity check out Motor City Angel Dust or Detroiters. If you want EMG tones that aren't so sterile check out the MCP Solution. I have identical guitars one with an EMG 81 in the bridge and one with a MCP Solution... The Solution owns the EMG in every way.

 

[moltenmetalburn]

EMG's man. NO PICKUPS can touch the tone and clairity of EMG pickups and believe me, i've tried them all. Don't waste your time with the pretenders and go straight for the KING!

They be the cats meow for you which is cool, but EMGs are anything but clear when compared to a good passive pickup. There are plenty of boutique passives these days that have the same vibe as an EMG but sound far better and still retain playing dynamics;something EMG's epically fail at.

 

[Charvel1975]

Yea, out of all the guitars I have, only one of them, my old Charvel model 5a, has Emg's in in it. All my other guitars have passives. I get torn between active and passive but I'm thinking of just sticking to really good passive pickups, I might even swap out the bridge emg-81 and the slant emg-sa in the neck outta my Charvel.

Now I'm mostly a metal player but I do every now and then mess around with other styles. I only have one of my guitars right now tuned to E flat, my Charvel is tuned to Drop C, The epi les paul was tuned to Drop B as well as my 98 gibson les paul special with p-100's.

 

[MichaelG]

EMG's man. NO PICKUPS can touch the tone and clairity of EMG pickups and believe me, i've tried them all. Don't waste your time with the pretenders and go straight for the KING!

I was an EMG fiend since they came out and believe me they are not "the king". For tone/ clarity check out Motor City Angel Dust or Detroiters. If you want EMG tones that aren't so sterile check out the MCP Solution. I have identical guitars one with an EMG 81 in the bridge and one with a MCP Solution... The Solution owns the EMG in every way.

Yup, I second this. Thing is, if I play my EMG guitar without hearing my Solution-loaded guitar first, it sounds OK, but when I switch to the Solution its game-over for the EMG. I'm replacing the EMG with detroiters... Wade should be finishing them up any time now.

I've simply got to try an angel dust some day as well.

 

[Charvel1975]

I've been noticing for a while now since I had the stock Epiphone pickups changed to the SD Hot Rodded pickup set JB/Jazz that my korean Epiphone Les Paul Custom in Drop B with .010-.060 GHS zakk wylde strings seems like it has too much output thru either my Mesa Tremoverb head or Peavey 6505+ head thru my Marshall 1960A w/2 WGS Retro 30's and stock celestion g12t75's?

The JB seems ice picky in the highs, when I solo it just doesn't sound too good and when I switch to clean channels on either amp no matter if I just use the JB, both pickups or just the Jazz it distorts no matter how I adjust the EQ on the amps? I know when I use the tone wizard on the SD site it shows Bridge 1 SH-4 JB Model, Bridge 2 SH-5 Duncan Custom, Neck 1 SH-1N '59 Model, Neck 2 SH-2N Jazz Model. Now the Epiphone weighs a TON!! and I'm wondering if because it's a BEEFY sounding guitar that's why the pickups may be too hot of output or what? What do you guys think?

 

[JimmyBlind]

Active Pickups

Passive Pickups

 

[metalmaniac93]

EMG's man. NO PICKUPS can touch the tone and clairity of EMG pickups and believe me, i've tried them all. Don't waste your time with the pretenders and go straight for the KING!

I was an EMG fiend since they came out and believe me they are not "the king". For tone/ clarity check out Motor City Angel Dust or Detroiters. If you want EMG tones that aren't so sterile check out the MCP Solution. I have identical guitars one with an EMG 81 in the bridge and one with a MCP Solution... The Solution owns the EMG in every way.

The Angel Dust is not being made anymore. Detroiter or Solution would work though. The Aldrich also is another great option for a LP.