Pickup suggestion for darker Les Paul

[Humbucking]

Ive had great experience with Zhangbucker. I have both the handwound & the pure handwound. They seem to very articulate. Not bright, but they seem to chime depending on how heavy or light you are with your right hand.

 

[Music&Chaos]

I appreciate that. Pics attached.

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Ah, these are also 4 conductor and attached to a pot with splitting as an option. That makes certain frequencies a bit darker, but no one really notices or cares about that in general except for crazies like me now.

That being said - the tone cap IS hitting that center lug, so it is oging for a 50s style wiring at least, so thats better than not usually.

If you are not happy with the current sound, I would really go ahead and try removing the cap from the bridge pickup circuit. I actually like them removed from the neck a lot of times as well, but if you are happy with the neck, leave it alone.

 

[itsgoodnow]

Ah, these are also 4 conductor and attached to a pot with splitting as an option. That makes certain frequencies a bit darker, but no one really notices or cares about that in general except for crazies like me now.

That being said - the tone cap IS hitting that center lug, so it is oging for a 50s style wiring at least, so thats better than not usually.

If you are not happy with the current sound, I would really go ahead and try removing the cap from the bridge pickup circuit. I actually like them removed from the neck a lot of times as well, but if you are happy with the neck, leave it alone.

That makes sense and that would give it a bit more mids?

 

[harddriver]

I just disconnected the tone pot from my Knaggs Steckel bridge pickup. It’s much darker than my other single cuts (Les Pauls) and this reminded me to do it.

Made a huge difference. Much closer to the Les Pauls now.

All you need to do is unsolder the capacitor from the volume pot to the tone pot. Disconnect it from the tone pot side. Then use an alligator clip to A/B with the cap in and out if you want to hear in real time what it does. Very obvious change.

Here you can see the cap disconnected on the left side. The neck cap is still in place.

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As Redplated suggested. Pull the tone capacitors first and see if that brightens things up to where you want it. If not then continue your search for a new pickup.

Seymour Duncan Whole Lotta humbucker is a rough cast A-5 and is fairly higher output for a PAFish pickup. The other Duncan PAFish with more output at 9.75-10K ohms is the Saturday Night Special(rough cast Alnico IV) that LPFreak highly recommends, I have not tried one yet but it's on my list but I like the WLH so much I never get around to snagging a SNS.

I also have a Steckel bridge, the Steckel is bright with clear detail but they are low output designed that way on purpose, they really shine with a higher gain amp IMHO.

I almost forgot, if you want something like the SH-5 Custom but with less mid emphasis, a bit brighter and balanced but with similar higher output then check out a Seymour Duncan SH-6N(rough cast Ceramic magnet) which measure about 12.5-13K. This used to be called a Seymourizer II prior to the Duncan Custom model, Seymour then made this wind the neck pickup for the Distortion pickup sets in the late 80's.

 

[itsgoodnow]

Good suggestions. I also was looking at the polypaf as well

 

[Music&Chaos]

That makes sense and that would give it a bit more mids?

It will give the pickup much more than that, as it will shift the resonance slightly and will also cause it to react/feel different. Many humbuckers sound fuller/richer when bypassing the cap, if you bypass the tone pot altogether, it gets even more direct/in your face but you should be able to hear an audible difference when you remove the cap alone.

 

[Music&Chaos]

As Redplated suggested. Pull the tone capacitors first and see if that brightens things up to where you want it. If not then continue your search for a new pickup.

Seymour Duncan Whole Lotta humbucker is a rough cast A-5 and is fairly higher output for a PAFish pickup. The other Duncan PAFish with more output at 9.75-10K ohms is the Saturday Night Special(rough cast Alnico IV) that LPFreak highly recommends, I have not tried one yet but it's on my list but I like the WLH so much I never get around to snagging a SNS.

I also have a Steckel bridge, the Steckel is bright with clear detail but they are low output designed that way on purpose, they really shine with a higher gain amp IMHO.

I almost forgot, if you want something like the SH-5 Custom but with less mid emphasis, a bit brighter and balanced but with similar higher output then check out a Seymour Duncan SH-6N(rough cast Ceramic magnet) which measure about 12.5-13K. This used to be called a Seymourizer II prior to the Duncan Custom model, Seymour then made this wind the neck pickup for the Distortion pickup sets in the late 80's.

A4 magnets are really cool. I have a set from Planet Tone with A4s that I absolutely love.

I think the pups on my old McCarty are also A4s, and I dig them as well for their clarity and smoothness.