What pick ups would you put in a Gibson Explorer ?

griff10672 said:
I had a EMG 81 in the bridge of every guitar I owned from 1989 to 2017 .......... I played the shit out of them EMG's .... I have no interest in going back

I did install a EMG " Hett Set " in a buddies axe awhile back that I thought sounded pretty good .... but still not for me anymore
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I know it's an explorer, but in my Gibson V I put a Wolftones TimberWolf and I am pretty happy with it. Has a nice thick fat tone without sounding boomy, but still cuts through the mix.

Look at that pickup as an option as well.

This is after trying a Duncan JB, Duncan Distortion and even Suhr Aldrich in there.

Good luck.
 
I’ve got a Duncan Nazgul in my Solar.

High output for sure, but tight with a bit of a mid-snarl that negates the need for any kind of boost (for me). While I’d say it’s definitely a modern pickup and I wouldn’t think of using it for anything but metal, though it’s surprisingly awesome using it split w/ clean tones, gets in that Mindcrime clean-tone area.
 
People was talking about Jim Wagner here not so long ago. Lundgres too. Old Mighty Mites been mentioned by braintheory. And ofc, Scottosan’s pups.
 
My favorite Duncan’s are the custom, custom 5 and distortion. As long as it’s not a jb anything should work. I hate jb’s….
 
griff10672 said:
I'm pretty simple when it comes to guitar wiring ....

I was all into the Jimmy Paige wiring on all my LP's ..... with the CTS Pushpulls ....

you would think the ability to split both humbuckers and run series or parallel plus the option of In and out of phase would be cool and useful ...

I never F-ing used any of it ..... so those all got switched to standard 50's wiring over the last couple of years

my Explorer was setup to split the coils and go series or parallel ............... never used it on that guitar either ..... and I haven't really played this guitar in like two years ..... so this past weekend .... I gutted the electronics and figured at least put something different in the bridge while I have to re wire it anyway
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I went this way too, but ended up in a different place. I had a set of pickups made for my old LP Standard by SK Guitar Specialties that featured a bar magnet steel pole coil (P90), and an A5 rod magnet coil like a Staple or Fender single that could split to either coil, or be run in humbucking mode. Like a Duncan P-Rail, but before they were released, and looked like a regular humbucker.

I had four push pulls and a mini switch to control everything. I mostly kept it on the split settings with the bridge set to the P90 coil, and the neck on the A5 rod magnet coil. Sometimes for cleans it was the two A5 coils, sometimes I used the bridge in humbucking mode, but rarely.

In the end I realized I prefer P90's in the bridge, and A5 rod magnet single coils in the neck of most Gibsons. Now almost all of my Gibsons or Gibson-like electrics have P90's, Dynasonics, or A5 Staples in them. One has a Lollar Goldfoil neck and a Lollar A5 Staple bridge combo. My one humbucker loaded guitar is an LP Studio that has a TV Jones Supertron neck, and a late '70s Gibson Tarback bridge pickup. Some are '50s wiring, some are modern with a Treble Bleed, some are straight modern wiring. Some have 500k pots, some stock Gibson pots.

Fwiw I don't think this is something the OP needs or wants as he's clearly looking at this for mostly thrash metal, where I'm more into playing doom and stoner rock/metal type stuff. Nothing nails that vintage Sabbath vibe like a bridge P90 > Range Master > cranked amp.

Otoh if he wants to tryout something like the Duncan P-Rails then the push pull set up is awesome for experimenting with different tones which is exactly why I went with it when I did. Before that my only single coil loaded guitar I had was my Strat. Everything else was humbuckers, now I've completely flipped and found what I love thanks to that one experiment.
 
I really like the P-Rail. I have one in the neck of a LP DC. JB in the bridge. Triple Shot and phase switch.

It does 40 different pickup combinations. I use most of them. It even does the Strat position #2 quack stuff. The rest of my guitars are fairly common stuff.
 
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