Replacement pickups For a Les Paul

[Jack Diab]

I need replacement pickups for a Gibson Les Paul but I want pickups other than the ones that originally came with it. I was wondering what pickups would work in its place. Preferably hum-buckers. Thanks.

[Mark Swanson]

Welcome to the MIMForum Jack. Well, the pickups define the tone of an electric guitar, and there are hundreds of different kinds. What kind of sound do you want? What kind of music do you play?

[David King]

And how much are you willing to spend? The top of the line pickups are from Tom Holmes and they run about $600 a set the last I checked.
I think this is his website but i have no way of knowing for sure... http://www.tomholmescompany.com

[Mark Swanson]

Which ones are best and "top of the line" is always open for debate. There is a guy right here in my town who makes Throbak pickups, really nice, and the thing is, he bought an original pickup winder from the Gibson factory and rebuilt it and uses exact materials so his pickups are duplicates of the originals, wound on the same machine!

[Jack Diab]

I play mostly jazz and would like a very warm soft tone. Anything under $200 would be nice but I can go higher for quality. Thanks for your support!

[David King]

I'd probably start with Kent Armstong pickups since he seems to please a lot of jazz players and is very easy to work with. Locally there are many very competent pickup winders from Jason Lollar, Wolfe MacLeod, TV Jones in the Seattle area and Dave Stevens in the Portland area. Most will have youtube videos of their products in action to give you a sense of their wares but I'm sure they would all be open to coming up with a custom wind to meet your needs.

[Jack Diab]

Thanks, I'll check them out. Also, what do you think of the seth lover retro pickups, I've heard they are good.

[David King]

Jack, Unfortunately I'm not a guitar guy but I think a lot of guitarists have Seymour Duncan pickups in their guitars. Then again there is an enormous amount of hype around pickups -probably because guitarists tend to be young, impressionable and easily swayed by hype. As far as I can tell most of them can't play so it hardly matters anyway. A pickup is just a part of the sound and a good player will make do while a not so good player will keep going around in circles looking for the equipment that will make them a better player. I've thought that the recent Gibson pickups actually sounded great. A whole lot better than the budget pickups I see so many folks putting into their home built guitars. They must have figured something out in 60 odd years of making the things.

[Beate Ritzert]

Gibson makes reissues of their old pickups, and they are said to be really nice. Maybe You talk one of the pickup makers quoted above or one of the numerous others, tell them of Your needs and they surely will come with a reasonable proposal.

But please remember that Les Paul himself needed something like a solid body jazz guitar, and that's the LesPaul - so a good sounding guitar with Classic 57 humbuckers or Burstbuckers might fit perfectly.

If it's going to be darker, more mellow than a classic 57 humbucker, You will probably need a slightly overwound custom version of one...

Please always keep in mind that not all Gibsons are equally good. I am aware (actually played) two ES335 from the custom shop. One is great, the other one is disappointing.

[Dan Smith]

I used a set of Seymour SH-1 in a LP build.
I think they sound incredible.