[Smokey Joe]

Hey all, I play mostly acoustic but every once in a while I get an itch for playing electric. Just gave away an amp and electric Guitar to my oldest son, he needed it for a Band and it was a lot of amp and guitar for what I want one for (just to beat around on here in my guitar room and maybee record a little).

My Question is what is a good Blues sounding Hmbucker(I prefer playing blues to anything else but not exclusivly blues) to put in a Cheap Les Pau jr. I have purchased. These Guitars to anyone who is not familiar, Have a single Humbucker with 1 Tone and 1 Volume control.

I changed out the tuners to some decent Grovers that were laying around from another deal. The guitar plays nice and for about the $100 bucks I have in it to this point, it's not bad and will serve my purpose well. But this has got to be one of the worst sounding P/U ever. It's very coarse and muddy.

I am playing through a new Roland micro cube practice amp and it is a decent amp. So I know that is'nt the issue. Just need to install a decent Humbucker

Any recomendations appreciated.

thanks
Smoke

[737blues]

well, just my amateur opinion but I reckon the amp is the issue. If you are looking for that gutsy sort of Blues drive one normally attributes to Humbuckers, you probably want to be going through a decent tube amp, I would have thought.

[krissovo]

With my EPI LP Custom the standard Humbuckers sound great with a Boss blues driver pedal

[fly135]

I'm with 737 on this. There is a lot you can do to get the sound you want out of most any pup (IMO). EQ, pedal, and amp. My observation is that FX sound better through a tube amp. Especially distortion/OD. If you are getting the sound you want from the Microcube but it's muddy then you might try a MultiFX pedal. They will give you EQ and reverb/chorus/tremolo to spice up those pups.

[Smokey Joe]

Realy the amp is pretty decent with onboard Boss effects and modeling, Not a tube amp at all mind you, but passable as I have heard others record and play through them. Just not getting a smooth creamy PAF tone from the bucker. It seems to be a little Hot wound like for metal or punk. A 57 seymour Duncan would probably serve me well, But thought I could get an opinion or two on something else and maybee even save a buck or two

[fly135]

Post some playing. Let's hear it. Finding a smooth creamy OD tone is an art. That's one reason why some people will love a distortion effect and others will hate it. Depending on the amp, the pups, the eq setting, the gain at the pedal, ouput of the pedal, the volume at the guitar, the tone controls, etc... the same equipment will go from smooth to buzzy. Even the fingers and playing style can change the sound. Buying pups is a crap shoot. You may be able to get a recommendation but you probably won't get the same sound as the person recommending.

[munky]

I have a Seymour Duncan Alnico II in the neck of my Epi Les Paul. It's the same pickup that Slash uses.

It works for me.

[Smokey Joe]

Originally Posted by fly135

Post some playing. Let's hear it.

Ironic that you would write this fly. I just walked in the door with my Brand new Boss micro br. As soon as I figure out how it works I will do just that. And i see there is a lot more about tone on an electric than I thought. Not sure how long this will take to get up to par (the boss micro) but I will work at

Smokey Joe

[fly135]

Well Smokey, that's why there is this thing called GAS. Where you keep throwing money at equipment trying to find that magic sound. Many of us here have it.

[SlickCat]

Im with Fly..... buying another pickup is not the answer.
Tweaking your setup...pickup height,pole piece adjustment; tone and eq settings on your amp; volume and tone settings on the guitar; effects, all result in getting the tone you want. Its an art in itself. Even changing a 50 cent tone cap in your guitar can result in a huge tone difference. The last thing I would do is change the pickup.

[Smokey Joe]

Thanks all, I have taken your advice and I'm getting much closer to the sound I'm looking for by tweeking a little here and there. I may add a pedal and I'm sure to change the pots out soon but it's getting there.

Smoke

[PhilUSAFRet]

Just learned B.B. King doesn't use a tube amp! For a low buck fix, I hear some great things about the GFS alnico humbuckers at Guitarfetish.com

[Andy S]

Originally Posted by PhilUSAFRet

Just learned B.B. King doesn't use a tube amp! For a low buck fix, I hear some great things about the GFS alnico humbuckers at Guitarfetish.com

I purchased two GFS pups for my Ibanez AG85. I was looking for a bit more of a Gretch/Brian Setzer sound and I got exactly what I was after! Seemed to me the little audio snippets are exactly what the pup sounds like. At least in my case it was.

Very pleased with the pups and the tone and especially the price. Check Harmony-Central.com for reviews. Seems like there was only a couple out of all the reviews, that the person wasn't happy with the pup they used.

Just my 2 cents worth.

[fly135]

Andy, where did you find the audio samples?

[OldG]

The soundclips are linked from the page describing the pickup for sale.

Only a few have samples,this is the first one I came across...