Grateful Dead Music Forum

I just picked up a 2008 Les Paul Studio and I want to replace the stock pickups that are on it now. What do yall reccomend? Anyone else messed around with pickups on a les paul studio? Thanks guys.

I have a studio "92, I want swap out the neck pic up for distortion II--dimarzio
and put a dimarzio--P90 in the bridge, but I haven't yet.

try this site: http://www.dimarzio.com/site/#/pickups/

I've never done it in a Paul but I just put 3 Humbuckers into my Strat...Super II's. If what you're looking for is Garcia's tone...I think a Super II is the way to go...but it's the center one that really nails it for me. That's a nice guitar...but maybe you want to add a third pickup in the middle. but at the very least I'd try Super II's.

Does it have the Alnicos in it now? What kind of tone are you going for?

Depending on your budget.

Some great pickups - Jason Lollor imperial Humbuckers.

JM Rolph makes great hand wound pups too

Of course there are always the Gibson Burstbucker 1 and 2.

What kind of sound are you going for? I think Joe Barden's are the best pickups out there but not necessarily a Jerry-tone. If you like the P-90 sound Gibson makes a P-94 (same pickup in a humbucker size) - I put those on a guitar and love 'em. My '78 came to me with Super IIs and I didn't like them and replaced them - it was the mid 80s and I didn't know Jerry used them, if I'd known that I might have kept them

There's got to be hundreds of humbucker replacement pickups out there, so you need to decide what you want compared to what you have.

Does the studio have the stock 490R/498T combination? Ebony or Rosewood FB?
What do you want from each pickup that you aren't getting now:
brighter?
darker?
hotter?
cleaner?
edgier?
smoother?
coil tapped sounds?
P90 sound?
Versatility?
Jerry sound (what era)?
Bobby sound (what era)?

If you aren't specific, you'll just get a lot of "These pickups I use are great!" answers praising pickups that might or might not sound the way you want. There are lots of good, very different sounding pickups out there, so there's no one right answer.

drewfx

Well made, excellent sounding pups. High output, and uncannily similar to early Travis Bean pickups in both dynamics and articulation. Don't let the price fool you. These are top shelf in every aspect....

http://store.guitarfetish.com/visphuclfest.html

Doesn't Trey use the Seymour Duncan SH-1 pickups? Ironically, I'm looking for a good vintage Les Paul PAF style pickup for the neck and bridge of the Scott Walker guitar I'm building.

playingdead wrote:Doesn't Trey use the Seymour Duncan SH-1 pickups?

I think so, although there seems to be a difference of opinions on this matter. I can tell you that If you pony up for a new Languedoc G2 it comes with SH-1's.

tcsned wrote:What kind of sound are you going for? I think Joe Barden's are the best pickups out there but not necessarily a Jerry-tone. If you like the P-90 sound Gibson makes a P-94 (same pickup in a humbucker size) - I put those on a guitar and love 'em. My '78 came to me with Super IIs and I didn't like them and replaced them - it was the mid 80s and I didn't know Jerry used them, if I'd known that I might have kept them

Im going for a thin bright sound. I also attempt to mimic Jerry's sound from the Keith era, id say 1974-1977ish. What do yall think? Thanks

Going to be hard to work a great Jerry tone from a two pickup guitar, that is a Jerry tone from between '74 and '77. However, it can be done. You would have to stay with either the neck pickup on its own, or the bridge pickup on its own as that middle setting, which makes a Les Paul sound like a Les Paul, is not a tone associated with Jerry. Bob, yes, Jerry no. So you would be working the neck pickup for the hollow, bell tone, and the bridge pickup for the trebly punchier stuff. With the right pickups, you can achieve some Jerryness.

I am big fan of Seymour Duncans. Pearly Gates are great pickups, lots of treble I think which is what you are looking for. Another interesting pickup they have now are the P Rails, which are humbuckers that can be used three ways with a three way switch. POsition 1 gives you teh humbucker, position 2 would give you a true P-90 sound which I hear is pretty accurate to a real one, and the third position is a single coil (rail).

IMO, the P-90 is a great pickup for getting that bell tone of the Travis Bean, in particular the '76 sound. Very big, shimmery and bouncy. The downside of these pickups are the aesthetics. The look a little different than your traditional bucker, then again you might be able to put a cover over them. I think it is an interesting thing to have a versatile pickup like this, especially since you would be only using two of the three positions on the guitar (Neck only or Bridge only), as that middle sound isn't really Jerryesque. Mike Bloomfield yes, Dicky Betts, yes, Jerry no.

Properly modded with three way toggles I think this could be a dangerous sounding guitar. Then again, I could be completely wrong. There are other cats here who know way more about the gear stuff than I do. Keep us posted.

^I 2nd the Seymour Duncan pups. I've been playing the SHPR-1's for the last year in an old Hyak. Killer. Why not have as many tonal options as possible - humbucker, P90, and single coil. I tend to bounce between Bobby and Jerry parts so the variety is very nice. I've found a lot of single coil sounds on split pups can sound a bit sterile - but these are nice, Fenderish bell-like that you want in a single coil - a bit fatter on the p-90 - and the humbucker position is nice and smooth. I'd love to hear them in a Les Paul.

Yea i've taken a good look at the P rails. They seem like they may be what i'm looking for. Do I have to get a switch installed to switch between the 3 different tone modes? how do these things work?

You need a three way switch/toggle but I know some folks just use a push/pull pot.

Crazy 9.5 Fingers wrote:Going to be hard to work a great Jerry tone from a two pickup guitar, that is a Jerry tone from between '74 and '77. However, it can be done. You would have to stay with either the neck pickup on its own, or the bridge pickup on its own as that middle setting, which makes a Les Paul sound like a Les Paul, is not a tone associated with Jerry. Bob, yes, Jerry no. So you would be working the neck pickup for the hollow, bell tone, and the bridge pickup for the trebly punchier stuff. With the right pickups, you can achieve some Jerryness.

I am big fan of Seymour Duncans. Pearly Gates are great pickups, lots of treble I think which is what you are looking for. Another interesting pickup they have now are the P Rails, which are humbuckers that can be used three ways with a three way switch. POsition 1 gives you teh humbucker, position 2 would give you a true P-90 sound which I hear is pretty accurate to a real one, and the third position is a single coil (rail).

IMO, the P-90 is a great pickup for getting that bell tone of the Travis Bean, in particular the '76 sound. Very big, shimmery and bouncy. The downside of these pickups are the aesthetics. The look a little different than your traditional bucker, then again you might be able to put a cover over them. I think it is an interesting thing to have a versatile pickup like this, especially since you would be only using two of the three positions on the guitar (Neck only or Bridge only), as that middle sound isn't really Jerryesque. Mike Bloomfield yes, Dicky Betts, yes, Jerry no.

Properly modded with three way toggles I think this could be a dangerous sounding guitar. Then again, I could be completely wrong. There are other cats here who know way more about the gear stuff than I do. Keep us posted.

Just like to point out that Garcia did play a 2 pickup guitar right in the middle of those years that this poster is interested in. The stock Travis Bean TB1000A was loaded with 2 super high output humbuckers, in the 13-15k dc resistance range. The guitar ironically was wired exactly like a Les Paul. He used it roughly from August of 75' to August of 76'. He did in fact favor that middle position on the 3 way toggle as the Orpheum 76' video demonstrates. So it is very possible to get an accurate Garcia tone from a Les Paul, particularly a 75' to 76' tone, which in my opinion is some of the sweetest tone Jerry ever had.

The closest pickup you will get to those original Bean humbuckers are a set of original Fender "Special Design" Buckers out of an early 70's Telecaster, if you can even find them.... Otherwise, those GFS pups I recommended come in a very close 2nd.