Suggestions to replace Seth Lover pickup set

[Offshore Angler]

Do this before anything else. Measure the resistance of the neck and bridge pups and tell me what you get.

Another thing are you running an EQ pedal? Those are magical devices that will sort most issues. My rig is set for humbuckers and when I switch out to the Tele the EQ pedal comes on.

YMMV, but I'll usually use an OD always on for Fenders and kick it off for PAFs and let the pickups drive the front. I also use digital reverb and delay on my hotter pups to add more zing.

You may wish to think about PAF sized P90's if you're just a single-coil type of player.

I am puzzled about how you are struggling with hitting the front end of a Super or a Twin to get grind and then say you set the amps clean and use pedals? Obviously, the Twin is going to be a clean amp regardless of how you whack it. It has a low gain preamp and if you push the power end up to grindy levels you'll have audience members in the ER . Super can get lively but as you already know, at a substantial stage volume.

I mean, you may not like this but you may simply be struggling with the wrong amps? Maybe a tweed would suit you better.

Chuck

 

[JCnutt]

Hey all,

I'll try to keep this as short as sweet as possible while providing all relevant details.

I have an LP Traditional with SD Seth Lovers in it. As a lifelong Strat player I've struggled mightily to bond with this Les Paul for a variety of reasons, but the one I'm interested in discussing right now: the Seth Lovers that are in it.

I had the same issue with my 2025 Sweetwater BOTB and their Sugarbuckers. Loved the way the guitar feels but not the sound. I changed them out for Grinning Dog "Mr. Jimmy" uncovered Zebras. Not sure if you have seen the documentary 'Mr. Jimmy' or seen him play with his own band or Jason Bonham, but his pick-ups give a lot of room just rolling back volumes. I also play out of a Twin Reverb, but often the clean side of my Mesa JP C2 as well. Shinji will email you back with what you want. Send him a PayPal, about $450 with shipping costs, and you can get whatever you like. Takes about two weeks from order to delivery with no tariff hassle at all. I liked them so much, I bought a back-up set. LOL

 

[calcheyup]

I am puzzled about how you are struggling with hitting the front end of a Super or a Twin to get grind and then say you set the amps clean and use pedals? Obviously, the Twin is going to be a clean amp regardless of how you whack it. It has a low gain preamp and if you push the power end up to grindy levels you'll have audience members in the ER . Super can get lively but as you already know, at a substantial stage volume.

I mean, you may not like this but you may simply be struggling with the wrong amps? Maybe a tweed would suit you better.

Chuck

Set the amps clean, line up boost/drive pedals in front of it. no issues whatsoever getting fantastic drive sounds out of both from the floor with other guitars. The variable that changes between loving the sound and not is the Les Paul bridge pickup - I’m sure you can appreciate that I’m not going to experiment with buying entirely new amps to accommodate this.

I appreciate your input and taking the time to reply, but this is why I mentioned in the first post that it’s not the rest of the rig. It provides everything I could ask for and more clean, dirty, otherwise, with other guitars, and has been experimented with ad nauseum without satisfaction with the current LP bridge pickup. I did not come to this conclusion lightly, without exhausting the other avenues of approach which have been kindly suggested in this thread by yourself and others.

Thanks everyone in this thread for suggestions - the Seth’s are sold, and will make a decision on something new sometime this week.

 

[Mr. Papa]

The variable that changes between loving the sound and not is the Les Paul bridge pickup - I’m sure you can appreciate that I’m not going to experiment with buying entirely new amps to accommodate this.
… I did not come to this conclusion lightly, without exhausting the other avenues of approach which have been kindly suggested in this thread by yourself and others.

You are a very gracious gentleman. Thank you for your considered response, and I hope you will tell us what pickups you decide to replace the Seth’s. I’m also looking for a new set to try out in my LP Custom.

 

[Subliminal lanimilbuS]

I thought I would just mention that the biggest aftermarket pickup modification of a Les Paul over the last 4 decades has to be a Seymour JB in the bridge and a 59 in the neck. So much so that Navigator made it the staple of their high end LP copies from the 90's onward. Lots of players going back to the 70's would buy a JB to put it into the bridge position of their LP's.

 

[Mr. Papa]

Lots of players going back to the 70's would buy a JB to put it into the bridge position of their LP's.

Or a Super D. I can’t remember exactly when we went from juiced pickups direct into the amp back to the complete other end of the spectrum with vintage output pickups, plus five stacked low gain pedals in the rig. (You know, for texture.) Maybe early ‘90s / grunge era?

 

[jb_abides]

Or a Super D. I can’t remember exactly when we went from juiced pickups direct into the amp back to the complete other end of the spectrum with vintage output pickups, plus five stacked low gain pedals in the rig. (You know, for texture.) Maybe early ‘90s / grunge era?

Bonamassa touched upon something similar, more related to controls rather than output of pickups themselves [not the focus of the video discussion]: he prefers to run pickups high, run the amp lower, because pushing the amp’s input gives him faster attack and more immediacy. About 2 minutes in...

 

[spidey]

I'm very happy with the Custombuckers in my R9. IMO they do the vintage classic blues rock thing perfectly, which is the tone I go for.
They sound great clean and overdriven.
You may find these are worth a try.

 

[GreenBurst]

Another option to investigate is Crazy Parts out of Germany.

https://www.crazyparts.de/

They have really good PAF style pickups. Available with covers or double cream, zebra, or black. They can also include exact matching butyrate rings if needed.

Area59' Pickups

Handwound Pickups, for Fender and Gibson Guitars. Build from the best Vintage Replacement Parts and Materials ava. incl. NOS wire the best Vintage Gibson and Pre-CBS Replicas. If you looking for Boutique Humbuckers and Single Coils, we have a nice selection of the best.

www.crazyparts.de

Area59' PAFs

“AREA59 PAF Series Custom Made & Handwound Exclusive for Crazyparts ...Slightly aged and built according to original spec other than being hand wound rather than machine... Vintage PAF, Vintage look, vintage sound all the way, we are proud offer the same specs wound by the same person without...

www.crazyparts.de

They also have the best replacement parts you'll find. I highly recommend this vendor. Note, they will rebate the VAT (≈ 19%) portion of the price for all non EU purchases. No one else overseas does that! They are much better than USA sources and for the most part lower cost.

 

[calcheyup]

There was so much appreciated participation in this thread that I figured it would be rude to not follow up. After a lot of thought I decided that if I erred, I wanted it to be on the side of “more,” if you will, and when a used JB came up for cheap on Reverb not far from me. I took it. I went with a Pearly Gates brand b the neck. I did quite like the Seth neck but wanted something, again, just a bit “more,” and I thought the PG might fit this bill.

My impressions through the first few hours of playing, really couldn’t be happier. I always feel like a bit of a knob trying to to equivocate sounds with words, so I’ll try to stay away from it too much, but it may be impossible.

The JB is just ready to go - as soon as I clicked on the Box of Rock and ran through a few licks, I knew something was different, it was just “that” sound. I am also impressed with the clarity it maintains on single note runs under overdrive without sounding spiky or thin, and enjoy the Nigel Tufnel-esque sustain.

I am also very pleased with its clean sound - straight into the Super with a healthy dose of reverb on hand, I even found myself running it through a mess of Pete Anderson licks and loving every one.

The Pearly Gates, I’m also very happy with. Testing it clean involved running it through some Peter Green licks with a little reverb on tap, sounds great. It did not get flubby on the bass with overdrive, although maybe I just wasn’t trying hard enough.

Together I also thought they sound very nice. I have always loved a Telecaster and Les Paul middle position, it has that nasally honk thing going but in the best kind of way, whereas I’ve always found a strat middle position to be harsh just for the sake of it and best left to use in positions 2 and 4. Ran through some Luther Allison licks with drive that sure sounded good to me, and then some Vince Gill runs to judge it’s sound in that arena - enjoyed it.

Thanks to everyone who participated and provided suggestions and feedback!

 

[jb_abides]

So, yeah, you did want more

Thanks for the report back and glad you found your sound.

 

[Maguchi]

Virgil Arlo 1959s are the cat's meow , the bee's knees and peachy keen !
Model 1959 - Virgil Arlo Best P.A.F. Humbuckers – VA Pickups https://share.google/WEqCNDbH03NaVebON

 

[GreenBurst]

Virgil Arlo 1959s are the cat's meow , the bee's knees and peachy keen !
Model 1959 - Virgil Arlo Best P.A.F. Humbuckers – VA Pickups https://share.google/WEqCNDbH03NaVebON

Cool. In guitar speak how do they compare to Thrōbak?

 

[Maguchi]

Cool. In guitar speak how do they compare to Thrōbak?

Never played Throbaks before yet. However the Arlos are the best HBs I heard since maybe like about the late '70s.

 

[GreenBurst]

Never played Throbaks before yet. However the Arlos are the best HBs I heard since maybe like about the late '70s.

I only asked because their pickup pricing is higher than Thrōbak.

But maybe that is to offset their pickup trade in policy.

 

[GreenBurst]

Never played Throbaks before yet. However the Arlos are the best HBs I heard since maybe like about the late '70s.

This thread below makes one pause and reflect.

Also, Big Al's posts #100, #106 and #121 seem to support the above concern.

Thread 'Who knows Virgil Arlo?'

Jun 30, 2018

The p'up's sold with this name are targeted to the high-paying segment of the demographic.

Even though there's social media footprint about the products, I can't find a single picture of him to save my life, which I find it strange.

So I ask: have anybody personally met him? Does he even exist?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

• LtKojak
• Replies: 162
• Forum: The Tone Zone and Gig Rigs

 

[Elmore]

I had a similar problem with similar pickups. The Seymour Duncan Whole Lotta Humbucker in both positions solved it for me.

 

[Patrick Ginnaty]

Pearly Gates

 

[Patrick Ginnaty]

I felt the same about my Antiquity bridge pu. I let a young pal use it for a set, hearing it from the audience showed me that it was perfectly balanced.

 

[Offshore Angler]

I will never recommend pickups and here's why:

The "best" pickup for you is totally dependent upon the amp you use, the style of music, the way you pick, the way you fret, the volume you play at and where you use your guitar. Just because something works for me on a live stage with a large band doesn't mean it will work for you in a small club or at home.

And I'll offer this up too, if somebody recommends you a pickup without asking some very specific questions about what you need and how you intend to use it, they're generally either not very experienced or just talking out of their butt. Just because they like something in their application means nothing to you in yours.

And at the end of the day, "good" is totally subjective anyway.

I will say this, however; pickups are at best maybe 20% of what your rig sounds like. The rest is
a) your amp and how you set it
b) the guitar itself
c) your technique
d) How they sit in the mix.

I find that beginners and many amateur players have a strong penchant for round, mid-rangy pickups, pros (in general) love bright pickups that cut. That's that extra zing on top that give you that final 20%. You can always use the tone knobs to pull some highs outs, but you can't add what's missing.

That's the other thing I see all too often. Inexperienced players seem to have a pathological aversion to using the volume and tone controls on the guitar for tone shaping. Your volume and tone controls will generally do a lot more than any pickup swap will do. You can take a 14K pickup, roll off the volume and clean it up any day of the week. IF your guitar sounds too muddy with the volume and tone controls rolled off - you have an AMP issue, not a pickup issue. Usually tis is the sign of running the amp too low and that's usually a symptom of using to big an amp for the application.

Here's a better idea that has worked for me over the years: Don't buy guitars that sound bad to you. Problem solved.

I continually scratch my head at the BS people propagate to justify that they spent ridiculous dollars on some boutique pickups that are supposedly nailing the sound of the original pickups that were designed to be built as cheaply as possible, lol.

I have a friend who bought a really expensive set of pickups. He's a hobby player and he only changes his strings once three or four months (WTF!?) and when I installed his pups I put a new set of strings on. He was thrilled at how his guitar sounded. I didn't have the heart to tell him it wasn't the high-dollar pickups, he was merely experiencing new, quality strings. So a few months later he said they didn't seem as good as when I installed them. I said drop it off at my place. I put some new strings on and now he said "whatever you did to those pickups- it worked!"

I explained to him the importance of strings and he was all " You're telling me I need to change them every couple of weeks? That's rediculous!" Well, if you want your guitar to sound it's best, yes you do. Heck. my guitars get a fresh set for every show. And nothing will ruin your frets faster than crusty strings so in the end you're saving money.

Chuck