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2019 Custombuckers volume difference

BurstFan

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Feb 11, 2013
Messages
128
No offense to the OP, but obviously you have no clue about setting up your guitar.

You have to consider every aspect for a propper setup and sound: neck relief, bridge height and pickups.
If you don't know how to handle these steps and how they interact, I would suggest to bring the guitar to a luthier who does know and to ask him for help.

It's hard to judge anything from a video, but the neck pickup sounds dull and lifeless compared to the bridge pup which sounded normal.
 

Dax

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Dec 10, 2019
Messages
24
No offense to the OP, but obviously you have no clue about setting up your guitar.

You have to consider every aspect for a propper setup and sound: neck relief, bridge height and pickups.
If you don't know how to handle these steps and how they interact, I would suggest to bring the guitar to a luthier who does know and to ask him for help.

It's hard to judge anything from a video, but the neck pickup sounds dull and lifeless compared to the bridge pup which sounded normal.

No offense taken , though I’m not sure what led you to that conclusion. I’m not professional luthier but I been playing guitar 20 years and consistently have had over dozen instruments. Most of the times I setup my guitars my self unless there is an issue so I’m pretty confident with truss rod adjustment and rest of the setup. That being said , it’s my first Les Paul and I have literally zero experience with PAFs. However, I have enough experience to determine there is an issue outside of the setup adjustment. As matter of fact guitar been set and plays like a butter. Neck pickup remains extremely flabby within 1.6 mm-3.5mm height range.
Anyway ,I appreciate your input.
cheers
 

andy k

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Joined
Dec 6, 2006
Messages
359
I didnt really hear the problem you describe on your vid, but your last comment re-pickup being 3mm from string, leads me to think you are too close-for a neck pickup.
Hold your string down at last fret-21st, and set your bridge pickup to 3mm from bottom of strings, low and high E,
then, using a loud clean tone on your amp, adjust the neck pickup to the height where it balances in volume to the bridge.
You should hear three distinct tones from bridge-middle-neck, but all similar volume.
That is the starting point for adjusting, by minor adjustments to either pickup- to get the mid position to taste.
 

wulfthar

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Jan 16, 2020
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36
The only solution for me is to get an overwound bridge pickups unless you want to sink the neck one inside the guitar.
 

mustachio

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Nov 18, 2015
Messages
178
Remember each guitar does have its own resonant peak as well. I’d raise or lower your bridge to give more or less pull. And I wouldn’t mess with pole pieces.

I bought Throbak KZ115s for my 60th R8 because the custom buckers were too thin but because my particular LP was a very resonant guitar and brite, NOT because the pickups were too shrill or unbalanced.

So, you should investigate your Les Paul’s voice first, in how it reacts and, then, buy some pickups to tailor and compliment your Guitar’s character. ‘Tis a rabbit hole my friend.
 

Dax

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Dec 10, 2019
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24
Thanks everybody. Im getting guitar to reputable luthier to see what their evaluation would be.
Thanks again for input.
 

cvriz

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Joined
May 28, 2009
Messages
72
First,good luck in finding your right tone. I really liked the tone from my neck pup on my 2019 r9. Not muddy at all. But as always for me the bridge pups are too weak or thin. Wth my r9 the bridge pup did have good clarity wth both pups measuring 7.9k but I found the guitar getting swallowed up in the mix in live performances. I tried using an od pedal for leads but the darn pup was very microphonic. I just swapped it out for a higher output pup. Problem solved. Again, good luck.
 

wulfthar

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Jan 16, 2020
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Another idea might be to remove the cover from the bridge PU and get I closer to the strings...all of it not just the poles. That might help a bit.

Then lower the neck PU to balance...but personally I found the custombuckers not that great and very low output, perhaps the BB1/2 was better in this instance.
 

LeonC

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Aug 30, 2002
Messages
799
Wow...sorry to hear this. I have two CC Les Pauls, both with Custombuckers and I love them...best sounding new humbuckers I've ever played through.

Sounds like whoever assembled it didn't really test the pickups well before placing them...or they did but they screwed up and swapped the two by accident.

Before buying new pickups, what I would consider doing is taking it to my favorite tech and let him swap the neck and bridge pickups. It may mean adding an "extension" piece of shielded cable to the (current) bridge pickup; but if it works out, it'll be worth it. You'll have the "stock" pickups in the guitar and it may sound great and won't cost much.
 

Dax

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Dec 10, 2019
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Thanks for advise. I really hate swapping pups on brand new guitar , specially I’m after vintage tone.
I left guitar with luthier and see what he will come up with.
 

wulfthar

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Jan 16, 2020
Messages
36
Thanks for advise. I really hate swapping pups on brand new guitar , specially I’m after vintage tone.
I left guitar with luthier and see what he will come up with.

Yes but with PAF there were many "vintage" tones.

And I don't think the Custombucker is the "best" vintage tone out there.

Regarding the PU output, in the 50s besides few rock'n'roll guitar heroes (all playing Fender) most of the players were in band lines playing boring dance music of the era, I am pretty sure a dominant neck pickup wasn't a problem for them as they played rhythm chords and they didn't need to stand out. If you are still playing boring 50s music you can keep the guitar as it is, otherwise you might need to think to some improvement like removing the covers (that was a discovery from British players of the 60s), or getting a hotter bridge pickup (as they have done form the 70s).

Please appreciate than the previous generation "most accurate vintage PAF" Gibson offered a set with the neck pickups about high 7 kOhm and a bridge one in the 8K range, for the reasons we are discussing here. They also offered the 8k/9k combo.

https://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?201736-Burstbucker-1-amp-2-output
 

El Gringo

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Apr 8, 2015
Messages
5,657
The thing about the new Custombuckers is that they are not wax potted and can squeal when played thru a high gain amp . Several folks also said they have a lower output which is true ( like in the 7.2-7.9 maybe even an 8K range ) Also they come with A3 magnets which some believe also contribute to a thin sound . Personally I favor A5 magnets which present a nice mid range tone . I also believe you can raise your pickup height and also pole piece height as well and maybe that will improve it a bit . I myself use ThroBak MXV-SLE-101 Plus and request to have them wax potted , which some folks believe that when you wax pott them it can reduce or dull some of the high frequencies . They work very well for me . www.throbak.co check them out
 

Dax

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Dec 10, 2019
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So I got guitar back from luthier. Main issue muddy and extremely dark neck pickup been resolved. As of right now my neck pickup cover is literally 1.25 mm from the bottom of the string. Never had guitar with pickups that close to the strings. Which brings me to my question. What is the pickup height on your 60th R9 or any reissue with custombuckers
 
Last edited:

LeonC

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Aug 30, 2002
Messages
799
So I got guitar back from luthier. Main issue muddy and extremely dark neck pickup been resolved. As of right now my neck pickup literally 1.25 mm from the pickup cover. Never had guitar with pickups that close to the strings. Which brings me to my question. What is the pickup height on your 60th R9 or any reissue with custombuckers

That's the distance of the "neck pickup ... from the cover"? I've never measured that distance of the pickup from its cover...I suspect that's not what you meant. I measure the distance from the pickup pole piece (or cover) to the string. And yes, I keep my custombuckers set notably closer to the strings than in guitars with other humbuckers that were higher output.

On my CC#28 (STP Burst), the distance from the top of the pole piece to the bottom of the string is 1.9 mm (on low E side). Bridge pickup is .8mm...so even closer than your neck pickup.

DC resistance on neck is 7.98ohms, bridge is 7.20ohms, FWIW.
 

LeonC

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Aug 30, 2002
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A little off topic, but if you're interested, I have a shared spreadsheet in which I've been keeping tabs of some pickup information on Collectors Choice guitars (many of which have custombuckers). If you want to look at the output and types of pickups in various CC guitars, you can see the spreadsheet here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YvL0rEot0GCMbnTngVTPwMR5FdJ3uSBFA4dwRUtPjCI/edit#gid=0

Check the tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet for various models.
 

Dax

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Dec 10, 2019
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That's the distance of the "neck pickup ... from the cover"? I've never measured that distance of the pickup from its cover...I suspect that's not what you meant. I measure the distance from the pickup pole piece (or cover) to the string. And yes, I keep my custombuckers set notably closer to the strings than in guitars with other humbuckers that were higher output.

On my CC#28 (STP Burst), the distance from the top of the pole piece to the bottom of the string is 1.9 mm (on low E side). Bridge pickup is .8mm...so even closer than your neck pickup.

DC resistance on neck is 7.98ohms, bridge is 7.20ohms, FWIW.

I meant from top of the cover to the bottom of the string
 

Dax

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Dec 10, 2019
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Well that makes me feel better. Bring start and tele player , having pickups so close to the strings def will take some getting used to.
 

LeonC

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Yeah, with the long scale length on strats and teles, you generally get "larger" string vibration, right? I think that's part of why they're more susceptible to odd sonic artifacts (e.g., "strat-itis")...backing the pickups off really helps with that. I definitely have much larger distances from pickup pole to bottom of string on my Strats and Tele! Way further! And definitely bigger distances on guitars with higher output humbuckers (e.g., my ES-137C). But I have a '61 ES-335 with PAFs and I keep them quite close to the strings too.

I've totally acclimated to this, FWIW, and absolutely love the clarity of the neck pickup and snappy funkiness of the bridge pickup on my two Custombucker-equipped LPs. Like I said, these are two of the best sounding LPs I've ever played. For reference, some of my favorite LP tones are Billy Gibbons on first 3 or so ZZ Top records, Peter Green (and Danny Kirwood's) tones on FM's Then Play On and Boston Tea Party records, Page's tones on Zepp II, II and IV, Bloomfield on Super Sessions, Dickey and Duane on Live at the Filmore...i.e., not high gain stuff.
 
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