Help!: Rolph Pickups or Seth Lover Pickups?

[Dave O'Brien]

Jim is a good guy

What Jim Rolph always says is that he does not want to promise something he cannot deliver and does not believe in hype. I respect that about him. He told me that he has a Les Paul Custom from the late 70's that is probably just about identical to mine and he played it so much he had to have it re-fretted 13 times. So he must have liked the tone. He finally said the PAFs would do fine in my guitar. They just will be more brittle than on a Standard. However, he told me that unless the pickups in my guitar were a certain bad kind of pickup from that era (I forget the name of them -- they have plastic or something inside instead of metal frames) he would recommend keeping the guitar 100% stock because it's more valuable that way. I figure though that even if I take the stock pickups out, as long as I keep the stock pickups and do nothing else to the guitar, it should be fine.

 

[Dave O'Brien]

Taurus Junkie is a Genius/Les Paul Custom Sample

I followed Taurus Junkie's recommendation and finally was able to play Toni's samples. Very nice. I think my favorite is the Seth Lovers.
If anyone is interested, below is a sample of my early 80s LP Custom played in a live situation. I'd love to get your input on how to make it sound better. The Santana tone I tried to achieve in this clip is something that this guitar does pretty well [in spite of my less than stellar playing abilities ]. Go to the link below and then click on the "Evil Ways: Santana" link. You can see it's pretty trebly but that aspect of it helps each of the notes sound clearly. No muddiness at least! The guitar is 100% stock. I've never done anything to it other than to have it set up about twice in 20 years and change the strings once in a while.
Based on hearing this guitar, can anyone recommend anything that might need to be done to improve its tone?? What pickup would work well with it?

Here is the link:
http://pace.psy.cua.edu/vrl/piller/52pillar/p/samples.html

 

[Mark Kane]

Dave, you know, Santana played that stuff on the neck pickup.

 

[Dave O'Brien]

Thanks

Shows how little I know because I definitely played it on the bridge pickup! My neck pickup is very dark. Thanks for your help.

 

[Dave Paetow]

Neck pickup, and lots of upstrokes. Need a PAF type pickup and good pots to get that clarity out of the neck position.

 

[BobOne]

Seth Lovers in another application.

I have a Hamer Newport Pro, which if you're not familiar is roughly of 335-style with a slightly smaller body, a solid spruce top with f-holes, and a mahogany body and neck, the body being routed rather than constructed of thin strips. Rosewood fingerboard.

They come stock with Seth Lovers, and from what I hear, all these semi-hollowbody guitars are a b*tch to replace pickups on, so at least for an initial pass, the idea of swapping in some magnets appeals to me (please tell me if I'm wrong and it's just tough to replace wiring but pickups aren't hard on semi-hollows). But after reading a bunch of other threads, I'm not clear on where I can buy the right Alnico V magnets to try the swap. It appears that they come in different lengths and perhaps coercitivities. I saw a reference to a "PU6919" from Allparts that would seem to be a fairly convenient buy *if* it's indeed the magnet that some people here like in the Lovers. So if people can clarify where I should buy magnets, that would be very helpful.

I have an LP Recording, which is a little more in the direction of clarity from usual humbuckers, and so I'd like this Newport Pro to be within the realm of traditional humbucker sound to avoid overlap/duplication, although the idea of the Holmes as a clearer humbucker still sounds intriguing if it doesn't take me too far from trad sounds.

Anyway, swapping magnets into the Lovers seems like a good start if I can figure out what to buy. Also, before I undertake this, it would be great if someone can reassure me that at least a magnet swap on a semi-hollowbody is not a big pain.

Thanks!

 

[Dave Paetow]

Is this the type of sound you are looking for? I played it on the neck pickup, I think it is a Santana riff.

 

[2muchmb]

Hi toni,

Sorry to take so long to reply; I didn't revisit the thread til now.

It sounded as if the microphone might have been repositioned further from the amp after the Virtual segment, but that might just be my ears. Initially, I thought they sounded the best, but it seemed as though their level was a shade higher than the others. Usually, at least in hifi terms, whatever is louder sounds better.

I liked parts of the ranges of all of them except maybe the Antiquities Alnico II. Overall, the Virtual and Seths were my favorites, but it's possible tweaking might change that. Everything makes a difference, unfortunately...

 

[toni]

2much,

the mic was at the same place for all the 4 pickups.
Great ! i also prefer Virtuals and Seths (alnV) !

 

[2muchmb]

Hi Dave O'Brien,

As I mentioned in the other forum, I think the treble issue is a result of the substitution of maple caps on the Customs when they reentered production in '68. The originals had mahogany tops and if you play a Historic Custom, which also does, the sound is significantly fuller. The Standards have maple caps, but the rosewood boards tame the sound. The Customs' maple and ebony boards do not.

Whether it's a problem or not depends on your signal chain and what kind of music you play. After the first pedal, the difference is fairly eradicated. The maple cap Customs do have an authoritative voice and cut through the mix well, and I think the reasons they're looked down upon are chiefly readily identifiable cosmetic and structural differences that don't necessarily affect the sound. Some people swear at them, but a lot of people swear by them.

I haven't been able to improve upon the sound of the stock pickups in my '73, but there have been improvements since I last tried. I'll be interested to see the results of others experiments.

 

[2muchmb]

Hi toni,

I figured that you hadn't moved it, but, to me, the Virtuals had so much more presence, it really sounded as if you had. Over my headphones, they really jumped out.

Thanks again to you and all who have taken the time to make the recordings and post them, the recordings have been very helpful.