1969 Deluxe, what can I replace the bridge mini humbucker with??? that is hot??

Puke said:

When you say a bit like the SD, do you mean Seymore Duncan? or do you mean Super Distortion?????

I can't remember what a duncan sounds like it's been so long. (I had a hot rails at one point and really liked it a lot).

I am almost sold on a tone zone even though I haven't heard one....except for a youtube clip someone posted.

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Super Distortion. DiMarzio's have a particular sound to my ears vs Duncan's etc. Btw There's a Super Distortion P90 demo on YouTube...

https://youtu.be/x15d5zpzvq4

Puke said:

I should have stated early on that I use my Hiwatts more than the marshalls,...and I've had some pickups and guitars that didn't really play well with the hiwatt.

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Which Hiwatts? My 72 DR103 halfstack loves Deluxe minihumbuckers. They are crisp, crunchy and aggressive sounding.

Here is a short clip: https://soundcloud.com/progrocker-2/1973-gibson-les-paul-deluxe-hiwatt-dr103

Progrocker111 said:

Which Hiwatts? My 72 DR103 halfstack loves Deluxe minihumbuckers. They are crisp, crunchy and aggressive sounding.

Here is a short clip: https://soundcloud.com/progrocker-2/1973-gibson-les-paul-deluxe-hiwatt-dr103

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Mine are 1978 and mid 80s.
At one point in the early 80s I had a 30 (don't anymore0, and it was a completely different animal than the two bigger ones...although you could tell it was a hiwatt. It had 4 el84s in it. That is probably what gave it a different sound.

I did listen to the clip of your 73. That's a little dirtier sound (and possibly less mids?.) than what works for our stuff. But I'm surprised you got that sound out of it. Mine would be much cleaner. But my pickups (they tell me) were probably made in the early 60s by epiphone...so that might explain the difference. Let me see if I can post a url on here of a youtube song with my sound on it. The guitars don't start until it's in about a minute or so. But if you listen, even though the sustain seems nearly infinite,..it's more of a midsy hiwatt tone...like Don't Get Fooled Again (even though I hear that song was done with a fender amp). With that type of tone,... seems like the mini's aren't quite right for it. And, in fact, my Les Paul Custom really doesn't do a lot for me either. I don't think I ever used it in the studio except when we were using marshalls. I always ended up with an old Melody Maker with a paf,..or a hamer special (early 70s) with a paf...those two always worked well..as did this one guitar with a DiMarzio Super Distortion 2 in it. As I get older,..I partially think it was that the pickup needed to be a bit closer to the bridge for what we liked (soundwise)..and the les pauls were not close enough.. But I am determined to get this one how I want it. Here's the URL, you'll hear what I mean when I say midsy with what appears to be infinite sustain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx_Jzph0G8k

According to this Soapbar chart on DiMarzio's website, the only high output P90 options they make are the DLX Plus Bridge, Super Distortion and Tone Zone. Of the three, the Tone Zone is rated at a little lower output and is voiced for more mids... :hmm

http://www.dimarzio.com/pickups/soap-bar

Puke said:

I did listen to the clip of your 73. That's a little dirtier sound (and possibly less mids?.) than what works for our stuff. But I'm surprised you got that sound out of it. Mine would be much cleaner.

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The guitar was plugged in brill channel, with cranked both preamp and master volume really nearly to max. It was ungodly loud. Even cleaner early 70s Hiwatts still can have distorted tone (still not in such amount like with Marshall Superleads though), but they really need to be fully cranked to achieve such tone. If i linked both normal and brill inputs, there would be even a bit more gain.

Necro but:

I wouldn't replace the bridge pickup until you have given the following a punt. I use all of these and love my Deluxe. I would never have got a full sized humbucker Gibson if I hadn't contracted GAS.

1. Make sure the bridge is close to the strings and you have adjusted the poles for individual string volume to equalize the output with the neck. Take the time to set it up properly, including adding degrees of tilt/lean if required. On such a low output pickup a CM up or down makes a gigantic difference. I like to drop my neck to just above the top of the fretboard and then raise the poles up high for maximum quack.
2. Consider using a higher than 500k pot. At 700k-1m interesting things happen with the Gibson mini hums and they become really PAF like. The neck will quak like a strat and the bridge will shimmer and cut glass when spanked.
3. Consider using a no load tone pot (I used to use .22 caps but don't even have them wired in now). I can get a great lead tone on 10, a great rhythm tone on 8.5-9. In the middle position I roll off the neck to 9 and leave the bridge on 10 for a great 'chunky' drive tone and 'PAF like' lead tone where you want to get something that sounds like a 59 neck etc.
4. Use heavier strings. 11-49 by D'addario add a lot of much needed boom and swell to the power chords. Anything less than 11's just sound thin and weak and even with the above mods won't ever get you 'there'.
5. Use 50's wiring. It adds another level of shimmer and howl to the already jacked up pots.

These 5 things together produced an absolute peach of a tone through my JVM900 and, not just bullshitting here, some amazing electro-harp like shizzle through an AC10.

Sometimes only a full size humbucker/PAF nails 'that tone' in your head. But Gibson mini hums are completely mis-understood and widely overlooked because they 'lack output' when the secret, in my opinion, is as obvious as just raising the peak volume (not the output per se) of the pickup at the guitar end and not at the amp.

One can also run a clean preamp post the guitar, and pre the amp to add level etc.