I am not one to chase a particular player's tone these days. Haven't been for a number of years.
That being said... LOL . A few years ago I picked up an LP that had 490/498 pickups in it. I struggled for months, raising, lowering, bringing up pole pieces, screwing them back down, etc. They were almost there, but I never really got a good balance.. Neck sounds good, bridge is too brittle, bridge sounds good, neck is too dark... On and on.
Finally, I decided to get serious, because I really loved the guitar. I read around, checked prices and figured out what I could and couldn't afford. I settled on David Plummer and his Zhangbucker pickups. I had an idea of what I wanted, but wen tin open minded as I could be. David and I exchanged a bunch fo emails, I sent him examples of what I wanted the guitar to sound like. He sent me some specs, I admitted total ignoramity and let him build them.
I popped them in and he had nailed the tone I had heard in my head and described to him. I literally could not be any happier with that guitar and those pickups!
Are OX4s, Throbaks, Duncans, Dimarzios, Lollars any better or worse? No clue. But, I will say the price I paid and the results I got were beyond my expectations and I have gone back to David for a couple other pickups for other guitars since and been just as happy.
That being said... LOL . A few years ago I picked up an LP that had 490/498 pickups in it. I struggled for months, raising, lowering, bringing up pole pieces, screwing them back down, etc. They were almost there, but I never really got a good balance.. Neck sounds good, bridge is too brittle, bridge sounds good, neck is too dark... On and on.
Finally, I decided to get serious, because I really loved the guitar. I read around, checked prices and figured out what I could and couldn't afford. I settled on David Plummer and his Zhangbucker pickups. I had an idea of what I wanted, but wen tin open minded as I could be. David and I exchanged a bunch fo emails, I sent him examples of what I wanted the guitar to sound like. He sent me some specs, I admitted total ignoramity and let him build them.
I popped them in and he had nailed the tone I had heard in my head and described to him. I literally could not be any happier with that guitar and those pickups!
Are OX4s, Throbaks, Duncans, Dimarzios, Lollars any better or worse? No clue. But, I will say the price I paid and the results I got were beyond my expectations and I have gone back to David for a couple other pickups for other guitars since and been just as happy.