New Standard 50's - help/questions - (Super Distortion related...)

ns2a · Jul 10, 2019

About 6 months back I pickup up an Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus top Pro. I tried several Epi LP’s out along with Gibson LP studios, Classics, Traditionals and found THE ONE and that ended up being the Epi. The “acoustic” sound of the guitar is wonderful and I figure if it sounds good unplugged, better chances it’ll sound good through an amp.

The Epi ProBucker’s were decent through my Marshall DSL40C. I eventually swapped out the bridge pickup for an 80’s super Distortion I had laying around to get close to that early Kiss tone. I mostly play 70’s and 80’s “Classic Rock” stuff, and the Super Distortion – for the most part – did the job. I mostly use the “Clean Crunch” on the Marshall and keep the gain around 4-5 for Kiss, Cooper, GNR. But for stuff like early AC/DC, it was a bit dirty, but still ok.

Last week, I ended up picking up a Gibson Standard 50's. The guitar is very responsive acoustically. Just playing it unplugged sounds great. I tried out several other Gibsons past few months and many sounded dead or just meh. Some were ok though.

So while I like the Gibson and the Burstbuckers, I have a few questions:

When I lower the volume to say 8 on the bridge pickup, the volume is cut by at least 50%. Volume on 6 is barely audible. On the Epi, it’s very dynamic. Is this normal? I’m assuming a new pot is needed? Seems I shouldn’t have to do this to a new guitar.
The pickups sound good to me. Very clear and seems to pickup the acousticness of the guitar. it's just missing a bit of that "Crunch". If I were to put the Super Distortion in the Gibson, would that just kind of override the natural sound of the Gibson?
And if so, would there really be a reason to have the Gibson? Maybe just stick with the Epi?

Any help is appreciated!

thxphotog · Jul 10, 2019

ns2a said:
About 6 months back I pickup up an Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus top Pro. I tried several Epi LP’s out along with Gibson LP studios, Classics, Traditionals and found THE ONE and that ended up being the Epi. The “acoustic” sound of the guitar is wonderful and I figure if it sounds good unplugged, better chances it’ll sound good through an amp.

The Epi ProBucker’s were decent through my Marshall DSL40C. I eventually swapped out the bridge pickup for an 80’s super Distortion I had laying around to get close to that early Kiss tone. I mostly play 70’s and 80’s “Classic Rock” stuff, and the Super Distortion – for the most part – did the job. I mostly use the “Clean Crunch” on the Marshall and keep the gain around 4-5 for Kiss, Cooper, GNR. But for stuff like early AC/DC, it was a bit dirty, but still ok.

Last week, I ended up picking up a Gibson Standard 50's. The guitar is very responsive acoustically. Just playing it unplugged sounds great. I tried out several other Gibsons past few months and many sounded dead or just meh. Some were ok though.

So while I like the Gibson and the Burstbuckers, I have a few questions:

When I lower the volume to say 8 on the bridge pickup, the volume is cut by at least 50%. Volume on 6 is barely audible. On the Epi, it’s very dynamic. Is this normal? I’m assuming a new pot is needed? Seems I shouldn’t have to do this to a new guitar.

The pickups sound good to me. Very clear and seems to pickup the acousticness of the guitar. it's just missing a bit of that "Crunch". If I were to put the Super Distortion in the Gibson, would that just kind of override the natural sound of the Gibson?

And if so, would there really be a reason to have the Gibson? Maybe just stick with the Epi?

Any help is appreciated!

I have a new 50s LP and the pickups are considerably lower output by design. They're mimicing 50s LP pickups. Certainly when compared to Super Distortion. (The 60s LPs are hotter) That said my 50s LP simply roars at volume. When I compare it to my Traditional LP with 57s, the traditional is louder at same amp volume but does it really matter? The pickups of the 50s LP sound gangbusters to me and if you want it louder just turn up your amp.

AJCR · Jul 11, 2019

Well, not all pots have the same taper, so they might act differently in lowering the pickup's output.

But the nature of vintage pickups are that they have no inbuilt 'compression' as it were. So via an amp with the Dimarzio you likely are just reducing saturation of distortion for the first section of the volume pot, then you get to reducing volume once the saturation is gone.
The vintage pickup as you point out doesn't have that crunch, so it immediately reduces volume.

Did you buy the Gibson so it was going to be a different beast to your epi?? If so you succeeded and have guitars suited to different styles.
If now you are wondering why you bought a second guitar if you were thinking of making them the same.......well surely before you bought would have been a better time to consider this if one was always going to make the other redundant.

danzego · Jul 17, 2019

ns2a said:
About 6 months back I pickup up an Epiphone Les Paul Standard Plus top Pro. I tried several Epi LP’s out along with Gibson LP studios, Classics, Traditionals and found THE ONE and that ended up being the Epi. The “acoustic” sound of the guitar is wonderful and I figure if it sounds good unplugged, better chances it’ll sound good through an amp.

The Epi ProBucker’s were decent through my Marshall DSL40C. I eventually swapped out the bridge pickup for an 80’s super Distortion I had laying around to get close to that early Kiss tone. I mostly play 70’s and 80’s “Classic Rock” stuff, and the Super Distortion – for the most part – did the job. I mostly use the “Clean Crunch” on the Marshall and keep the gain around 4-5 for Kiss, Cooper, GNR. But for stuff like early AC/DC, it was a bit dirty, but still ok.

Last week, I ended up picking up a Gibson Standard 50's. The guitar is very responsive acoustically. Just playing it unplugged sounds great. I tried out several other Gibsons past few months and many sounded dead or just meh. Some were ok though.

So while I like the Gibson and the Burstbuckers, I have a few questions:

When I lower the volume to say 8 on the bridge pickup, the volume is cut by at least 50%. Volume on 6 is barely audible. On the Epi, it’s very dynamic. Is this normal? I’m assuming a new pot is needed? Seems I shouldn’t have to do this to a new guitar.

The pickups sound good to me. Very clear and seems to pickup the acousticness of the guitar. it's just missing a bit of that "Crunch". If I were to put the Super Distortion in the Gibson, would that just kind of override the natural sound of the Gibson?

And if so, would there really be a reason to have the Gibson? Maybe just stick with the Epi?

Any help is appreciated!

A bit late to the party, but I’d like to state that when you’re reducing the volume on the Standard 50s, the volume should decrease gradually throughout almost the entire range of the pot (they seem to cut suddenly at 1.5). You shouldn't have it be half at 8 and nothing at 6. Sounds like a faulty volume pot.

Big Al · Jul 17, 2019

Use your ear for volume adjustments. Forget about numbers. The Super D is overwound with a powerful magnet to pummel the preamp of the low gain, non master volume amps of the time.

You have a DSL40 which has way more gain on hand in the preamp to allow you to dial in any level of crunch you could want, and more. Use your amp, work the tubes and I think you will find you have better control over your tones, clean and dirty. Though not marketed as a hot or high output pickup the Gibson humbuckers are not weak and offer plenty of punch.

New Standard 50's - help/questions - (Super Distortion related...)

ns2a

New member

thxphotog

New member

AJCR

Member

danzego

New member

Big Al

Well-known member