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Do all Historics have the same pups? Considering Throbaks

CK6

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 5, 2020
Messages
447
Ive got an 2002 58 Historic and a 2018 57 Brazilian Historic. I was trying to find out what pickups are in them? Being they are just normal Historics do they all have the same pickups which I believe are just Custom Buckers? I am considering putting some Throbaks in one of them. I am not unhappy with the tone I am getting but I have read good things about the Throbaks.

What is it that you want to “improve” by replacing the pickups? What sound are you after?

Also which amp & speakers are you using?
 
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PHILBERT

Active member
Joined
Nov 25, 2006
Messages
1,659
I wish I had the resources to try ALL of the many choices (many mentioned here) out there. Now that I actually own a super resonant Les Paul, and the wood has tuning that works for me, the final element of pickup selection can do what Big Al mentioned. It's that last bit of tone shaping that brings out a bit more of what you want, and maybe de-emphasizes something a bit too prominent. And all that evaluation has to be done after you carefully adjust the pickup height and pole piece height to obtain optimum gain and balance. But until you try many of the choices available, you can't even figure out where to start, right?. And NO GREAT PICKUP can fix a "tone turd" guitar. I tried everything (hardware related) on a beautiful 2010 R0 that just didn't have the right resonant frequencies to even sound like a Les Paul. You can't fix bad wood and bad glue. The real tone resonance is in the collection of wood pieces glued together with proper glue. I also believe the wiring channels and cavities in a Les Paul have a lot to do with its signature sound we all know and love. It's not just mahogany and maple and glue.

That being said, I use a well known pickup as my "reference" pickup. Classic 57's are my reference. From there I can figure out what the current pickup set is doing different. Burstbuckers always sounded shrill, and CustomBuckers are better, but still too top-endy compared to my reference. Honestly, Classic 57's are getting 95% of what I want in my 2018 '59. From there I can have a better chance of selecting something else based off of my limited knowledge of what different magnet choices and coil windings can offer. A bit of frequency identification, if you have ears to know what frequencies you are needing or trying to filter out, can help get you there. But experience with different offerings is invaluable. Still, every chunk of wood is different, so no "one size fits all" pickup exists. That being said, I think SLE-101's are a good place to start. A bit more articulate than the Classic 57, but never "shrill". And I prefer weaker pickups. My LP has soo much "natural gain" from the wood that I really don't need over-winding at all.

Phil
 
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