LeonC
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2002
- Messages
- 799
I just replaced the original pickups and pots in my ES137 and man...it's a really big improvement. Upon inspecting/testing the original equipment, it's easy to see why. I believe the pickups are the 490R and 498T...but whatever they are...they were a bit too hot for me. Turns out the neck measures at 13.1K (!!!) and the bridge at 8.3K. And I always hated the taper on the pots...I'd have to turn down to 3 or 4 to really clean things up...PITA! The original pots were 300K (vol) and 500K tone. Yucccch!!!
I much prefer the sound of lower output, more vintage PAF style humbuckers. I had a pair of Brandon Wound PAF clones and a harness made with old 500K Centralab C2 taper elements (and newer CTS shells and pop-in shafts) by a friend of mine. The BrandonWounds measure 7.6 (neck) and 8.4 (bridge) and the pots are all 500K. So the pickups sound great! Huge improvement and I really dig the clarity and taper in the pots as well. Now it'll clean up notably better by 8 or so. Huge improvements, IMO! The guitar always played great and I really dig the neck, but it always sounded to aggressive and was too much work to control with those nasty pots. Now it's really got everything working for it.
I much prefer the sound of lower output, more vintage PAF style humbuckers. I had a pair of Brandon Wound PAF clones and a harness made with old 500K Centralab C2 taper elements (and newer CTS shells and pop-in shafts) by a friend of mine. The BrandonWounds measure 7.6 (neck) and 8.4 (bridge) and the pots are all 500K. So the pickups sound great! Huge improvement and I really dig the clarity and taper in the pots as well. Now it'll clean up notably better by 8 or so. Huge improvements, IMO! The guitar always played great and I really dig the neck, but it always sounded to aggressive and was too much work to control with those nasty pots. Now it's really got everything working for it.