# "Paul Tone"



## PepAX7 (Mar 11, 2008)

OK AxeMen,

I got this beautiful cherry sunburst Epiphone Les Paul standard... second hand... for dirt cheap.

Just replaced the tuners with Grovers. Cut a new Tusq nut to get rid of the plastic.

The guitar sounds pretty good but... those pickups are not what I'm wishing for.

SO....... what are the ultimate pickups for a "Paul" for that "Ultimate Paul Tone"?

Speak:heehee:


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## marco_ktl (Sep 6, 2009)

Hey Pep! That is some question!:rofl:
What kind of tone have you in mind? Vintage? Modern? Heavy? Jazz?
If you are undecided, just go to the Gibson web site and have a look at their range of PUs. They go from vintage to modern sounds (low to high output).
If you are looking for something special and jazzy, go and check out the DiBenedetto PU line.
I think all those PUs can give you the _ultimate paul tone_, it's only a matter of which classic tone you are looking for. 

Cheers,
Marco


Ps.
Forgot... there are the EMGs too... in a way, they are giving you another taste of "that classic paul tone"...

Pps.
But like a friend of mine was saying: "your tone is in your head first"...

Ppps.
Happy Humbucker hunting!:T


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## Equilibrium8 (Sep 11, 2008)

I reiterate what Marco said. It all depends on tone you want. But my personal favorite are the PU's that come in the Boneyard Joe Perry signature. I think they are just Gibson USA's, I can't remember exact model. They are really versatile PU's IMO. I really like the sound of the EMG's too, the Zakk Wylde has 85's in (or 81's?) and sounds awesome, but I don't consider it "traditional" LP sound, leans more towards shredder type Ibanez, although that makes for a cool hybrid.

Strange that you replaced tuners. I have exact same guitar in tobacco burst and it came stock with Grovers.


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## PepAX7 (Mar 11, 2008)

OK, OK, OK.... now look fella's, do I have to spell this out!

I don't want to play jazz on a Paul..... (altho I have:bigsmile

I'm not much on the vintage thing because I always thought that vintage pickups had low output and rolled the extreme highs off. I prefer to roll off highs w/tone cntl.

I've tried a few "SuperDuper" pickups... like the DiMarzio "Super II" and didn't like that too much. (Lots of drive but to much mid :hissyfit

I have a Duncan '59er and a Duncan "JB" (Jeff Beck), which I placed in the neck and I like that tone. But now the "JB" is hotter than the stock Epi in the bridge.:crying:

About ten years ago I knew this sales guy who had a custom shop Paul and he installed.... I can't remember exactly... but i think it was a DiMarzio "ToneZone" & a Dimarzio "Air Norton" and that puppy sounded really nice.:unbelievable: It cranked like Jimmy Page and was also warm & fuzzy like an Al DiMeola tone when turned down.

So... I guess I'm looking for that Page tone but with specific pickups you guys use or know about.

Don't forget, I'm a firm believer of the wood contributing to "the tone"! Then again, this is a bolt on neck, Epi Paul.... that still sounds pretty decent.

I have a friend who, at one time, had the Gibson & Epiphone "Boneyard-Joe Perry".. he said you couldn't tell the difference between the two... phenomenal tone....best he's heard in a long time, and he's an old player like me. The difference was the Epi was $700!!!

Can you explain the 81-85 thing. I guess I should check the Gibson site for details. What does the Perry use?

Pep

PS.. the tuners were junk. They made a hissing vibration on certain notes that you could hear faintly in the total sound. Grovers fixed that and they hold tuning much better.:T


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## Equilibrium8 (Sep 11, 2008)

I just checked the Gibson site now, it has changed a bit since my last visit. Not as informative as it was. They say the PUs in the Zakk Wylde are EMG-HZ's. I'm not familiar with these, but there is a site that compares the various EMG tones. I can't remember where I read that the Gibson model as EMG85s and Epi has 81s in, right now I can't find verification of that.

The Gibson and Epi Boneyards both have the same Burstbuckers in them, which would account for the similar tone. Thats what I liked about the Boneyard. 

I find Epiphone signature guitars have no consistency when it comes to quality. They go from great copies of the the Gibson models to underwhelming things like the Slash Deathhead, and there were some using the LP-100 bodies...(I had an LP-100, very useful for starting fires) 

I'm still thinking about swapping my factory PUs out for something insane like Breeds.


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## PepAX7 (Mar 11, 2008)

Ok, Equil, thanks for the info... I'm gonna see if I can research those Gibson PU's at some site other than Gibsons.

What are the "Breeds"?? Is that Breedlove guitars?

Pep


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## immortalgropher (Feb 16, 2010)

Seymour duncan blackouts.

DiMarzio evo 1 and 2 for more clean jazzy type stuff and whatnot


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## Equilibrium8 (Sep 11, 2008)

DiMarzio Breeds are in Steve Vai's Jem Guitars. The Evo's Astral Plane mentioned are used in the Universe (or some model Jems?). I just though if you going to go with hi-gain stuff like EMG, it may be cool to go further with these. 

Sorry about the continuous signature guitar references, I just think they make easy reference points to work from.

I am cursing you now...All this talk is making me itch to do some PU upgrades too.


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## PepAX7 (Mar 11, 2008)

Ha..Ha sorry about that Equil.

Thanks for the info, tho.

They say Patience is a virtue! If I listen to my friends, they say "just sell somethin' and buy the p.u.'s".

Problem is... I can't part with anything.:dumbcrazy:

Maybe I'll try winding my own. I see Stew-Mac sells the cores.

Pep


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## Equilibrium8 (Sep 11, 2008)

Cool man. If you try rolling your own, please post some samples. It would be interesting to hear them!

I wish there was some way to check what results you would get if you mixed PUs. Like hi-gain on neck and lo-gain PAF on bridge. Like what the center position would sound like (after all volume discrepancies have been sorted out).


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## marco_ktl (Sep 6, 2009)

Equilibrium8 said:


> (after all volume discrepancies have been sorted out).


How can you sort that out? The only way I can think of is backing more into the guitar the hi-gain PU and pushing more to the strings the the lo-gain PU... To me il sounds like a tone killer...:dontknow:
Does anyone know a better way to do so?:scratch:


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## Equilibrium8 (Sep 11, 2008)

marco_ktl said:


> How can you sort that out? The only way I can think of is backing more into the guitar the hi-gain PU and pushing more to the strings the the lo-gain PU... To me il sounds like a tone killer...:dontknow:
> Does anyone know a better way to do so?:scratch:


That would probably have to be done. It could be done just to the point where the tone starts degrading. The rest would just need to rely on the volume pots...Not exactly a good solution, but I doubt that there would be any other way.


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## PepAX7 (Mar 11, 2008)

Well, there's a lot of science in there and I don't think you'll find too much on mfg's websites or the net about the subject. 

You've got to wrestle with gain of each PU and that usually involves both magnet and wire. Then you have pickup height in relation to string. Most guys don't realize that "magnetic string pull" will effect tonality and pull your string out of tune if the pole pieces are too close. This will effect harmonics too.

Then the question arises about how do you measure this. You could use REW to look at the spectrum output of the guitar but how do you excite the strings (play)?

One way is to make a "standardized" bench where you lock the guitar down and excite the strings with a energized coil (like an Ebow) at a fixed height from the strings and measure harmonics.

Having done all this.... hopefully you will have a method of measuring and evaluating TONE.

Comments??:whistling:

Pep


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## tehguit (Jul 19, 2009)

I've got a Dimarzio Fred in my neck and a SD Pearly gates in my guitar (so its an sg copy, the principal here is the same) and it just that really nice crunchy in your face distortion.

I like the combo.


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## PepAX7 (Mar 11, 2008)

Doesn't Satriani use the Fred?

I love Satch and was checkin' out his tone on the "Chicken Foot" band w/ S. Haggar. 
Course.. he's probably playin' the JS solid body and not a Paul.

Pep


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## tehguit (Jul 19, 2009)

PepAX7 said:


> Doesn't Satriani use the Fred?
> 
> I love Satch and was checkin' out his tone on the "Chicken Foot" band w/ S. Haggar.
> Course.. he's probably playin' the JS solid body and not a Paul.
> ...


Yeah he does but in the bridge position. The pearly gates is what gives it more of that les paul tone, i use the fred just to give the whole guitar more oomph.


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