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Hello everyone. This is my first post. I have a 1990 Les Paul Standard with an HB-L Humbucker designed by Bill Lawrence while at Gibson. The pickup measures about 14.5k resistance. This pickup screams through my Marshalls. Power, crunch, pinch harmonics jump off of this guitar. My 1999 SG bridge pickup measures about 13.5k. Seems pretty hot, but just doesn't have the power and sustain i want. I have to beg the SG for pinch harmonics staright through the amps. Any advice on a pickup upgrade for the SG would be appreciated. The tone of the guitar is great, just a little too weak. I have no idea what is in the SG. I would imagine a stock gibson pickup.

Welcome th the forum.

I have a Giby LP and a Hamer Studio, which is in many ways similar to an SG (short scale, thinner mahogany body, and dual cutaways). In my LP, I have a set of Pearly Gates pickups that sound big, fat, and ballsy, but with tons of clarity. In the Hamer, the bridge unit sounded way thinner, almost like a single coil.

Since then I swapped the PG out of the Hamer and put in a JB. It now keeps up with the LP in terms of perceived output, and it's about as thick in the bridge position. It does sound different, but I don't have to tweak my amp as much when switching guitars.

I would recommend you doing something similar. for the SG, you'll probably need something high output, with an alnico V mag, and lots of mids. the JB comes to mind, as does the Rio Grande BBQ bucker, and perhaps the Custom 5 (not a ton of mids, though) or the Custom (it has a ceramic magnet, but it can get smooth and is pretty thick).

Good luck.

I know you may think i'm going out on a tangent, here, but I think a SH-13 would be totally killer. I have them in both of my SGs and they sound really, really good.

The SH-13 is not a totally killer-high-gain pickup, it has more of a thick--not quite as thick as an SH-8--tone. It can do the cleans nice as well and sounds great when split with the neck pickup.

But if this pickup seems a little too quot;hotquot; for you, I'd say to go with the JB as well; can't go wrong there, dude.

If you don't mind the clean tones then the JB it's an amazing pickup. It has a great overdriven tone which it's only at it's best when you play in a band. When you play alone the JB has a kind of narrow frecuency tone (lot's of upper mids frecuencies) which can be boring to some folks. But when you play with a band this narrow frecuency just cuts throught the mix and you can allways be heard.