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So a few days ago I did a pickup swap on one of my Japanese Les Paul clones. The guitar had always been decently bright sounding and had good tones, but I felt it was just missing something I couldn't put my finger on.

So the stock pickups came out and I wired in a 59' in the neck and a JB in the bridge. Before I did it I went with teh Peter Green mod and flipped the magnet.

In the days since I've done this I've picked up the guitar at least a few times a day. Each time those two pickups just sound too....well....high-output. It almost seems too loud and over the top tonally to my ears.

I was really looking for a good pick for Blues playing and neither pickup really gets the sound I'm looking for.

I'm kinda floored....I think the older pickups were closer to what I was looking for.....and I'd kind of regarded them as being junk.

Is it possible for twenty year old pickups to mellow tonally and get somewhat quot;vintagequot; sounding? It's the only thing I can think of that would explain it.

Pickups can change over time. It's conceivable that the quot;junkquot; pickups that you have mellowed a bit.

Sure... Twenty years it's time enought for a magnet to loss power. If you liked the tone (not the sound quality) of your previous pickups better, then you may consider changing your set for another loaded with alnico II magnets. This will provided slightly less output and an overall warmer tone with less bass and treble. A very popular one it's the Alnico Pro neck - Custom Custom bridge.

Another possibility is replacing the magnet of the 59 and JB with an alnico II. That will give the pickups slightly less output and an overall... blah, blah (see above ). Or you can use the magnets from your old japan pickups. I can't think in any reason why that won't work... Experimenting... allways good!!


Originally Posted by BreoganSure... Twenty years it's time enought for a magnet to loss power. If you liked the tone (not the sound quality) of your previous pickups better, then you may consider changing your set for another loaded with alnico II magnets. This will provided slightly less output and an overall warmer tone with less bass and treble. A very popular one it's the Alnico Pro neck - Custom Custom bridge.

Another possibility is replacing the magnet of the 59 and JB with an alnico II. That will give the pickups slightly less output and an overall... blah, blah (see above ). Or you can use the magnets from your old japan pickups. I can't think in any reason why that won't work... Experimenting... allways good!!

The argument against using the magnets from the other pickups is the other Les Paul Clone I have which I mangled the pickups on trying to do the Peter Green mod.

Those crazy bastards went and glued the magnet in somehow. I totally detonated the pickup in the process of doing the mod. The pickups were darker than mud and really needed to be replaced, but I would have preferred to make that choice a different way.

I think I may go back to the original pickups. I'd really like to try and figure out what it is about the tone that I like and really nail down what I don't.

I guess I've been lucky in the past and I'm just so used to replacement pickups being an overall tonal upgrade. Welcome to the world of semi-vintage gear, eh?