Gibson ceramic or alnico

[generic]

I've got a 'recent' (10 year old) Gibson Les Paul Classic with the stock ceramic pups in it. I'm considering swapping them out for zebras but I'm not sure if I should stick with the ceramics or go with some form of alnicos based on tone and playability. I play alot of hard rock, southern rock and blues style and I sometimes find the ceramics hard to control (although nice sounding). I use a 72 Fender Bassman head and a Radial Trimode Tonebone Classic for dirt - the cab is in speaker limbo as of right now so we won't get to into that :) Any thoughts for or against the different pickups would be excellent.

Thanks!

[fraser]

not into humbuckers meself, so im not sure about les paul players- but strat folks generally think of ceramic as inferior to alnico. i have some nice sounding ceramic pickups, but also have better sounding alnicos- my choice would be alnico

[zontar]

I have ceramics on my Les Paul--and I love them--they give a Killer tone.
So for humbuckers--I prefer them. Although I have nothing against alnicos either.

I'd say if you like the sound--stick with ceramics, if not-try the alnicos.

If you have more than one guitar with humbuckers, having one with ceramics & the other with alnicos will give you more variety.

[ssdeluxe]

tone is always in the ear of the beholder.....if it sounds good , it is good !..

having said that: ceramics have certain characteristics that differ from alnico's in my experience: that are less dynamic generally and seem to push into distortion much sooner, and don't have as good a "bloom" or "3d ness",..but they also are very direct and punchy, and can be really nice with harder/higher gain sounds...they have a "rip" and "agression" the alnico's don't have.

alnico's are more subtle and allow the wood or the gtr to factor in more, touch sensetivity seems better on them and dynamics are greater. they can be aggressive too if wound hot, but not in the same way as ceramics: the more you push the louder they get, ceramics I think tend to go more into distortion the more you push.

of course, this is all just my experience.

I generally will say alnico hums are my 1st choice, but that is because I'm not really into high gain sounds, but having said that, a firebird vII custom shop reissue I once owned (amazing gtr...its in the pile of regrets) had 3 gibson ceramic mini hums, and that was like no other sound: amazing snarl, bite and still had girth and clarity, it was like a huge strat on steroids.

there's my long a$$ message/experience. :food-smiley-004:

[generic]

thanks for the input. I really dig the sound of my ceramics - I do mostly hard rock type original stuff. But I just find they don't have the same body to be had in say, a burstbucker or something like that. Guess I'm trying to find a middle road without straying 'too' far from original. I've found good success in taming the beast by using a boss eq in the mix to tweak any frequencies.

[Robert1950]

Maybe you need a hotter Alnico - over wound.

You might want to consider upgrading the pots and caps - this is generally considered the best place: http://www.rsguitarworks.net/rsstore/ . I have set and noticed a slight improvement (I already had a set of hand wound pups)

[dwagar]

I agree with Robert1950. Try pots and caps first, try dropping your pups down a bit.

Having said that, I prefer closer to a vintage PAF sound, works for classic and sourthern rock for me. But IMO try the cheaper mods first.

[Archer]

It really depends on the pickup and what you want in a pickup. I dont think it is wise to disregard a pickup (or choose a pickup) based on magnet first and foremost.

[bagpipe]

I'd recommend ripping them out of there - I found the stock pickups in my Les Paul Classic were awful. I couldn't get any sounds out of them that I liked. I think they market those pickups as being good for metal tones. I replaced them with a PAF wind (highorder pickups) and the difference was night and day. Much more useable range of tones from them, and you can still rock out with the PAFs. If you're thinking of replacing them you might try talking to our very own Jon Moore on the forum - he made me a pair of PAFs for my PRS that I've been delighted with since I got them. He can wind whatever you need with whatever magnets you need.

[Budda]

Alnico 8 magnets to replace your ceramics, go!

I like the tone of ceramics, but i can get that crazy bite from the ultra channel of my jsx - i stick with alnico's myself.

[NB-SK]

Maybe you need a hotter Alnico - over wound.

You might want to consider upgrading the pots and caps - this is generally considered the best place: http://www.rsguitarworks.net/rsstore/ . I have set and noticed a slight improvement (I already had a set of hand wound pups)

It seems expensive to me. You could buy the parts for about 30$ and solder it yourself in 10 to 15 minutes. The trick is to mount the pots on a piece of cardboard after you've traced the holes in your guitar on it. You can easily find the schematics online.

[generic]

To be completely honest, I'm really down with the zebra look on honeyburst so either way, I'm swapping out my stock black pups. I don't know if I want to mess around with the pots and switches right yet. I tried the BFG with the overwound bustbucker and it just wailed... but then, I might as well just go and buy a BFG :)

Thanks for all the feedback, I'll talk to my tech a bit more about it and explore some more options. Cheers!

[zontar]

To be completely honest, I'm really down with the zebra look on honeyburst so either way, I'm swapping out my stock black pups.

My Les Paul has zebras--but that's what the pickups came in. I tired the covers from my Les Paul copy--but the pole pieces don't match up--but they'd look great on the real Les Paul if they did. (It's black)--So I live with the zebras. But I may buy black plastic covers some day.

[jesseblues]

i would get a set of medium output alnico humbuckers

[jesseblues]

I would get these
http://www.boutiquetone.com/index.php?version=index_eng&page=full_description&product_category_id=908

[generic]

What about mixing pickup types? For example, a 500T in the bridge position and say, a 57 Classic or Burstbucker in the neck. I think I can live with my current bridge pickup, but the 496R I have in the neck position now just doesn't have the "cream" I'd like.

[ampaholic]

I thought the ceramics in my Les Paul Classic sounded pretty fine until I dropped in a set of WCR Crossroads. The ceramics are very hot and sounded somewhat harsh and brittle in comparison.
In spite of the awesome WCR tone the best bang for the buck in my opinion (for whatever that is worth) in humbuckers is the '57 Classics. Used you can find them pretty cheap and they sound fantastic.

[generic]

In spite of the awesome WCR tone the best bang for the buck in my opinion (for whatever that is worth) in humbuckers is the '57 Classics. Used you can find them pretty cheap and they sound fantastic.

I actually tried them in a Les Paul Classic Custom and I found them weaker then all hell. I think I might need something a bit more edgy. It might be worth revisiting though. Thanks for the input!