Amp and Pickup combo's

shaunf · 2012-04-02T16:14:10+00:00

Apologies for the relatively non-descriptive subject heading, but I couldn't think of anything better to call it. I've been thinking about this for a while now, but finally decided to post about it. So, in the past I've always had this view that certain pickups sound like X and certain amps sound like Y, and any thoughts I've ever had around pickups and amps have always been separately. I notice many other people do the same, as evidenced by the many "What Pickups" type topics as well as the equally many "What Amplifier" topics. What I've seldom, perhaps even never seen is anyone considering these 2 bits of equipment together. When I say pickups, I'm also not referring to the clearly different pickup types like single coils, humbuckers, P90's etc. I'm talking about pickups within the same family. Bear with me, I'll try and explain what I am getting at. In the past I've owned multiple electric guitars at the same time, but they were always very different guitars, for instance a Les Paul, a Strat, and a Rickenbacker, up until I sold the Strat and Rick a number of years ago. During this same time though, I only ever had one amp at any given time. The last 14 months is the first time I've owned 2 similar guitars, both Les Pauls, and the last 5 months is the first time I've owned 2 amps at the same time, and this situation has lead to some interesting observations. A little bit about the guitars: Both Gibson Les Pauls. One a 1995 LP Studio, fitted with Seymour Duncan Alnico II Slash pickups (supposed to be slightly hotter wound than the regular Alnico II's), 500K CTS pots, Gibson Bumblebee reissue caps and the guitar is wired the vintage way. My other guitar, a stock '59 reissue LP, which has very similar pots, the same caps and is wired in the same way, and has the Gibson Burst Bucker pickups. Both the Seymour's in my Studio as well as the Burst Buckers in the '59 are not wax potted. So, we have 2 very similar guitars from a materials/construction perspective, are wired in the same way, have the same pots, have the same caps, but the humbuckers are different, although very similar from a construction perspective. Onto my observations. When I got my '59 last January, I still had my Marshall JCM2000 TSL. Plugging each guitar into this amp produced a clear winner from a tone perspective - the '59 was streaks ahead. This trend continued when I got my AFD100 a bit later last year. The studio sounded very good through the AFD, but again the '59 just killed it. To me, this was not unexpected, given that you could buy 4 new Studios for the price of the '59, and as a result the '59 has been the guitar that I reach for most often, but this changed when the Plexi arrived a couple of months ago. Plug the '59 into the Plexi and it sounds amazing, but the Studio through this amp is just freaking unreal. Just to add to this, that in either case, I'm not talking subtle differences here. The '59 is clearly the better sounding guitar through the AFD, and the Studio is clearly the better sounding guitar through the Plexi. Given that both guitars are similarly constructed, have the same wiring layout, the same tone caps, and really the only difference is that the Studio has slightly hotter pups than the '59 (I think), I'm surprised that I no longer view the guitars as one being clearly superior to the other. Anyone have any similar experiences, or want to offer any views as to why there is a clear guitar/amp combo preference? further to that, does anyone actually consider pup choice for their favourite amp, or possibly take into account their favourite pups when choosing an amp?

Sebber

Lol, ok so it's not egg I see on MikeM's face, it's the egg on MY face!

singemonkey

Sebber wrote Lol, ok so it's not egg I see on MikeM's face, it's the egg on MY face!

Don't worry about it. Add some tabasco and it'll be delicious. ? ?

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