Gibson Custombuckers now available aftermarket....

MichaelW

MichaelW

Well-known member
This might be old news....I don't get out much.....sorry.

If I'm not mistaken these are the pickups used in their R9's.

Which I have played and are fantastic low output PAF style pickups.

If I'm reading this correctly, that price is for the set, which is actually pretty competitive with Lollar, Fralin, Bareknuckle and a lot less than the uber guys like ThroBak, et, al.

Color me interested........
 
I’m understanding it less as being a set of two as much as saying it works for bridge or neck (since originally they’d use the same in all position)
 
thewintersoldier said:
while some hate on them and I'm not usually one who loves all stock Gibson pickups, the stock 61R/61T set in my 2021 61 SG standard are really nice and I have no intent on changing them at all. Probably way cheaper on the used market for a set as well. They held up pretty nice to the custom buckers when I played them when I bought my SG.
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Man, I had some raging lust for one of the new 61 SG's last Christmas. You may have just re-ignited it. How do you like the neck and more particularly the neck joint on it? It's a more "historically accurate" joint than their regular SG's and I've read mixed reports about tuning stability.

Also, I HAVE to see some SG porn now since you brought it up hahahah
 
I don't really know what the pickups are but I have a 2018-ish Les Paul R9 and ES-335 (CS '59 style) and the pickups in both are incredible. The 335 is easily the best sounding 335 I have ever played - and I've had many! - with both bridge and neck positions being as good as I could ever want. The Les Paul is slightly frustrating because the neck pickup is a little hotter than bridge. But as I mainly play on the bridge it doesn't really bother me. Both positions sound better than I had ever heard from a Les Paul before. They are lowish in output for a HB, brighter and clearer than I've heard from HBs in general yet still have a big fat vocal sound when played hard. If I play gently I can get those mythical "piano-like" overtones from either pickup's bass strings.

I've tried some expensive boutique pickups in other guitars and never heard anything as good as these. The biggest disappoinment was Bareknuckle Mules - they just sounded under-powered and under-whelming. Lollar Imperials sound a bit bland and colourless when I have tried them. Same with Fralins. I don't know about spending $300 on a pickup, but I love whatever Gibson put in my two guitars. And I'm so glad I bought these two guitars used and just before prices went crazy.
 
HamishR said:
I don't really know what the pickups are but I have a 2018-ish Les Paul R9 and ES-335 (CS '59 style) and the pickups in both are incredible. The 335 is easily the best sounding 335 I have ever played - and I've had many! - with both bridge and neck positions being as good as I could ever want. The Les Paul is slightly frustrating because the neck pickup is a little hotter than bridge. But as I mainly play on the bridge it doesn't really bother me. Both positions sound better than I had ever heard from a Les Paul before. They are lowish in output for a HB, brighter and clearer than I've heard from HBs in general yet still have a big fat vocal sound when played hard. If I play gently I can get those mythical "piano-like" overtones from either pickup's bass strings.

I've tried some expensive boutique pickups in other guitars and never heard anything as good as these. The biggest disappoinment was Bareknuckle Mules - they just sounded under-powered and under-whelming. Lollar Imperials sound a bit bland and colourless when I have tried them. Same with Fralins. I don't know about spending $300 on a pickup, but I love whatever Gibson put in my two guitars. And I'm so glad I bought these two guitars used and just before prices went crazy.
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Going by the dates the R9 will most likely be alnico iii custom buckers and the 335 will have the Gibson MHS (memphis historic spec) pafs. Basically both sets are low wind PAF clones. I'm a big fan of the MHS Pickups.
 
HamishR said:
I don't really know what the pickups are but I have a 2018-ish Les Paul R9 and ES-335 (CS '59 style) and the pickups in both are incredible. The 335 is easily the best sounding 335 I have ever played - and I've had many! - with both bridge and neck positions being as good as I could ever want. The Les Paul is slightly frustrating because the neck pickup is a little hotter than bridge. But as I mainly play on the bridge it doesn't really bother me. Both positions sound better than I had ever heard from a Les Paul before. They are lowish in output for a HB, brighter and clearer than I've heard from HBs in general yet still have a big fat vocal sound when played hard. If I play gently I can get those mythical "piano-like" overtones from either pickup's bass strings.

I've tried some expensive boutique pickups in other guitars and never heard anything as good as these. The biggest disappoinment was Bareknuckle Mules - they just sounded under-powered and under-whelming. Lollar Imperials sound a bit bland and colourless when I have tried them. Same with Fralins. I don't know about spending $300 on a pickup, but I love whatever Gibson put in my two guitars. And I'm so glad I bought these two guitars used and just before prices went crazy.
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Have you measured the resistance between the neck and bridge? Those low wind PAF's were (allegedly) the same output and interchangeable.
If the they're the same resistance then you might play with pickup height adjustment to balance them out a bit. If the neck is truly wound hotter, you might just swap them.
 
Yeah I have measured them and the neck is wound hotter. I would like to swap them but I doubt the wire of the bridge pickup will be long enough to put it in the neck position.
 
HamishR said:
Yeah I have measured them and the neck is wound hotter. I would like to swap them but I doubt the wire of the bridge pickup will be long enough to put it in the neck position.
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I did this with a set of prs 57/08s. I extended the wire on the bridge so it would reach. It was a little ugly but it worked and the guitar didn't annoy me after that.
 
HamishR said:
Yeah I have measured them and the neck is wound hotter. I would like to swap them but I doubt the wire of the bridge pickup will be long enough to put it in the neck position.
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That's odd....now if it were ME, being the tinkerer that I am, I'd use a set of clip leads and test it to see if I like it better swapped. And if I did, I'd just solder an extension to lengthen the wire. But then....I have no life....so there's that.....hahah
 
SillyOctpuss said:
I did this with a set of prs 57/08s. I extended the wire on the bridge so it would reach. It was a little ugly but it worked and the guitar didn't annoy me after that.
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You can get braided shield lead wire off Amazon, a wee bit of shrink tubing to hide the ugliness.....been there done that haha
 
Oh I have no life either! Maybe I will try that.

I actually asked the dealer about this and they said that Gibson, in an effort to be super authentic, just use the pickups as they come with no attempt to match hotter to bridge position. That's how it was done back when. I think there is such a thing as too authentic!
 
HamishR said:
Oh I have no life either! Maybe I will try that.

I actually asked the dealer about this and they said that Gibson, in an effort to be super authentic, just use the pickups as they come with no attempt to match hotter to bridge position. That's how it was done back when. I think there is such a thing as too authentic!
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Hahaha, yah I hear you on that. But if I had an investment in an R9 I'd want it to be totally knocking my socks off and not frustrating every time I pick it up. Especially since those PAF's are typically so good sounding. Make it yours!
 
MichaelW said:
You can get braided shield lead wire off Amazon, a wee bit of shrink tubing to hide the ugliness.....been there done that haha
Click to expand...

Yeah I did that but still felt like I should have sent the pickup to Marc at Mojo pickups to have the hookup wire replaced. I cheaped out figuring no one would ever see it.

I buy all that kind of stuff from

sixstringsupplies.co.uk

Gavitt® Braided Guitar Wire

Classic Gavitt® braided guitar wire. The cloth insulation simply pushes back to expose the inner black cloth wire which acts as the hot/live. Use the outer braid as the ground. Our braided hook up wire is period correct, 2 strand braid weave. Outer braid Inner black cloth Inner white Celanese...
sixstringsupplies.co.uk sixstringsupplies.co.uk
 
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