Les Paul experts? Need recommendations on bright pups as well as hot.. (Page 1 of 2)

I by no means am an expert but I have a 2007 58 reissue and it has burstbucker 1 and 2 pickups in it. I think they are excellent. Some may say they are bassy but not only are les pauls generally bassy but humbuckers are too.
I play it thru a fender twin and a vox AC30 and I get very thick lead tones, but I am able to clear it up and play some great clean chord too. Alot has to do with your amp too.

Another great pickup I've been told is the Seymore Duncan Antiquities.  But having not heard them I cant speak first hand on those.

I had good luck both darkening and brightening the Gibson '57 Classic PUPS on my 2001 R8 just by changing the pickup height (the entire PUP - not the pole pieces).  I find the Gibson Burstbucker PUPS I have played sounded a bit brighter (but harsher) than '57 Classics to my ears.  Many people like them.
Different caps will do it too (I'm no expert on the values needed).  One other thing I had done was to have  treble bleed caps added to the volume pots which keeps the tone from darkening/getting muddy when I roll back the volume pot.

ANY of the RIO GRANDE range of pups, they are superb, I have them on all 3 of my guitars, Texas bbq HB set, muy grande tele, muy grande strat.

Jon

Just a warning....I put a 57 classic plus in the bridge position of a newer gibson V and it sounded like total poop! No bark, no bite, just pfffft.

I know this is going to sound completely stupid, because I didn’t believe it until I tried it myself. The easiest thing to do is go to a craft store and get a roll of ZIP-GRIP Flexible Magnets. This is a vinyl magnet that comes on a roll, almost like tape. The magnet is about .5” in width and .125” thick. The roll has an adhesive backing so that you can cut, peal and stick it to a surface. I cut two strips of the Zip-Grip magnet and stick them side-by-side to back of my pickups. The added magnetic strip brightens the sound up and makes them sound less flat. I have had great success with this silly sounding mod. Because the magnet is so thin, it is easy to stack a couple layers to adjust tone. It sure is easier than changing out caps. I later read in a Luther magazine that Rickenbacker had instructed its repair techs to use this method to adjust the tone of their customer’s guitars.

Note: For strip that is 0.060" thick and 2" in length, the pull of the strip is about 12 ounces per square inch.

http://www.allmagnetics.com/flexible/flexiblestrip.htm

I'd recommend you to check out the sheptone PAF tribute pickups and forget the duncans etc. You won't be disappointed. Also, there's a spring sale going on right now so you'd get a set of great sounding PAF style pickups for a very reasonable price. Check them out: http://sheptone.com/ I've been more than satisfied with these pups!

The bigger is the DC resistance, the darker is the sound, so I'd stay away from too hot pups when looking for a brighter sound. And making a pickup that hot is easy, just use enough the coil wire. Quoting Jeff from sheptone "Don't let those resistances fool you... anyone can wind the crap out of a pickup, but that won't make it sound better."

I'm surprised with all the players on here, no one has mentioned Bare Knuckle Pickups.  Put it this way, If I had to trust my life to a pickup, it would be Bare Knuckle's THE MULE. 
I've got a set of BK's in my Gibby SG and they just bleed tone.  They are all hand made so they do cost a bit more but if your serious about your rig, then it's beyond worth it. 

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