Holy "Crap"

Mickster

Well-known member
Just picked up a 1 year old Epiphone LP Studio for $75. Not a scratch on it....straight bolt on neck....controls are fine.....excellent feel and light weight.

That's all you can say good about it. The tuners are terrible. A couple of them feel almost stuck. The pickups are terrible. They sort of screech from time to time. The cord plug jack is tight on the body but the jack itself feels like its been used for 50 years.......the hole is too wide and the shaft moves loosely inside the hole (trying to keep it clean here) and crackles with any kind of movement.

Worst of all.......if that's not enough.......there are 8 high frets. A normal set up is not even close to possible. So......at least I have a fun project guitar to work on. Ordered new tuners. I've got all the tools to do the fret leveling. Ordered a new cord jack.

The guy wanted $150 for it but even that price was out of the question after I tried it out at his house. He hated the guitar and I thought $75 was ok for a decent body and neck.

So......I've been thinking about what pups to put in. I already have a Norlin era '76 Gibson LP Blonde Custom that I use for recording. Has a great tone. Weighs about 750 lbs it feels like. But lately.....I've haven't wanted to take it out too much.....or put un-needed wear and tear on it. I'm not expecting to make a clone of my Gibson.......but would like to make this Epi a decent player. Anyone have any ideas for pups for this thing?
 
That's a loaded and almost pointless question. What kind of sound(s) do you want out of it? What kind of music are you likely to play with it? What kind of an amp are you going to be using?
 
Seems you already answered your own question.

Some cheap guitars are good, some are not so much worth the needed work.

Load it with great pups, and it may or may not be worth a shit... Your call man. :guitar:
 
Yup........that's the plan.........but to be clear......I'm not really looking to clone the Gibson LP. I'll still be using the Gibson live and for recording. The Epi is my blank canvas....so to speak. I'm thinking the guys here might have some ideas for pups that they have already used. Not going to put a budget number on this. I'm saving some decent cost by doing the fret work myself so the only real cost is going to be the tuners and the pups and my $75 investment. I love the feel of the Epi so assuming I don't botch the fret work......I'll be keeping it. So....any ideas guys???
 
Ok....so the fret work is done. Quite a few frets were way out. I was able to do a proper setup. The action is great. I wish I could send each of you the plug jack that was in this thing to see it. What a piece of junk! That got replaced. A new set of Gibson tuners work fine. So.....I really haven't spent too much on the Epi so far.

Now...for the pups. My 76 LP custom came with a set of T-Tops at about 7.5 ohms. So.....in looking around for anything like that.....WOW.....used ones go for anywhere from $200 to $500.......seriously??? I do love the tone of my 76. I know I can't duplicate that but don't want to stick junk in the Epi. I'm sort of stuck on what pups to try. Any ideas???
 
I have Seymore Duncans with coil taps so I can flip phase(I did not set it up for single coil use). IIRC I use 2 different type "neck" pickups(even the bridge side) but I will dig out the boxes and post the PN when I can.
 
Not knowing what your '76 pickups sound like, and not knowing the sound you're going after, it's hard to make a recommendation.
 
Not knowing what your '76 pickups sound like, and not knowing the sound you're going after, it's hard to make a recommendation.

Yup....fair point of course. Was just hoping that people who might have changed pups in an LP type guitar might give me some opinions of their results. I'm looking maybe an ES335 sound. Not looking for especially hot pups. A mellow articulate blues tone would make me happy. Years ago........I changed my LP to a Dimarzio bridge pup. I don't remember the model Dimarzio. I hated it and put the original pup back in.

As I recall.....back in the 70s and 80s many LP players changed pups. I guess many people put the originals back in or didn't save their old ones because looking on ebay for used pups from that era doesn't seem to turn up much.............and the ones that do turn up are very $$$$$. I've actually seen pups of the same years as mine go for as much as $500....each!!! What????
 
Yup....fair point of course. Was just hoping that people who might have changed pups in an LP type guitar might give me some opinions of their results. I'm looking maybe an ES335 sound. Not looking for especially hot pups. A mellow articulate blues tone would make me happy. Years ago........I changed my LP to a Dimarzio bridge pup. I don't remember the model Dimarzio. I hated it and put the original pup back in.

As I recall.....back in the 70s and 80s many LP players changed pups. I guess many people put the originals back in or didn't save their old ones because looking on ebay for used pups from that era doesn't seem to turn up much.............and the ones that do turn up are very $$$$$. I've actually seen pups of the same years as mine go for as much as $500....each!!! What????

Well, back in the 70s and 80s, most people that changed LP pickups changed them to DiMarzio Super Distortions, which is what I'm guessing you put in yours that you hated. Yeah, LP swaps are still almost the norm. I'd say, but what they replace them with is, of course, dependent on what kind of sound you're looking for. From your description, there are quite a few that I would look into, partially base on how much you want to spend.

Just go to the major manufacturer's sites and look at their vintage output sslections. Even Gibson has them. Like I said, it depends on how much you're willing to spend.

Among the big manufacturers, Seymour Duncan gets good reviews for their Seth Lover's, Pearly Gates, Antiquities, actually most of their low output pickups, again depending on what you're looking for specifically.

I have a SD '59 neck pickup which I like, but I think I'd rather have either the Jazz or Pearly gates for the neck. Bare Knuckle makes some great vintage ones too.
 
its funny in hindsight the comment, because in our small area the pickup swap thing was as said Dimarzio and others.

most we didnt know what we were doing.
i did it once and felt ripped off and thought it was easier getting a eq pedal and fuzz box of some kind (that never sounded too good either).
 
Yeah CoolCat.......I remember feeling ripped off too.........but it was probably more likely that I didn't really know everything else I needed to know to get the tone I wanted.....including being a better player with better technique. And yes....I bought many pedals too and was basically frustrated in the end. Not too many years ago I gave that old Dimarzio to a friend with a Japanese LP. He loved it. I heard it after he installed it.......and still wonder what I saw in that pickup.
 
I know we, the group of gearheads back then , we were all cavemen almost....and all purchases compared to "maybe just buy a bag of weed"...lol
 
I know we, the group of gearheads back then , we were all cavemen almost....and all purchases compared to "maybe just buy a bag of weed"...lol

Oh.....no...no...no......I never bought any guitar stuff unless I already had a bag of weed. It was never a debate!!
 
Mickster, I suggest you go to the Seymour Duncan group, and go to the pickup forum. They talk about all brands there. Just be prepared for the deluge of opinions.
 
I've got a variety of guitars, and among my favorites are the SD Seth Lover, and the Alnico Pro II. I've also got a set of Sheptone Tributes in a Heritage H535 semihollow, and they are pretty nice as well. I don't like the high output pickups. All of mine are more "vintage" output.

I don't seem to have the same "golden ears" that some of the people have. I can tweak an amp setting to find something that I like with all my guitars. After reading what some folks say on the forums, I shouldn't even be playing my guitars because there's no way you can get a good sound out of a lowly Seymour Duncan pickup. If its not wound with 50 year old vintage wire, with bobbins made of tinted butyrate plastic, and "aged" rough cast, magnets that were degaussed exactly 17.4% to match somebody's '59 PAF pulled from a $300000 guitar, it won't sound like the real thing!

Hogwash!
 
Yeah, the Seth Lovers routinely get high praise in the vintage department, and the AP2's are a 'classic rock' staple. Never heard of the Sheptones though.
 
I picked up an Ibanez RG8 a couple weeks ago loaded with Fluence Classics for $100. The pickups alone are worth more than $100 even used.

The catch? Well the wiring was a complete shit show and there is a fairly sizable chip in the paint.

It's a pretty good guitar though. I like it more than the agile I had about a decade ago. It was only about an hour of my time to completely rewire it (and I do mean completely, removed all the solder and did a total redo).
 
I picked up an Ibanez RG8 a couple weeks ago loaded with Fluence Classics for $100. The pickups alone are worth more than $100 even used.

The catch? Well the wiring was a complete shit show and there is a fairly sizable chip in the paint.

It's a pretty good guitar though. I like it more than the agile I had about a decade ago. It was only about an hour of my time to completely rewire it (and I do mean completely, removed all the solder and did a total redo).

What Agile did you have?
 
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