Pickups for an ES137 Copy

[dr.colossus]

A mate of mine bought an ES137 copy purely on playabilty (it plays really well). Unfortunatly the pickups leave a lot to be desired. They are fairly dull sounding, cheap, fluffy pickups. He asked for some advice on versatile pickups to suit the beast. any ideas?

 

[aspirin]

I like Gibson '57 a lot, I use it in my ES135 and Epi Dot. A bit pricey though.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=guitar/search/detail/base_pid/306000/

Seymour Duncan '59 is a bit cheaper, and sounds good in hollow bodies. I use it in my Ibanez AF75.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=guitar/search/detail/base_pid/300010/

 

[DC-XPL]

I second the Gibson '57 Classic. It gets mixed results in solid body guitars, but it really shines in semi-hollow bodies. My ES-135 just sounds killer, and if you check over at the Les Paul Forum, most folks love em in their 335's also.

 

[mrface2112]

I use it in my Ibanez AF75.

hey aspirin......how'd you swap out the pups in your af75? i've got an ag75 that i wouldn't mind swapping out the pups in and i can't find an easy way to get inside that bugger.


cheers,
wade

 

[aspirin]

hey aspirin......how'd you swap out the pups in your af75? i've got an ag75 that i wouldn't mind swapping out the pups in and i can't find an easy way to get inside that bugger.


cheers,
wade

Wade,

You can't get to them the usual way, just take the whole assembly out, including pups, switch and four pots through the pickup hole. Solder your new pups the same way as the originals and put the asembly back in the same order. The wires and pots kinda go around starting at top front ending at bottom front, but you gonna see what I mean. Putting them back is pain.

Here is a trick I use. Get a thick guitar string that fits in the slot on the end of the pot. Get the string through the holes one by one and force it in the slot pretty tight, you might want to use small pliers or something to make it more tight, you can now slowly pull the pots back into place.

Good luck,

aspirin

 

[pikingrin]

I would also agree with the '57 classics, they came stock in a ES-135 classic I got a while back, and they sound real good. Definitely check them out. Also you could go to http://www.seymourduncan.com and check out the products section. That might give you a little more insight on how their pickups would 'react' in a hollow-bodied guitar. That would be the second choice if you couldn't afford Gibson pickups...