gringopig's guitar channel

Part 1: 1974 or 1975 Gibson ES-335. Difficult to date due to Gibson's uncontrolled numbering system in the first half of the 1970's. It has a mahogany neck in 3 pieces, witch hat knobs and stamped serial T-top pickups and a date which is barely visible but appears to date it to either 1974 or 1975. I bought this guitar in 1986 second hand. I remember comparing it to an early 1980's dot neck re-issue in the shop and finally deciding on this. ​I had it re-fretted finally after many years of not enjoying playing it and not knowing why. Turns out the low frets which had been ground down to suit the style of the previous owner wasn't a smart idea for me. Guitars sound bad with low frets. A new nut was fitted also at the same time. The bridge was a Japanese copy of the original wired ABR-1, so I changed that for a Tonepros but, other than that, the guitar is all original with stamped serial number T-tops and trapeze tailpiece. Norlin era ES-335s have an incomplete block. Unlike the earlier and later ones, the Norlin era ones have a centre block which ends about where the neck pickup is and restarts where the bridge pickup is. The bridge pickup is sitting within a carved rout but the centre block is incomplete. ​ The tuners have been changed out to another brand and, weirdly, changed back again to Klusons with the added holes filled in. The model label is a Kalamazoo factory label, so made in the original factory with a mahogany 3 piece neck at stamped serial T-top pickups, a volute and 6 digit serial with 'Made in USA' stamped below. It doesn't have the later maple neck or the toggle switch on the treble cutaway side of the body and to take the pots out to date them would be a nightmare, so I'm guessing a year of manufacture somewhere in the region 1974 to 1975. Visit my website: https://www.gringopig.com/

Part 1: 1964 Fender Duo Sonic. I bought this in Toronto in 1989 in a pawn shop on Queen street at the foot of Yonge Street. At the time there was lots of funky little pawn shops selling all sorts of stuff and this one shop had an entire wall of Dobros and National Resophonic guitars, Teisco solidbodies and, of course, this rather modified Duo Sonic. Not quite as it is today however as 1970's mod guy had been at it! My first vintage Fender. Someone had committed some terrible outrage on it, stripping the original olympic white finish and applying some awful poopy brown stain that looked like boot polish and replacing the pickup covers with Stratocaster style covers that exposed the pole pieces as well as adding Stratocaster control knobs. Luckily, everything else was intact and the pickups are stamped 1964 in yellow ink as they should be. The pickguard is original as well. I sourced correct pickup covers and knobs but it still was poopy brown™. I gave the body to Chris Richards of 3R guitars and he stripped the poop off and gave it a correct nitro cellulose re-finish and aged it to be as it would have been through time without the outrage of stripping old finishes that seemed to be a popular pastime in the 1970's. It turned out rather well! Note that the middle position with both pickups is not typical for Fender as they are wired in series. You can hear the stronger tone, more akin to a humbucker in this position. With a Telecaster, the sound is more 'jangly' and even brighter than the bridge pickup position sometimes and this is because the normal wiring for a 2 pickup Fender is for them to be wired in parallel. The Duo Sonic was designed and originally sold with the series wiring. Visit my website: https://www.gringopig.com/

The mystery! The Horror ™ Or is it? Come now, come now. It's easy. It's also very cool. You can set up a warm tone on the rhythm circuit and instantly switch to an ice picky jab in the pineal gland at the flick of one wee switch. Top panel has one switch and 2 pots mounted sideways and operated by wheels inset into the pick guard. Pull the switch up to you and become Wes Montgomery. Flick it down and be Link Wray or break glass from 50 metres through a Fender Twin Reverb in 10 seconds. The 'normal circuit' is just that. Three switches, one for each pickup and a weird switch that everyone but Johnny Marr doesn't use very much - the 'Strangle Switch'. It apparently only targets those nasty bass frequencies that rob your Twin Reverb of the power to beam solid arcs of high end into the room. It's really a bass cut and quite subtle really; just a capacitor that filters of the low end. ​The thing about offsets is the 1 Meg ohm pots. This is the big secret and you may already know this or not. The volume control is the biggest tone shaper of the lot. Full up and you get the high end that most people associate with the Jaguar and Jazzmaster offset guitars but start rolling it back and the high end rolls off too quite quickly, so at 8 or so, the guitars sound have the same spectrum as a Stratocaster or Telecaster. Imagine if a Telecaster came with 1 Meg ohm potentiometers. Good God. I don't think the world would be ready for that. A Telecaster with 1 Meg ohm pots is like a vampire crossed with a Honey Badger who is invisibleand coated with bubonic plague. ​A Stratocaster is so thin and clanky it might collapse into a frequency band so narrow it could split electrons if you fitted 1 Meg pots to it. They fitted 250k ohm for a reason! Anyway, the offset switching can be super subtle and interactive with the ability to preset tones on the two circuits independently for those mid song jabby bits that make the sound guy wince and beer glasses shatter in the hands of the audience. This is a demo for you and I go through the combinations pretty randomly I have to say. Visit my website: https://www.gringopig.com/

Having a neck stamp of late 1964, this guitar has all the features of the late Pre-CBS era: pearloid dot markers, white pickguard without any greening and staggered pickup pole pieces. The black Jaguar model is notable for the fact that the 'Fender Jaguar' logo on the headstock has been snipped by Fender to only read Fender as the 'Jaguar' portion would have been invisible against the black paint. At this point, the 'Fender' portion of the logo was still gold in colour and could be seen. ​ This guitar also features in the book 'Fender: The Golden Age: Fender The Golden Age 1946-1970' and is in near mint condition. For reasons of playability, I had the nut replaced and have swapped out bridge, tremolo arm and collet with Staytrem parts but have stored the originals in the case. The frets are intact enough to play as is but Fender didn't use the same big frets as they do today, that's for sure. Recorded with a Carr Skylark at max on the high gain switch and using the attenuator. Visit my website: https://www.gringopig.com/

This is a handmade Stephen Stern custom shop Gretsch in aged Ice Blue Metallic. Featuring 3, yes 3 Filtertron pickups with quite a confusing control arrangement. It is a semi hollowbody. It may look Les Paul like but it's a different beast entirely. It has 3 switches and from left to right we have a 3 position tone cut switch and then a selector switches for themiddle pickup which is on in the up and down position and off in the middle. Then on the right is a selector for bridge and neck like a Gibson. To get middle alone, I select the bridge and middle then turn the bridge volume down. ​ I bought a Tru-arc Serpentune bridge to replace the Tune-o-matic as the design and functionality of the Bigsby design is never my favourite and I'm freakish about intonation and tuning. A wee visit to Bob at GuitarGuitar for some nut filing and finally I have a Bigsby that actually works and stays in tune! ​​The guitar sounds fantastic and feels just like an old guitar. Recorded with a Carr Skylark at max on the high gain switch and using the attenuator. Visit my website: https://www.gringopig.com/

My first vintage Jaguar. It is an early one, still with the slab fingerboard in Brazilian rosewood. Flat on the bottom and reaching beyond the truss rod adjuster as it should. 1962 is the first year for Jaguars in the Fender catalogue and the early ones had the slab board neck. Note the flat pole piece pickups which made it through to 1963 and then were changed to be a staggered height arrangement. It's not mint but in very good condition. ​ I had it re-fretted and a new nut installed as the frets were dead and a Staytrem bridge installed but left the arm and collet as it is just perfect as it is. The grounding on these early ones is a bit odd in that the tremolo cavity doesn't have its own rout for a grounding wire but instead receives a connection by means of a thin wire from control cavity plate to bridge thimble, through the actual bridge and then out down another thin wire onto the shielding plate under the pick guard. Not ideal. They changed it to be a ground wire from control cavity routed through the wood and into the tremolo cavity. ​ This originally came from Gary Dick at Gary's Classic Guitars in Ohio. Recorded into a Carr Skylark using attenuator. Visit my website: https://www.gringopig.com/

This is an almost mint pre-CBS spaghetti logo Jazzmaster in such good condition it might pass for new! Frets are vintage Fender, so low but factory fresh. I did change the nut as it was too low and I could hear a dampening of tone due to the height above the first fret. Clay dot markers on this L series beauty. ​ I have also added the Staytrem bridge and tremolo arm with collet too but have the originals safely stashed inside the original blonde case. Quite a different sound to the Jaguar; more output from the pickups and a more aggressive bright tone but having the typical offset 1 Meg ohm potentiometers, a rolling back of the volume takes the edge off the brightness. I always run about 8-9 on the volume pot on offsets as you always have somewhere to go if needed. Beautiful tremelo system as always on these guitars. There is some shrinkage to the pickguard as is normal for this original material. Recorded with a Carr Skylark cranked and using the normal gain and attenuator. Visit my website: https://www.gringopig.com/

This was ordered through a shop straight from Fender and it took 6 months to be delivered to me. I like the idea of having the Fender custom shop make me a guitar and although it was a production model and offered in the catalogue, I ordered it some time later. ​ I love the finish. There were Telecasters made in the period 1968-1969 which had a paisley and blue flower design and were essentially a graphic glued on to the body which was prone to cracking and falling off. Those were solidbody traditional Telecaster designs. The Thinline was a partially hollow variant released by Fender in the late 1960's with the exactly the form of this one. So with 1950's style pickups and neck, a finish from the hippie era and a Thinline body, this is quite unusual. ​This guitar is just so super light and resonant and has a big neck but unlike the 1954 re-issue Stratocaster, it has a soft V shape; as deep but with less consistency at the shoulders. ​ I replaced the saddles with Gotoh "In Tune" Compensated Telecaster Saddles in brass later as I am freakish about intonation. ​ A really great sounding guitar with a powerful bridge pickup without it sounding harsh and a neck pickup that is actually usable. Recorded with a Carr Skylark at max on the normal switch gain and using the attenuator. Visit my website: https://www.gringopig.com/

This is a guitar I bought without even plugging it in. Straight off the wall and after an Am7 chord, I knew I needed it. Extremely light with an ash body and a huge D shape neck. I had the tremelo system tightened all the way up with 4 springs as I'm not a fan of the Stratocaster floating bridge due to the heel of my hand always pressing on the bridge and putting it sharp. ​ So accurate a reproduction is it that the first tone knob split and broke in two. Just like the original plastics were prone to doing. I had to buy a replacement set and was torn between admiration for the accuracy of the reproduction and irritation, ha! The guitar is, unlike the originals, finished in Desert Sand which was a popular undercoat choice for custom colour finishes in the 1960's. Although I have another Stratocaster, a JV series from 1983, this one is just a superior instrument and I thought the JV was as good as you could get at the time. Nope! The neck on this guitar feels fantastic and really is quite a handful. No V shape, this is a full D. I'm using a Carr Skylark full up on the normal gain switch and using the attenuator to keep the sound level down. Visit my website: https://www.gringopig.com/

A Fender Jaguar from 1965 in original condition. Original factory custom colour Olympic White with staggered pole piece pickups and matching headstock. This guitar was bought as all original but I have had it re-fretted and a new nut put on to make it playable for me using Jescar fretwire of vintage spec. I have also used a Staytrem bridge and tremolo arm with collet as I think it solves the inherent flaw in the Jaguar design. The neck angle is fine and the bridge is high enough, it's just those wee saddles with very little mass and the tendency they have to rattle. It's a great sounding instrument and the finish has checked over the years but retained much of the whiteness of the finish under the clear coat. The pickups, switches and pick guard are all original. The tremolo stays in tune even though I do like to dive it a tone and I love the action of it: my favourite tremolo system. This came to me by way of https://www.johnniesvintage.com/ and Gary Dick originally. Beautiful Brazilian fingerboard with unique colouring! Visit my website: https://www.gringopig.com/

These guitars were the result of a collaboration between the rescued Fender company which were releasing the Fullerton re-issues - a welcome return to quality and the specs of the classic instruments of the 1950's and 1960's and factories in Japan which were making increasingly accurate copies of classic designs from these years. ​Fender knew that the Japanese manufacturers had spotted a trend in consumer demand for the original designs long before they realised there was a big market for them and were worried about Tokai and others capturing this market and playing fast and loose with their copyright property so they brought them on board and set up Fender Japan. ​This was the start of the Squier brand. Now known for the Chinese made budget line, the original Squier guitars were every bit as good as the USA versions. The branding changed and in 1983/84 the logo changed from predominantly 'Squier' to 'Fender' with 'Made in Japan' initially on the headstock under the Fender logo and then onto the back of the heel on the neck as seen on this one. It came with USA made pickups, the same ones as were installed into the 'Fullerton' re-issues and my one has black back version. Originally a 3-way switch, I converted it into a 5-way and had the frets replaced with 6105 size frets as they were very worn. The neck is a moderate C shape, so not strictly accurate to the original 1957 model and it is finished in a more modern polyester finish I believe as the wear would be more pronounced if it was nitro cellulose. Visit my website: https://www.gringopig.com/

This is a 1967 fender Jaguar in a very faded Lake Placid Blue. You can see the original unfaded colour under the pickguard in the gallery and it has heavy checking all over and some paint cracking off the lower section. I like to think it is a survivor of a helicopter crash in Vietnam. It's seen stuff, man. And things... Post CBS with F plate, block inlays and binding, the neck is unusual as it is quite Gibson like in its large rounded C shape. ​ Sold as a 1966, I discovered that the guitar is actually from 1967 when the neck pickup died and I had to repair a cracked solder joint. The pickup is dated '67. I popped in some new foam under the pickup too as the original looked like a mummified cat's paw. ​ This might be the best sounding Jaguar I have played to be honest and it has had the Staytrem treatment for reasons of playability. A vintage mute was purchased and foam added and has had some fret work done too in addition to a new nut. Visit my website: https://www.gringopig.com/

Next up is the set of pickups that I chose to keep in the '57 Les Paul Goldtop but NAKED! ​ That old myth about the removal of pickup covers leading to searing unrivalled lead tones and an increase in valve pummelling output levels will be explored. Creamery '59 pickups won the day in my 2010 Gibson 1957 R7 re-issue, so moved onto the winner's round and got the covers rudely de-soldered. Yes, time to remove those covers and do a comparison between covers on and covers off whilst maintaining all other variables. I have removed the covers, to reveal double black coils; no easy task I have to say, as all 4 corners were soldered down. I went in with my big bolt and solder braid but after getting most of it off, I resorted to the Stanley blade and hammer. The solder had wicked between the baseplate and the cover, so only a few hard thumps with the hammer on the blade, which luckily spanned the two joints, were enough to split them. I re-installed and popped the covers back on from the top and re-strung prior to setting the height from the pickup cover to top of the string as before. ​ I did buy some 3/48" nuts which were glued onto the short leg baseplate mount with epoxy so I could use vintage style slotted and aged screws, given that the screws supplied were Phillips and M3 thread. Spoils the vintage vibe! Eagle eyed viewers might spot the change from Phillips to slotted heads on the height adjusters. Hence the need to reset the height but rest assured, I have the pickups at the exact same height as before and then loosened the new strings and popped the unsoldered covers out again. Ready for the next comparison then, which will be when I play the strings in to maintain this 'scientific' methodology. Waiting in the wings are 2 lovely Area '59 aged PAF covers from Crazyparts in Germany to complete the test but I am expecting to hear very little change between cover on and cover off, so the addition of new covers will bring it full circle; small though that circle may be. Perhaps so small it's a tiny dot! Maybe I will keep the covers off though. Setup is consistent as always, using the Carr Skylark with SM57 and Rode NT1-A that has been sitting unchanged for months now in my front room. Order of play: 00:00 Intro 00:48 Fingerpicking - covers on (neck) 01:12 Fingerpicking - covers off (neck) 01:37 Fingerpicking - covers on (both) 02:03 Fingerpicking - covers off (both) 02:29 Fingerpicking - covers on (bridge) 02:54 Fingerpicking - covers off (bridge) 03:17 Chords - covers on (neck) 03:44 Chords - covers off (neck) 04:08 Chords - covers on (both) 04:32 Chords - covers off (both) 04:55 Chords - covers on (bridge) 05:21 Chords - covers off (bridge) 05:44 Single note - covers on (neck) 06:01 Single note - covers off (neck) 06:27 Single note - covers on (both) 06:46 Single note - covers off (both) 07:07 Single note - covers on (bridge) 07:29 Single note - covers off (bridge) 07:55 Chords - covers on (neck) 08:16 Chords - covers off (neck) 08:37 Chords - covers on (both) 08:58 Chords - covers off (both) 09:21 Chords - covers on (bridge) 09:42 Chords - covers off (bridge) 10:03 Amp overdrive - covers on (neck) 10:17 Amp overdrive - covers off (neck) 10:32 Amp overdrive - covers on (both) 10:47 Amp overdrive - covers off (both) 11:01 Amp overdrive - covers on (bridge) 11:18 Amp overdrive - covers off (bridge) So what do you think? Any difference? I'll leave it up to you to decide but I certainly have my view! Visit my website: https://www.gringopig.com/

Part 1: A video demo of my 1999 PRS McCarty. The guitar is original but for added lampshade knobs and a push/push switch in place of the push/pull. Played clean through a Carr Skylark and showing the different pickup combinations: all 3 as humbucker and then all 3 as split coil. Tapped or split, I'm not sure but PRS are the only company I have heard do a really good sounding option of this type. No attenuator this time and played at the same settings and the same way as my pickup demonstrations. Visit my website: https://www.gringopig.com/

A demo of a Gibson custom shop 1968 custom re-issue into a Carr Skylark turned up a bit and using the built in attenuator. The guitar was made in 2015 and is a re-creation of the first Gibson re-issue of the original Les Paul guitars. Unusually, it featured a mahogany body and a 2 piece maple cap and twin humbuckers like a sunburst from '58 to '60. The original customs were all mahogany and featured 3 pickups. Some noodling on all pickup combinations and using volume controls to dip into overdrive. Visit my website: https://www.gringopig.com/

A demo of a Gibson custom shop 60th anniversary Les Paul into a Carr Skylark turned up a bit and using the built in attenuator. This guitar was aged by Tom Murphy himself and signed under the bridge volume pot. Some noodling on all pickup combinations and using volume controls to dip into overdrive. Visit my website: https://www.gringopig.com/

The Gibson PAF pickup. Shrouded in mystery and mythology; spoken about in hushed tones by hooded figures in dark woodland near shrines with runic symbols carved into possibly alien rock. What powers giveth these magical items? Well, I have no idea and most likely, no-one does unless you have owned any original pickups in anything resembling original untouched form. I'm sure the people who made them from 1957 to 1962 might wryly smile at the reverence in which they are held. Especially as the very same pickup, then adorned by a patent number sticker is held in less regard and value. However, since the PAF is regarded as one of the Fundamental Building Blocks of Rock™, we now have quite a few companies large and small making what they claim to be reproductions of this pickup and this video is a comparison of 4 of them, all in one guitar - a 2010 Gibson custom shop R7, itself a modern replica by Gibson of the first humbucker equipped Les Paul from 1957. I have for comparison: 2010 Gibson Burstbucker 1 & 2 pickups as supplied in the test guitar 2017 Gibson Custombuckers as taken out of a 2017 Gibson custom shop '58 re-issue 2020 OX4 low wind Alnico IV as is stock 2020 Creamery '59 with custom ordered Alnico III magnets My method is to use the exact same setup for the comparisons, so we have - Same guitar with volumes and tones at maximum, Same amplifier, being a Carr Skylark, with the same settings unchanged throughout. One setting for clean and one for overdrive using the amplifier's built in attenuator, Same microphone placement with an SM57 and Rode NT1-A placed about 6" from the speaker and slightly off axis from centre, Same pickup height adjustment for all pickups, Same repeated phrases played the same way mostly, Overdrive pedal, being a Kingtone Duellist on the Drive-B left side section, with the same settings. The order of play is: Microphonics test Clean chord phrase Clean fingerpicking phrase Clean single note phrase Amp overdrive with 2 phrases back to back Kingtone Duellist I play each phrase through each position and pickup, so for example I do a phrase with neck position selected and go through all pickups then move to the next pickup position and then move onto a new phrase. Listen in 1080p with good speakers or headphones. I bought everything in this video with my own money for full price and have no affiliation with anyone. This way, I hope you can get a sense of whether there are any differences you value or even none at all. I make no comment on this here but I would be pleased if you visit my website where you will find more details and certainly lots of comment! https://www.gringopig.com/ 0:00 - Intro Clean 1:02 - Pickup microphony 3:05 - Chord phrase BB neck 3:25 - Chord phrase CB neck 3:47 - Chord phrase OX4 neck 4:07 - Chord phrase Creamery neck 4:27 - Chord phrase BB both 4:46 - Chord phrase CB both 5:06 - Chord phrase OX4 both 5:26 - Chord phrase Creamery both 5:46 - Chord phrase BB bridge 6:03 - Chord phrase CB bridge 6:22 - Chord phrase OX4 bridge 6:41 - Chord phrase Creamery bridge 7:04 - Fingerpicking BB neck 7:21 - Fingerpicking CB neck 7:37 - Fingerpicking OX4 neck 7:53 - Fingerpicking Creamery neck 8:10 - Fingerpicking BB both 8:26 - Fingerpicking CB both 8:44 - Fingerpicking OX4 both 9:01 - Fingerpicking Creamery both 9:17 - Fingerpicking BB bridge 9:33 - Fingerpicking CB bridge 9:49 - Fingerpicking OX4 bridge 10:06 - Fingerpicking Creamery bridge 10:25 - Single note BB neck 10:36 - Single note CB neck 10:49 - Single note OX4 neck 11:01 - Single note Creamery neck 11:12 - Single note BB both 11:23 - Single note CB both 11:35 - Single note OX4 both 11:47 - Single note Creamery both 11:58 - Single note BB bridge 12:09 - Single note CB bridge 12:21 - Single note OX4 bridge 12:34 - Single note Creamery bridge Overdriven 12:51 - Amp overdrive BB neck 12:04 - Amp overdrive CB neck 13:30 - Amp overdrive OX4 neck 13:55 - Amp overdrive Creamery neck 14:21 - Amp overdrive BB both 14:35 - Amp overdrive CB both 14:59 - Amp overdrive OX4 both 15:23 - Amp overdrive Creamery both 15:47 - Amp overdrive BB bridge 16:02 - Amp overdrive CB bridge 16:28 - Amp overdrive OX4 bridge 16:52 - Amp overdrive Creamery bridge 17:17 - Amp overdrive BB neck 17:34 - Amp overdrive CB neck 18:02 - Amp overdrive OX4 neck 18:28 - Amp overdrive Creamery neck 18:51 - Amp overdrive BB both 19:08 - Amp overdrive CB both 19:34 - Amp overdrive OX4 both 19:59 - Amp overdrive Creamery both 20:21 - Amp overdrive BB bridge 20:40 - Amp overdrive CB bridge 21:01 - Amp overdrive OX4 bridge 21:27 - Amp overdrive Creamery bridge 22:03 - Duellist BB neck 22:47 - Duellist CB neck 23:30 - Duellist OX4 neck 24:11 - Duellist Creamery neck 24:54 - Duellist BB both 25:34 - Duellist CB both 26:18 - Duellist OX4 both 27:01 - Duellist Creamery both 27:44 - Duellist BB bridge 28:22 - Duellist CB bridge 29:04 - Duellist OX4 bridge 29:47 - Duellist Creamery bridge

A video comparing 2 sets of pickups. The Monty's are in a 2017 Gibson custom shop 1958 re-issue as featured in the earlier Monty's video demo I did and the other guitar is a stock Gibson custom shop 60th anniversary 1959 heavy aged by Tom Murphy. The Monty's PAFs are well regarded as being some of the most authentic sounding PAF replica pickups and are supplied unpotted. I bought them stock from their shop and as supplied the specs are: Neck- Alnico V, 7.2k Bridge- Alnico II, 7.7k The Gibson custombuckers are new for the 60th anniversary models and are also unpotted but both pickups are Alnico III. To be scientifically accurate, these should be named Alni III as they don't contain Cobalt! Alnico stands for a magnetic metal blend of Aluminium, Nickel, Cobalt and Iron. Now, there are all sorts of variables in play here; the elephant in the room being the 2 different guitars. Let's leave that particular one aside here! The others are the magnetic field strength of the pickup as caused by the magnet and any shielding effects of the materials used to make the pickup, the type of wire and resistive, inductive and capacitive properties of the coil and the loading of the pickup into the volume and tone controls and amplifier. Also the height of the pickup in relation to the string moving in and out of the magnetic field is crucial. It's just too complex really to contemplate and if I had access to a vector network analyser which operated in the region of sub 50kHz, I would have a go at characterising these pickups. I don't however :-) I would subjectively offer the following: The 60th anniversary Les Paul is particularly resonant and acoustically has some high end 'slap' that the '58 doesn't. The Monty's sound balanced and have a warm midrange and a nice pokey high end nasal accent and are slightly hotter than the custombuckers. The Gibson pickups are less present in the lower high end but have a more open snappy high end and are slightly less output but sound sweeter to my ears. Both sets are quite microphonic and you can hear squeaks and squeals as you attack the strings with pick or fingers. I would say the Gibson pickups are more microphonic. To be honest, for this comparison I can't pick one set over the other. I would buy either without hesitation. I have never played a real vintage Les Paul so any opinions regarding authenticity are null and void but if the characteristics of a PAF style pickup are to be taken as read then I would say that both sets have the sound that I'm looking for which is a warm lower output pickup with a honky high end and a nasal twang. Equipment used: Carr Skylark clean and attenuated using inbuilt attenuator. The amp was almost at maximum for the latter but uses a dummy speaker to cut down the dB. Reverb was from the amp. Rode NT1-A and SM57 slightly off cone and 6" away. Presonus audio interface and Studio One. Curly cable. Order of play: 00:00 to 01:00 microphonic test 01:06 Phrase 1 Monty's (neck) 01:46 Phrase 1 Gibson 60th (neck) 02:22 Phrase 1 Monty's (both) 03:10 Phrase 1 Gibson 60th (both) 03:55 Phrase 1 Monty's (bridge) 04:50 Phrase 1 Gibson 60th (bridge) 05:30 Phrase 2 Monty's (neck) 06:32 Phrase 2 Gibson 60th (neck) 07:22 Phrase 2 Monty's (both) 08:29 Phrase 2 Gibson 60th (both) 09:13 Phrase 2 Monty's (bridge) 10:47 Phrase 2 Gibson 60th (bridge) 12:02 Amp cranked Monty's (neck) 12:41 Amp cranked Gibson 60th (neck) 13:24 Amp cranked Monty's (both) 14:03 Amp cranked Gibson 60th (both) 14:43 Amp cranked Monty's (bridge) 15:24 Amp cranked Gibson 60th (bridge) Pure nerdishness hahaha but if you get this and I can't be alone, then hope you like it! Please feel free to visit my website for more guitar stuff! https://www.gringopig.com/

Not strictly a like for like comparison it's true but the '58 Les Paul re-issue from the previous video goes head to head with the subject of the next video: a '57 Goldtop re-issue from 2010. This has the stock Burstbucker 1 & 2 PAF pickups from Gibson in it and I thought it might be useful to have some continuity between the first video and the one after this. I tried my best to ensure the setup for this comparison was the same as the first and the Carr Skylark is set exactly as before with the same microphones and placed as best I could based on photographs I took at the time of the recording of the first video. They are different guitars but I hear the Monty's PAFs as both having more output, being clearer and less muddy with an airier high end and more 'spank'. This might be the lack of wax potting as I believe the Burstbuckers which came pre-installed in the 2010 custom shop '57 re-issues were potted. Levels were exactly the same and I swapped guitars only. Listen in 1080p and with good headphones or speakers and turn the sound up if required! The next one will be the '57 Goldtop with the Burstbuckers, with Gibson Custombuckers from 2017, OX4 low wind PAFs and then Creamery '59s with alnico 3 magnets. I have a website and I would be thrilled for you to visit: https://www.gringopig.com/

I was a bit fed up with videos purporting to demo pickups and having to hear some massively distorted amp mangle any objective comparison and render the exercise useless, so I thought I would do my own. Video demos Each type in turn by pickup position: Gibson then Monty's in neck, middle and bridge. Makes for a better comparison. I bought a set of aged nickel PAF humbuckers from Monty's guitars: https://www.montysguitars.com/ and recorded my 2017 Gibson Les Paul custom shop 1958 standard historic with the stock pickups before replacing them with a set from Monty's; which came in a rather ornate box I have to say! I used: Gibson Les Paul 2017 1958 custom shop standard historic, Carr Skylark clean with reverb, Shure SM57 and Rohde NT-1A slightly off axis and 6" from grill in the same position, Presonus Studio 68C recording interface into Studio One with no processing. Curly cable. I recorded a series of examples and was interested to try and hear any differences. The only thing to change was the pickups. The recording set-up and amplifier controls were unchanged between pickup changes. Watch and listen in 1080p HD and with good speakers if you can. My subjective experience is that the slight 'woofiness' of the Gibson pickups were gone and Monty's pickups were more airy and subtle with a honkiness to the upper mids that I was hoping the unpotted coils would give. I like the pickups a lot! I have a website and I would be thrilled for you to visit: https://www.gringopig.com/ This guitar is for sale! For now it's on Gumtree and contact also on my website https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/gibson-les-paul-custom-shop-1958-re-issue-with-montys-pafs/1405805993 eBay here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144049305639