Incoming upgrade for LS150 FT - NOW COMPLETE!

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looktoyourorb

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Finally - After quite a few years with my violin finish LS150 I have decided to upgrade it. Nothing against the Gotohs but I wanted to try something different.

I have placed an order for a pair of Catswhisker pickups, hand wound in the UK and VERY reasonably priced. I went for a pair of scatterwound PAF type pickups with a slightly overwound Alnico 2 neck unit (nickel cover) and a higher output Alnico 5 bridge unit (cream color bobbins) modeled after Jimmy Page's Heartbreaker sound.

I guess most of you know where I am going with the mismatched pickups look! :D

I ordered another pickup (high output) for my new addition too - a Jackson Roswell - and the total bill is still well under the price of 1 pair of bareknuckle pickups!

Tone report to follow once received and installed - I am sure these pickups will be good as I have not read one bad word about these or Allan (the winder), he certainly is very knowledgeable and available!
 
You will notice it. The bridge pickup in LS-150s is over 10 K,at least on the ones I got in my hands,so you had a strong pickup before. I would experiment with other caps different than Orange Drops,not bad at all but I prefer others as Phillips-Bianchi ones(less highs),it would depen on the tone of your guitar.
 
I am looking for an aggressive LP sound with a bit more warmth than the Gotohs. The Catswhisker should fit the bill at around 11k and 8k.

I have heard a demo of a real 59 Paul, and these things are very bright and in your face - I am trying to get close to this with the looks of Pagey's old LP too.
 
Would be interested to hear what you think- I've been hearing more and more about catswhisker recently, and I have a couple of guitars which I might not want to fork out Bareknuckle prices for, but which I'd like to upgrade all the same (and which I think deserve better than irongear or tonerider- while I've only heard good things, those good things are usually qualified by "for the price", which makes me a bit wary :lol: ).

I used to use swinesheads, they were similarly cheap to catswhisker (and handwound in the UK), but they stopped trading, which was a shame. :( If catswhisker could take their place... that'd be awesome. :D
 
Don`t be afraid to try Toneriders Dave,I put a pair of their Alnico 4 hb`s into my ls60 and it was transformed! Good pickups at any price.
 
They should be here before the week end - Allan is finishing the build today and will wax pot / test them tomorrow. I will wire the Jackson first as it is a single pickup axe, perfect for my rusty soldering skills. I opened the LS yesterday and there are half a million wires in there! Not much space to work at all...

I received great feedback all along and I was able to choose all the options I wanted! The PAFs will come with 4 wires as some time down the line I will turn mod the LS with Jimmy Page switching (4 push pul pots).

He actually started the build BEFORE seeing the payment...top service or what?
 
looktoyourorb said:
I opened the LS yesterday and there are half a million wires in there! Not much space to work at all...
Click to expand...

Heeheehee...!

looktoyourorb said:
I will turn mod the LS with Jimmy Page switching (4 push pul pots).
Click to expand...

Challenge accepted!

cav_new_big.jpg
 
looktoyourorb said:
Geez! Have you hired Tinkerbell to wire your Tokai? Only she has small enough fingers to do this job!
Click to expand...

It looks worse than it is. My soldering/wiring skills have improved a lot over the years, I can promise you it wouldn't look that bad if I did it today! :lol:
 
The Carswhisker are here!

The Roswell is now fully done and restrung - I took my sweet time not to cause any damage and all went fine. First impression of the Dethbucker in one word? Wow! The Roswell grinds and sings, the pickup even cleans up nicely! Top quality at a very very decent price.

Now the LS...
 
Wow! All done and 2am here but these pickups are the dogs!

The test drive confirmed the LS150 was made for them - the classic 2 in the neck position is just awesome with warmth and clarity while the 72 classic in the bridge pack a real punch (in a vintage way) - complete Zeppelin overkill!!!

They are really good and well priced - most recommended if you are thinking about an upgrade that won't break the bank.
 
Ah I have been off this forum for months and this is just the thread I was looking for ...
I too have had an LS150 for about a year and although happy with the Goth pups that came with it I think it could sound better or different, you have confirmed one thing to me at least that you are happy with some different pups in there compared to the ones that come with it, I have shelled out for a pair of Lollar Imperials (standard wind) and was a little worried after it was said by someone that they thought the Gotohs were as good as a lot of the expensive hand wound pups out there, so I am hopeful that there will be some improvement to my tone.

Anyone else on here done upgrades with their pups or specifically have lollars in their LS150s?

I am also going to get some tone caps from Dirk at singlecoil.com as the workalike ones he has are incredible.
 
TBH the Gotohs are quite good but I found them a bit too harsh.

I really wanted a creamy smooth tone from the neck pickup and really warm with lots of definition with clean settings. For the bridge I went for more venom but vintage style. I cannot stress enough how good these pickups are...

Here is the result:

IMG_0320.jpg
 
marcusnieman said:
Gorgeous piece of lumber.
Click to expand...

Thank you - I fell in love with it at first sight, just as well as I traveled over 100 miles just to view it.

Vertical flame and heavy horizontal stripes on violin finish on both sides, it looks almost checkered under some angles...plays beautifully too!

The good thing it that it makes Les Paul owners and guitar shop staff sick - I take it with me every time I go try a Gibson. I have to confess I have not given up trying to find THE Les Paul yet, however all the models I have inspected and tried including the VOS/Historic series have all lost against the LS150. I believe the best Gibsons are the one you can buy in the USA, I am flying to Houston in a few weeks so I'll have a go at playing a few.
 
I have had the Lollar imperials in my LS150 for two days now and I cant put the guitar down, Sorry to anyone who believes that the Gotoh PAFs are as good as any boutique after market pup as that just simply is not true! like the guy who started this post has found with his upgrade, these are just incredible, I feel like I have a new guitar, just absolute gold tone, from sweet warm jazzy through to total grinding metal, the guitar has just come to life in a way I didnt expect, utterly awsome sound!!!
Thankyou Lollar, well worth the money.
 

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