Absolutely love my new ES-120, but I'm not so sure about the pickups.
Do they need changing ?
So I did my personal, unscientific shootout - of course the guitars are different, too - I tried to ignore differences caused by wood and construction as good as possible
The candidates :
- Tokai ES120, 2005, Mk2 - T
- MIJ Epiphone Sheraton, 1983, Classic 57 - E
- Gibson LP Standard, 2003, Pearly Gates - P
- Gretsch RHH, 2006, TV Jones Classic - G
(please excuse the crappy photos)
The amp :
Mesa Heartbreaker, left channel clean, right channel dirty
Settings made for a good middle ground between the guitars in each style, not changed during comparison
The styles :
To keep it somehow manageable I opted for 5 well known signature sounds and played around "in the style of", adjusting each guitar's controls during playing like I would do on stage
1. ZZ Top - Blue Jean Blues
2. Warren Haynes - Soulshine
3. Gary Moore - Still Got The Blues
4. Free - All Right Now
5. Dobie Gray - Drift Away (really clean, Curtis Mayfield style)
My findings (ymmv big time !)
T: a lot louder than the others, strong upper mids / treble, bridge doesn't have too much bass, neck rather balanced, woman tone (3) not too impressive, best suited for (4), to varying degrees it's obvious they are not too complex, tone doesn't react to picking as well as the others
E: medium output, really great for the cleaner stuff and a good, solid overdriven sound, nice frequency balance, best (2) and (5) one, very good reaction to picking and guitar controls, second best in the woman dept.
P: lower output, best (1), (3), (4) tone, close 2nd with (2) and (5).
extremely dynamic, you can go from clean chords to singing melodies simply by varying the picking strength, never harsh or muddy, evenly balanced, added bonus are the famous pinch harmonics, the extra upper mids can be tamed to PAF specs by setting tone to "9"
G: not 100% ideal for copying those 5 sounds, but what a great tone on its own ! Clean the neck and middle positions are round, warm, sparkly, the mud switch gives you 3 useful variations, the bridge position is very honky, almost a caricature of the typical Gretsch sound, definitely needs different amp settings, dirty however it really shines, classic rock tones with a special twist, combination and neck equally great, no woman tone due to lack of a tone pot
So what's the bottom line ?
The Classic 57 is the one for "classic" ES tone, desert island stuff, the best allrounder
The Pearly Gates is pure Gibbons, Haynes, Betts, Kossof ... , my personal favourite so far, spectacular reaction to playing dynamics and, as described, can do fine PAF tones with tone pot at "9" or lower
The TV Jones are much better allrounders than most people seem to think, wonderful to make a track sound different and quite at home at higher gain, too, not even talking about all those famous Filtertron tones
The Mk2 has not turned out to be my favourite, but that doesn't mean it's a bad PU, if you regularly use medium / high gain it might actually be a better choice than the others (in a solidbody).
So my beautiful ES-120 will get a transplant very soon, probably my spare set of Pearly Gates. The guitar itself is great, the Mk2s don't do it justice imho
None of the PUs was microphonic even at higher levels, cool !
Looking forward to your opinions / experience, but please be sure to mention your style and amp, too !
Cheers,
stumble
Do they need changing ?
So I did my personal, unscientific shootout - of course the guitars are different, too - I tried to ignore differences caused by wood and construction as good as possible
The candidates :
- Tokai ES120, 2005, Mk2 - T
- MIJ Epiphone Sheraton, 1983, Classic 57 - E
- Gibson LP Standard, 2003, Pearly Gates - P
- Gretsch RHH, 2006, TV Jones Classic - G
(please excuse the crappy photos)
The amp :
Mesa Heartbreaker, left channel clean, right channel dirty
Settings made for a good middle ground between the guitars in each style, not changed during comparison
The styles :
To keep it somehow manageable I opted for 5 well known signature sounds and played around "in the style of", adjusting each guitar's controls during playing like I would do on stage
1. ZZ Top - Blue Jean Blues
2. Warren Haynes - Soulshine
3. Gary Moore - Still Got The Blues
4. Free - All Right Now
5. Dobie Gray - Drift Away (really clean, Curtis Mayfield style)
My findings (ymmv big time !)
T: a lot louder than the others, strong upper mids / treble, bridge doesn't have too much bass, neck rather balanced, woman tone (3) not too impressive, best suited for (4), to varying degrees it's obvious they are not too complex, tone doesn't react to picking as well as the others
E: medium output, really great for the cleaner stuff and a good, solid overdriven sound, nice frequency balance, best (2) and (5) one, very good reaction to picking and guitar controls, second best in the woman dept.
P: lower output, best (1), (3), (4) tone, close 2nd with (2) and (5).
extremely dynamic, you can go from clean chords to singing melodies simply by varying the picking strength, never harsh or muddy, evenly balanced, added bonus are the famous pinch harmonics, the extra upper mids can be tamed to PAF specs by setting tone to "9"
G: not 100% ideal for copying those 5 sounds, but what a great tone on its own ! Clean the neck and middle positions are round, warm, sparkly, the mud switch gives you 3 useful variations, the bridge position is very honky, almost a caricature of the typical Gretsch sound, definitely needs different amp settings, dirty however it really shines, classic rock tones with a special twist, combination and neck equally great, no woman tone due to lack of a tone pot
So what's the bottom line ?
The Classic 57 is the one for "classic" ES tone, desert island stuff, the best allrounder
The Pearly Gates is pure Gibbons, Haynes, Betts, Kossof ... , my personal favourite so far, spectacular reaction to playing dynamics and, as described, can do fine PAF tones with tone pot at "9" or lower
The TV Jones are much better allrounders than most people seem to think, wonderful to make a track sound different and quite at home at higher gain, too, not even talking about all those famous Filtertron tones
The Mk2 has not turned out to be my favourite, but that doesn't mean it's a bad PU, if you regularly use medium / high gain it might actually be a better choice than the others (in a solidbody).
So my beautiful ES-120 will get a transplant very soon, probably my spare set of Pearly Gates. The guitar itself is great, the Mk2s don't do it justice imho
None of the PUs was microphonic even at higher levels, cool !
Looking forward to your opinions / experience, but please be sure to mention your style and amp, too !
Cheers,
stumble
