Ceramic Vs. Alnico

ibmorjamn said:
That sounds very good. The rhythm teach is the same pickup ?
Cool, kind had Alex Lifeson vibe to it.
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In that guitar, the neck pickup is a Manlius T-Top type, and the bridge pickup is a Manlius Vinyl…same in the other video.
This is true for any of my videos of that guitar. I received that guitar with a perfectly serviceable set of GFS pickups, and changed them out to the above outlined Manlius set a few months later. I wish I had done videos/recordings with the GFS, but I’m a slacker….
 
ibmorjamn said:
I like everything you play. UFO is kind of my aim but Michael is so hard to copy.
KK downing owned the exact same flying “V” from 1971 with T-tops.
Kk was JCM 800 I assume. Michael was 4 hole plexi back in the early 70’s
I know the effects he used for lead tone. It is the rhythm tone that is more basic.
So amp wise, either of those.
Not a big deal how you do it.
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Here is a quick one I made this morning.

The Les Paul has Manlius Vinyls
The SG has David Allen Powerage
The Double Cut has Manlius Goat Vintage

Apologies for my butt hanging out between guitars lol, I just rolled out of bed on this beautiful brisk morning



But I think the description of the Vinyls is accurate. They are a bit hotter and a bit fuller compared to the Powerage set in the SG, which are a little more traditional t tops.

But as a side note, that Les Paul is a cannon and anything that I put in it just screams. Also the amp I was using I built to pair with my SG. It’s basically a Marshall on the edge of falling apart at any point lol. But the lower output of the Powerage set dances around that edge nicely.

The double cut p90 has a nice mix of the two. A little body of the vinyls and a little bite of the Powerage set.

I haven’t tried any yet but Vineham makes some T Tops too I believe that looked interesting.


Let me know if you want to hear anything else
 
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Aynirar27 said:
Here is a quick one I made this morning.

The Les Paul has Manlius Vinyls
The SG has David Allen Powerage
The Double Cut has Manlius Goat Vintage

Apologies for my butt hanging out between guitars lol, I just rolled out of bed on this beautiful brisk morning



But I think the description of the Vinyls is accurate. They are a bit hotter and a bit fuller compared to the Powerage set in the SG, which are a little more traditional t tops.

But as a side note, that Les Paul is a cannon and anything that I put in it just screams. Also the amp I was using I built to pair with my SG. It’s basically a Marshall on the edge of falling apart at any point lol. But the lower output of the Powerage set dances around that edge nicely.

The double cut p90 has a nice mix of the two. A little body of the vinyls and a little bite of the Powerage set.

I haven’t tried any yet but Vineham makes some T Tops too I believe that looked interesting.


Let me know if you want to hear anything else
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Awesome , I like them all. Thanks for putting that together. I saw all of these pickups on either MF or My Les Paul. The Vineham look interesting also.
The rewind guy was on there. He knows a lot about Gibson pickups. The discussion about the later T-tops being ceramic and early of course be alnico.
 
Were all different my first good Gibson guitar had PAF pickups 1961 LP SG I still own guitars with real PAF pickups
and pre T Tops and T Tops I like how clean they sound never bonded with ceramic magnets and over wound pickups
I got a good deal on my 2000 Gibson Explorer LE the pickups had been changed had a set of early T Tops sounds great now.

001.JPG
2000 Explorer 001.JPG
Explorer 002.JPG
 
67plexi said:
Were all different my first good Gibson guitar had PAF pickups 1961 LP SG I still own guitars with real PAF pickups
and pre T Tops and T Tops I like how clean they sound never bonded with ceramic magnets and over wound pickups
I got a good deal on my 2000 Gibson Explorer LE the pickups had been changed had a set of early T Tops sounds great now.

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67 Plexi, your are fortunate and quite the collector of all things classic.
 
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ibmorjamn said:
I am aware of him and appreciate that Don.
He is priced reasonably . I just dislike it when people shoot up high cost , people pay and it becomes normal.

I spent $165 in 2019 for a custom wound pickup from SD. It sounds good but I asked for a T top. I don’t quite think it delivers imho.
But the price is with in reason.
For some reason I don’t like high output pickups much.
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I have Mick's pickups in several guitars. My first set was a "Franken-Tele" set in a Broadcaster build. Then I got Landmark PAFs in my Les Paul and "Fat Diane" humbuckers in my '69 SG. I've got another set of "Fat Diane" humbuckers in my '58 V build, as well as a couple of sets of P-90s and a Strat set in my mongrel sixties Strat. All of the pickups are Fralin or Lollar quality without the hefty price tag.


This one is an SG with "Fat Diane" pickups and an SG with Goat's Growl P-90s. Hard to tell what's going on as there are some overdubs. The lead is humbuckers. One side of the rhythm is P-90, and the other humbucker.

https://soundcloud.com/id%3Dsg-john%252Fstrange-city%3Btrack_id%3D127713590



This one is a Strat on the rhythm with the '61 Strat set he makes, and two Deluxe Reverbs. I forget what I played for the solo. I'm pretty sure it was the Les Paul with Landmark PAFs going into a JTM45.


https://soundcloud.com/id%3Dsg-john%252Fhand-of-fate%3Btrack_id%3D128916033


Don't have any soloed stuff that you can hear just one guitar with the pickups.
 
Aynirar27 said:
Here is a quick one I made this morning.

The Les Paul has Manlius Vinyls
The SG has David Allen Powerage
The Double Cut has Manlius Goat Vintage

Apologies for my butt hanging out between guitars lol, I just rolled out of bed on this beautiful brisk morning



But I think the description of the Vinyls is accurate. They are a bit hotter and a bit fuller compared to the Powerage set in the SG, which are a little more traditional t tops.

But as a side note, that Les Paul is a cannon and anything that I put in it just screams. Also the amp I was using I built to pair with my SG. It’s basically a Marshall on the edge of falling apart at any point lol. But the lower output of the Powerage set dances around that edge nicely.

The double cut p90 has a nice mix of the two. A little body of the vinyls and a little bite of the Powerage set.

I haven’t tried any yet but Vineham makes some T Tops too I believe that looked interesting.


Let me know if you want to hear anything else
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I have heard Vineham many times so I looked up a video. Right out of the gate AC/DC no pedals.

 
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gball said:
I have DF's in my Classic and '50s Standard. They are just phenomenal all-around pickups (Classic has a '61 in the neck and the Standard a BB-1 and they pair well with both) - monster output but clear and maybe the best string-to-string definition of any pickup I have used. I am a fan of the Gibson pickup "sound" and prefer them to any others that I have tried, maybe just because I have been playing Gibsons for so long, and these are among my two favorites of the modern pickups (T-Tops my all-time favorite for tone), the other being the 500T which I have in my '79 Custom, because in a lot of ways it sounds like a super-hot version of the very late T-Tops that had ceramic mags and I just wanted more oomph out of the guitar. I also have one in my Traditional.

High output Alnico pickups just have a sloppy low end that I can't abide. I like the overall tone of the 498T for example, but it can't hang with high-gain palm-muting and start/stop downstroking the way a good ceramic can.
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Being willing to admit I was wrong, just wanted to say that I was completely wrong about the 498T. I took some time over the weekend to really dial in the height of the 498T in my Studio, and all I can say is, holy hell! It is no mystery why they put these in Customs - what an incredible-sounding pickup, just takes a bit to really get it set up right.
 
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gball said:
Being willing to admit I was wrong, just wanted to say that I was completely wrong about the 498T. I took some time over the weekend to really dial in the height of the 498T in my Studio, and all I can say is, holy hell! It is no mystery why they put these in Customs - what an incredible-sounding pickup, just takes a bit to really get it set up right.
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I read somewhere to space with 3 nickels instead of the common 2.
It’s worth a try.
 
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