Jimmy Page #1 T-Top Bridge Pickup

[Jimi03]

I'm not aware of any specific comment he's made about it but obviously he was/is happy with the change to SD pickups.

Any 2 pickups used together cause frequency cancellation. As others note I find a hotter neck to bridge pickup enhances this effect, my CC&7 Shanks stock pickups for eg. I have BB, CB etc but they're not quite like a T Top with it's lower output, mid focused, clanky, nasal, twangy unpotted tone. All enhanced with 500+k pots as in my guitars.

Besides the obvious #1 LP check out the live '77 footage with TSRTS into The Rover / Sick Again all on the EDS1275.

There's an interview with Tim Mills of Bare Knuckle Pickups I recall:
"What’s the most unusual PAF pickup that you’ve ever encountered? “Probably the one in Jimmy Page’s Number One [Les Paul]. Jimmy sent Number One down here for us to have a look at – he was concerned that the neck pickup might fail. It was thought not to be original to the guitar, but was still an early PAF and it turned out to be fine. That one, when you played it, had the most hollow and woody Strat-like tone I’d ever come across in a neck pickup. When I measured it, it had a DC resistance of 8.97k, I seem to remember, which is extremely hot for a PAF. Normally, that would sound as thick as river mud!”

This live clip shows how clear and woody the neck pickup is, and when he switches to the middle the tonal shift is obvious. Such a radical hollowing out, almost sounding out of phase, but it's not. Unique is an understatement. Fascinating stuff. I'm a fan regardless what he's playing.

Daz

Any other videos show the neck pickup good like this video?


Have you ever herd another paf sound like pages neck paf?

What magnet was in pages neck paf?


I know his tone is bright, but i also know his rig was bright too, do you think the neck paf is dark sounding if he played through a darker amp ....do you understand what im asking? I didn't explain that well i don't think

 

[Jimi03]

With a Page Bucker 8.0k AL3 (Gibson) and a late 70’s T top, I got some great tones. it was through a Plexi so don’t forget the amp part of the equation. I’ve also gotten very comparable tones with other great pickups but don’t forget the amp’s partnin the equation.

So you got the TSRTS tone dead on from a a3 neck paf and a ttop bridge?

 

[DADGAD]

So you got the TSRTS tone dead on from a a3 neck paf and a ttop bridge?

It was a great tone for sure. Through a Plexi it was pretty close to my ears. Fiddling with the knobs gave it some other cool twangy tones. I think 100% nailing it isn’t really that possible as it’s very subjective. It’s just one version. The Amp has just as much of not more effect on tone.

 

[DADGAD]

Any other videos show the neck pickup good like this video?


Have you ever herd another paf sound like pages neck paf?

What magnet was in pages neck paf?


I know his tone is bright, but i also know his rig was bright too, do you think the neck paf is dark sounding if he played through a darker amp ....do you understand what im asking? I didn't explain that well i don't think

It’s been a while so my memory could be off but I believe at some
point (late 80’s or 90’s) his neck PAF was replaced with a ‘60 PAF. His bridge changed to a Duncan in the late 80’s too IIRC. a few years back I could have told you definitively but I’ve been slacking off on my Page knowledge. The thread is epic and one day i’ll read it front to back. probably need two weeks vacation just to do that. It’s a treasure trove of info by a lot of passionate fans and quite a few “In the know.”

 

[Brek]

Just ordered a chase tone pedal, hoping its as good as people say it is, gave up on buying an echo plex as really trying to reduce the capital i have in gear right now. As with most things there are a ton of options from various brands, went for the chase tone from Cooljuk's recommendation.

 

[Jimi03]

Just ordered a chase tone pedal, hoping its as good as people say it is, gave up on buying an echo plex as really trying to reduce the capital i have in gear right now. As with most things there are a ton of options from various brands, went for the chase tone from Cooljuk's recommendation.

I got the secret preamp and its the shit

 

[slaptap]

The Secret Preamp in the bright setting does definitely add some of that bite. There are so many variables to the Jimmy Page sound and it helps yourself to know what era you're chasing. The tone, for example, between the Royal Albert Hall and MSG concerts on the live DVD are quite different IMO. The MSG tone has always been the Jimmy Page tone I seek, and LOUD bright British amps (Marshall), Echoplex, Herco picks, and light strings are the recipe for that. You can pick and choose to incorporate some aspects of that into your own sound. The value of that slapback echo can't be understated, either.

 

[Brek]

The value of that slapback echo can't be understated, either.

Yeah that's something I am tweaking at the moment, using a roland space style echo pedal to do that.

 

[Gtarzan81]

I never liked the RAH pedal and mine gathers dust.

I do like the Belle Epoch pedal for the Echoplex recreation.

I have @cooljuk JPP PRE 72 in my LP Standard. I. Also use a Herco Holy Grail pick.

Heard good things about the Chase Bliss pedal. May have to get one.

 

[Classicplayer]

I revisited this tread at post #18 with the audio and video of the 1975 performance. At 4:11 minutes, I see an angled shot of the neck pickup and I see the pole screws raised and the pup low in its ring-surround. That alone may account for the really bright twangy neck tone. I'm not sure if this guitar was Page's #1 or in fact his #2. Later pictures of his #1 show recessed pole screws. I'm not sure what the significance is exactly because Page still managed to achieve a bright neck tone. As many others prefer, I like this era of Page's Les Paul tone. It seems to me that Page always had something to “say” when soloing and he may have been interpreting with his #1, what his prior Tele's tone was all about, but with more power.

Classicplayer

 

[cooljuk]

It sure would be cool to hear Page's actual #1 (in its 1970s state, of course) in someone else's hands/rig.

 

[Classicplayer]

It sure would be cool to hear Page's actual #1 (in its 1970s state, of course) in someone else's hands/rig.

Enchanting thought; until they encounter those skinny .08 strings that he used.

I've entertained the notion of (1970's era) Page playing my Les Paul into my Orange amp. I'd probably be amazed and even more amazed when served with a summons when he found out I surreptitiously recorded the event.

Classicplayer

 

[cooljuk]

Even though there may not be recordings of someone else playing #1 (or maybe there are?), there are plenty of recordings of Page playing other guitars in his rig. They always sound "Pagey" from the 1275 to the Dano.

 

[Brek]

Story about this cooljuk. When i was selling my Page 87 sig edition on Ebay I put in listing I was going to be in London and would bring it with me. If any interested party would like to see it

I got a cryptically worded reply from someone asking if I'd like to compare it to their version. Not 'Hey I have page ## do you wanna compare them?' I declined as I didn't want to drag a guitar down to London if no one was interested in buying it.

It was only later a thought occurred to me, was it that someone who had the original one?, bored one day trawling Ebay as he heard one was for sale on there? I guess I'll never know. TBH I wouldn't wanna now. lol.

 

[Classicplayer]

Story about this cooljuk. When i was selling my Page 87 sig edition on Ebay I put in listing I was going to be in London and would bring it with me. If any interested party would like to see it

I got a cryptically worded reply from someone asking if I'd like to compare it to their version. Not 'Hey I have page ## do you wanna compare them?' I declined as I didn't want to drag a guitar down to London if no one was interested in buying it.

It was only later a thought occurred to me, was it that someone who had the original one?, bored one day trawling Ebay as he heard one was for sale on there? I guess I'll never know. TBH I wouldn't wanna now. lol.

What should be, but never will be!

Classicplayer

 

[Jimi03]

I never liked the RAH pedal and mine gathers dust.

I do like the Belle Epoch pedal for the Echoplex recreation.

I have @cooljuk JPP PRE 72 in my LP Standard. I. Also use a Herco Holy Grail pick.

Heard good things about the Chase Bliss pedal. May have to get one.

How do you like the jpp pre 72 set?

 

[Gtarzan81]

How do you like the jpp pre 72 set?

It's great! @cooljuk makes great pickups.

Even through the "Marshall" settings on my Boss Waza Air headphones it gets mighty close to his live tone.

 

[Jimi03]

It's great! @cooljuk makes great pickups.

Even through the "Marshall" settings on my Boss Waza Air headphones it gets mighty close to his live tone.

What do you think of the neck pickup?

 

[Jimi03]

The Duncan is quite different than the T-Top, the former effectively being a wax-potted hot-PAF style.

The Duncan in the bridge of his #1 seems to be essentially a '59 that was custom-wound for Jimmy by MJ. She also wound the custom set in his #3 Les Paul which later became the Custom Shop Jimmy Page pickups. That being said, AFAIK, the bridge pickup in #1 is different than the bridge pickup in #3. The closest production Duncan pickups to #1 and #3 are the '59 bridge and Whole Lotta Humbucker set respectively.

According to Tim at Bare Knuckle Pickups (who actually worked on Page's #1), the Riff Raff is VERY similar to the current #1 bridge pickup. Jimmy's current #1 pickups are A2 Neck and A5 bridge and both are on the hotter end of PAF specs at 8k plus. The actual measurements are around here somewhere.

So did you ever find out the measurements of #1?

 

[Saiko]

So did you ever find out the measurements of #1?

I feel like the bridge was around 8.2k and the neck was around 8.6k... not that DCR tells you anything about how a pickup will sound.