Stock Probucker 2/3

[Drewn]

So the LP Std 60's comes with the Probucker 2/3 set installed. personally I think they sound great but I don't have a whole lot to compare them to. My SG now has a set of Pearly Gates in it and it does sound pretty great but I think I still want to keep the PB's in the Les Paul.

So the question is, who is changing out the probuckers for something else, what have you chosen and why did you choose the replacements over the stock pickups?

 

[BDW60]

The Probuckers IMO occupy a strange space. They aren’t bad enough that your first mission is to yank them out, but they aren’t good enough to make you think they’re long term pickups.

They do the job just fine. But who’s content with just fine?

It’s weird. Epi pickups used to suck, so at least you knew what to do with them. These do not suck. They’re actually solid pickups.

What a quandary.

 

[DrBGood]

Keep them in there.

 

[syco]

If you spend the time going through a lot of threads on these , you'll find lots who initially changed these out for " better " , but ended up putting the original back in . Slightly hotter than Pearly Gates PG 7.3 - 7.8 K N 8.2 -8.5 B PB2 8.2 - 8.4 K PB3 8.5 - 9.0 K .

 

[Drewn]

I am going to start digging through some other threads as I find them. interesting to see the PB's are hotter than the Pearly Gates. there are definite differences in the tone between the two but in my case there are other variables with the pots and caps in the SG vs the LP. all good but different.

 

[Steve T 667]

i wanted to try a pair of seth lovers, and bounce the proB's from the new at the time 2020 50's GT into another guitar . what i eventually settled on actually really recently and im pretty happy all the way around was all this. i love my 2018 339 most of all, which had some sort of ProB's in it i think, but they were ya know, pretty okey and all.so i wanted the 2020's in there making both guitars sound really good i figured. But then i got on a goildfoil kick and got one for the neck in the 339, and put that neck ProB in my LP copy that i put a p90 in the middle of 2 Hb's. so that one sounds a bit better now too.
if ya follow all that

 

[syco]

i wanted to try a pair of seth lovers, and bounce the proB's from the new at the time 2020 50's GT into another guitar . what i eventually settled on actually really recently and im pretty happy all the way around was all this. i love my 2018 339 most of all, which had some sort of ProB's in it i think, but they were ya know, pretty okey and all.so i wanted the 2020's in there making both guitars sound really good i figured. But then i got on a goildfoil kick and got one for the neck in the 339, and put that neck ProB in my LP copy that i put a p90 in the middle of 2 Hb's. so that one sounds a bit better now too.
if ya follow all that

Okey Dokey !

 

[rjwilson37]

So the LP Std 60's comes with the Probucker 2/3 set installed. personally I think they sound great but I don't have a whole lot to compare them to. My SG now has a set of Pearly Gates in it and it does sound pretty great but I think I still want to keep the PB's in the Les Paul.

So the question is, who is changing out the probuckers for something else, what have you chosen and why did you choose the replacements over the stock pickups?

Nothing wrong at all with the PB 2/3s, very good pickups. To my ears, they sound more like the 57 Classic/Classic Plus combination than the BB 2/3's. And there is nothing wrong with that, 57 Classics are great pickups. I had a set in my Les Paul Signature, very sweet tone.

 

[noodlingguitars]

The PB 2/3s sound fine the way they are. I've swapped them in and out on various guitars from time to time to try different things. Most of the time it's just for experimenting rather than out of necessity. Do other pickups have a difference? Sure. Are they worlds apart (if you stay in the Alnico II PAF territory) - no... seriously.. no. Fancy buzz words and forum posts can make them sound like they are, but really, they're not. I hear more tonal shift every time my otologist cleans my ears than swapping pickups (you'd be surprised at how many frequencies get attenuated if your ears aren't clean). But do it if you enjoy the buying and hoarding process - I sure do It's part of the fun (yes, including learning all the snake oil, descriptions and what not).

 

[rbraad68]

If you spend the time going through a lot of threads on these , you'll find lots who initially changed these out for " better " , but ended up putting the original back in . Slightly hotter than Pearly Gates PG 7.3 - 7.8 K N 8.2 -8.5 B PB2 8.2 - 8.4 K PB3 8.5 - 9.0 K .

This is very true. I have a few LP's that I had put after market pups in and wound up putting the stock pro buckers back in. My slash must of had 3 different sets of pups and in the end I put the pro buckers back in the guitar. I have even gone as far as to remove the cover off of a couple sets of pro buvkers. One set is in my 2016 Pelham Blue standard and another set in my Chibson LP .... I mostly have after market pups like the Dimarzio 59's and the 36th along with the Gibson Alnico 2 slash pups in my 59's and my Jb Lazz guitars. I do have a set of the PG's in my 50's Standard. I guess you are just going to have to see what works for you.. The pro buckers aren't bad these days...

 

[Drewn]

Good input from all. Keep it coming. It’s interesting to hear different takes on things and what folks have experimented with. I plan to keep this guitar as is I think but who knows what the next one will be.

 

[rbraad68]

Good input from all. Keep it coming. It’s interesting to hear different takes on things and what folks have experimented with. I plan to keep this guitar as is I think but who knows what the next one will be.

My 60's Standard 2020 came with a bad harness and rather than return the guitar I decided it was a good excuse to rip everything out of it and start over. I never got to hear my 60's stock. I wound up fitting an Obsidian push pull harness with a set of SD pups the JB n 59 pups. Guitar sounded great it stayed that way till the day i had to sell it. I miss this guitar wish i never got rid of it. Just look at that top on that thing!!!

 

[Drewn]

The phrase I see the most is “I wish I’d never got rid of it”. I don’t sell guns or guitars. I need to keep them all.

that is a very nice top. Any way to buy it back?

 

[rbraad68]

The phrase I see the most is “I wish I’d never got rid of it”. I don’t sell guns or guitars. I need to keep them all.

I haven't worked since june. I have some medical issues going on. Monday I just had part of my foot amputated .. Up until this I never sold any of my guitars either. I still have like 12 LP's left so i'm good

 

[Steve T 667]

the brand new 50s GT was like a lower middle class vanity/condolance gift to myself, when lockdown started and i lost my tours for 2020. hell i prob would have bought an actual Gibson that year with the money i would have made touring s america and sh*t. at that point i had only used stock p/u's or my buddy gave me a set of unidentified old dimarzios. Plus a p-90 i got off ebay for 25 bucks(which is pretty fricken good actually, in the Dali). So i thought why not try some fancy ones since its my 1st and only brand new guitar. i usually pick up guitars in the 3-500 range, they are fun and i dont really know what im doing anyway. Goldtop sounds great for what thats worth, but hey could just be the amp for all i really know. I bought a cheap silvertone last year cause it was silver and has lipstick style p/u's, see what that was all about. another neat cheap guitar to fiddle around with

 

[rbraad68]

the brand new 50s GT was like a lower middle class vanity/condolance gift to myself, when lockdown started and i lost my tours for 2020. hell i prob would have bought an actual Gibson that year with the money i would have made touring s america and sh*t. at that point i had only used stock p/u's or my buddy gave me a set of unidentified old dimarzios. Plus a p-90 i got off ebay for 25 bucks(which is pretty fricken good actually, in the Dali). So i thought why not try some fancy ones since its my 1st and only brand new guitar. i usually pick up guitars in the 3-500 range, they are fun and i dont really know what im doing anyway. Goldtop sounds great for what thats worth, but hey could just be the amp for all i really know. I bought a cheap silvertone last year cause it was silver and has lipstick style p/u's, see what that was all about. another neat cheap guitar to fiddle around with

I love my 2020 50's gold top. I paid 499 for it brand new. Guitar was damn near perfect right out of the box. I remember all i did was tune it. Played it like that for about a month factory strings and all... Great guitar !!

 

[Steve T 667]

I love my 2020 50's gold top. I paid 499 for it brand new. Guitar was damn near perfect right out of the box. I remember all i did was tune it. Played it like that for about a month factory strings and all... Great guitar !!

yeah, and youve seen me call it my Cadillac and all. just built great. but i do confess my guilt of making my mod plans before it arrived. Like who doesnt want a Bigsby anyway?

 

[rbraad68]

yeah, and youve seen me call it my Cadillac and all. just built great. but i do confess my guilt of making my mod plans before it arrived. Like who doesnt want a Bigsby anyway?

I had a nickel tone pro small hole Gibson style bridge E-serts and a Gotoh alum tail piece for my 50's GT ordered and, on the way, before I bought the guitar The guitar played so good stock I was afraid to touch it. Took me about a month to get the rest of the parts for it. I had a set of JB n 59 at the time coming also. Today it has a complete faber kit on it with Pearly Gates pups. I will never sell this guitar!!

 

[noodlingguitars]

The phrase I see the most is “I wish I’d never got rid of it”. I don’t sell guns or guitars. I need to keep them all.

In that case, I can really answer your initial question in full I ended up buying a lot of Epis over the last three years, most of which had PB2/3s in them. (I'm kinda a hopeless gear addict...)

So the question is, who is changing out the probuckers for something else, what have you chosen and why did you choose the replacements over the stock pickups?

- Gibson Burstbuckers 1/2/3 with the Epiphone quick connect - went out and found a couple sets just for that satisfaction of knowing the quick connect can actually be used. Think Nintendo Switch commercial *click*. So satisfying!

- the PAF'y kinda stuff - Gibson Burstbuckers1/2/3 (potted and unpotted)/ Classic 57s/57+ / SD Blues set ('59s) / SD Alnico II Pro (non-Slash)/ SD Slash / Dimarzio PAF / Dimarzio 36th Anniversary / SD antiquities / Wizz - soldered and/or using Obsidian harnesses. Because I bought too many models with Probucker 2/3s and had to balance whether to live with the guilt of having the same guitar in different colors or whether to make them functionally different (though in reality, they ended up not being functionally different at all). Color matching is fun though. Double creams, zebras, reverse zebras, aged nickel covers etc...

- Holcomb Alpha/Omega - impulse buy. But these are currently not installed. They were in one of my customs for a bit, but my brain kept telling me they need to go in a black LP (or quiit/flame trans black one) with black hardware. I bought the hardware, but then got sidetracked by......

- .... the SD P-Rails - because i wanted to make my custom have black p-90s. I don't have a '54 custom yet. These are out now with the probuckers back in for cosmetic reasons. Triple shots hurt my hand.

- SD JB/ 59 (or Jazz) / Sentient/Nazgul - Cause these came stock with every fricken non-EMG ESP/LTD guitar and so I have a stockpile of these. Similar situation with the "same guitar/functionality" issue. Just shifted that to the Epiphones and Gibbies. So now I can tell myself that I have Gibbies and Epis that do different things.

-EMGs 81/85/60 - Zakk Wylde. Metallica. 'Nuff said. It's kind of obligatory for everyone with multiple LPs.

- Dime set - ditto - but swapped these out for EMGs instead.

- Throbaks (the original ones - 101 or something like that) - just cause of the hype. These cost more ... like a lot more... than the guitar itself. Struggled for a long time with whether to put these in a Gibson instead. Brain farted and told me that it was stupid either way. One of the few guitar related things I actually sold in the last 15 years or so. Save these for the people that believe.

- Bareknuckles - Started with the Mule, they were okay but it's still kinda the same in terms of functionality. Also tried Aftermaths, Juggernauts and Painkillers, but ended up putting those in some ESP shredders instead. These seem to be becoming the JB/Jazz of 2023. So probably will build up a pile of these over the next couple years.

 

[rbraad68]

I have a 59 with the BB's 2 n 3 I am thinking about pulling out. I want to put these Gibson Alnico2 Slash pups in it. Thinking about using the BB's I pull out for either my Gibson Tribute or my Epi Custom?? I need another Dimarzio to pair with the existing Dimarzio that is in my JB Laz now.. I hate being broke So for now all that is on hold. I have found that it takes several different sets of pups to find the right ones for the guitar. I have this 59 that the wood seems really dense and it's heavy like 10 plus pounds. I have yet to figure out what pickups will work with this thing. Just have to try another set of pups. The BB's it came with just aren't cutting it...