Gibson Introduces "New" Pickups.

[Raiyn]

Just in case someone was looking for something for that 15th Lester, Gibson has put some new flavors.

The list of new pickups from Gibson included the ’57 Classic Underwound, Custombucker Underwound, Kirk Hammett Greenybucker, Dirty Fingers SM “Single Magnet,” P-90 Underwound, and P-90DC.

Gibson Introduces New Pickups - inSync

Gibson proudly introduces a handful of new pickups — many that have never been available before — including underwound P-90s and the amazing Greenybuckers.

www.sweetwater.com

All the information is in the article, with samples. I'm just forwarding this because it popped up in my mailbox.

Beyond that, I'm reserving comment.

 

[soulman969]

OK.....I'll comment.

Love the tone of the Greenybucker. It snarls and I seem to hear a bit of out of phase something going on there. If that's based on Peter Green's LP isn't that the one Gary Moore once owned played for so long?

Like the underwound P90 neck too. Good idea to clean up some mud and add more harmonics.

Otherwise I tend to prefer humbuckers with a cleaner less low end heavy tonality. It's easier to add bottom end than top end clarity.

JMHO

 

[BlueSquirrel]

What a superb offering!
@soulman969 I think it is indeed the same guitar that Peter Green and Gary Moore owned, and which now belongs to, if I remember well, Kirk Hammett.
What an interesting choice for a reissue ! I'm glad they are releasing it.

Btw, so many great musicians played / are playing Gibson guitars / pickups that Gibson should gave as big a pickup offering or special sets as Seymour Duncan or DiMarzio.

I also really enjoyed the tone of the Underwound P90, the cutting bite of the "new" Dirty Finger and I am totally smitten with the tone of the Underwound Classic 57. actually, to my ear they sound pretty close to t-types (slightly smoother perhaps). I wish Sweetwater had added those to their test as well.

EDIT Now that I think of it, the Classic 57 Underwound humbuckers sound a little like the Seth Lovers to my ear (I have a set in one guitar). Maybe that's why I liked them right away. They sounded kind of "familiar" ! They would be a sweet addition to a semi hollow imho.

Btw I love the way the Sweetwater team recorded these pickups. Sound quality is really good.

 

[soulman969]

I think it is indeed the same guitar that Peter Green and Gary Moore owned, and which now belongs to, if I remember well, Kirk Hammett.

Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

Don't know all that much about Kirk Hammett's work but I am a huge Gary Moore fan. So much emotion in his singing and playing. No wonder I like the pickup.

 

[syco]

Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

Don't know all that much about Kirk Hammett's work but I am a huge Gary Moore fan. So much emotion in his singing and playing. No wonder I like the pickup.

Gibson's spin on Seymour Duncan "Green Magic " .

 

[soulman969]

Gibson's spin on Seymour Duncan "Green Magic " .

Ah.....appreciate the tip.

My only LP is the Gold Top w/P90s but you never know when I might develop more of a taste for LPs as opposed to my Teles and single coil pickups in general.

I've never done a mod job on an inexpensive LP but there's a first time for everything.

 

[BlueSquirrel]

I love Gary Moore too! What a soulful player!

Indeed, the Greenybucker pickups were the ones that were conceived to recreate "Greeny" by the Gibson Custom Shop.

Here are two articles on that guitar, its pickups and their reissues :
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeny_(guitar)#:~:text=The guitar is equipped with,is in the middle position.

https://www.stars-music.com/gibson-...9-les-paul-standard-931929-greeny_198967.html

 

[imnotcreative]

All i can say is the custombuckers (regular ones, i dont have experience with low wind) sound pretty sweet, bright clear high's(slightly less than A5) and airy/woody/hollow sounding mid's, but can be quite boomy/woofy on the low E string.

They work great on my LP Tribute, Not so much on my STD 50's... I just don't seem to get rid of that dominating bass of the low E string. At around 6 to 7/64th's below the string they seem to have most definition on the neck pickup, higher just gets boomy and lowering they seem to lose definition in the low end and just sound whoofy. adjusting all the other polescrews higher makes things a little better but the low E stays dominant.
I've been messing around with magnets to see what that does. A2 makes them sound very close to regular burstbuckers, though slightly warmer. A4 long magnets seem to have the most even EQ and sounds a bit like a tighter A2, slightly tighter in the bass and slightly sharper high's(not like A5) with an even mid range. Probably best described as A2 with the polescrews matched to the radius of the fingerboard. Short A4, same as A4 but slightly looser bottom end and smoother high's.

A3 in P-90 sounds absolutely wonderful. As described above, warm bass, airy/woody/hollow mid's and bright high's.
On my goldtop the A3's in the P-90's make it sound pretty close to this one

 

[gillman royce]

What a superb offering!
@soulman969 I think it is indeed the same guitar that Peter Green and Gary Moore owned, and which now belongs to, if I remember well, Kirk Hammett.
What an interesting choice for a reissue ! I'm glad they are releasing it.

Btw, so many great musicians played / are playing Gibson guitars / pickups that Gibson should gave as big a pickup offering or special sets as Seymour Duncan or DiMarzio.

I also really enjoyed the tone of the Underwound P90, the cutting bite of the "new" Dirty Finger and I am totally smitten with the tone of the Underwound Classic 57. actually, to my ear they sound pretty close to t-types (slightly smoother perhaps). I wish Sweetwater had added those to their test as well.

EDIT Now that I think of it, the Classic 57 Underwound humbuckers sound a little like the Seth Lovers to my ear (I have a set in one guitar). Maybe that's why I liked them right away. They sounded kind of "familiar" ! They would be a sweet addition to a semi hollow imho.

Btw I love the way the Sweetwater team recorded these pickups. Sound quality is really good.

Is the Underwound 57 still potted?

 

[gillman royce]

I love Gary Moore too! What a soulful player!

Indeed, the Greenybucker pickups were the ones that were conceived to recreate "Greeny" by the Gibson Custom Shop.

Here are two articles on that guitar, its pickups and their reissues :
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeny_(guitar)#:~:text=The guitar is equipped with,is in the middle position.

https://www.stars-music.com/gibson-...9-les-paul-standard-931929-greeny_198967.html

I wonder how they compare to Larry Corsa's Green Manalishi pickups. He guarantees that his are the closest to Peter's on the market.

 

[Raiyn]

Is the Underwound 57 still potted?

All the information is in the article, with samples. I'm just forwarding this because it popped up in my mailbox.

 

[Noodling Guitars]

Very interesting offerings and a great move for them to get more into the pickup market.

But for christ's sake... at least label the damn things!!! Like I can so imagine 50 years down the line some dipstick rockstar going into retirement is gonna claim how his LP has some extra special mojo to it.... in a hypothetical rig rundown with a 100+ year old John Bolinger, said rockstar will claim "oh it's classic 57's, but mine are just has something special [magical fairy dust] about them ..." and try to upsell it to a collector. (when all we needed was a sticker on the back of the pickup).

TBH, if someone accidentally mixed up a few pairs of Gibby pickups (putting it in the wrong box or what not), I don't know how you'd be able to tell. The readings are all very close.

 

[Raiyn]

But for christ's sake... at least label the damn things!!! Like I can so imagine 50 years down the line some dipstick rockstar going into retirement is gonna claim how his LP has some extra special mojo to it.... in a hypothetical rig rundown with a 100+ year old John Bolinger, said rockstar will claim "oh it's classic 57's, but mine are just has something special [magical fairy dust] about them ..." and try to upsell it to a collector. (when all we needed was a sticker on the back of the pickup).

Exactly.

The thing I find amusing is that nobody has picked up on the "underwound" bit.

 

[BlueSquirrel]

Very interesting offerings and a great move for them to get more into the pickup market.

But for christ's sake... at least label the damn things!!! Like I can so imagine 50 years down the line some dipstick rockstar going into retirement is gonna claim how his LP has some extra special mojo to it.... in a hypothetical rig rundown with a 100+ year old John Bolinger, said rockstar will claim "oh it's classic 57's, but mine are just has something special [magical fairy dust] about them ..." and try to upsell it to a collector. (when all we needed was a sticker on the back of the pickup).

TBH, if someone accidentally mixed up a few pairs of Gibby pickups (putting it in the wrong box or what not), I don't know how you'd be able to tell. The readings are all very close.

Good point!

 

[Noodling Guitars]

Exactly.

The thing I find amusing is that nobody has picked up on the "underwound" bit.

Oh people on various Gibbie forums picked up on it. Just that no one's really gone out of their way (incl. Gibson themselves) to show how they're different (if at all). I suppose they could publish a spec and tell you it's "4500 winds" vs. "5000 winds" ... fyi I made up the numbers. But they haven't even done that for the Burstbuckers which, across 1, 2 and 3, I have always assumed the only difference being a slight difference in the # of winds. i.e. a burstbucker 3 is an "overwound" burstbucker 1, or if looking at it in reverse, a Burstbucker 1 is an "underwound" Burstbucker 3. At least in the Burstbucker series, there is a clear audible difference and hence, warranting a different number designation. While I will reserve final judgment until I have one in hand (if ever), I highly doubt most people would be able to discern an underwound 57 from a normal one.

 

[Raiyn]

Oh people on various Gibbie forums picked up on it.

I think you're very close to what I'm thinking. I want to see if someone can close the gap.

 

[Noodling Guitars]

I think you're very close to what I'm thinking. I want to see if someone can close the gap.

Lol you asked for it. This is from almst 10 years ago (as you correctly pointed out in the title, the only "new" thing is that they're being sold standalone):

"It seems that the big 4 Gibson Dealers (Wildwood, Dave's, The Music Zoo and Rainbow) get their "custom" Gibson guitars with underwound pickups these days as part of their special relationship with Gibson)
So as opposed to the Burstbuckers, etc. they would have "special 10% underwound" pickups installed instead in their "BENCHMARK" guitar series.

After trying out several of these, I have found that these underwound pickups are far superior to my ear than the regular Gibson pickups.

They seems to have many more "overtones" in them which I attribute to them not being as damned loud as the stock pickups!

Or to say it another way, they sound more "vintage" to me. . . .
I was wondering if anyone else had a similar opinion on these pups?

Inquiring minds want to know!!"

 

[Noodling Guitars]

More recently:

All of that said, the only Custombuckers to me that are worth owning are the low output versions that they used in a number of the Collectors Choice series of Les Pauls (e.g., STP Burst averaging about 7.9k and 7.2k of DC resistance) and some special runs for certain retailers (e.g., the Benchmark series LPs that they did for Rainbow, Wildwood and a few other retailers in 2013). The "regular" output Custombuckers (typical in the mid to upper 8k range) just don't do much for me. I tend to go for more "vintage" type sounds/performance and the regular output Custombuckers, IME, sound more like any joe schmo humbucker that you'll find on any joe schmo Les Paul.

FWIW, I put together a spreadsheet in which I have been attempting to document the pickups used in Collectors Choice and some other "replica" Gibson models. If you'd like to add yours to this spreadsheet, please PM me with the model guitar, SN, and DC resistance of each pickup.

The spreadsheet is a source of good chuckles too.

 

[Raiyn]

Lol you asked for it. This is from almst 10 years ago (as you correctly pointed out in the title, the only "new" thing is that they're being sold standalone):

You don't even have to post the handle and I'm 99.999999% sure I know who that dingleberry is.

 

[Epilogue]

57 Underwounds are the ones for me. The scary part will be looking up the price....