I love my new to me 2004 MIK '61 Reissue, but the pickups, are, well, kinda underwhelming. Any suggestions for replacing these for a more "vintage" SG sound? A buddy suggested I try changing the caps and wiring to make a difference to the stock pickups. Any tips/suggestions? I was looking at this: https://reverb.com/item/18570333-92...ent-wiring-for-gibson-sg-and-epiphone-guitars
Definitely try adjusting their height first. That guitar has the Alnico Classic Plus pickup in the bridge position which is fairly hot (13.5k). If you want a more vintage sound then you can replace it with something in the 8-8.5k range. You don't need to spend lots, I can personally recommend pickups from Guitar Madness and Vanson. That wiring harness is way overpriced. Don't fall for the vintage mojo components and wiring BS. Pots are like $5 each, a toggle switch a bit more and you can buy a handful of caps for a dollar. The construction of the caps makes no difference, only their capacitance value.
Totally agree with the above advice. If you still can't get the sound you want with what is already there, go out and play an assortment of guitars until you find a set of pickups you like and install a set of those. The "mojo" effect of vintage pots and caps would be negligible at best and is definitely not as likely to get you where you want to be as proper adjustment and pickup selection is.
Get some affordable Alnico2 pickups from GFS, or spend a little more for the Golden Age from Stewmac.
Depending on the kind of music you play, I strongly recommend A8 humbuckers IF you go the route of changing pickups. Perfect for heavier gain. Seriously, I picked up a set from feebay for 20 bucks, tossed them into my 2012 SG PRO, after dumping the crappy push/pulls that broke off in my hand, and I couldn't be happier. Or if looking for something more..... mellow, a set of A2. Again 20 bucks on feebay, (From China of course.) and they sound perfect in my 3 pickup Epiphone SG.
Money out the window if you ask me. Like most suggested, use your screwdriver and play with pickup height. It is by far the cheapest most efficient and fastest mod you can do on ANY electric guitar. Here's how I do it. I set the bridge pickup (pole) height to about two credit card thickness distance from the bottom of the unfretted strings (1/8" or ±3cm). If it sounds good, I leave it there. Too hot ? Go ½ turn of each screw at a time to lower it where I want it. Test clean AND with dirt. Once I have that one at the sweet spot, I go to the neck pup. Any neck pickup will sound boomy if adjusted too high. Neck tone has to be different from middle position. Many people have the neck pup adjusted so it gives the same tonality as middle position. Not good. Neck pup has to be adjusted so middle position gets a quacky or almost acoustic tone. You'll know what I mean when you get there. So, I raise the neck pup until it starts to sound boomy. Notes will seem to be overwhelmed with too much bass. Now I lower it a full screw turn and compare it to middle. If it sounds the same, the neck pup is still too high. I go on until I hear three different balanced tones out of the two pup. That is a fun thing to do. Take your time and you will find the sweet spot for each Isn't that the 2004 ?
Caps are caps. Makes no difference unless there's something wrong with the ones you have. You can change pots and caps for a variety of reasons but sound would not be one of them. I've changed pickups in a number of epis and that can really make a difference though. Some, not all, epi pickups have just sounded bad no matter what one has done to try and fix it. Wiring harnesses are a scam, unless you just want them so you don't have to do all the soldering yourself.
My pleasure. On most of my guitars the neck pup is flush with ring (or below) for humbuckers and about 1/8" from surface for P90.
Unless of course you change the value of those components. Going from 250k pots to 500k will definitely affect the sound, same with changing the tone cap value. I really like PAF style A2 or A5 pickups in the bridge position on an SG, but in the neck I always use A5 as I don't like the sound of an A2 there. But everyone is different.
Yes, thanks, that was a bit unclear. I meant changing to the same values but different types. Different value caps will change the tone roll off and different pot values will change the sound.
Hmmm ... as I remembered my Godin, it made me realize that measuring distance from surface could mean something different from distance to strings. It had very hot Seymour Duncan. Couldn't get them any lower and still too hot for my taste. So let me measure that on neck pups for LP and SG type guitars. Most are a hair more than a ¼" from strings. Well finally ... it's not that different.
Nice ! I'm curious. Did you know what it was before you bougth it. I mean not the common G400. I changed all screws for black, I find it looks less cluttered.
yeah - I was looking for one and I lucked out and got it online 5 years ago from Guitar Denter with a hard shell case for $175 - I have put on grover milk bottle tuners, Graph tech nut, un slotted bridge saddles, Vitamin Q caps and the SD blues set. Nice and light too! Neck dive is not an issue for me.
