Im about to buy a cheap epiphone les paul and upgrade the pickups in it. It has space for two humbuckers, one bridge and one neck, simple set up.

Im looking for a certain sound that i have in my head and what to put into a guitar, i dont know alot about pickups and wanted to see if anyone here could be of assistance.

For the bridge pickup i want: A high output humbucker, with massive amounts of high end cut, lots of harmonic definition and very feedbacky, but at the same time, not muddied or lacking individual note definition.

For the neck pickup i want: Loads of bottom end bass response for mostly overdriven palm muting and clean lead parts.


My price range is anything up to 450-500 for the both of them

Any and all help/suggestions would be great.

I'd look at EMG's Zakk Wylde pickups. I've never used them, but he has that high gain sound you're looking for, with insane harmonics and squeals.

http://www.emginc.com/displayproducts.asp?section=guitar&categoryid=6&catalogid=3

EMG 81/85's are the preeminent name in high gain pickups. Also check out Seymour Duncan Blackouts, they're supposedly less noisy and more articulate, some players like Dino Cazares supposedly switched from EMG to Blackouts.

I like the look of the zazk wilde ones, iv never dealt with active pickups before though, how are they powered?

They use a 9 volt battery - the batteries last a couple of years. What's cool about them is you can hear them w/o an amp.

Where exactly does this battery go? there isnt alot of room in a guitar body

you have to unscrew a plate on the pickup to swap out the battery. it's pretty simple to do, although you will only have to do this once every couple of years, depending on how much you play.