Replacement advice needed, changing pickups and hardware

[spycam]

Hello,
i'm about to give my old guitar a second life, it's a Hohner Lespaul, i have it for around 13-14 years and enjoyed it all the time, now, when i have my ESP Eclipse-I, i decided to change pickups and string tuners for it, but wanted to ask you for your thoughts.

Here are the pics of picups, some korea made nonames, i would like to replace them with some modern passive pickups for playing hight gain metal:

Here's the tuners:

So, please advice me what passive pickups should sound good (which dimarzios or seymour duncans) and what tuners should i go with, i like spertzel locking tuners, but maybe there are some better ones in stores already?. I would like the colors of pickups and tuners to match the guitar (gold ones would be the best).

Thanks for your help!

 

[spycam]

actually, i was thinking of Seymour Duncan Invader, Dimarzio D Sonic or Dimarzio Super Distortion. That is for bridge. I almost don't play with neck pickup, so i don't need an expensive one for neck position... Which one would you recommend for neck too?

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I am no help I prefer gibsons for any style.

 

[azzxaa]

emg-81, sounds best for metal.

 

[Jaymz]

emg-81, sounds best for metal.

He said he wanted passives

 

[JBroll]

Grover tuners, first off. You won't regret it. For pickups, I'd go with a Dimarzio D Activator set, myself - you say you won't use the neck, but you'll change your mind with those fuckers. These pickups are powerful and insanely clear, and have an amazing clean tone through anything.

Jeff

 

[Fuentealba]

hi, I was an active pickup fan, but once I've changed my 7 strings guitar pickups to passive ones I was impressed the quality of the sound, I would suggest you (if you like death metal) on bridge: Duncan's Invader and for bridge: Dimarzio X2N, you can put the Dimarzio on the bridge as well.

you should think in rewiring everything inside as well.

you won't regret it!

cheers!

edit: BTW Grover tuners are very good as Jeff said, and they do golden ones so that's good

 

[JBroll]

Actually, if you're in Europe go ahead and give Bare Knuckle Pickups a ring - they'll be a few dollars more and you might like those even more. I'd go for a Painkiller and Emerald combination myself.

Jeff

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

emg-81, sounds best for metal.

Yo momma sounds best for metal.

 

[spycam]

Also, what strap locks would you recommend? Ernie Ball, Dunlop, Schaller, Warwick.... ?

 

[spycam]

Grover tuners, first off. You won't regret it. For pickups, I'd go with a Dimarzio D Activator set, myself - you say you won't use the neck, but you'll change your mind with those fuckers. These pickups are powerful and insanely clear, and have an amazing clean tone through anything.

Jeff

D Activator is a new 2007 year pickup... Sounds interesting. I'm just not sure if it can sound good on lespauls, anybody uses it on lespauls?

 

[spycam]

What do you think, since i'm almost don't playing much with neck pickup, if i buy two bridge pickups and will try them both on bridge position and then the worse one would be set as neck pickup?

 

[JBroll]

Definitely wouldn't recommend doing that because then you're certain to have blown money on two pickups and doomed one to be unused for all eternity. If you buy a Dimarzio and don't like it, ship it back in decent condition and they'll give you a new one to try. There's no excuse for not taking advantage of that if you're not happy.

I know those sound good on Les Pauls. I don't have one, but I've played them, and all of the great things about LPs - the warmth and body - stay and the 'murkiness' that some have is gone.

For the straplocks... I just use Dimarzio ClipLok straps to get the whole mess taken care of for $15 and never have to worry about them again. I install Schaller locks on other guitars for people who want to use their own strap, and always have good results, so you could try those if the ClipLok isn't your thing.

Jeff

 

[spycam]

I can't easily return the pickups back, as i don't have dealers in my small european country so i'll need to order them at other country's online stores, pay for shipping, etc.... And i anyways need to buy 2 pickups one for bridge and one for neck and the neck one won't be used almost at all, so i thought about buying 2 bridge pickups to leave the best one for bridge and the worse one for neck...

 

[JBroll]

I'll put it this way - get a D Activator combo or a Dual Sonic and Air Norton and if you don't like it switch it out for the other. They'll be accommodating enough with you and you'll only need one of those two pairs. Again, another option is Bare Knuckle - it'll only be a little bit more for you (bloody exchange rates, you don't know what kind of deal you're getting with those) and you can pretty much just e-mail them what you want and they'll either get a great recommendation for you or work a little to tweak an existing pickup to be perfect for your tastes.

Jeff

 

[spycam]

the problem is that i don't really want to buy combos, as it may be i won't like them, so won't have a possibility to switch the pickups. Bare knuckle are too far away from me, and they are pricey, painkiller pup is 190 GBP what is = 382 USD !!!!
I can get 5 SB or Dimarzio pickups for this price...

 

[Remy_5150]

I prefer Schaller hardware, if you end up getting other tuners, at least get the Schaller straplocks, those are hands down the best ones you can get

 

[spycam]

Regarding gotoh locking tuners, I'm searching for online stores selling them, but they usually lack the information
Could somebody tell me which model of Gotoh tuners are good for LP type guitars, i need gold color tuners, but does not seem to find any info about which tuners fits which kind of guitars

 

[JBroll]

the problem is that i don't really want to buy combos, as it may be i won't like them, so won't have a possibility to switch the pickups. Bare knuckle are too far away from me, and they are pricey, painkiller pup is 190 GBP what is = 382 USD !!!!
I can get 5 SB or Dimarzio pickups for this price...

No, you can buy them and replace them individually, they're just made for each other like naked women and bullwhips. Erm, peanut butter and jelly...

The BKP stuff should be priced closer to 60 GBP in Europe, I'd like to know where you're getting 190GBP because people in the US pay less than that number in USD last I checked.

Jeff