stevierayvaughan Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 I tried out an Epiphone ES-335 in a guitar shop for the first time the other day and fell in love with it, in particular the warm and full bluesy/jazzy tone that I got from the neck pickup. However, the bridge pickup seemed a bit lifeless to me, and since I'm also looking for a versatile guitar that can handle heavy rock through to metal, I've considered buying it but switching out the bridge pickup with a nicer humbucker with high gain capabilities. My budget for the pickup would be ideally around 100. Does anyone have any suggestions of pickups, or feedback on the idea in general, whether it would work etc. ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezbass Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 As a general idea, yeah, do it. As to which one, we’ll that’s way too personal. I’ve had a love affair with DiMarzio for decades, great range of products, with great tone and a fantastic level of customer service (I once emailed them an enquiry and it was answered by Steve Blucher, his usual level of contact are the Vais, Satrianis and Johnsons of this world, I was blown away that a top guy wasn’t above dealing with Joe Public), they’ve never steered me wrong. Seymour Duncan have great products too and I have used them, with good results, I just never found they customer service to be anywhere near as good. The best thing is to go on their sites and use their pickup selector tools, then find some YT videos of those products that give examples. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt P Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 I've swapped out a few humbuckers over the years and always end up using the Seymour Duncan JB, just seems to work for me, can roll off the volume for a cleaner sound or full on for some grit. As @ezbasssays there are very good sound demos on Seymour Duncan's website, I imagine dimarzio etc have similar demos on their websites. Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ezbass Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 9 hours ago, stevierayvaughan said: However, the bridge pickup seemed a bit lifeless to me It occurs to me that the Epiphone ES335 probably has coil taps, as do a good number of their humbucker equipped guitars. Could it be that the tap was engaged resulting in a thinner sound? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt P Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 I've not come across an Epiphone ES335 with coil taps (but this doesn't mean that they don't exist), all the Epiphone humbuckers i have come across have been 2 wire as well so not possible to split them. it's also worth pointing out that 335 style guitars are possibly the most difficult guitars to work on when it comes to electronics as they generally have no back plate so the pots and switch have to be loosened and then fed back through the f-hole to be worked on, certainly my least favourite job and the reason I never swapped out the pickups on mine even though I had a set of seymour duncans in my parts drawer (they got fitted to an Epiphone Les Paul instead) Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 59 minutes ago, Matt P said: I've not come across an Epiphone ES335 with coil taps (but this doesn't mean that they don't exist), all the Epiphone humbuckers i have come across have been 2 wire as well so not possible to split them. it's also worth pointing out that 335 style guitars are possibly the most difficult guitars to work on when it comes to electronics as they generally have no back plate so the pots and switch have to be loosened and then fed back through the f-hole to be worked on, certainly my least favourite job and the reason I never swapped out the pickups on mine even though I had a set of seymour duncans in my parts drawer (they got fitted to an Epiphone Les Paul instead) Matt For a p/u swap, 'like for like', it's possible, usually, to lift the p/u, cut the cable and either splice the new one in, or fit plugs. This won't work if wanting to replace a two-wire for a coil-tapping p/u, but does do away with the need to work through the f-holes. Just sayin'. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt P Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 2 hours ago, Dad3353 said: For a p/u swap, 'like for like', it's possible, usually, to lift the p/u, cut the cable and either splice the new one in, or fit plugs. This won't work if wanting to replace a two-wire for a coil-tapping p/u, but does do away with the need to work through the f-holes. Just sayin'. unfortuntely on this guitar (a very early tanglewood semi) there isn't much spare cable on the pickups so they would need to be cut fairly close to the pickup which isn't ideal, i've grown to love the pickups that are fitted now, the Les Paul suits better for the higher gain parts and the semi has had some flatwounds fitted for a more mellow tone. I'm also wary of cutting and re-connecting coaxial cables, i tried it when i was young and it never worked well so i've just avoided it ever since! Matt 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
