Drop 58/15 LT into 2016 Gibson Les Paul?

[rwandering]

Anybody know if the 58/15 LT would be a drop in replacement? My 2016 Gibson Les Paul has 4 push/pull pots enabling individual splits, flipping phase on one pickup, and an override ("pure bypass"). It is only really the splitting that I would care about.

I don't know if this is enough information -- the current pickups are the original Burstbuckers but I can't seem to find more info at this point.

 

[doublescale1]

Seems to me that the biggest factor in putting the 58/15LT's in a Gibson would be the height of the legs on the pickups that need to fit inside the existing rout for the pickups. Perhaps you could measure the leg height (and overall length/width size too) on your Burstbuckers then call the PRS Customer support phone line and talk to someone there about how they compare to the PRS pickups for the leg height and overall size. I looked all over for the "leg height" on line for the 58/15LT specs and found nothing; all the spec listings I found only cover PU output's. If the legs are too short on the PRS PU's then you could shim the rout in your Gibson, too tall and you'd likely be into some more complicated metal work to fix that. If they have 4 wires (and they very much most likely do since they come split/tap-able on 594's) then any coil tapping or Series/Parallel wiring you'd like to do would be possible. Good Hunting.

 

[rwandering]

Thank you for doing the research! I'll have to pull out / apart the Les Paul and then make that call!

 

[Greywolf]

Gibby's tend to have deeper cavities , at least my 6 do

 

[gush]

Thank you for doing the research! I'll have to pull out / apart the Les Paul and then make that call!

The leg issue shouldn't be an issue.

I had a 500T in my McCarty for a while and legs on that PU were too long to mount to PU ring.

I would think the shorter legs on prs PU will be ok

 

[Bogner]

No Problem At All. Gibson's Will Take Short Or Long Leg In This Case.

 

[Greywolf]

agreed. just a side note

Jimmy Herring swaps his stock pickups with Lollar Imperials .. regardless of model . I have a few sets of those and they are awesome .. you can get them low to high wind . I have 2 58/15LT guitars and they are lovely pickups, I little cleaner and more versatile than the Gibbys vintage or CS I have both.



It's all subjective grooviness

 

[rwandering]

I do have Lollar P90s in my Casino. I really like their clarity. I'll think about it. The $ aren't burning a hole in my pocket for sure . . . but I played just the Les Paul for some time, and have been appreciating the options I have gained by adding other guitars. And the Burstbuckers are OK, but I'm a sucker for clarity. If I swap them, though, it will be with an eye towards permanence. I am not really a tinkerer.

 

[SinSir]

Leg length is a non issue and they'll wire right in for splitting. The phase thing will depend on how many wires the version LT you get have. There's quite a few out there. The braided with just a white wire will only split.

 

[rwandering]

Related, but unrelated: I have been playing my new (to me) Cu24 with 85/15 "TCI tuned" and really loving it. I put it down and picked up my Paul's with the TCI pickups and love both of them! Of course, they are different but both really great to my ears.

 

[rwandering]

So, I actually went with 57/08s. I sat down today to dig into what I would need for wiring and decided I'm going to replace the modern Gibson harness (which is really just a circuit board). I will lose the "out-of-phase" and the "pure" mode on it, but those are two things I've never used or cared about. For the record, I'll report back once I get this done -- but probably not till mid/late December.

 

[rwandering]

I haven't found any clear reference for these 57/08s. They have 3 wires plus shielding (black, white, red).

The wiring harness -- an Obsidian MKII -- is looking for:
- Hot
- Ground
- Series 1
- Series 2

There is also a separate "pickup shield" connection, which I assume is just going to be the same as Ground.

Not assuming that the bass and treble pickup each should be connected in the same way, but can anybody help?

I can go "trial and error", but figure the fantastic community here might be able to help. Thanks in advance.

(note, I could have made the harness myself, was kind of lazy, may regret it!)

 

[rwandering]

Got some help from here: https://forums.prsguitars.com/threa...bass-and-treble-pickup-standard-config.56479/

This probably only helps if you are using this same wiring harness, but I ended up doing:
Bass Hot: Black
Bass Ground: White
Bass Series 1: Red
Bass Series 2

Treble Hot: White
Treble Ground: Black
Treble Series 1:
Treble Series 2: Red

Swapping the black/white on the second pickup was necessary to keep them in phase.

These new 57/08's replace the Burst Bucker Pros; and man it sounds great!

 

[Revelation]

What is the difference between the pickups?

 

[rwandering]

The stock pickups were overall muddier, particularly the bass pickup. These are super clear -- which I really like. They are also really bright, maybe a little too bright. I need to play with height adjustments to see if that brings that down a bit.

 

[Revelation]

The stock pickups were overall muddier, particularly the bass pickup. These are super clear -- which I really like. They are also really bright, maybe a little too bright. I need to play with height adjustments to see if that brings that down a bit.

I found when my amp settings with my Les Paul sounds great, I generally have to reduce the treble on my amp or pedal board when switching to my 594 for the balance to sound right.

Another way to say it is , if my amp sounds great with my 594, I find I need to increase the treble on my amp or pedal board for my Les Paul to have a more open sound.

 

[rwandering]

Interesting, and that sounds about right. What pickups are in your 594?

 

[panacea]

The SE 594 has 58/15S The S is for import, My Special 22 semi has 58/15 MT if I'm reading it right with my old eyes. These are very clear sounding pickups, compared to my Gibsons, especially with the coils split.