make a les paul sound like a Strat with humbuckers

[Archie Macfarlane]

Hey are there any pickups that will steer the tone of a Les Paul (or Gibson conversion scale necked guitar) more in the direction of a strat with humbuckers?

I know it's not completely possible but I tend to prefer the fuller tone of a fat strat like evh/landau to 70s les Paul tones and the feel of 24.75 vs 25.5

 

[Cagey]

The pickups are a large part of any electric guitar's sound, but construction enters into it as well. It would be easier to get a Strat closer to a Les Paul than vice versa. There's no practical way to change the scale length of a Les Paul, or change its neck geometry and mounting. The Strat design gives you some options there, but only up to a point, and the degree of importance of those things is most obvious when you simply pull the pickups from one and install them in the other. The difference you hear is largely due to those things. Since you want to maintain the short scale, you're in trouble right off the bat. There's a difference in string tension due to the shorter scale, so even tuned to the same pitch you end up with a slightly different voicing that you can't compensate for with pickups.

 

[fdesalvo]

Bare Knuckle VHII or Dimarzo Gravity Storms.

 

[Ace Flibble]

EMG RPC does it nearly-perfectly, but to stop it getting too 'Stratty' you'd need to only turn the control to something like 15-20%, and at that point you're converting your guitar over to an active system for a control you're hardly using... seems a bit pointless.

A less effective but cheaper and easier method would be to disconnect the tone controls from the guitar, and replace the volume controls with 1meg pots. This will bring back a lot of brightness and 'snap' to the sound, not entirely dissimilar to the difference between having a rosewood fretboard and a maple one.

You should also try lowering your pickups further from the strings, and consider using lighter strings. That'll help thin out the tone a little.

Lastly, you could replace the bridge saddles (or even the entire bridge) with titanium or steel versions, and make sure the bridge tailpiece is locked down as low as possible. Those will also add more snap and brightness to the sound, more like a fat Strat.

Of course, it does also depend on the Les Paul in question, as well as what kind of fat Strat you're thinking of. It's very possible to get fat Strats which sound fuller and warmer than Les Pauls, and vice-versa.

 

[kgk9000]

How far from the bridge is the center of a Gibson H pickup vs. the center of a Fender H pickup?  That distance divided by the associated string length would be an interesting percentage to compare.  (And the same would hold for the neck pickup, as well.)

All of the above arguments about different scale lengths are true, of course.

 

[swarfrat]

Hmmm that's a tall order to ask of a short neck. I might try going down a gauge, and tuning up a half step. If you play 10's, try 9's tuned to F. Half step tuning change is approximately equal to a string gauge change is approximately equal to one additional fret scale length. Going with a thinner string at higher tension might be worth the $5 experiment.

I play a baritone tuned to C# for similar reasons. (Tonal change)

 

[Ace Flibble]

How far from the bridge is the center of a Gibson H pickup vs. the center of a Fender H pickup?  That distance divided by the associated string length would be an interesting percentage to compare.  (And the same would hold for the neck pickup, as well.)

All of the above arguments about different scale lengths are true, of course.

Measuring one of my Les Pauls with humbuckers and a Fender HH Tele (25.5") scale, the middle of the LP's pickups are roughly 5mm closer to the bridge than with the Fender. (I measured from where the saddles are for correct intonation to the line between the two coils of each humbucker.) This was only roughly measured with a tape measure, but I do not believe that tiny fractions of a millimetre would make a difference, so I'm happy to say that it's a 5mm difference. Given the width of a humbucker or P-90, I would not consider being 5mm further from the bridge to be enough of a difference to particularly matter; the overall scale length is a far bigger factor in sound.

Note that a standard LP pickguard fits perfectly on one of Warmoth's carved top Tele bodies with humbucker pickups, even though that body is routed for 25.5" scale; the gap between the pickup mounting rings is identical to on a 24.75" Les Paul. (Or at least the difference is so minimal as to be imperceptible.)

 

[NonsenseTele]

Bkp mules with split coil... they already have some single coil quality on humbucker mode... split coil is very good, for what I remember

 

[Zhaezzy]

Is there a specific Les Paul in mind. I did try out an Ash Les Paul with a maple neck and had a sound that was closer to what you are going for with some of the other things mentioned you will get even closer.

http://www.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/2016/USA/Les-Paul-Studio-Swamp-Ash.aspx

 

[Bob Hoover Ross]

As everyone has already intimated, the scale length, pickup placement relative to string nodes, and neck/body construction make this sort of masquerade difficult if not impossible. Closest I ever came was by installing one of those old (early 1980s) Bill Lawrence dual blade humbuckers in the LP and then wiring it up to a coil-cut switch so that it could operate in genuine single coil mode.

 

[swarfrat]

He didnt say sound like a strat he said like a strat with humbuckers, which is why i suggested keeping the pickups and plying with string gauge and tuning. No coil tapping, parallel wiring etc needed for that. He wants the humbucker sound.

 

[Steve_Karl]

Hey are there any pickups that will steer the tone of a Les Paul (or Gibson conversion scale necked guitar) more in the direction of a strat with humbuckers?

I know it's not completely possible but I tend to prefer the fuller tone of a fat strat like evh/landau to 70s les Paul tones and the feel of 24.75 vs 25.5

You might like to see this comparison video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QEkI1OHews

 

[Zhaezzy]

I was thinking maybe try some railhammer pickups. The blade side will give you a tighter bottom end like a fat strat and might get you close enough. I did watch a few demos of them and I thought they sounded good and liked the tighter low end the pickups had.