I decided to swap out the stock pickups in my Epiphone Les Paul Traditional Pro guitar with a set of Wolfetone Dr. Vintage pickups. I mainly wanted a neck pickup that was clearer than the Alnico Classic Pro, and liked my experience with the Dr. Vintage in my Ibanez SZ520. I wanted to try a lower wind bridge pickup for clean and lower gain tones, and the Dr. Vintage bridge pickup made sense.
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| Wolfetone Dr. Vintage Set. |
The DC resistances of the Wolfetone set (Alnico 2) measured 8.2kohms and 7.6kohm on the bridge and neck pickups respectively. The Epiphone ProBucker 3 (Alnico 2) and Alnico Classic Pro (Alnico 5) read 8.7kohm and 7.7kohm respectively.
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| Reverse zebra Cellulose Acetate Butyrate bobbins. |
I was given the option of the butyrate bobbins and same day winding from order acknowledgement since the glossy ABS plastic wasn’t in stock. The cream butyrate bobbins actually matched well with the cream Epiphone hardware. The bobbins on the stock Epiphone pickups were very glossy in comparison. I went with the 4-conductor option to utilize the existing wiring inside the Epiphone Les Paul.
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| Stock Epiphone quick connect wiring. |
The guitar is a 2017 model, which was equipped with quick connect wiring harnesses in the factory. I wanted to keep the quick connect wiring in the event I ever wanted to swap pickups again. I came across screw terminal adapters for Epiphone pickups by Scirina Engineering on Reverb. The simplicity of the screw terminals was worth the cost over other adapters on Reverb/eBay.
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| Epiphone Probucker 3 and Alnico Classic Pro removed. |
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| Guitar with pickups removed. |
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| Quick connect adapter from Scrinia Engineering. |
The Dr. Vintage bridge emphasizes the higher mids, while the stock ProBucker was rounder in the bass/lower mid range. The Dr. Vintage bridge pickup seems like it will help in avoiding low end buildup in recording. I did like the bigger bottom end of the ProBucker for certain tones. Both bridge pickups were set up to be 3/32" and 5/64" away from the low and high E strings while fretting the 22nd fret.
The Dr. Vintage neck is much lower output than the Alnico Classic Pro, which is advertised to be a higher output and more modern than the ProBucker line. I originally had the Dr. Vintage neck pickup 1/8" away from the strings to match the previous installation of the Alnico Classic Pro, but brought it up to 3/32" to suit my tastes. With such a difference in output, it is difficult to compare. What I disliked about the Alnico Classic Pro neck in the past was how much the low end was pushed, even with the pickup lowered. The Dr. Vintage neck did not push the low end as hard, although I couldn't tell if it was due to a dip in low frequencies or if it was due to the lower output.
I originally thought I would be keeping the guitar stock indefinitely. I still like the stock pickups for certain tones, and have become familiar with the sound. The Dr. Vintage pickups make the guitar a more balanced instrument, which is what I want.
Clips to come.
