+1 on this.mackerelmint wrote: ↑Mon May 28, 2018 3:23 pmSolid advice, there. I'm forever asking winders to make my pickups slightly underwound. Maybe someday that'll become the cool new thing. Until then, older pickups and custom wound ones are gonna be the way toward better dynamics and avoidance of mud.
I've played a load of humbuckers - from vintage PAFs, Patent Numbers, Lawrence '80s circuit board HBs to boutique stuff made by folk like Bareknuckle, Lollar and others.
The ideal pickup to my ear is the slightly lower output PAF (when paired with another lower output PAF for balance) or else mid/late '60s Patent Numbers which are lower output, or any custom wound pickup that's trying to do the same thing. There's a clarity and definition there when you dial back the output - a sort of sweetness. It's not like a single coil, but it's not the mush fest that you usually get when you have more and more output on a humbucker.
A guy I know in Dublin who has been a session guitarist for decades once lectured me on treble - he always aimed to find guitars with lots of treble, as long as they weren't thin or shrill. At the time I didn't light bright bright guitars. His argument was simple - if it hasn't got treble you'll struggle to add it, but you can easily dial it back from the tone pot. The logic of someone who does this shit for real rather than for amusement as I do. I think it's similar with humbuckers - if you have a lower output humbucker you'll have that clarity and sweetness and you can always ramp up the gain as you wish ... but if you start off with an overwound mushy pickup you'll never be able to get to what would be your starting point with an underwound/vintage voiced pickup.
Finally - in my opinion the Memphis Historic Spec humbuckers from Gibson are the closest current pickup to my 'ideal' - the perfect Patent Number. Bright, open, clear - even in the neck.
