LSS not good with Humbuckers? What?

[jjboogie]

I keep hearing people say that the LSS is no good with guitars with Humbuckers........I don't get it......Mine is phenomenal with Humbuckers......I am actually selling my Strat and keeping all my Gibsons.....If the tone were that much better with single coils then I would definitely be hanging on to my Strat.....

Can't you guys spend a little more time with equing your amps? My Les Paul and ES335 are absolutely nothing short of amazing through the LSS....

I don't possibly understand how the LSS would suck with Humbuckers.......That just does not compute in my little brain.

Anyways I digress!

 

[SabuJSE]

I think part of the problem may be with the actual pickup height... I see so many players with their humbuckers way too high. I use the same amp settings for both my single coil and humbucker guitars and they both sound wonderful.

 

[enigma]

I love my ES335 and it does sound good through LSS. However, I prefer my single coil guitars with LSS. That's just me.

 

[carnivore]

Agreed, I have strats and love the amp with them. I was guitar shopping for a LP yesterday and tried one through a LSS at GC. The LP I played through it sounded amazing and probably even better than my strats do on my rig at home.

 

[jjboogie]

I love my ES335 and it does sound good through LSS. However, I prefer my single coil guitars with LSS. That's just me.

I can't argue with preference since that is an individual thing. I am talking about people that I have heard them say that Humbuckers don't sound good or work well with the LSS......Either they are lazy or they don't know what they are doing....Am I wrong? Not trying to be rude but just making an observation.....

My Les Paul smokes my Strat through the LSS....Not that the Strat sounds bad but I just like the way the LP responds thru the LSS more so than the Strat.......It is actually more funky to me on the clean channel and on the drive.....Oh man forget about it!!!!

 

[ja22y]

I haven't heard such, maybe a post here and there.
Within single-coil or humburker, there are so many pickup varieties so a generalized statement like that doesn't really mean anything.
I have single-coil that sounds bad with any amp and humbucker that sounds good with any amp, and vice versa. Don't want to name them here since a I don't want to start a pickup religious war.
The bottom line is whatever sounds good to you is cool.

 

[enigma]

I'm definitely one of the guys that wrote that humbuckers don't sound good as it should with a LSS. I tweaked (Mesa's do need tweaking) my LSS to get my LP to sound great, but was not achieved to my satisfaction I had a little more success w/ my ES335.

In my experience some guitars just do work better with certain amps. Since, I have an Orange RV100, Stiletto Trident, Vox AC30, Fender Deluxe Reverb ('64), and Rivera I am constantly experimenting, the fun part.

Thus, my humble opinion 8)

 

[ja22y]

In my experience some guitars just do work better with certain amps.

I'm with you on this. When it happens, you're just in heaven and thus the tone quest continues ...
Having said that, I found that the LSS has alot of sweet spots and it has a voice of its own.

 

[enigma]

I would buy another one in an instant; a head version that is!

 

[pjrhd28]

Here's my spin:

1. The LSS (much like the EL-84 powered Z Maz 38) is a much better amp with a single coil guitar than a humbucker.

2. I'm fine with humbuckers CLEAN with the LSS. The more dirt. the less I like it. The attack gets spongy and muddy and it "splats" at attack. A PRS Cu 24 it better than an LP Std. The louder, (and the cleaner), the better. The boldness of the amp seems to disappear.

3. I'd love to see someone post their settings.

 

[BottyGuy]

I've found that I need to drop the guitar volume a bit when using Humbuckers on channel 2 with drive on and some gain, I can never use them at full output, usually I dial it back 10~20%.

This cuts the highs a bit, which the LSS has tons of, and kinda clears brings more definition to the sound (gets rid of what might be called muddyness), if I don't do this chords seem to be a non-descript mess, with the guitar volume lowered a bit the fog clears out.

Just my $0.02.

 

[ja22y]

I see that we kinda having the same observation.
For me I never like high gain pickup. A few years back, I finally realized that all the guitar/pickup I like are low or vintage gain. It allows the true tone of the guitar to come through and I use the amp for gain and tone shaping.
Sounds like the humbucker in question here is from the current LP std or ES-335.
IMHO the BB pro on the LP is the darkest of the gibson pu. It's also grainy when pushed. The '57 classic has a medium gain and it's also grainy. Neither are my favorite but it can be tweaked to sound good. These are great if you play heavier stuff and the LSS is not a good match in this case. It did the treble bleed mod so now I can roll the volume down and still have plenty of high and the pickup cleans up really nice too, this matched well with the LSS.

 

[enigma]

My Settings:

Ch.1: 30 w
Gain: 12
Treble: 1
Mid: 10
Bass: 12
Presence: 11
Master: 11

Ch.2: 5w/Drive On at 2/ Thick
Gain: 11
Treble: 1
Mid: 9
Bass: 12
Presence: 1
Mater 11

 

[JAZZGEAR]

My Settings:

Ch.1: 30 w
Gain: 12
Treble: 1
Mid: 10
Bass: 12
Presence: 11
Master: 11

Ch.2: 5w/Drive On at 2/ Thick
Gain: 11
Treble: 1
Mid: 9
Bass: 12
Presence: 1
Mater 11

I see you're on the "DarkSide" Eh? :wink:

 

[twostring]

My own experience...I'm a die-hard strat guy. I've recently been branching out, and I've had a major thing for the 335 for a very long time. I had a chance to try out an Epi dot at GC and I rely on the LSS for any guitar I try at GC. The humbuckers sounded great. I also tried a new Gibson LP Standard and found the neck pickup way to dark. After boosting the presence and treble a bit, it seemed to level out.

I think the LSS gives single coils (especially strats and teles) a lot of sparkle that strat and tele players look for. It really is a great match up.

 

[enigma]

JAZZGEAR, is there where I've been? 8) Perhaps, I should remove my shades.

 

[jjboogie]

My own experience...I'm a die-hard strat guy. I've recently been branching out, and I've had a major thing for the 335 for a very long time. I had a chance to try out an Epi dot at GC and I rely on the LSS for any guitar I try at GC. The humbuckers sounded great. I also tried a new Gibson LP Standard and found the neck pickup way to dark. After boosting the presence and treble a bit, it seemed to level out.

I think the LSS gives single coils (especially strats and teles) a lot of sparkle that strat and tele players look for. It really is a great match up.

Oh yeah grab a 335!!!! They feel amazing and are very versatile guitars......I love mine.....I had a gig the other night and brought my Les Paul to play on a few songs.....I never touched it.....I ended up using the 335 ALL NIGHT LONG!!!! I couldn't put it down!!!

I got a few pics of it on my myspace page!!!! It is a beauty!! It is an ES 335 Gibson Custom Tri Burst with Flame top and Satin Finish....

By the way I am going to compare the LSC with the LSS today.....I may end up exchanging my LSS if I like the Classic better.....I wish I could have both but the funds aren't quite there yet! :wink:

 

[enigma]

jjboogie,
You may end up buying the LSC, and keeping the LSS! They are both awesome.

Everyone should own an ES335!!!

 

[twostring]

Well, as much as I'd like to have an actual 335, I'll have to settle for the Epi Dot for now. Still, the Dot is an excellent guitar. I went hunting for one at my local GC, but in line with their lack of care for the product they sell, one guitar had a massive crack at the headstock (right under the nut...string tension was the only thing really holding it on) and the other guitar had the headstock completely snapped off of it. Needless to say, I was very upset. There is another store that has tons of 335s (both Gibson and Epiphone) and I know they take care of their stuff and they're great people to deal with, but it's a long drive to get there and they're closed on Sunday.

The LSS and LSC are very different. After playing the LSS, the LSC just doesn't sound very great to my ears. The LSS is a bit limited, but what it does is amazing. Great cleans, excellent sparkle on the drive channel, and cranked up with a Les Paul it settles on STP tones very easily. For country snap and growl with an Esquire or Tele, it would be hard to beat the LSS without springing for a Dr. Z or something of the like.

EDIT...another guitar I've been looking for forever now is a mid 70's Les Paul Signature, but they're very difficult to find.

 

[enigma]

I must qualify all of my statements about LSS and humbuckers! I just got a PRS SC245, and this pup sings and screams beautifully through it.

With both my Xotic AC booster + BB Preamp engaged this LSS SC245 combo gives my Stiletto Trident a shudder.

I think the humbucker is PAF inspired, and relatively lower output. Basically, LSS is a bit sensitive to "hot" humbuckers.

8)