I've been talking about swapping out the standard Lollars for other pickups and I finally got around to making the switch. The Lollars, to me, have always seemed a bit too hi-fi, too articulate, too polite. That's not necessarily a bad thing - it gives the CL a unique voice - but if you're really looking for the "Collings" of Les Pauls, this swap can get you there.

First I played the CL with the Lollars one last time to confirm that I wanted to go through the trouble of making the swap, and when I once again heard the tone that I remembered in my head I decided to go through with it. I pulled a set of WCR Darkbursts out of my Goldtop Resissue. These are pickups that I've always been extremely happy with and I thought that their aggressiveness would be welcomed. I was right. First strum... it was like I was plugged directly into a wall socket with all of that full midrange power that I was missing with the Lollars. Admittedly I'm on the honeymoon and maybe a shade overly excited, but the CL now seemed to be rivaling my Les Paul Class 5 that sits at the top of the LP food chain, as far as I'm concerned. Bridge pup has the raw cutting and slicing power I always wanted, the neck pup has amazing fullness and cleans up for the perfect jazz tone, and the two pups together have a beautiful complexity.

These are not the hottest pups, but they're hot enough. Any additional gain can easily come from a boost pedal or even a compressor with a volume knob. At this point I don't think I'd change anything about the CL. It plays like a Collings, which is to say that it's practically perfect. The Darkbursts are considered top-tier pickups and this is the 2nd guitar I've tried them in, both times proving that they deserve their status. Combining the the shell of the CL and the engine of the WCR makes for a scary-good guitar. I'm happy. Honestly, I was about to sell the CL because ultimately I just didn't get that Rolls-Royce LP like I wanted. Now you'd need a crowbar to break it free from my tight grasp.

FWIW - I put the Lollars that were in the CL into the Gibby Goldtop. They're nice, but still not ballsy enough. Still very polite. I'm not sure that they'll stay in there.

"Nice" is a very good word for those pickups (in a solid-body guitar, anyway). Well stated.

I have WCR's in three of my guitars, and they are completely top-notch pickups. Glad to hear they are working in your CL!

Elambo,

I just purchased a CL standard. I am very impressed by the workmanship and clean sound of this guitar. However, I too am looking for that in-your-face rude LP sound. Your pickup swap sounds very interesting. Might you be able to post a sound clip?

I'll try to post some clips but it's going to be a while before I can do so.

quote:

Originally posted by elambo:
I'll try to post some clips but it's going to be a while before I can do so.

Just curious. Have you tried changing the caps or the pots to get a more aggressive tone? This seems to be a good way to "Voice" a guitar. I've noticed that the CL comes with .022 caps which seems to be the standard "Brighter" value but maybe going a little bit lower will give it more bite. Also, the pots are 500k so maybe 750k pots will also give it more bite. What are your thoughts on this?

Tweaking the electronics is something I've considered, but I haven't tried anything yet. I'm still deciding what, if anything, I'd want to change about the tone. I've been pretty busy with other things lately and haven't put in the necessary time with the new pickups to really know what else the guitar needs. Each time I've played it with the WCRs (about 5 times) I've been happy. Clean, distorted, highly compressed, dynamically-free, whatever -- it's holding up very well.

Seth Lovers would probably kick but in a collings.