Advice on 57 Classic pups in a 335

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  • markjmarkj Frets: 910
    markj said:
    I used to have  them in my 2013 335, was never that keen on them.  Changed to a set of Oilcity Masterwound PAF,s, boy what a difference. Absolutely superb.
    What made the difference to me is the Oilcity Paf’s that Ash made for me are made to my specs and are unpotted. Really dont like the 57 classics at all, took them out of my traditional les Paul as well. If you play through a quality valve amp, it’s worth changing to better pickups you will hear the difference.
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  • impmannimpmann Frets: 12644
    edited January 2020
    The other questions here are... what are you wanting it to sound like? What sort of music do you play/what amp are you using?

    And what don't you like about the Classic 57s?

    If this is just that you've read that there are other pickups that are "better", I'd suggest using your ears and making your mind up. I appreciate that its a 6 hour journey but it won't just be the pickups that define the sound of a particular instrument, and changing the pickups may not have the desired effect anyway.
    Never Ever Bloody Anything Ever.

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  • crunchmancrunchman Frets: 11413
    impmann said:
    The other questions here are... what are you wanting it to sound like? What sort of music do you play/what amp are you using?

    And what don't you like about the Classic 57s?

    If this is just that you've read that there are other pickups that are "better", I'd suggest using your ears and making your mind up. I appreciate that its a 6 hour journey but it won't just be the pickups that define the sound of a particular instrument, and changing the pickups may not have the desired effect anyway.

    Very true.  I've had a pickup change make a good sounding guitar better, but I've never managed to make a bad guitar sound good with a pickup change.

    Not all 335s are equal.  Some of them are heavy and dead sounding while others are far more lively.  A pickup change won't affect that.
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  • Assuming the 335 is a nice lightweight resonant one, there are still changes you can make to the sound without going as far as changing the pickups. I found that adjusting the pickup and polepiece heights made a surprising amount of difference. Adjusting the tailpiece height may change the resonance slightly as well as the playing feel. 
    Once you start getting into invasive but still relatively cheap changes, you could look at the values of volume pots, capacitors etc. 
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  • DominicDominic Frets: 16011
    worst move I ever made was swapping them for Seth Lovers thinking I was doing a good thing and bettering the original but in fact the Lovers sounded thin, weedy and very much like the bridge on a Tele........maybe some people go for that "cut" but it's not what I expect a 335 to sound like in my mind
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  • TimmyOTimmyO Frets: 7349
    edited January 2020
    57 Classics are great.

    I recall a thread some years back on the Les Paul Forum where a load of pickup samples were recorded and uploaded for a blind test survey - it included all the usual suspects of the day from various boutique winders, widely accepted "upgrades" from big brands etc - the 57 Classics came out top iirc - cue lots of "yeah but-ery" afterwards. 

    I've had them in an R7, a 335, have put them in a Sheraton - excellent pickups. 

    If you like really high gain or downtune  then there are doubtless far better options. 
    Red ones are better. 
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  • normula1normula1 Frets: 639
    They sound great in my CS339, especially the middle position which is superb.
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