Upgrades to an '07 Les Paul Studio

I bought an 07 Studio and put in an RS guitar works electronics kit (making the volume pots linear) and different pickups. I dont like the stock pickups at all - very hot, no really good clean sound possible in my opinion.

 

They sure are some hot pickups! But I rather like them... it's the weight of the guitar that kills it for me.... just really heavy.

 

I put on grover tuners, RS premium vintage wiring kit, duncan alnico pro 2 and custom 5 pickups and a lightweight tailpiece.
It sound's pretty nice IMO.

 

I believe the 07's are 'weight relieved'

 

Yes, they're, but some of them are still heavy.

 

My studio is a couple years old... didn't realize they're weight relieved now.... maybe I should check one out!

 

That's crazy about the weight - I've got an '03 LP Studio that's around 11 or 12lbs.

I put an RS wiring kit on mine and it made a world of difference, but the pickups still drag it down a lot. I'm planning on replacing them soon with one of the thousand humbucker options this board informed me about.

 

the pickups are crazy hot. some low output pafs and new wiring will take a blanket off of that guitar and let it breathe.

 

Here:

http://www.rsguitarworks.net/cms/

 

They've been weight-relieved since the 80s. The 07s change the configuration of the weight relief routes from "swiss cheese" to "tone chambers."

They are light as hell, but don't quite feel like Pauls...

 

Covers shouldn't be part of the problem, but unless your new pups come with covers on them, you might be melting some wax to get the old ones off and then heating it up to get it on the new ones...

 

I always say do the cheapest possible modification FIRST - on cars and guitars and infernal computars.

I know this may seem obvious, but have you adjusted the height of the pickups? I would take them as low as they can go - and then see how nonlinear your pots are before you go rewiring and replacing pickups. They might just be be too darn close to the strings.

Of course, doing a pickup and wiring harness replacement has it's own rewards - and costs. You will likely spend at least $250 for pickups and wiring harness - more for boutique humbuckers. And you will not truly know how they sound until you have completely finished, re-strung and tweaked the pickup height.

Good luck in your quest.

 

Which are the "stock" pickups?
Burstbucker 2 & 3 ?
490R and 498T?