WCR's for Crowes tone.....

[Mojoman]

Hi guys,
I have been reading about these PU's all day here and have decided I am gonna splurge and get some. I want to get that smooth, creamy, but biting tone that Marc Ford, Rich Robinson, and Audley Freed got with the Crowes......any guidance? Thanks for your time.

 

[sabbath90]

are you using an LP? if so the darkbursts are THE les paul pickups in my humble opinion. i prefer fillmores for my sg and crossroads for my 335. all of those pickups could get you to that tone with the right gear.

if you can't make a decision, e-mail jim.

 

[Mojoman]

Thanks Sabbath,
Yeah it is a Les Paul.....I e-mailed Jim and he just got back to me. He recommended either the DarkBurst set or the DarkBurst bridge and a Crossroads neck.
Also he mentioned being able to coil tap them....is this difficult? Does anyone know?

 

[paintguy]

I don't know how to do it, but a guitar tech sure can.

4 conductor wire, a few pots, wiring schematics, and wiring knowldege.

Any good tech can set you up with many wiring options.

 

[ethomas1013]

I'd say either Darkbursts or Crossroads. The Fillmore is a bit too warm and midrangy for Crowes IMO.

I had Darkbursts in a McCarty, and I currently have a Crossroads neck and Fillmore bridge in a Les Paul. I'm going to swap the Fillmore bridge out for either a DarkBurst or Crossroads in the bridge. The Fillmore is too thick, warm, with too much midrange in this particular guitar.

The Darkbursts sound fantastic coil tapped. Definitely the best sounding coil tapped humbuckers I have ever heard (even better than the Fralin UnBuckers IMO). Just order them with 4-conductor wire (an extra $10 per pickup) and your tech will be able to hook you up with a pull switch to go to single coil mode if you don't know how to wire them up that way yourself.

 

[Woodshed]

I'm a huge Crowe's fan and not to turn you off of WCR's, as they are great pickups, but Rich uses Tom Holmes PAF's in several of his guitars and I believe that is where alot of the tone comes from. I know all his Trussart LP's and one of his Zemaitis' have them in them. I owned a Trussart with Holmes pickups and it really nailed the later Crowes tones. I have played some LP's with Crossroads in them and they sounded wonderful, just not "the" tone I was looking for. Hope that helps!

Scott

 

[Souled Out]

I put Goodwoods in my LP and am REALLY happy with them. I plan to put a set of Darkbursts in my Santana Brazilian. I also got some SR's in my Strat. I am a big fan of Jim's pickup. Prolly gonna put Filmores and Crossroads combinations in some other guitars.

 

[Rob Husulak]

I think that Rich's Gibson's have Voodoo 59's. This was done while he was doing the hookah brown thing.

 

[OldSchool]

Originally posted by Woodshed
I'm a huge Crowe's fan and not to turn you off of WCR's, as they are great pickups, but Rich uses Tom Holmes PAF's in several of his guitars and I believe that is where alot of the tone comes from. I know all his Trussart LP's and one of his Zemaitis' have them in them. I owned a Trussart with Holmes pickups and it really nailed the later Crowes tones. I have played some LP's with Crossroads in them and they sounded wonderful, just not "the" tone I was looking for. Hope that helps!

Scott

The Holmes are great PUPs..............but no way IMO are they worth twice the co$t of WCR's. If you have a Rock Star buget......go for it I guess.


That said..................what kind of WCR's would you reccomend in a Rosewood necked McCarty to get that Mid 90's Warren Haynes No one to run with kind of tone? I'm thinking Darkbursts so I can coil Tap them as well............whatta think?

 

[vinni]

Does Tom Holmes has a website?

Cannot find it.....

Vinni