Conference napalm::guitar

    Depends when your talking about old humbuckers.  During the PAF
    days, they were identical.
    
    What are you removing and what are you putting in?
    
    On what kind of Paul?
    

>    What are you removing and what are you putting in?

	The current ones appear to be either stock Gibson, DiMarzio,
	or a combination of both. Two of the pickup mounting rings say
	DiMarzio, the other one has no markings at all. There is no name
	whatsoever on or inside the pickups. FWIW, each of the chrome
	pickup covers is a different height (i.e. if you remove the covers 
	from the pickups and put them side by side on a table, there is a
	short, a medium and a tall one). How can I tell who made them?

	I'm not sure what I'll put in, but I'm thinking about Shaller
	golden 50s because they've got 4 wire plus shield and they're
	relatively inexpensive. The four wires will give me a lot of
	flexibility along with the 4 push-pull pots I'm going to use.

>    On what kind of Paul?
    
	'71 Custom. I considered rewiring the existing pickups, but it's
	more of a hassle than I want to deal with.

Thanks,

	Larry

    The pickups themselves are the same. It is the mounting rings that
    are different. A higher one in usually needed near the bridge.
    
    Jim
    

    For the middle pickup, I'd get a `bridge' model for replacement.
    The bridge models are wired for a brighter, thicker voicing than
    the neck models (usually) are.  Personall, I'd prefer a brighter
    sounding pickup in the middle position.  
    
    Buck

    As Jim mentioned in .-2, the mounting rims are different heights. I
    just thought I'd clarify that a little.  They are different heights on
    all Les Pauls. The curvature of the body and the angle which the neck
    joins it, forces the pickups to be at slightly different heights to be
    the same distance from the strings.
    
    Greg 

>	FWIW, each of the chrome
>	pickup covers is a different height (i.e. if you remove the covers 
>	from the pickups and put them side by side on a table, there is a
>	short, a medium and a tall one).


	Believe me, the covers are different heights. I've got three different
	height mounting rings AND three different height covers.

Larry

    I'd like to summarize this, because it has gotten a little confusing:
    
    1. Yes, the pickup rings *are* different heights. I can attest to this
    because that is the case on my ES-345. This may be irrelevant, since
    you could buy mounting rings separately.
    
    2. Yes, the pickups also differ electronically. In the Stewart
    McDonalds catalogue they indicate that bridge and neck position
    humbuckers differ in output levels to account for the loss of signal
    due to position. They don't say anything about tone. Presumably this
    means that the bridge pickup has a higher gain, which probably is what
    Bill meant by saying it is "brighter".
    
    3. From what you have said, it appears that the pickup covers also
    differ in height. I suspect that if this is the case it is because they
    came from different manufacturers. If the holes are all routed to the
    same depth I don't see what diference it would make.
    
    - Ram

    
    Just for clarification, I wasn't refering to a boost in volume between
    neck and bridge pickups. 
    
    Pickups can designed through materials and windings to produce a
    certain voicing.  You can wire a pickup to have more midrange attack,
    more bass, more treble response, etc etc (See the Dimarzio pickup
    chart.  They provide the freq. response for all their pickups).  While
    the bridge pickup may be wound for more gain than the neck pickup, its
    usually wound for more midrange response.  I had two pickups custom
    wound in Boston.  The neck pickup is voiced for a boost at 800hz and a
    notch at 3.5K. The bridge pickup has a slight boost at 2.5K and a notch a
    200HZ. Note these pickups are passive.  The special frequencies are a
    result of construction, not some active circuitry. 
    
    Buck