Guitar Pickups for a Wes Montgomery Sound

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

It is going on a custom-build from Jim Triggs that is a replication of a Gibson Brydland 2-1/4" thick hollow carved archtop. Thank you for your help here. I really need any feedback you can provide.

I assume you're not getting the Byrdland's 23 1/2" scale length?

[backliner]

...You really feel like the Seth Lovers are softer than the 57 classic?
Do You prefer the Rio Grand over the Gibson P-90?
I wonder what Wes was searching for...since he really had nobody else around to draw from.

Sorry to have missed this question until now!

I'd say (with my tired old blown out ears) that the Seth Lover and Antiquities have a bit less output and a touch less brightness than the '57 Classics I've heard in say, ES-175's.

All I can go by is that for me, the SD's sound more like real PAF's (as I remember them). There's something about '57 Classics that I don't like. Maybe too glassy in the mids or something. I prefer lush Kenny Burrell type sounds generally, but unfortunately my touch is no where near that league.

As for the P-90's it's kind of the same: as I remember old Gibson P-90's on say, my long gone '54 ES-175, the Rio Grande "Bastard" (fits a humbucker mount: like a P-94), sounds more like a vintage P-90 (to me) than a recent aftermarket Gibson P-90. "Woodier." I think they went for hot and raw with the newer Gibson pickups.

I like P-90's for that Charlie Christian "horn-like" sound, and that I can turn down the tone without the wound strings sounding all mushy.

So on one end of the spectrum I like lush and sophisticated Hi-Fi humbucking sounds (chops notwithstanding): or on the other end bluesy midrangey horn-like "honk."

These are the pickups I have found that seem to deliver (more) of what I'm after.

Many guys can make MANY different rigs sound wonderful that I can't seem to make work for me. These are just my opinions based on my ears. ymmv

[Fidelcaster]

Someone said that Gibson '57 Classics have Alnico V magnets: that's uncorrect, they are Alnico II pickups, like Burstbuckers, Seth Lovers etc. : '57 Classic Humbuckers

[Mickey]

Yea, I put a '57 in my Heritage Golden Eagle....in this custom build I am looking for something a little warmer.

[Archie]

I have an ES-135 that sounds very good. I was surprised the other day when I had the pickups out to find that the neck pickup is a Seymour Duncan SH1N. I don't know if Gibson ever put those in, so I assume that a previous owner swapped out the original. Anyway, I had a 135 before with 57 Classics, and currently have a 335, and this 135 has an especially mellow, jazzy sound.

[backliner]

Someone said that Gibson '57 Classics have Alnico V magnets: that's uncorrect, they are Alnico II pickups, like Burstbuckers, Seth Lovers etc. : '57 Classic Humbuckers

That was me. I apologize for that mis-information. My ears tell me lies all the time.