Jimmy Page Pickups

[Muskee]

I’m looking for good close up images on Jimmy Page’s Les Paul Pickups. Whether it be on his #1 #2 or even the Black Les Paul Custom. If you have any good photos I’d love it if you shared them

[pluribus]

What are you looking for?  There are thousands of photos of Page with the guitar.

Are you looking for the original pickups on the #1 Les Paul? The replacement T-Top bridge replacement from 1972?  The Seymour Duncan bridge replacement the guitar has now? The pickup height?

 

[Muskee]

1 minute ago, pluribus said:

What are you looking for?  There are thousands of photos of Page with the guitar.

Are you looking for the original pickups on the #1 Les Paul? The replacement T-Top bridge replacement from 1972?  The Seymour Duncan bridge replacement the guitar has now? The pickup height?

 

Well I’m looking for mainly the height of the pickups, the pole piece height as well. Any photos of the setup of the pickups. I’d like to see the original pickups but I’ve yet to come across a good quality photo of the original pickups. 

[pluribus]

7 minutes ago, Muskee said:

Well I’m looking for mainly the height of the pickups, the pole piece height as well. Any photos of the setup of the pickups. I’d like to see the original pickups but I’ve yet to come across a good quality photo of the original pickups. 

That's an easy one. He had the pickups and the pole pieces flush with the pickup ring. Always.

Kitchener 1969, with the original pickups, after he took the bridge pickup cover off:

 

Detroit 1975, with the T-Top replacement he had installed in 1972 after the original pickup died:

[Muskee]

1 minute ago, pluribus said:

That's an easy one. He had the pickups and the pole pieces flush with the pickup ring. Always.

Kitchener 1969, with the original pickups, after he took the bridge pickup cover off:

 

Detroit 1975, with the T-Top replacement he had installed in 1972 after the original pickup died:

Awesome! Thank you very very much!

[ADK-Zeppy]

Muskee, thanks for posting that one of Jimmy's #1.  I am always looking directly at that neck pickup each time I see a shot of his Les Paul.  In his hands that'58 or '59 is just a magical tone and it was a combination of the right guitar and pickups and their windings together with his manner of selecting chords that made that Zeppelin guitar sound and attitude.  I never get tired of listening to and watching him play it.  I don't know if he personally set the heights on this guitar, or if he had a guitar tech mess will all of that.  It is a very personal type of “housekeeping” with a lot of guitarists.

 

ADK-Zeppy 

[pageluvva]

As a guitar player and part time tech who has been playing for more than 45 years let me just say DO NOT let anyone tell you what string height and/or pick up height should be. It is a totally personal choice. Play with it all until you find YOUR zone. And like ADK ☝️said, it is in the hands more than anything. 

I found my zone in crazy high action and pretty low pick up height. My Gibsons scream! 45 years of playing and practice helps too of course 😉

And don't get me wrong, I love to read about page and his equipment as much as anyone. Hell when I saw Page and Plant in 95, I think, I was row 4 center and spent most of the night staring at Page's '59 like it was the holy freakin grail. Which we all know it is..........😎🙏

[jsj]

What size gap would that create between strings and pick up cover? 

[sixpense]

On 7/14/2020 at 6:18 PM, pluribus said:

That's an easy one. He had the pickups and the pole pieces flush with the pickup ring. Always.

Kitchener 1969, with the original pickups, after he took the bridge pickup cover off:

 

Detroit 1975, with the T-Top replacement he had installed in 1972 after the original pickup died:

Per the new Jimmy Page book, the pickup lost some of it's output during the 72 Australian Shows. (Still played the guitar for those shows) When he got back he had Dan Armstrong fix it. He doesn't say it was replaced.

Edited July 18, 2020 by sixpense

[pluribus]

4 hours ago, sixpense said:

Per the new Jimmy Page book, the pickup lost some of it's output during the 72 Australian Shows. (Still played the guitar for those shows) When he got back he had Dan Armstrong fix it. He doesn't say it was replaced.

Armstrong may have “fixed” it, but that obviously involved replacing the pickup with the current Gibson offering, complete with shiny new pickup cover. You can hear the classic T-Top midrange “squawk” in Page’s tone after he switched to the new bridge pickup after Australia 72. 
 

Here’s some folks who researched it in more detail: https://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?131067-Jimmy-Page-pups-in-1-and-2#post_1577808

[sixpense]

On 7/18/2020 at 5:44 PM, pluribus said:

Armstrong may have “fixed” it, but that obviously involved replacing the pickup with the current Gibson offering, complete with shiny new pickup cover. You can hear the classic T-Top midrange “squawk” in Page’s tone after he switched to the new bridge pickup after Australia 72. 
 

Here’s some folks who researched it in more detail: https://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?131067-Jimmy-Page-pups-in-1-and-2#post_1577808

Tell that to Jimmy since he doesn't say that he replaced it in the book.

[pluribus]

1 hour ago, sixpense said:

Tell that to Jimmy since he doesn't say that he replaced it in the book.

Well, he’s been wrong on things like that before. This was nearly 50years ago. I’d go with the gear heads on this one. Again, see the thread I posted. Even his own guitar tech at the time was incorrect. Also, saying that he had the guitar “Fixed” could easily mean that the pickup was replaced, which all evidence points to being the case.

[jsj]

last night I chanced upon a youtube clip of Joe Bonammassa playing Tea For One and I noticed that his pickups were also pretty much flush with the pick up surround. I checked mine (tokai mid 80s copy) and that is also, though all my other guitars with pick ups are raised higher, and one or two quite a bit higher.

[ADK-Zeppy]

I don't know if Jimmy or perhaps a tech did adjustment on his guitars, but many times pickups are lower to get a clearer tone.  Page's neck PAF on his #1 is quite a clear sounding pickup and the bridge pickup was adjusted to get its best tone by itself and to get a certain middle position tone.  Gibson was not too “scientific” in pickups assigned to their early Les Paul of the '59 era instruments.  Different strengthen magnets were used and the tone results in one guitar may have been quite different in another.  This is all conjecture on my part, but certainly Jimmy recognized “something” he heard in that instrument that Joe Walsh delivered to him, and he figured out a tone that he could manipulate to his advantage and do so to the point that we still discuss it 50 years later.  Even Paganini could not manage that with a Stradivarius.

 

ADK-Zeppy

[TimShveller]

Hello!
Can you help me? I really want to put in my gibson something as close as possible to the T-Top bridge replacement from 1972.
I understand that my request is quite insane, but maybe there are some modern options cheaper than a bunch of bucks?

[Autumn Moon]

19 hours ago, TimShveller said:

Hello!
Can you help me? I really want to put in my gibson something as close as possible to the T-Top bridge replacement from 1972.
I understand that my request is quite insane, but maybe there are some modern options cheaper than a bunch of bucks?

I am sure someone can help you, but therefore you should post your question in the General Forum / Musician´s Corner (at the bottom).

[Matt.Lpcustom]

I have a T-Top from Manilus pickups, it’s a different animal from a paf humbucker. But it definitely sounds like Page