Hey my friend, another great comparison video. And once again proof that your pickups make a Les Paul sound like a Les Paul. I love the "Goldie" pickups in my Tokai Japan Les Paul. Thank you very much for that. Greetings from Kiel to Belarus 🇧🇾
I have an 86 Gibson Les Paul custom SG. Three Tim Shaw pickups that already sounds great. If I wasn't happy with them I definitely would get a set of yours. I really messed up when I didn't buy my old drummer's Tokai gold top from the lawsuit era. I ripped on that thing plenty of times and it was a great guitar. He only wanted $300 for it.
Hi Dr. Nitro, thanks a lot for the video! It was really interesting to hear the differency. Your pickups definitely sound brighter in the middle and the sound is more biting. However, what do you think about the Japanese LP overall? There are many brands: Orville, Tokai, Greco, Edwards... How good are they? Thanks
Your pickups sound wonderful and are a credit to you as is all the Les Paul stuff you do. I own a high spec Tokai (golden Tokai HS logo is the giveaway) and with a little pickup height and pole piece adjusting they are a very good all bases pickup. The higher spec Tokai guitars themselves are very well constructed and compare very favourably to the holy grail 58-60 Les Paul's and so they should, Tokai own a genuine 1958 Les Paul Burst. Love your work and learning from you more :)
@@rustynutts2 Yes, I have once again become convinced that these Tokai models are made at the highest level and can easily compete with Customshop after minor modifications.
Hi your pickups sound good and i have some question,What do you think is the difference between long tenons and medium tenons in terms of sound? How are they different?
@@MM6900 It is not important what kind of neck insertion but how well the tenon is fitted and what kind of glue it is glued with. The best glue for this is hide glue. This is of decisive importance for resonance impulse.
Alott of these pickup comparisons? Are so close its hard to tell..Your PAFS i didnt even have to look to see, and knew which ones yours were...Yyour blew tthem away...Good job!!!
8bomb- love the pickups think there’s still something missing . From what I’ve ready pots and caps make a major difference would love to see same video with those upgrades and my guess your pups will go from a 9 to an 11
Anybody watching this should have a look at the "Les Paul that isn't" series by Dave Stephens. He goes into all of the details of what's discussed here. It was invaluable to me on my LP tone journey.
Hey 8Bomb, may i ask a question about the health and longevity of our guitars? Is it better to keep them always in the shade or is it ok to keep them in sunlight? What if any damage does direct sunlight exposure do to them? Love your work! Love from Portugal
@@Bull_10RR It is better to keep the guitar in the shade if you want to leave the finish as is. In Portugal the sun is hot. Sometimes it can heat the varnish excessively. But the colors fade to a greater or lesser extent from the sun. Nitro varnish becomes harder due to oxidization in ultraviolet and oxygen. If you apply the sun in doses, you can get good effects. Maple wood darkens under the varnish from the sun. Rosewood fades. Especially Brazilian. It becomes lighter. The cellulose in the wood is destroyed by ultraviolet light. In the heat, the guitar can over dry and if there is a large difference in humidity, the wood can behave unpredictably. Therefore, it is better to store a musical instrument in constant, level conditions.
I've always loved SL and Antiquities, but yours sound with more clarity and definition on the video. The SDs sound darker. I believe they use A2 magnets. Are your components the same? I personally like A3 for this very reason, more clarity and definition.
Japan made Tokai's comes with MK2 named sets so that neck pickup was swapped for Seth Lover, i see. I think Duncan has to use print because Seth died at 1997. What capacitors you had there? Nice video again!
Do not get me wrong good pickups are very important. Though most difference in sound of a Les Paul is made by proper capacitance of the braided wire. Changing every inch of the default wiring on all guitars made by standard companies like Gibson, inclusive most expensive Tom Murphy models, is highly important. This means even taking your Custombuckers apart and changing their hook up cables. Default wiring harness on all modern Gibson is done with high capacitance braided wire that has only one waxed cotton isolation layer. Using proper dual layer Gavitt wire is cheap. You can recognise it by two layers isolation. Innermost is made of rayon (fake silk) or similar material and outer one is waxed cotton. This makes it way lower capacitance and it can stand higher voltages if you are using it in amplifiers. All Boutique pickup winders use Gavitt wire. People often talk about outside braids are made of two or three strains but that is eclectically and tonally not important. Capacitance will pull the signal to the ground. It muddies the signal because lower value capacitance will pull more top end to the ground. But it will lower down perceived output as well. Way most of the digital meters measure DC resistance is with the pulses. Changing just those 10 to 12 inches hookup cable will be seen by the multimeter as up to 200 Ohms more DC resistance because less pulses will end up going true the capacitance of the cable. Changing full harness and using proper electronics is crucial and without it you can not hear the benefit of any pickup. On PRS clinic I have asked Paul about this issue and he knew capacitance poer inch of the cable he uses in 594 models. He knows. Anyhow I have done many full wire swaps on guitars even with stock pickups like burstbuckers 1 and 2 and 3 and burstbackers 61 and custombuckers III, 57's, burstbuckers Pro etc. etc. They all sounded way better than before. Even those potted models. Done to Gibson Custom shop P90's as well. Sounded way more open. Custumbuckers III unpotted kind started sounding awesome. I have done it on cheaper pickups as well and it always made huge difference. I have even challenged local Gibson on Instagram to bring me a guitar and hear before and after. I just do not understand why they are sticking with POS braided wire they are using. It is not that cheaper. They can't save more than few dollars per guitar and they use it on guitars that cost 10K easy. It is stupid to be honest. They are saying they are bringing the old spec back and then obviously do not understand their own product. I am great fan of what I hear and see in this videos. Great replicas and attention to details. Though I have never heard this pickups in person. I bett they are good though.
Недавно поставил на LP звучок Dimarzio From Hell в паре с 498Т. Для нека, это один из лучших звукоснимателей! Хотя нормальных видео почему то нигде нет.
Your PAF clone sounds great. There's no denial in that. But to me this is a very biased comparison. You didn't show the amp settings, you didn't show the tone control on the guitar, you didn't show the way you recorded the amp, or how you adjusted the volume in post. To my ears it sounds like on the recording from the tonkai pickups that there's less tone. Less higher frequencies. you could just turn the tone down a tiny bit (either on the guitar or on the amp or even in post) and the suddenly the tonkai sounds flat and not as crispy. I want to see a proper comparison. The PAF sounds amazing don't get me wrong, but I want to see an unbiased comparison. And btw with an overdriven amp, it's difficult to hear differences between the pickups. If you have a clean sound on the amp, then I can say FOR SURE which of the pickups sounds better
@@anton130ga1ntar This is all clear. Moreover, completely different comparisons are suitable for different people. Of course, you can put the recording in the line or in the clean channel, and it is better to add frequency response monitoring and an oscilloscope ... and even with this approach, there will be people who will not be satisfied with this. In this comparison, same guitar, same strings, same amplifier with the same settings. Tone knobs on guitar at 10. No more information is needed since this is a comparison and we hear a clear difference with the same input. But of course, for my lab tests, I make recordings in the line without an amplifier. So I hear the differences I need. But for most listeners on RUclips, this will be completely incomprehensible and not visual since 90% do not know what to pay attention to in a bare signal. And in this case, overdrive increases the visibility of all parameters.
@@anton130ga1ntar In near future I have a plan to make new demos of my all PAF clone models and I will try to make all possible to show not only the amp sound but also bare signal with frequency monitoring also for a small audience of "hearers" like you and me. 😉🍻
But the question is also did Tokai had modern wiring before pickup swap because that makes guitar sound little more bassy? Of course 8bomb pickups are still better ones even with modern wiring too if someone use them with that way.
@@andreybrodianski5596 гармоники это не дист. Первое. Датчики не перегружают сигнал ы принципе. Ни могут считывать гарноники больше или меньше. От гармоник зависит характер и наполнение тела звука. Они могут ылиять на перегруз усилителя в большей или меньшей степени.гармоники производит не датчик а гитара. Датчик только считывает как может.
@@8BombCustom Гитара производит обертоны на сколько мне известно. Гармоника это весьма определённое понятие, это частоты кратные фундаментальной частоте. Возникают при искажении фундаментальной частоты. Тут не может быть никаких других интерпретаций. Вы можете конечно остаться при своём мнении, но уверяю вас нет ничего страшного или смертельного в том чтоб не знать чего то. И даже если вы сказали в своём обзоре глупость, это не делает ваши датчики хуже.
@@andreybrodianski5596 ☺️ пусть будет так. Я люблю говорить глупости...и делать тоже. На этом основано творчество. Спасибо. P.s. A harmonic may also be referred to as an overtone. To play a harmonic, we isolate a specific harmonic from the composite frequencies of the fundamental pitch through various techniques, depending on the instrument, and they have a very unique sound quality. (Wikipedia)
Алекс, привет! Спасибо тебе за твои 59 датчики! Купил себе, но поставил сыну на обычный корейский Лес Пол. Тон у гитары просто потрясающий. Недавно купил сыну новый PRS SE. Сын говорит мне, что звук не нравится, говорит сделай как у Лес Пола :)). ruclips.net/video/t12mfLuPuvU/видео.html
@@emilbegichev9220 Привет. Спасибо. Рад что датчики приносят удовольствие и хороший звук. У меня всегда есть что то в наличии и есть варианты подешевле но с теми же характеристиками. Пиши, звони, подберем.
To be completely fair... changing pots, caps and wiring doesn't really make this a pickup A/B-test but more like testing what "Tokai stock electronics with Duncans" sounds compared to completely upvamped electronics and 8bomb pickups. You should have kept the electronics intact and just swap the pickups to A/B them. Now this test is zero value since you changed all of the components. At least you should have measured the pots, caps etc. and hand out that information to viewers. The tolerances of a pot alone can make a huge difference. 500k pot with 10% tolerance could be anything between 450k to 550k.
The pots are the same (as seen in 05:40 and 06:41) . He only desoldered, cleaned the pots, then put them back in. Pots wise, the only other thing he did was he removed the treble bleed circuit in the bridge position and put in a replacement cap (06:52).
@@8BombCustom Hi Dr Nitro! What about wiring influence? I was interested by one of your previous videos where you said why modern guitars can't sound like vintage ones (because of pickups). But I tried to change my Gibson lp to 50s wiring and get the same results with clarity of volume pots (but this wiring has a feature where the tone affects the volume). Changing the wiring greatly changes the sound even on the same pickups.
![HOW TO MAKE A REALISTIC Les Paul GREENY [3.0]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-Kh3Dc5Z6ME/mqdefault.jpg)
![HOW TO MAKE A REALISTIC Les Paul GREENY [3.0]](/img/tr.png)
Hey my friend, another great comparison video. And once again proof that your pickups make a Les Paul sound like a Les Paul. I love the "Goldie" pickups in my Tokai Japan Les Paul. Thank you very much for that. Greetings from Kiel to Belarus 🇧🇾
@@basti-fantasti Thank you my friend! I'm glad that you like it! ☺️
I have an 86 Gibson Les Paul custom SG. Three Tim Shaw pickups that already sounds great. If I wasn't happy with them I definitely would get a set of yours. I really messed up when I didn't buy my old drummer's Tokai gold top from the lawsuit era. I ripped on that thing plenty of times and it was a great guitar. He only wanted $300 for it.
Hi Dr. Nitro, thanks a lot for the video! It was really interesting to hear the differency. Your pickups definitely sound brighter in the middle and the sound is more biting.
However, what do you think about the Japanese LP overall? There are many brands: Orville, Tokai, Greco, Edwards... How good are they? Thanks
@@alexsavchenko Thank you
8Bomb pickups sound is much alive, resonate and focused . Good job
@@WelderRiffer Thank you
Your pickups sound wonderful and are a credit to you as is all the Les Paul stuff you do. I own a high spec Tokai (golden Tokai HS logo is the giveaway) and with a little pickup height and pole piece adjusting they are a very good all bases pickup. The higher spec Tokai guitars themselves are very well constructed and compare very favourably to the holy grail 58-60 Les Paul's and so they should, Tokai own a genuine 1958 Les Paul Burst. Love your work and learning from you more :)
@@rustynutts2 Yes, I have once again become convinced that these Tokai models are made at the highest level and can easily compete with Customshop after minor modifications.
I really like what your pickups did for the sound of that guitar! Wow
@@jordanprysmiki5361 thank you
Even without headphones it's obvious that 8Bomb pickups are more clear, crystal, live. Let's nail that Maison Les Paul ASAP!!!
@@666Sloth Thank you bro
Hi your pickups sound good and i have some question,What do you think is the difference between long tenons and medium tenons in terms of sound? How are they different?
@@MM6900 It is not important what kind of neck insertion but how well the tenon is fitted and what kind of glue it is glued with. The best glue for this is hide glue. This is of decisive importance for resonance impulse.
@@8BombCustom thanks so much
Those pickups sound incredible! Thanks for another informative video, well done!
@@michaelhousman9604 Thank you
Alott of these pickup comparisons? Are so close its hard to tell..Your PAFS i didnt even have to look to see, and knew which ones yours were...Yyour blew tthem away...Good job!!!
@@johnmirabile3535 thank you
Liked and subscribed before even watching. Once again the doc has done it again! Love your work!
Thank you
8bomb- love the pickups think there’s still something missing . From what I’ve ready pots and caps make a major difference would love to see same video with those upgrades and my guess your pups will go from a 9 to an 11
Thank you
Anybody watching this should have a look at the "Les Paul that isn't" series by Dave Stephens. He goes into all of the details of what's discussed here. It was invaluable to me on my LP tone journey.
please tune..
Hey 8Bomb, may i ask a question about the health and longevity of our guitars? Is it better to keep them always in the shade or is it ok to keep them in sunlight? What if any damage does direct sunlight exposure do to them?
Love your work! Love from Portugal
@@Bull_10RR It is better to keep the guitar in the shade if you want to leave the finish as is. In Portugal the sun is hot. Sometimes it can heat the varnish excessively. But the colors fade to a greater or lesser extent from the sun. Nitro varnish becomes harder due to oxidization in ultraviolet and oxygen. If you apply the sun in doses, you can get good effects. Maple wood darkens under the varnish from the sun. Rosewood fades. Especially Brazilian. It becomes lighter. The cellulose in the wood is destroyed by ultraviolet light. In the heat, the guitar can over dry and if there is a large difference in humidity, the wood can behave unpredictably. Therefore, it is better to store a musical instrument in constant, level conditions.
I've always loved SL and Antiquities, but yours sound with more clarity and definition on the video. The SDs sound darker. I believe they use A2 magnets. Are your components the same? I personally like A3 for this very reason, more clarity and definition.
@@abelljo in 59 PAF clone I use A4 magnets.
Tokai MIJ are some great guitars!
@@jordanprysmiki5361 Yea
Hey! I'm still waiting for the Jimmy Page #1 & #2 build videos 😂...
Keep up the great work ! Cheers 🍻
Thank you. It in the plan.
@@8BombCustom YES!!!! I'M SUPER EXCITED! THANK YOU!
Hello, I have two questions. Can I buy one P90 pickup and one PAF, without set ? And, do you send pickups to Russia ?
Unfortunately I don't have p90 in stock now. You can buy one pickup. I shipp worldwide.
@@8BombCustom when will you have P90 approximately ?
@@hitchhikingacrossthenetwor6447 maybe on October
I have appatite burs with alnico 2 .. tone is awesome even neck pickup
Nice sound
@@prkk90 Thank you
Ну,фирмА,чо там!Поздровляю❤Закрываешь глаза и звук "как на пластинке"!
@@guitarmaster50 спасибо
Japan made Tokai's comes with MK2 named sets so that neck pickup was swapped for Seth Lover, i see. I think Duncan has to use print because Seth died at 1997. What capacitors you had there? Nice video again!
@@kuitaristi3003 Thank you. In neck is 0.022 pio cap (no name) in bridge vintage Mexico ceramic 0.022 (i like those)
Do not get me wrong good pickups are very important. Though most difference in sound of a Les Paul is made by proper capacitance of the braided wire. Changing every inch of the default wiring on all guitars made by standard companies like Gibson, inclusive most expensive Tom Murphy models, is highly important. This means even taking your Custombuckers apart and changing their hook up cables.
Default wiring harness on all modern Gibson is done with high capacitance braided wire that has only one waxed cotton isolation layer.
Using proper dual layer Gavitt wire is cheap. You can recognise it by two layers isolation. Innermost is made of rayon (fake silk) or similar material and outer one is waxed cotton. This makes it way lower capacitance and it can stand higher voltages if you are using it in amplifiers.
All Boutique pickup winders use Gavitt wire.
People often talk about outside braids are made of two or three strains but that is eclectically and tonally not important. Capacitance will pull the signal to the ground. It muddies the signal because lower value capacitance will pull more top end to the ground. But it will lower down perceived output as well.
Way most of the digital meters measure DC resistance is with the pulses. Changing just those 10 to 12 inches hookup cable will be seen by the multimeter as up to 200 Ohms more DC resistance because less pulses will end up going true the capacitance of the cable.
Changing full harness and using proper electronics is crucial and without it you can not hear the benefit of any pickup.
On PRS clinic I have asked Paul about this issue and he knew capacitance poer inch of the cable he uses in 594 models. He knows.
Anyhow I have done many full wire swaps on guitars even with stock pickups like burstbuckers 1 and 2 and 3 and burstbackers 61 and custombuckers III, 57's, burstbuckers Pro etc. etc. They all sounded way better than before. Even those potted models. Done to Gibson Custom shop P90's as well. Sounded way more open.
Custumbuckers III unpotted kind started sounding awesome.
I have done it on cheaper pickups as well and it always made huge difference.
I have even challenged local Gibson on Instagram to bring me a guitar and hear before and after. I just do not understand why they are sticking with POS braided wire they are using. It is not that cheaper. They can't save more than few dollars per guitar and they use it on guitars that cost 10K easy.
It is stupid to be honest. They are saying they are bringing the old spec back and then obviously do not understand their own product.
I am great fan of what I hear and see in this videos. Great replicas and attention to details. Though I have never heard this pickups in person. I bett they are good though.
@@NINEWALKING Thank you! It is really interesting.
Very hot sound🔥
What do you set your pickup heights to ?
@@paulmgregory3666 about 3 mm between pole screw and strings
Недавно поставил на LP звучок Dimarzio From Hell в паре с 498Т. Для нека, это один из лучших звукоснимателей! Хотя нормальных видео почему то нигде нет.
@@Archer82ify это совсем другого плана датчики и для других задач. С совершенно другой архитектурой.
Nitro Dr, les micros 59 🤠👌 que j'ai acheté cher Guitarpoint la semmaine derrnier sont good 👍
@@alainmalo3791 Great! Thank you!
Can you make such a clone for nocaster 52?
@@SuperBatiskaf I specialize exclusively in PAF
Your PAF clone sounds great. There's no denial in that. But to me this is a very biased comparison. You didn't show the amp settings, you didn't show the tone control on the guitar, you didn't show the way you recorded the amp, or how you adjusted the volume in post. To my ears it sounds like on the recording from the tonkai pickups that there's less tone. Less higher frequencies. you could just turn the tone down a tiny bit (either on the guitar or on the amp or even in post) and the suddenly the tonkai sounds flat and not as crispy. I want to see a proper comparison. The PAF sounds amazing don't get me wrong, but I want to see an unbiased comparison. And btw with an overdriven amp, it's difficult to hear differences between the pickups. If you have a clean sound on the amp, then I can say FOR SURE which of the pickups sounds better
@@anton130ga1ntar This is all clear. Moreover, completely different comparisons are suitable for different people. Of course, you can put the recording in the line or in the clean channel, and it is better to add frequency response monitoring and an oscilloscope ... and even with this approach, there will be people who will not be satisfied with this. In this comparison, same guitar, same strings, same amplifier with the same settings. Tone knobs on guitar at 10. No more information is needed since this is a comparison and we hear a clear difference with the same input. But of course, for my lab tests, I make recordings in the line without an amplifier. So I hear the differences I need. But for most listeners on RUclips, this will be completely incomprehensible and not visual since 90% do not know what to pay attention to in a bare signal. And in this case, overdrive increases the visibility of all parameters.
Okay. I agree. Thank you for your thorough and comprehensive answer. Makes sense.
@@anton130ga1ntar In near future I have a plan to make new demos of my all PAF clone models and I will try to make all possible to show not only the amp sound but also bare signal with frequency monitoring also for a small audience of "hearers" like you and me. 😉🍻
8Bomb pickups definitely have more power,much clearer sound, more clarity. You can really tell the difference.
But the question is also did Tokai had modern wiring before pickup swap because that makes guitar sound little more bassy? Of course 8bomb pickups are still better ones even with modern wiring too if someone use them with that way.
@@rockabilly46 thank you
That Tokai had replaced wiring with CTS pors and table bleed mod. This mod eat part of volume.
@@8BombCustom Okay. What magnet is in your 59 clone neck pickup? Bridge seems to have alnico 4 what i read.
More harmonics = more distortion. No other mention could be here. So you want to say that your pickups make distorted signal?
@@andreybrodianski5596 what? This is not a true statement.
@@8BombCustom Гармоники это частоты кратные фундаментальной частоте. Возникают при искажении фундаментальной частоты. Что тут не верного?
@@andreybrodianski5596 гармоники это не дист. Первое. Датчики не перегружают сигнал ы принципе. Ни могут считывать гарноники больше или меньше. От гармоник зависит характер и наполнение тела звука. Они могут ылиять на перегруз усилителя в большей или меньшей степени.гармоники производит не датчик а гитара. Датчик только считывает как может.
@@8BombCustom Гитара производит обертоны на сколько мне известно. Гармоника это весьма определённое понятие, это частоты кратные фундаментальной частоте. Возникают при искажении фундаментальной частоты. Тут не может быть никаких других интерпретаций. Вы можете конечно остаться при своём мнении, но уверяю вас нет ничего страшного или смертельного в том чтоб не знать чего то. И даже если вы сказали в своём обзоре глупость, это не делает ваши датчики хуже.
@@andreybrodianski5596 ☺️ пусть будет так. Я люблю говорить глупости...и делать тоже. На этом основано творчество. Спасибо.
P.s.
A harmonic may also be referred to as an overtone. To play a harmonic, we isolate a specific harmonic from the composite frequencies of the fundamental pitch through various techniques, depending on the instrument, and they have a very unique sound quality. (Wikipedia)
С кастомными звучками даже строить гитара лучше стала, не то что со стоковыми! 🙃
@@jam_006 Вот что ПАФ животворящий делает! 😅
@@8BombCustom Красота-то какая! Лепота…)))
I did not care for stock at all!🤢 much better with the 59 set 👍
Thank you
Алекс, привет! Спасибо тебе за твои 59 датчики! Купил себе, но поставил сыну на обычный корейский Лес Пол. Тон у гитары просто потрясающий. Недавно купил сыну новый PRS SE. Сын говорит мне, что звук не нравится, говорит сделай как у Лес Пола :)). ruclips.net/video/t12mfLuPuvU/видео.html
@@emilbegichev9220 Привет. Спасибо. Рад что датчики приносят удовольствие и хороший звук. У меня всегда есть что то в наличии и есть варианты подешевле но с теми же характеристиками. Пиши, звони, подберем.
To be completely fair... changing pots, caps and wiring doesn't really make this a pickup A/B-test but more like testing what "Tokai stock electronics with Duncans" sounds compared to completely upvamped electronics and 8bomb pickups. You should have kept the electronics intact and just swap the pickups to A/B them. Now this test is zero value since you changed all of the components. At least you should have measured the pots, caps etc. and hand out that information to viewers. The tolerances of a pot alone can make a huge difference. 500k pot with 10% tolerance could be anything between 450k to 550k.
The pots are the same (as seen in 05:40 and 06:41) . He only desoldered, cleaned the pots, then put them back in. Pots wise, the only other thing he did was he removed the treble bleed circuit in the bridge position and put in a replacement cap (06:52).
@@t3r080 I have just cleaned old pots and replaced wire.
@@8BombCustom Hi Dr Nitro! What about wiring influence? I was interested by one of your previous videos where you said why modern guitars can't sound like vintage ones (because of pickups). But I tried to change my Gibson lp to 50s wiring and get the same results with clarity of volume pots (but this wiring has a feature where the tone affects the volume). Changing the wiring greatly changes the sound even on the same pickups.