Fender pickups to Gibson SG Standard?

[Axel Björnsson]

Does this make any sense to you?. I got a beautiful Gibson SG Standard which I don't wanna sell away. The only problem is a don't like the sound of the guitar as well as my G&L Legacy(fender strat). Than I got this idea, to buy fender pickups and put them into the gibson. Or do you know about some nice bright sounding pickups who will work aswell as fender pickups? Please share your information! 

[FREDDI]

There are humbuckers pick ups, that are splittable to single coil, so you could have both sound on same guitar or blend 'em, and don't need to change them both. For example Seymour Duncan distorsion, try it in bridge position.

[The Ungodly 77s]

You can put single coils in the SG. It might look strange, but I've done it before and I kinda liked it. You can either just put them right in there using the existing pickup rings, or you can use these adapters: http://www.guitarfetish.com/Humbucker-Rout-adapter-ring-Fits-Tele-B...

Either way, there are humbuckers out there that sound like single coils. Just search online and you'll find them.

[7jdh14]

Swapping the pickups will change the tone, but it's not gonna make your SG sound like a Legacy. There's a lot more to the Legacy tone than just the pickups.

[The Blue Giant Zeta Puppies]

 You might also try changing the values of the pots (but keep the old ones in case you ever want to change it back...).

But 7JDH14 is right, the SG wont sound like the GL, but it might sound pretty nice!

[John Clemens]

Take a look at some of the humbucker sized P-90 pickups, you'll get a much brighter sound, same fit as a humbucker. SGs with P-90s are fabulous!

Seymour Duncan

Jason Lollar P-92 ($$$$ but great)

[Axel Björnsson]

Thanks lads. I'll study this well.

[Mardy Pune]

Yeah, I gotta agree with this post.

If you're looking for cheap options then look at the Guitar Fetish site that The Ungodly 77's pointed out. The GFS pickups they sell are worth looking at.

I will say after fitting a lot of splittable Humbuckers into guitars over the years that none of them have sounded like that true single coil sound.

7jdh14 said:

Swapping the pickups will change the tone, but it's not gonna make your SG sound like a Legacy. There's a lot more to the Legacy tone than just the pickups.

[Nero]

Recently played a friends Epiphone SG with P90s and it was pretty goddam sweet! Still quite twangy and open at lower volume/distortion compared to a humbucker. Another 'P90 in a humbucker casing' to consider is the Tonerider Rebel 90:

http://www.tonerider.com/pickups/r90spickups.html

Haven't tried it myself, but it's on my shopping list.

[The Satanic Mechanics]

Aloha!

Changing Pickups make sense - instead of Fender PUs try some P90s (they are single coil too and make a really dirty sound - think of ooooooold Gibsons they had these PUs) plus you can get some in Humbucker-Size from Seymour Duncan or so...so you dont have to change the pickguard, too - they really fuckin rock!!!

Cheers from Munich,

El Presidente