S-500 pickup experiment options

[lefty_major]

Has anyone on this board replaced S-500 MFDs with different pickups? Were you happy with the results?

I’m looking for humbucker LP tones in an S-style body but do not want to buy a new guitar (e.g. like a Legacy HB). My eye is on Seymour Duncan Lil ‘59s but looking for some opinions.

Note, I love the guitar as is. I just have an option to get another one and might experiment with it.

[Cactus Jack]

The S-500 is just a Strat. You can put any pickups in you want. In fact, depending on the year I believe they have a bathtub route so you could even put in a full size humbucker if you want. Double check me on that.

My S-500 has Lindy Fralin Blues Specials in and I think they sound fantastic. They nail the vintage blues/tex mex tones. Probably my favorite tone comes from the neck/bridge combo. It's such a usable and versatile tone. In my opinion buying a G&L is about craftsmanship & value as opposed to the stock pickups.

Have fun and let us know what you end up doing.

[dhgleaves]

Has anyone on this board replaced S-500 MFDs with different pickups? Were you happy with the results?

I’m looking for humbucker LP tones in an S-style body but do not want to buy a new guitar (e.g. like a Legacy HB). My eye is on Seymour Duncan Lil ‘59s but looking for some opinions.

Note, I love the guitar as is. I just have an option to get another one and might experiment with it.

If you remove the MFDs you can donate them to me. In my opinion, they are the reason to buy an S-500 (rather than a Legacy or a Strat), although if you are going to have two of them, I can see why you might want different pickups in one of them.

[john o]

no doubt there are tons of great p'ups out there, today, most of which i have not tried.
one of the reasons I have collected a number of G&L's are their pickups.
from the CLF-100 alnico p'ups on my 1st trib Legacy, to the large coil MFD's on my ASAT's, to the small coil MFD on my bluesboy, to the vintage small coil MFD's on my '84 Skyhawk and of course the z-coils, these are some of the best sounding and performing p'ups I've encountered on many different guitars, and the main reason why my Fenders and Gibsons usually stay home when I get the opportunity to play for an audience.

[Danley]

I can see it going either way - an S500 is the sort of guitar you can either buy because where else are you going to get MFD pickups/DFV/proprietary aspects etc. ; or as a base to enjoy better-than-average build quality and for the playing feel. It’s a common enough platform it won’t become a total bastard if you mod it, and just want to enjoy the better build quality that is typical of G&L. Dropping a different set of singles in an S500 is different than hogging out the routes on an F100 for a Super Distortion or something.

I know the Duncan Lil’ ‘59s are somewhat polarizing, but to my ears (in demos) they always approximated humbucker honk pretty well. More people tend toward Cool Rails though, which are a bit less middy. Hot rails do a decent impersonation of high-output humbuckers.

[Mmcwill80]

I was thinking about replacing the bridge MFD with the G&L blade. Has anyone had experience with this? The bridge is not nearly as meaty as the neck pickup.