Post by antigua on Nov 22, 2020 18:07:35 GMT -5
I ordered a Epiphone Joe Bonamassa Black Beauty, it took about a month to get it. I've wanted a Black Beauty for the last twenty years, but Epiphone quality wasn't so great in the 90's, and the Gibson versions are exceedingly expensive, so I never ended up buying one, until now.
The guitat itself is really great. I wasn't sure if I would like the new headstock, or the fake yellow aged plastic, but in person they look great. It also has interesting tuners, somewhat unique to Les Pauls. Joe B says in the promo that the guitar is "light", but it actually feels quite heavy to me, and I'm sure the three pickups have something to do with that.
The pickups are Pro-Buckers, the "3" in the bridge and "2's" in the neck and middle. The part numbers all have a "-C" at the end, instead of "-4", which might mean "custom" somehow. I ordered a "free-way" switch, and I plan to rewire it in such a way that I get get six pickup combos instead of the stock three combinations, so while I have the pickups disconnected, I've recorded various electrical values:
Epiphone Joe Bonamassa Black Beauty Pro-Buckers
Bridge PB3GHBB-C
- DC Resistance: 8.657K ohms
- Q @1khz: 2.21
- Measured L: 5.891H
- Calculated C: 127pF
- Gauss: 250G (over the center screws)
Middle PB2GHBM-C
- DC Resistance: 8.020K ohms
- Q @1khz: 2.16
- Measured L: 5.208H
- Calculated C: 124pF
- Gauss: 250G (over the center screws)
Neck PB2GHBN-C
- DC Resistance: 8.036K ohms
- Q @1khz: 2.18
- Measured L: 5.215H
- Calculated C: 143pF
- Gauss: 250G (over the center screws)
The covers are definately nickel silver, not brass. Pro-Bucker's are spec'd as having AlNiCo 2 magnets. Even though this guitar is meant to replicate a real 1958 Les Paul which would have had three non-position specific pickups, with this guitar they did the typical "hot bridge" thing, and even though the neck and middle have different part codes, they appears to be identical. A lot of "vintage" neck pickups often have an inductance in the low to mid 4 henry range, and bridge pickups in the 5 to mid 5 henry range, so for this neck and middle to be right at 5 henries, and the bridge to be just shy of 6 henries, makes these sort of "vintage hot".
They sound real nice, but to be honest, I didn't really care for the stock bridge + middle sound, it's sort of like the notch position of a Strat, but without the quack, and not as bell-like as the neck and brige together. I've played other HHH Les Pauls though, and I really like the sound of the middle pickup by itself. I was surprised to find out that the three pickup Rickenbacker 325, despite all of it's knobs, also didn't let the player select more than three pickup combinations, which is very surprising, considering the potential for a variety of tones.
Special selector switch for 3 pickup Les Pauls:
