new pups for vintage beast

Ok I found a prize of a guitar used at my local music store it's about a 30 year old Greco neck- thru body double cutaway les paul style guitar. It has two humbuckers and one bright switch for each pickup, 2 tone 2 volume and a 3-way toggle selector. Ok I think about this constantly, What pickup should i put into this beast that is very noisless,high output, and will sill let me hear the benefits of the neck through and heavy wood body. My other guitar is a jackson dxmg with emg 81and 60 comdo i love it to death but id hate to make my vintage axe sound less that it could be in terms of "tone" meaning if herd its a bad idea to put emg's into vintage axes if you want to still hear them as vintage. anyway Has anyone put emg's into a solid guitar like this or an LP and find it any diffrent than doing so to say an alder bolt-on like my jackson.

also if emgs are a really bad idea what kind of passives would have a similar output so if i switch them live i wont have issues.

Oh yeah Im obsessed with emgs super clean and clear sound But im willing to be swayed onto the classic path.

Sorry for the long question :)

EMG's are the worst "Tone" robbers out there. Pretty much every guitar that has EMG active pickups in it will sound the same... The only parameter that usually differ is denser wooded bodies will have SLIGHTLY more bass when switched to the neck position and SLIGHTLY more treble when switched at the neck position... and maybe a tad more sustain. I don't recommend EMG active pickups for any guitar that costs more than 800 dollars.... I can't justify spending more than that on a guitar with the same tone as any other guitar out there with EMG actives.... When I read the title I thought we were going to be talking about a good old vintage guitar like the one that I turned one of my American Stratocasters into... I put vintage Fender Custom Shop '69 pickups in it using all vintage cloth insulated wiring... I can see that you're not looking for a historically correct vintage machine... rather, just a nice set of pickups that bring out the true tone of the guitar..... If you're looking for a nice set of passive pickups that are high output but will keep most of the tone of the guitar check out some Seymour Duncans... there JB/59 set shoudl give you a lot of what you want. Some things to stay away from.... Avoid any pickups with ceramic magnets... They tend to rob tone as well... look for pickups with the Alnico variety of magnets. Good luck

EMG's are great pickups but they will sound the same in a Page singature Les Paul or a $10 Chinese Ibanez copy. I use them in my Prestige and they are great, but I would never put them in a vintage guitar. How about some Burst Buckers if you want to get an authentic vintage tone - they are great for picking up the individual sound from the body of the guitar itself. I have them in my Les Paul Custom and they suit it perfectly - not the sound I generally go for but they match that guitar perfectly. If I wanted another set of EMG's I would buy a good cheap guitar and put them in, nothing over €500.

Seriously dude.... don't wreck a Greco with EMGs.... Fair enough, it's not a zematis, but they're still pretty rare in their own right.

My favourite Les Paul (belongs to a mate) has Bare Knuckle warpig pickups in it.... sounds amazing in my opinion...

For the result of EMGs in a les paul, listen to Zakk Wylde...

thanks for the input guys

Also any more suggesions about what pickups i could put in it that will match or come close the high output of my emg guitar?

what alinco pickups are high output?
if i get passives i want to have gold covers also.

>Bill Lawrence L-500<. That is the pickup that was used by Dime, that Seymour Duncan copied and called the Dimebucker. I personally wouldn't go with a pickup that has that much output. A duncan JB has more output than I'll ever need! The higher the output of the pickup, the less of the guitar's tone you hear.

Originally Posted by: PRSplaya>Bill Lawrence L-500<. That is the pickup that was used by Dime, that Seymour Duncan copied and called the Dimebucker. I personally wouldn't go with a pickup that has that much output. A duncan JB has more output than I'll ever need! The higher the output of the pickup, the less of the guitar's tone you hear.

very true....my jackson has evolutioon high powered pups and i don't hear any "wood"--- my epi has low output '59 JB's and it has great tone....live and learn ...or just ask prs first ;)

im usually not one for looks but i do need it to be able to have a gold cover.

what pickups do metallica now use that were not emg's. they had gold covers what model was that? it must have been high output they sounded good too.