Mellow Jazz Pickups

I'm looking to replace my Gibson 490 Neck Pickup on my Gibson Les Paul Double CutAway + with a mellow jazz (fusion) pickup, but can't really find too many, so I figured i'd post it here, hoping many of you know of some.

With the Fat sound i'd be getting out of it, I wouldn't have the use for effects anymore (right now i'm down to using just Delay, to thicken up my tone.) . Yeah, I'm a purist!

Come to think of it, I never really liked effects all that much; i've always thought of it as in that one quote "A man shall not be judged on what he can live with, but what he can live without"; Basically, how i turn that into a guitar-quote is "A Guitarist shall not be judged on the number of effects he can use while playing, but by the lack of effects in which he can still competently play".

Now, I can get a thick tone by simply adding distortion, but I really don't want to. There's a clear difference to my ears between a thick-sounding pickup and simply adding distortion, and i prefer the thick pickup.

So what i'm looking for is some NECK pickups that can get some real nice, mellow, thick jazz sounds.

Pony already suggested the TV Jones pickup.

Got any? feel free to reply.

Replacing pick-ups is tough, it's not like you can go out and try 30 brands before deciding wich ones you like.

I always stuck with seymour duncans, they always worked for me.

I've never cared for the Gibson stock pick-ups, one of the 1st things I always did after buying a gibson was replace the pickups. So far in my life I've owned 1 les Paul standard and 3 gibson 335's. I don't own any of them anymore (I wish I did for monetary reasons), don't think I would buy a Gibson any time soon in the future. I would like to have my next guitar custom built.

Yeah, pick-up changes are tough.

A general idea is to find someone's (who's famous) tone you like and then see what kind of equipment they're using. Since you can't really try out the pick-ups it's hard to say.

you can get some nice pickups which will help, but I think you could benefit from a Tubescreamer, they are the sweetest pedal for fattening up your sound, use it before your tube amp (set on clean) and whack up the level, you get the sweetest mildly overdriven tone which is rich and creamy and oh so smooth..

you can get the original specced OD-9 and OD-808 pedals from maxon (with the JRC op-amp) they aint cheap but they're 100% faithful to the original spec, and SRV used one, what more do you need!

in my experience, a P-90 or even P-100 pickup has a beautifully smooth, yet powerful tone.

The tube screamer is what i don't want-

One of my goals is to eventually not run any effects at all (attain pure music, no effects).

I know there are pickups out there that really fatten your sound up simply by being there; my guitar is chambered, so it should be similar to what a semi-hollow would be, in fat-ness.

well, what about the EQ on your amp? you should be able to get a warm sound by using the neck pickup, rolling the treble off, plenty of bass and mids, as well as setting the tone control to around half on your guitar.
String action can also play a part, the higher the action, the fuller and stronger the sound, also where you actually pick the strings makes a difference, play a few bars strumming over the bottom of the neck and you'll see what I mean. I respect you not wanting to use effects, but dont let that attitude restrict you, in the future you might come up with a piece that would sound excellent with a touch of flange, or wah wah.
Just throwing my 2 cents worth in. I would have thought that your guitar would have a huge sound anyway. DiMarzio make good pickups, and also PRS dragon pickups are fantastic, I have them on my PRS singlecut and it's the best tone I've ever heard, really sweet and full on the neck

Originally posted by PonyOne

Bob Benedetto for use in the guitars that he makes and sells for $10k, and are what you hear on a lot of jazz guitar songs. [/B]

I'd think probably more like 20k these days.
He does make a solidbody model which you can get probably for a couple of grand. It's pretty ugly, it looks like a Les Paul w/a flat top.

Originally posted by PonyOne

The TV Jones pickups are great for jazz/blues/fusion and even metal if you're a good player who knows your instrument. TV Jones are used on most higher-end Gretsch guitars because they're like Gretsch pickups on steroids (they are modeled after the original mid-50's Filtertron designs). Again the only thing that makes me shy away from them is the fact that they cost over $100. I suppose you can't put a price on tone, but, well, when you don't have that much cash to throw around...

That said you may be able to find some real Gretsch pickups and turn your DC into a baby Tennessee Rose. Sometimes you can find them on ebay or http://www.gbase.com, if not then you might try contacting Gretsch to see how much they'd cost for a new set.

If you want to go super-high class, then look into Benedetto pickups. They are top-line pickups made by Seymour Duncan for renowned luthier Bob Benedetto for use in the guitars that he makes and sells for $10k, and are what you hear on a lot of jazz guitar songs. They cost a boatload though (between $130-190 depending on where you get em and what model).

I'm goin with the Benendettos! My guitar teacher just put some benendetto's on his les paul, it's awesome because when he has the tone at 10, it sounds like a normal humbucker, but when you lower the tone, it sounds like a hollow-body, real rich and fat, etc. I'm gonna a benendetto in the neck, not sure what they sound like in the bridge. Anyone know?

Originally posted by PonyOne

I'm either putting a TV Jones or Benedetto neck pickup, and then I'm going to put a more overdriven, high output pickup in the bridge (either another Tone Zone, or one of the Rio Grande offerings).

That way, both you and I will be able to sonically cover whatever we damn well want. The neck is probably all you're gonna need for your smooth jazz tones; on my Gretsch I never even really use the bridge, because it sounds so sweet. On my Kramer, I never use the neck, because it's a metal machine that begs to scream. So I'm consolidating.

Look at a Tone Zone or Super Distortion, both of which have a great throaty clean tone, very forceful; the Tone Zone being the more dynamic of the two. Or look into some Rio Grandes for that country/bluegrass clean twang, or hell, get a TV Jones bridge p/u.

funny you mention the tone zone, i was thinking about it at school today, about putting one in the bridge. I'm going to put a gold + red abolone volume pot and gold + red tone pot in place of the cheesy gibson ones i have on now, and in a few months, install the SHADOW MIDI system on my LP; The LP will run my MIDI system, which will lower the price of my custom model about $800 bucks/$1000 or so.

I'd go with a Dimarzio PAF or PAF Pro, or even a FRED.