The guitar in need is a 1985 Gibson Explorer. At this point, I've got to take some of your time to describe the guitar to you, because it's quite an unusual instrument.
The specs are a bit different than most Gibson Explorers, this one has a Mahogany body, Maple neck and a Ebony Fretboard. It has a Kahler bridge on it(brass saddles, brass cam). The scale is a normal Gibson scale(24.75"). I wouldn't call the body lightweight, but it's also not heavy. It might be even lighter than most Explorers.
The unusual part about the guitar is, how it sounds. I've never even encountered something like this before. When I test a guitar for the first time, I do it without any amplifiers. Then I play it in clean channel, and check how it performs under overdrive at the end. Acoustically, there's nothing very special about this guitar, but it vibrates really well. On the clean channel, it might be considered a dull and flat instrument. It sounds like a very heavy Gibson LP Custom with a very tone-deaf wood. But on the drive channel, the whole guitar transforms into something else. Right now it has the original Dirty Fingers pickups(17kOhm+, three ceramic magnets and not wax potted). The main problem is, the guitar has a very linear response: you have to attack the strings with all you've got. It's like a Bogner amp. I guess the reason it sounds so dull on clean channel is that it has so much volume, you don't pick the strings so hard and you don't get the guitar to sound right.
The sound you get on any drive setting and amp is bass heavy and treble lacking. There's also a scoop in high mids and there are plenty of lows and low mids, but they're never muddy. Whatever you do, it'll always stay articulate and clean. The high end is actually there, but it's so round, you can't hear them. They're also not as clean as the lows, maybe even a bit muddy. When soloing, again, you have to fight with the guitar but when you do, it sounds amazing. It really responds to your picking and fingerings.
I've tried several pickups on this guitar. The L500C on the neck position not sounded very "right" with the guitar, but to be fair at that time the guitar was tuned in Drop C. I'll check with that pickup again, if you ask me to. Seymour Duncan Dimebucker really sounded well with the guitar, you could play riffs on it all day. You'd even feel like wasting time when you're playing chords. Dimebucker's ability to cut through the mix was what this guitar needed, so most of your pickups should be even better on bridge position. Duncan Custom 5 is again, a good choice with this guitar. Gibson Burstbuckers, the same story. I had a Pearly Gates with very low impedence(7k neck 8k bridge set on it for some time, and it couldn't show it's true potential.
Right now, I can only play heavy rock and metal with this guitar, because it wouldn't sound rather good anything less than a cranked up old 100w Marshall Head. When you set the amp on low gain, it shouts for more beef. I'm ok with it since I've also got other guitars for various styles, but I might also like to expand this guitars capabilities.
I'm thinking about a L90 for the bridge. I guess 6H or 8H would suit my needs, what do you think? I had a L500L but I sold it because it was too bright for all the guitars I had at that time, I never had the chance to try it on this one though. L500XL would be another choice, but I've noticed that high strings usually "drown out" the lower notes with L500 series(a chord stroke down wouldn't sound the same as the came chord stroke up). I've heard that that's not the case with L90. I also want to emphasize the clarity of the guitar's tone, making L90 my choice. I'm not sure to get either 8H or the 6H. 8H plus the Q filter could be interesting.
The neck position is another story. I've tried Duncan '59, Pearly Gates, L500C and a Gibson Burstbucker #1 on this position and never fell in love with any of them. Duncan's active Blackouts were nice in the neck position, but they are like a ~1000$ downgrade on any guitar's quality(still better than the EMGs). I like piano like cleans and this guitar might be able to deliver it. The guitar is so full and round, I usually need a thinner sounding neck pickup. I wonder what 609 and 610 would do on the neck of this guitar. A raw tone in direction of a barking '56 Goldtop would be a lot of fun to play with.
So, what would you guys suggest? I might record some sound samples and post them here this weekend.
