Review - Stag Mag in Les Paul Standard

[Sir Cuitous]

This is my first post on an SD Forum, but I felt it was necessary since I am very happy with the product. I opted to put SH-3s in neck and bridge position. First let me say that this pickup may have been designed to split (which I did), but as a humbucker the sound was superior to the stock BurstBuckers from Gibson. My issue with the Gibson pickups was that when the treble was rolled-off it was gone by about 4. The rest of the way was just a "muddy" bass sound. This was true with both Gibson pickups - neck and bridge. However, both Stag Mags maintain a rich usable sound all the way through the tone selection. Both Stag Mags are also hotter than the Burstbuckers as well.

My Les Paul is wired to split the Stag Mags (tone pot switch) and further, when both pickups are selected and split, they are out of phase - something like the 2/4 switch position on a Strat. Some customization was required to achieve this with two SH-3s. My goal here was not to imitate a Strat, but to get many different sounds out of one guitar. Interestingly, the neck pickup, when split, does resemble a Strat somewhat. The height of the pole pieces are staggered like those of a Strat pickup which may help contribute to the similarity. However, on a Les Paul, there is a noticable "drop" on the B string where the pole is the lowest of all pieces. There may be a different string balance on the Gibson that does not necessitate as much stagger.

All in all, the tones are varied and all usable. With a setup such as this, to say that all of the tones are "usable" is not anything less than fantastic. This is unlike many other guitars where I have only liked a few switch/tone combinations. I play through a Peavey Classic 30 which I have found to react well with many different guitars. The clean channel on this amp is astonishingly faithful to a guitars pickups.

To anyone who is considering the Stag Mag, do not hesitate to try it. There is no compromise with the humbucking tone or the split tone.

[ranalli]

Nice....I'm looking forward to trying one of those at some point.

I think it's either gonna be one of those or a Dimarzio Humbucker from Hell in the neck of my Les Paul. Definitely would be cool to have a little single coil type sound in the neck of that guitar.

[Jack Z]

welcome to the forum. sounds like you got yourself a real tone monster with that stag mag-loaded lp. You can read more sh-3 reviews in the vault. personally, i love the stag mag and i think it's an often overlooked choice for an LP -- especially for the player who's thinking about either series-parallel or full-split switching.

enjoy your axe.

[Evan Skopp]

Welcome to the Forum, Sir Cuitous. I'm especially glad you're happy with the Stag-Mags in your Paul.

:-)

See you soon.

- Evan