Gibson 498T Chrome
I purchased this humbucker to go into a custom Stratocaster copy, but after being stalled on that project for more than a year I decided to install it into a vintage Japanese Les Paul copy.
The guitar it went into is a mid-70′s Aria produced by Matsumoku. The exact model number is unknown, but it’s a Les Paul copy. Two humbuckers (Maxon), each with a volume and tone knob, and a three-way selector switch. (due to a damaged potentiometer, the guitar had to be completely rewired to use a master volume and tone) I originally thought that the original bridge pickup had gone dead, but I believe it may in fact be fine. At any rate, I had decided to wire the Gibson 498T into the bridge position.
I’ll go on the record and say that I love the tone produced by the neck pickup. It’s very warm and bluesy. I would say that any decently made pickup acquires a beautiful tone after more than 30 years of aging. For any “hot” tones the 498T certainly fits the bill. Licks like ZZ Top’s La Grange come to life, and the grinding riffs from The Smashing Pumpkins’ Today are easily attainable. Installation of the 498T was not very complicated, because Gibson makes the wiring diagrams available for download. Also, I did not set it up for tapped coils, which aided in the ease of installation.
All in all, I would definitely recommend this humbucker to anyone looking to get a hotter tone out of their guitar.
