MattThorpe
Well-known member
Couple of years ago when I first got my LS80 I found the MK2 Tokai pickups to be rather unbalanced in that the neck pickup was far louder than the bridge. I stuck with them for a while. I liked the MK2's better than the Mk1's in my 2008 LS150. I had changed the bridge pickup in the LS80 to a Seymour Duncan Custom SH5 which is wonderful. The Mk2 bridge was too thin sounding and seemed to run out of steam when you dig in for a solo.
So the MK2 bridge was lying around and I got to thinking could this be modified ? I'd read about changing magnets. I had an unused set of epiphone pickups and checking the strength of the magnets of known magnet types in my guitar collection I determined that the Mk2 pups were probably a very weak Alnico2 and that the Epi pups were Alnico 5.
So I replaced the magnet in the Mk2 bridge with the one from the old Epi pickups. Not a straightforward task. The effort is worth it though.
What a remarkable difference this has made. The new hybrid pickup was tried on my Gibson Les Paul as I had to remove a friends pup I was trying out anyway. The new PUP really does sound so much better. Very chimey but with ringing sustain and mid growl and all the note clarity of the original.
I left the cover off for now. By the way the coils are black inside.
Anybody tried any mods to Tokai pups of their own ?
So the MK2 bridge was lying around and I got to thinking could this be modified ? I'd read about changing magnets. I had an unused set of epiphone pickups and checking the strength of the magnets of known magnet types in my guitar collection I determined that the Mk2 pups were probably a very weak Alnico2 and that the Epi pups were Alnico 5.
So I replaced the magnet in the Mk2 bridge with the one from the old Epi pickups. Not a straightforward task. The effort is worth it though.
What a remarkable difference this has made. The new hybrid pickup was tried on my Gibson Les Paul as I had to remove a friends pup I was trying out anyway. The new PUP really does sound so much better. Very chimey but with ringing sustain and mid growl and all the note clarity of the original.
I left the cover off for now. By the way the coils are black inside.
Anybody tried any mods to Tokai pups of their own ?