Well, I just got my 2002 SG Standard and installed Jim Wagner's Crossroad PAF style pickups in her. While I was at it, I rewired to 50s spec with 500K pots and threw in some Mallory caps.

CROSSROADS:
First let me say that I have not been very fond of many Humbuckers I've heard in the past...I've always preferred the sound of a nice P-90 because most humbuckers sound too dull and flat to me. So when I decided to take the PAF-Plunge, I wanted something that had what most Humbuckers don't: sparkle, clarity, chime.
These Crossroads are simply beautiful. The neck pickup is a sound to behold...Very deep, full, and round but ARTICULATE! Excellent for jazzier stuff. Also, the middle position (which I've NEVER liked on other guitars I've played...ever) is just as nice if not nicer than the Neck by itself. By balancing PUs in this position, I can actually get my SG to TWANG! No shit. There are almost limitless posibilities here once you start playing with the tone/vol knobs. Too cool.
And the Bridge pickup is just as great...Does clean very well with a ton of chime. Overdriven it transforms from beautiful to old-school burly SQUAWK. Again, very versatile with the tone control. There is almost TOO musch range in the versatility of these Pus, in the sense that I am constantly twiddling to find cool new sounds. I love it. I can honestly say that in my limited experience of Humbuckers (Gibson crap, Fralins, a few Duncan PAF types that friends have had) I have never heard anything with this much harmonic content, depth and versatility. These ain't cheap (though they are right at about the same price as Fralins, Lollars, and are a lot cheaper than some other crazily priced pickups)
but they are absolutely worth more than Jim charges for them IMHO.

2002 SG Standard:
I searched Internet-land for quite a while until I finally settled on an SG. When I finally bought one it was WITHOUT ever playing it...This is always a scary prospect, and I was apprehensive at first. But after finding an SG that sounded especially promising, I decided to take a chance and sell it if it sucked.
First off, it is technically a "Cherry" SG...you know, I expected the typical red finish that I've seen a million times. I was really surprised when I pulled this baby out of the case. The grain of this piece of mahagony is really cool...not the boring straight grain of most mahogany bodies. It has almost a "tiger stripe" look to it in places. Plus. the finish isn't red, its really just an enhancement of the wood's natural color. It is much cooler than any Standard I've ever seen.
So, if you guys can clue me in on how to post pix, I'll snap some and get them up for you to see. (Or if I can email them to someone to post, since I've never done it before)

I have a set of Crossroads on my LP and they're great pups indeed. And you're right about the twang! hard to explain really but my LP can twang when I want it to now!

do they have lower output than the stock pickups the sg came with? i'm back and forth ont he pickup issue, and i was considering putting the crossroads in my '61 reissue, but it's alot of clams. would i get less crunch with the crossroads as apposed to the stock ones? i want great chimey clean, but can't sacrifice my crunch. i was considering a phat cat in the neck, and still might do that.

avengerjimmie,
The Sg came to me with the stock 490R in the neck and a Fralin 8.5K in the bridge.
Since I rewired the guitar while swapping PUs, I wouldn't feel right about doing a head-to-head between the Fralin and Crossroads (would only really be fair if I ran them in the exact same wiring setup). However, output-wise, I would say they are very close. I had Jim Wagner overwind my Crossroad bridge ever-so-slightly, so i imagine it measures around 8.3K. Jims methods of winding are unique though (he's got some secret tricks) so i don't think the 8.3K vs 8.5K comparison is very meaningful.
My impressions of the output (as far as "does it hit the amp hard?") is that the Crossroad bridge hits my amps about as hard or a bit harder than my Fralin P-90 that is in the bridge of my Franken-Jazzmaster. I am still dialing in the pickup height of the bridge, but it looks like this bridge PU sounds best hiked up near the strings. If you run an amp that is gainy, I think that you'll get plenty of crunch. Contact Jim, because these are the most "vintage" output pickups he makes...everything else he produces is hotter, from fat PAF tones all the way to a new Metal pickup he has that is supposed to be the cat's balls! Sound like you might be happier with the Darkbursts or Goodwoods if you want a little more PUSH.
He's super easy to deal with, very friendly, and very quick to reply to emails. His site is here:
www.crcoils.com
Yes they are pricey. The way i see it, though, is that mediocre pickups are going to cost you nearly as much...why not save up a little and get something that will amaze you? My $.02.

Man what a timely review...I am on the fence about a set of hums for my NYC4 which is a semihollow chambered body guitar...right now I've got the Fralin 8/9K set and the neck is muddy and the bridge is shrill and its hard to balance them for a good middle position sound...

I just tried a set of Antiquities and they were awful...muddy and shrill...I had a set of Gibson P-94's in there and they were ok as long as the volumn control was rolled off...at full volumn they farted out and the bass end was too loose and they were hard to work with...

I am thinking Lollars/Wolfetones or WCR's and just by the clips and my feeling I am leaning towards the Crossroads but its so hard to know if they will work for me in my setup which is primarily BF Fender amps to do blues/Jazz and RnB...I'm looking for a clean punchy and articulate set of pu's...!!

I need them to do Motown type rhythm playing and BB King type solo tone...

e-flat...What kind of amps are you using??

Chow,
Seegs

Here's what I'm thinking. Tell me if you guys think it's an awful idea:

I've always been a huge Todd Rundgren fan. My all-time favorite album is a tie between "Something/Anything" and the first Utopia album (Holdsworth's "IOU" comes in second). Anyway, I've always gassed for a guitar like "The Fool", the psychedelic SG that George Harrison gave to Clapton, who played it in Cream and then gave it to Rundgren, who used it exclusively for several years. Ed Roman guitars in Vegas makes an exact replica, but it's way too pricey. So I'm considering buying an Epiphone SG from Musician's Friend for $149, stripping and painting it myself, and putting in a set of Crossroads.

What do you think? I've never played one of the cheap Epiphones. Is it a worthy carcass for one of these pu's, or will I have serious problems caused by shoddy craftsmanship?

Seegs- If you are loking for clean/punchy, with as much or as little sparkle as you want to have then these are your PUs...Trust me, I have usually HATED the sound of HBs clean. (Including Fralins, though I really like his single coils) I actually think these sound BEST clean, though the OD tones with a really cranked amp are pure classic rock. I have used this with my Valvetech 1X12 combo for clean playing (2X6V6 with a rather British voice, but can dial in a clean Tweed-mixed-with-a-little-Vox flavor the way I have it set up. I run the amp with a Weber Silver Bell Alnico 15 watt speaker, and the tones make me wish I could play jazz...Just DEEP) I would really highly recommend you give these a shot if you feel let down by "flat" sounding HBs.

avengerjimmie-
Cranked these through my Winfield Thomas 30 watter tonight (Kinda like a Marshall 18 watter through a Vox cab with Weber Alnico Blue Dogs) and I have to say, they don't break the amp up as early as most HBs I've heard. HOWEVER, this meant that I was able to crank my amp (non-MV) just a bit more than usual to get to the desired volume/breakup level and they sounded really amazing, in a very "classic" way. Put it this way, the amp kept getting turned up bit by bit, and once the OD threshold/max was reached I was solidly in slightly heavier-than- Sabbath territory of overdrive. (No pedals) These will definitely do Stoner type rock as well as lower gain classic rock and cleans. For more modern tones, I'd talk to Jim about something hotter.

mongoose-eyeball- first of all..What the F**k is with your name?! LOL I love it...It cracks me up everytime I see it.
I think your idea sounds like a great project. I have played a few Epiphones (mind you, they were Casinos and Sheratons) that were really very nice. Don't know about the SGs, but I hear good things about the G400 (I think thats what its called). That one is probably more pricey though. What ever you do, make sure you trash those Pots/Caps and throw in something solid. Makes a big difference in the clarity department.

thanks for the info e-flat. it does sound like i may want slightly hotter pickups, but i'm not sure. my hb's aren't as hot as alot that i have played. heh, it's not like i have the money anyway. i'm just looking into everything way in advance. i still gotta get a couple hundred bucks for my hermida splurge. thanks though man. very informative posts.

I just put a Darkburst in the bridge of my Anderson Cobra and I'm very impressed.They live up to the hype and worth every penny.

Thanks e-flat...I had pretty much resigned myself to following this hunch but this kind of confirms that I have to at least give em a shot and hope they don't turn out like my Harmonic Design experience...

Chow,
Seegs

quote:

---

Originally posted by e-flat:

mongoose-eyeball- first of all..What the F**k is with your name?! LOL I love it...It cracks me up everytime I see it.

---

Well, this is off-topic, I guess, but here's the story: did you ever get so stoned that you couldn't stop laughing--couldn't even sit up for laughing about something that to a sober person probably wouldn't even be funny?

I was on tour with a band a few years back and my girlfriend joined me for a few dates. One night in the hotel we got pretty baked (this was back when I used to do that sort of thing much more frequently) and ordered room service breakfast. They brought me a piece of Canadian Bacon that had curled up, concave, like a little dome. She laughed at it and I said, "actually this could be useful. It would make a great contact lens for a blind giant." OK, I know it's not actually funny, but you have to remember that my neurons were doing the Macarana at at that point. It started us giggling, and she said, "no it's not big enough. A human blind giant would need a full-size piece of balogna. This might work for a giant of some other mammal, like a weasel or a mongoose." So I called the front desk and asked them to send up a giant mongoose, or, at least, his eyeball, so we could test a new contact lens design.

I know what you're thinking: this guy's head is full of transmission fluid. I guess you had to be there. Anyway, when I dropped her off at the airport the next afternoon, we decided to open hotmail accounts so I could get email on the road. She asked what my account name would be, and I said, "mongoose-eyeball@hotmail.com," thus immortalizing a private joke. I don't see her anymore, but I've still got the hotmail account, so I often use it as a screen name.

mongoose_eyeball:
What a great story...I think I've probably been in a similar state ("weak" with laughter) a couple of times in my life. Okay, maybe more than a couple...but thats another thread.
Always good to see someone with a screen name that make you go "WTF?"

Hey Seegs,
What experience did you have with Harmonic Design, if you don't mind me asking? Was it with their Humbuckers?

Hey e-flat...no problem...it was the Super 90 bridge/Vintage + neck tele pu's...super 90 was harsh and the v+ was muddy and since the v+ neck pickup is deeper than a normal tele neck pu you can't lower it without routing out your guitar...!! Nice touch but at those prices you'd think that they could have at least included the Dremel attachment or free routing at the luthier of your choice!!

contact with the company resulted in the guy implying that I was basically an idiot as he had thousands of satisfied customers and I was definitly in my own little exclusive club of one for not liking em... and furthermore if I didn't like the pu's I should sell them on ebay and get close to retail value or more for them...NOT here in Germany!!

I took a beating selling em and was just glad to be done with them...I say "NEVER AGAIN"!!

Chow,
Seegs

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Seegs,