[bigben55]

First post here, but I've had a Virtual Vintage Blues start pickup for 15 years.

I have a G&L Tribute ASAT Classic Bluesboy I want to put new pickups in. I want it to be suitable for rock to hard rock, but also blues and country. I'm thinking it would be nice to have a no hum guitar as well. I'm thinking the Bluesbucker/Area Hot T would be perfect but I have questions. First, would these be a good volume/output match? Second, will the Bluesbucker work/sound good with 250k pots? And is the Area Hot T "rockin" enough for my purposes? I don't play metal or anything, but would like to be able to rock harder than my ASAT Special or Legacy lets me. Any feedback on this combo, or individual pickups, or other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[darkbluemurder]

Unfortunately no experience with the Area Hot T but with its predecessor, the Virtual Hot T and with the Bluesbucker.

Virtual Hot T is a hotter tele bridge pickup that still sounds very much like a tele pickup - a bit more into Broadcaster/Nocaster territory.

I had the Bluesbucker for a while in the neck position of a tele (ash body, one piece maple neck, Callaham bridge, very bright guitar acoustically), together with a Chopper T in the bridge position. They matched well output wise but the Chopper T appears to be a bit hotter than the Virtual Hot T (did not try them in the same guitar though). I ended up replacing it with a Cruiser and then a DiMarzio DP240 mini humbucker, which I like best of the three. Of course you need a different pickguard to mount a mini humbucker properly.

I would go Bluesbucker for the neck if you want/need the split option. The Bluesbucker does that very well but I found I did not really need it. I did not like either the full humbucking or the split sound as much as I like the DP240.

BTW I play southern rock, country rock and blues and a bit 80s hardrock mainly, and I would be very comfortable doing this with the Chopper T/DP240 equipped tele. I have installed a push-pull which lets me use the Chopper T in series or parallel for a brighter more traditional tone. However, if "traditional" is something you cannot do without you are better served with the Area Hot T than the Chopper T.

Cheers Stephan   

[bigben55]

Just the kind of feedback I am  looking for thanks. The ASAT Tribute does have the "good USA made MFD bridge pup and alnico V neck humbucker. My problem is two fold with these pickups. 1. The bridge feeds back/screams with medium gain or higher. This appears to be par for the course with the small MFDs.  And the neck humbucker is just too dull and bassy clean. Decent sounding with gain and in the middle position though. I wouldn't be coil tapping the Bluesbucker. I was looking at it because it is P90 like but noiseless, and I don't want to spend tons on a Fralin or Lollar.  Id putP90Humbucker sized P90 in it, but then i would have p90 noise. As for the bridge, I want rock tones with the ability to dial in regular tele tones as well.

My big concern is with the pots. I suspect  the reason I dislike the stock neck bucker is because its connected to a 250k pot thus robbing the treble and articulation. The bluesbucker shouldn't have that problem as much since its brighter and p90 ish,  right???

[darkbluemurder]

To me the Bluesbucker does not sound exactly like a P90 but it is close. To be like a real P90 it should have a bit less boominess in the bass. It's better in that department than most humbuckers though.

I have only used it with 500k pots. I don't think it would work well with 250k pots - at least not in the neck position.

Rock tones with the ability to dial in regular tele tones would work with both the Area Hot T and the Chopper T (the Area being better at regular tele tones and the Chopper T being better at the rock tones). With the Chopper T, the ability to select series and parallel modes is key to attend the regular tele tones. 

Are you sure that your guitar uses 250k pots? If so then I would at least swap the volume pot for a 500k and try that first - maybe that brightens up the neck humbucker enough.

Cheers Stephan

[slugworth]

The Bluesbucker likes 500k pots.

I have a lot of experience with real P90s (Lollar, Gibson, Fralin, Reverend, Armstrong, etc.) and with the Bluesbucker. I would say that on clean tones the Bluesbucker sounds like a PAF/P90 hybrid, but once you add in a little dirt, it sounds spot-on to a top-shelf P90.