[RayBarbeeMusic]

A customer of mine is having me work up one of his new G&L Legacy guitars with HSS format, and said he wanted it to sound 'vintage', something he doesn't usually like or ask for.  Well, ok.  I did the fretwork, set up. 

"Vintage" to me, with singles, screams "67 neck, 58 middle", which means PAF bridge, something that will play nice with lower output singles and a 250k volume.  I thought about a few options, but went with a 36th bridge since I had one the right color.

Keep in mind, this has never been my favorite pickup.  It replaced the VHPAF in the DiMarzio line up, which always rubbed me the wrong way since I like the VHPAF better, and I've always found the 36th harsh in the highs on high strings and not vocal enough in the mids. 

With that in mind, and knowing I'd have to flip the magnet anyway so the screw coil hum cancelled with the south pole '58 with both split, I decided to try A2 in there, both to tame the highs and drop the output a tad. 

How did it work? Well holy sh*t, it worked GREAT.  I really, really like that pickup with A2 in the bridge of a strat with 250k volume.  I used a 550k tone with .001uf cap.  Even with tone all the way up, it's articulate but not harsh at all, and the midrange is very vocal in a truly expressive way.  With the tone rolled back, it gets no 'under a pillow' effect like a higher output bucker would get, it just becomes darker and fatter.

I'll be doing that again on one of my own guitars when I get the chance.  If you get a chance to try it, I'd highly recommend putting A2 in that pickup. 

[HipKitty]

I, as well, took a bridge 36th Anniversary and swapped the magnet for an alnico II. Taking it a step farther, primarily for cosmetics, I aged the polepieces and a raw nickel cover. I will drop it into one of my Les Pauls and let you know....

[RayBarbeeMusic]

The cover will darken it up some, which it would need if your LP has 500k pots.

[HipKitty]

After installing my converted 36th Anni into one of my Les Paul Customs, bridge location, I am VERY impressed.  I ended up putting it in with a CTS dpdt 250k switchable pot which tamed the high end from being "piercing" or harsh. Very old school tones but they can be driven well into high gain metal tones. Now, I'm curious how the alnico II would sound if it were degaussed a bit...

[RayBarbeeMusic]

Yeah I think it really needs that 250k pot (as do most PAFs), but with A2 and 250k that pickup sounds glorious. 

It has me pondering A2 swaps in other pickups that can be a bit bright, like a Norton, any of the "PAF Pro" family (Paf Pro, fred, mo joe) or breed neck (used in bridge) and try those with 500k pots.

[HipKitty]

With this specific LP Custom, I have been through Gibson T-tops, Classic 57's, Duncan 59's and a Lollar Imperial at the bridge. With those pickups, I was using a CTS 500k audio pot. This is the first time I dropped a 250k in there. I kept the 500k for the Tone controls along with the Mallory 0.02's. I love this setup with this guitar. It truly sounds like an old, old Gibby.

[KH Guitar Freak]

I guess as always, tone is subjective and one of personal preference. I really dig the 36th. That being said, I would have suggested the Air Classics if you didn't pursuit the A2 magnet swap route