Epiphone ES-339 with Seth Lover pickups

[Chuck H]

I picked this up from a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago. The original pickups and electronics were replaced with Seth Lovers and CTS volume and tone pots. My intention is to have a smaller semi-hollow body to replace the Joe Pass Emperor which was way to big for me. My friend had a local luthier do the pickup/electronic change and a pretty good setup.Then he, my friend, put on a set of what looked like 13-56 strings on it, squeezed through a nut designed for a smaller set of strings. It had some tuning and intonation problems and was difficult to play when I got it. Today I put a set of 10-46s on it, which is what the nut was designed for, and the intonation is almost perfect now. The action is low, the way I like it, and plays nice all the way up the neck. Hard to beat a good setup!
The Seth Lover pickups? Meh, so far anyway. I was expecting warm and not to bright. So far I’m getting warmish and kind of bright. This might be why he put those fat strings on it. It might be the pots or whatever caps were put in there so some adjustments might be made. Maybe they want to be played through a different amp. Some experimenting is in order.

Oh, if you look close you can see I broke the high E string already. Poor installation on my part. Broke right at the tuner. I knew it was wrong when I started winding it on too……. wound it on anyway…..

[BluGenes]

I would like to hear how that sounds.. You should post a test run with it.. some clean no effects and maybe some crunchy stuff for comparison.. no hurry, so, don’t rush out on it just for me..

Don't practice till you get it right, practice till you can't get it wrong.

[Joeblues27]

Well I personally like the Gibson 57 pickups for that vintage warm sounding tone. They were the stock pickups on my Epiphone 60’s tribute les paul. For me it was the tone I was searching for.

[Tim Lee]

I like the Epi 339 because of it’s smaller size and I think it’s great value for the money. Look forward to hearing it.
Tim

[Mark O]

Nice looking guitar, Chuck. Probably dumb thing to mention but I assume you’ve tried rolling the tone knows back, playing the neck pickup, etc? I have to agree with Joeblues, the classic 57’s sound pretty sweet on a semi hollow (love them on my 335).

[Chuck H]

Nice looking guitar, Chuck. Probably dumb thing to mention but I assume you’ve tried rolling the tone knows back, playing the neck pickup, etc? I have to agree with Joeblues, the classic 57’s sound pretty sweet on a semi hollow (love them on my 335).

Yep, I’m a knob turner Mark and the pots are sensitive on this.

I got some better tones out of it this afternoon. A little adjusting of the amps, changed the B and E strings to a different brand and played with a little lighter touch. Gave myself a little lecture on being patient……

[Maradonagol]

Very nice guitar……experimenting is good, I’ve had a few guitars where “blahhh” was my description till I figured it out….having said that, I’m with the classic 57’s…have them on my Gibson 335 and Les Paul…..jazzy to full crunch in seconds……I dont know if they are available as parts, but the Ibanez super 57’s are also very nice on my Ibanez am93.

Enjoy the hunt, it’s the best part…

Roberto

Roberto

[Chuck H]

If a set of those classic 57s ever show up here they will certainly be given a try 🙂

Spent a couple of hours playing this again today. The guitar is really setup well, very easy and fun to play. A good example of how important it is to have your guitar set up by a pro.

[Deluxe Strat]

I put a set of 57’s classic in neck and the plus in the bridge in my epiphone les paul. they sound ok
A friend has his gibson studio les paul here and it has 490r and the 498t in it and I really like the sound of those.
everyone has that one sound in their head they like 🙂

[Chuck H]

The neck pickup on this is turning out to be really good. Sweet, clear, loads of sustain. Jazz chords and shades of classical stuff sound great. Seems like a good fit for this guitar.
The bridge pickup will almost certainly be replaced. The classic 57 bridge pickup or something similar would probably be a good fit here. Alnico 2 magnets, 7.5 output like the Seth Lover neck but potted.

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