Uploaded February 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Here's a quick comparison of the Gibson Pat No (T-Top) and the EMG 57 pickup.
I didn't change any settings but adjusted the level to be about the same in order to not drive the amp much harder with the 57 than I did with the tTops (the 57 has about 6dB more output).
As you can here the 40 year old passive pickups are still able to deliver bone crushing metal sounds and don't actually sound too different from the active 57, the dynamics are also VERY similar.
the 57 has a little bit tighter/leaner bass and a touch more top end while the t-Top has a bit more bite in the 2.5k range.
Bear in mind that in the late 70ies Gibson used 300k pots, so those make the pickups sound a bit darker and decrease the output slightly compared to the "regular" 500k pots (which I'm actually thinking about putting in my 78 LPC...might just be too lazy ;)
BTW, the RetroActive Hot70 pickup sounds almost IDENTICAL to the t-Top with just a tiny tiny bit less high end and a little bit more output.
sonically they're virtually indistinguishable (sorry, I don't have a video comparing those right now)
if you wanna reamp the DIs for yourself or check them out how they sounded coming dtraight from the guitar (no volume adjustment), you can download them here:
lasselammert.com/sonstiges/LPCpickupDIs.zip
Here's a quick comparison of the Gibson Pat No (T-Top) and the EMG 57 pickup.
I didn't change any settings but adjusted the level to be about the same in order to not drive the amp much harder with the 57 than I did with the tTops (the 57 has about 6dB more output).
As you can here the 40 year old passive pickups are still able to deliver bone crushing metal sounds and don't actually sound too different from the active 57, the dynamics are also VERY similar.
the 57 has a little bit tighter/leaner bass and a touch more top end while the t-Top has a bit more bite in the 2.5k range.
Bear in mind that in the late 70ies Gibson used 300k pots, so those make the pickups sound a bit darker and decrease the output slightly compared to the "regular" 500k pots (which I'm actually thinking about putting in my 78 LPC...might just be too lazy ;)
BTW, the RetroActive Hot70 pickup sounds almost IDENTICAL to the t-Top with just a tiny tiny bit less high end and a little bit more output.
sonically they're virtually indistinguishable (sorry, I don't have a video comparing those right now)
if you wanna reamp the DIs for yourself or check them out how they sounded coming dtraight from the guitar (no volume adjustment), you can download them here:
lasselammert.com/sonstiges/LPCpickupDIs.zip
