I decided that I wanted to try swapping out the humbuckers in my Agile 2800 DLX LPC (Les Paul Copy) last week, for another set I had in it before.

The pickups that I just swapped out were a Highorder set. They started out as an A-2, 7.8k neck, and an A-2, 8.5k bridge set. After experiencing some pronounced "boominess" with the A-2 neck pickup, Jeff at Highorder sent me an A-3 magnet to try (along with an A-4 as well). Well, this seemed to correct the boominess alright, and I was happy. The guitar had a very PAF-like tone that would nail that Dickie Betts, Allman Brothers type lead tone well. Trouble is, when I'd pick the guitar up to play some ZZ Top, Joe Walsh, Aerosmith type leads, that tone was a little lacking...as you might expect from pickups like these.

So, I dug out my set of Rio Grande Genuine Texas/Texas BBQ humbuckers and wired 'em in. Well, I don't know what I had missed before when I had these pickups in this guitar, but man, do these suckers sound great now! Thick, fat, crunchy lead tones that sweeten right up with a slight volume roll off. I remember that the reason I removed them in the first place was because I thought they were too muddy sounding. Now, my hearing must have changed very dramatically since I last played these pickups, or there was a small miracle that happened with these pickups as they sat in the dark cabinet with all the other orphaned pickups there.

I tried to retrace the chronology of events that had led to the removal of these pickups a few years ago. After much thought, all I could come up with was that when I had installed these pickups the first time, it was before I swapped out the stock pots for CTS, all of which were in the +520k range, and the installation of a pair of Mallory 150, .022mf caps (along with a Switchcraft toggle switch & input jack, plus better wire). It had to be that, I thought. It surely couldn't be that my ears are getting better as I get older.

Maybe it was the wiring. Maybe it was full moon the night I put these pickups back in that guitar. All I know is the rock tones haven't ever been as thick and edgy, and the blues tones haven't ever been as warm and fat as they are now from this guitar with these pickups.

And the really cool thing about this is, I didn't have to spend any more money than I already had for this to happen. Serendipity? Kismet? I don't know, but something happened....