Looking for the best humbucker pickups for Les Paul? You’re in the right place!
Initially sold in ’52, the Les Paul sits alongside the Stratocaster as Earth’s two most famous and prolific guitars.
Through the 60’s and 70’s rock scene, the Les Paul became a true classic, and many influential guitarists such as the stellar Pete Townsend, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and Clapton heralded the Les Paul as the finest guitar ever crafted.
Today, rock and metal giants like Slash and Zakk Wylde wield the Les Paul to tremendous effect.
Now, let’s take a look at the four best humbucker pickups for Les Paul:
Top 4 Best Humbuckers for Les Paul:
| Image | Model | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Seymour Duncan SH1n ’59 (Editor's Choice) | Check Price |
 | DiMarzio DP103 (Best on a Budget) | Check Price |
 | Seymour Duncan SH-55 Seth Lover | Check Price |
 | Wolfetone Dr. Vintage Humbuckers | Check Price |
Seymour Duncan SH1n ’59 (Editor’s Choice)
Above, we have two great pickups that replicate a vintage sound that is most at home on any Les Paul. We take a step down in price with this pickup, but not an enormous one in results.
It is one of Seymour Duncan’s oldest designs and was one of the first re-builds of the original PAF to hit the market. It’s a top-rated pickup, and its versatility is wide when applied to a Les Paul.
Its Aminco magnet provides more attack, so it has a slightly modern gleam to its high-end. However, it still has a great vintage essence, and the low-end is rounded, warm, and smooth. Soft play allows the creaminess to come through in your tone, but its responsiveness is excellent when picking.
It’s a higher gain pickup, pumping out more output than its more vintage-styled amigos, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t sophisticated, and it still provides wooden fatness when combined with Les Pauls.
I’d say this pickup is a good option for modern rock and metal. The Les Paul provides fatness and size, and this pickup provides attack. That’s a great modern match. Many metal guitarists or hard rock guitarists would prefer this great pickup for their Gibson Les Pauls, as it’s high-gain and low-ring.
Pros
- Higher gain, no ring, more applicable to heavy styles than other pickups here
- Hotness combines with a warm middle and lower end
Cons
- Bright and clangy to some, for a Les Paul pickup
DiMarzio DP103 (Best on a Budget)
Another faithful PAF reproduction, the DiMarzio take on this vintage pickup mirrors its weak magnetic field to give it a natural articulation and special PAF wound coils to accentuate fatness and attack.
Its voice-like smoothness, there’s a swell that lets notes’ sustain ring naturally but has all the cleanness of a humbucker. That’s a beautiful balance on a Les Paul.
Its character is intense and reminiscent. It draws inspiration from DiMarzio’s ’59 guitars as well as the PAF and marries the two perfectly. It’s maybe the most unique of this line-up. Its natural swell sounds divine when played quietly.
Because of this, it couldn’t be recommended over, say, the ’59 Seymour Duncan, a higher output pickup better suited for heavier, louder styles.
It still responds creamily to distortion, though, purring with age-old wisdom and sophistication. It almost streams your guitar’s voice and its woody overtones, providing a brilliant hardware link between your guitar’s parts and your amplifier.
It’s more of a low-gain model than some, and while it still bucks the hum from fizzy strings and wiring, it doesn’t stand up too well to louder, more aggressive playing. Nevertheless, it is still one of the best Les Paul pickups on the market.
Pros
- The weak field provides true vintage articulation
- Combines PAF with DiMarzio vintage engineering for a creamy, thick sound
Cons
- Weak magnets don’t suit aggressive playing
Seymour Duncan SH-55 Seth Lover
Seth Lover was the humbucking pickup father, and he defined years of pickup manufacturing, securing his legacy as a massive contributor to musical engineering. Unfortunately, he passed away in 1997, and since, Seymour Duncan has lovingly crafted the Seth Lover pickup to honor his life and work.
Seymour Duncan has the original formula, notes, drawings, and even the winder he used for the original PAF pickups. What impressive heritage there is to this pickup!
In performance, it’s very close to the original 50’s PAFs, with a mid-range honk, which is rounded and pleasant, brilliant articulation in the highs, but mostly rich and creamy. The lows are balanced and detailed, overall, it takes you back to the heydays of guitar manufacture, which is exactly what it’s meant to do, and the fact it has as close to Seth Lover’s input as possible is fantastic.
When distorted, it comes to life with a warmness that other humbuckers can’t easily match. It’s fat and round-bottomed, complementary to that Les Paul tone. It does a great job of capturing a musical era, which is the fantastic thing a pickup can do to your tone.
Any Les Paul, copies or the real thing, will benefit from this great pickup. It gives your highs stylish and sleek life, mids warmth and definition, and lows the much-needed woody depth. Super!
Pros
- Exceptional heritage and as close to the PAF as money can buy
- Full of vintage life, with a lovely musical roughness and warmth
Cons
- Like many vintage-style pickups, the magnets provide a slightly unstable magnetic field that provides warmth, fatness, and articulation while making the pickup less efficient in aggressive picking.
Wolfetone Dr. Vintage Humbuckers
Wolf Macleod has long worked in guitar manufacturing and produces pickups under his own brand Wolfetone. They are the result of many years of experience and incredible quality, and they are something special.
One of these pickups is the Dr. Vintage. It’s not only inspired by the original Gibson PAFs but follows the manufacturing process closely. Their production involves a great deal of hand craftsmanship. The magnets are individually tested. For example, the components are carefully balanced to ensure a unique, authentic reproduction of vintage tone.
These pickups are specifically designed to add a proper vintage flavor to modern or re-issued guitars, so as an aftermarket upgrade, they do not disappoint.
The tone is fat but bright and articulate. It’s creamy and vintage, perfectly complementing the Les Paul.
The hard work paid off, Wolf Macleod!
When juiced up with some distortion, these sing a voice of a beautiful vintage nature. You can feel the subtleness of Wolfe’s winding process and the pickup’s magnetism, which creates a magnetic field perfect for letting the body of the Les Paul come through in all its woody glory.
Pros
- A lovely take on original PAF with fatness, articulation, and a woodiness that complements the Les Paul
- Special magnets provide vintage response and dynamics.
Cons
- Weak pre-aged magnets may provide a slightly unstable tone that doesn’t suit heavy rock.
Characteristics of the Les Paul and Its Pickups
Its shorter than normal scale length characterizes the Les Paul, making it fatter, rounder, and warmer than a Stratocaster.
Stratocasters were made brighter with single-coil pickups. On the other hand, Les Pauls had a humbucker layout with fat-sounding pickups, which made it excel for heavier, fuzzier, or thicker tones. In addition, the Les Paul had a deeper, thicker Mahogany body, adding further to its vintage fatness with its pickup layout.
Its pickups and body complement each other to great effect, and if you love Les Pauls, then you’ll know that you can’t get that combo anywhere else!
How to Pick the Best Humbucker for Les Paul
While Gibson Les Pauls are decked out with great pickups, many choose to upgrade to more bespoke layouts that shoe-fit their tone to precision.
Epiphone models may be more lacking in their pickups, and a replacement can transform your sound greatly. So, our article could probably have had the title “Best Pickups for Epiphone Les Paul.”
The tone is the game’s name, and pickups can transform a Les Paul and capitalize on their fantastic build qualities.
Many Les Paul pickups revolve around their replication of the great PAF pickups of the 50’s era, which truly defined an era of tone. Of course, their replications differ, but they all have one thing in common, they sound amazing on Les Pauls. That is because they are so precisely engineered to get the most out of your guitar if you’re a Les Paul owner.
Conclusion: What’s the Best Pickup for Les Paul?
The one thing you’re sure of when buying one of these is that you’re buying a pickup most at home on a Les Paul. There’s a fantastic combination of things going on with most of these.
The Les Pauls woody depth articulation, highs’ crispness provide clean dynamics and vintage warmth in the low and mid frequencies. Between these, your guitar and your amp, there’s no reason why you can’t get audibly identical results to an authentic 1950’s tone.
If that’s what you want, then the Seymour Duncan Seth Lovers have to be the recommendation. There’s nothing about any of these not to love, though. If you’re in love with your Les Paul already, then none will disappoint.
The Seymour Duncan ’59 suits metallers and rockers better than most, and that pickup, along with the DiMarzio DP103, suit lower budgets. Nevertheless, this great pup is still one of the best Seymour Duncan pickups for Les Paul, and it would probably be our winner if there weren’t the Seth Lover humbucker on our list!