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Joe Bonamassa Forum → Joe's Guitars, Amps and Gear → Ephiphone Korina Flying V New pickups ??
Ok
So I got one of these for a good price and its not too bad
a guitar but I want to upgrade the pickups to something better
EMGs ?? or burstbuckers, Dimarzio super distortion or Seymour D 59S
any one got any suggestions .
You will need to help us here if you want decent advice. 
That is a very broad range of humbucker types from PAF style to actives and high output.
What sound do you want and what music do you play?
If it were me, I would put in the genuine Gibson 496R/500T pickups that were used in the 50th Anniversary Korina Flying V. You see a fair number of them with '57 Classic humbuckers, too...
Really anything will be an upgrade from the Epiphone pickups. I'd say if your in to metal go for the EMG because they are very good for heavy things and can be good for other things as well but sound a little lack luster for blues inspired work. The 496/500 gibson are a good choice but be warned they are pretty hot and to my ears in my les paul classic they only sounded good with distortion. Also I think the 496 is a bad match up with the 500 because I could dial in good tones for the bridge 500t pickup, then the neck would sound muddy and so I never would use the neck. If I dialed in good tones for the neck then the bridge would be too harsh and would bite your head off. My personal opinion is thats a heavy sounding guitar and it should have something with some bite in it. If I was to buy 500T pickup for the bridge I would buy 2 and figure out which one was the hottest and put it in the bridge, then the weaker one in the neck. Anything will be better then epiphone pickups.
57' classics do great for bluesy stuff as well as all burstbuckers. A Seymour Duncan JB sounds great with the Jazz neck. Pearly Gates are pretty good but my set was a bit muddy sounding but others like Warren Haynes and Billy Gibbons swear by them.
Last I highly suggest you upgrade the electronics in the V as they will help your tone more then any pickup ever wanted to do!
Burstbuckers are the way to go. They have this awesome vintage tone that comes pretty close to the original PAFs.
Thanks guys
some food for thought there, basically as I got the guitar cheap I want to pick up some second hand pickups off ebay , so I suppose Im trying to rule out what not to get , I think I want something along the lines of my burstbucker pro pickups which I really like . there is a burstbucker 1 going but I am worried it might be too weak at 7.8k I also have the chance of a dimarzio PAF pro as used by steve vai , I am leaning towards a pickup with some bite but still good for blues 500t may be a good option but as ad3three pointed out I need something to compliment it on neck pick up which I use alot ? should I stay in PAF style zone or head for hi powered humbuckers , or maybe as someone suggested the 496-500t like original V is solution ?
I just want to point out that the original PAF were not much hotter then what this burstbucker pro your looking at is. 7.8 is pretty hot for that pickup actually. 500T has 15 k output but can be harsh due to the ceramic magnet. Another good choice if your on a budget is GFS pickups from www.guitarfetish.com these guys make some awesome bang for the buck pickups. I've sworn by their strat pickups for years now, and just to proove my theory I bought a set of CS Fender 69's and stuck in the guitar. The character of the guitar was the same no effect at all. Biggest difference was it had more bass to the tone which I do look at as a good thing but these were only 5.7k pickups and my GFS were 9.6k so of course I'm going to have a bit more bass becaues the power thins out the sound.
Personally I wouldn't have a second thought putting the GFS in to an Epiphone guitar and if I were doing it I would put the VEH humbuckers in it. That stands for Vintage Extra Hot and is a rip off of the EVH brand but for blues thats their best humbucker. Those are new pickups for half the price of a used Gibson pickup.
I can wind you some Alnico II pickups at around 8-9K a piece. It would be like a vintage wind. I handwind and scatterwind pickups. I've been doing single coils for a year, and have just made about 6 humbuckers. Two of them are gone and the guy is super happy with them. He got rid of his burstbucker he bought to put in mine. BBs also have A2's. The guitar he put them into was a red Epiphone SG.
I just put a set of Alnico4's my '79 explorer and am convinced I'll never buy another pickup ever again. I wanted a 1970's spec pickup and Gibson bought mostly A4's in the vintage days.
Contact me if you're interested. JB fans get my stuff for cost (+free labor) 
Hey thats the way to go right there! I doubt you'll find a hand wound pickup for cost of materials and free labor else where!
I can wind you some Alnico II pickups at around 8-9K a piece. It would be like a vintage wind. I handwind and scatterwind pickups. I've been doing single coils for a year, and have just made about 6 humbuckers. Two of them are gone and the guy is super happy with them. He got rid of his burstbucker he bought to put in mine. BBs also have A2's. The guitar he put them into was a red Epiphone SG.
I just put a set of Alnico4's my '79 explorer and am convinced I'll never buy another pickup ever again. I wanted a 1970's spec pickup and Gibson bought mostly A4's in the vintage days.
Contact me if you're interested. JB fans get my stuff for cost (+free labor)
Di you have some sound clips from yure pickups?
ok
Got a Dimarzio PAF pro really cheap off ebay hopefully it will do for neck or bridge
it is out od a Steve vai JEM 777
How do you go about winding your own pickups that sounds like fun ??
Di you have some sound clips from yure pickups?
I have HD Video of my first customer playing it at an outdoor concert. I'll post a link once I get it uploaded.
Sweet!
I've posted this into a new topic.
Joe Bonamassa Forum → Joe's Guitars, Amps and Gear → Ephiphone Korina Flying V New pickups ??
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