The Gibson 498T "Hot Alnico" Bridge Electric Guitar Humbucker Pickup is a humbucker electric guitar pickup, for the bridge position, featuring an Alnico V magnet, and a chrome cover. A high-output version of the 490T, Gibson’s 498T humbucker combines the more powerful response of an Alnico V magnet with additional matched windings on each coil, which puts the emphasis on the pickup’s upper midrange frequencies for enhanced crunch and sustain.
The 498T is perfect for any hard rock application, easily overdriving amplifiers for a beefy, sizzling output that boosts any guitar’s power and presence. The pole pieces on the 498T are also aligned a little further apart to accommodate the spacing of the strings at the bridge, which is different than the spacing of the strings at the neck. This aids in producing powerful leads and thick rhythm without sacrificing single-note definition. The 498T features shielded, four-conductor wiring for series, parallel or split coil operation, and is fully wax potted to eliminate any chance of microphonic feedback.
The main features of the Gibson 498T "Hot Alnico" Bridge Electric Guitar Humbucker Pickup include:
I bought this humbucker to replace a Seymour Duncan SH-5 Custom that was installed years ago on my Epiphone Korina Explorer (Korean, 90s model). I did this because the other mentioned is a pickup that scoops the mids; and I noticed that when playing in my band, I was constantly competing for the same sound frequencies as our bass player. So when I changed to this pickup (which does the opposite of scooping the mids, but instead boosts them) the guitar tone cuts through the mix muuuuch easier. This allowed me to even be able to reduce the volume of my guitar which was loud as hell before and hence sounded annoying even to me.
In sum, this pickup is a warm, midrange sounding hot pickup that will allow you to actually be heard in the mix.
Nothing much to say, this pickup is a legend. Heard on thousands of records it sounds "just like". Just like AC/DC or just like early Metallica or just like rock music itself. It,s rather hot for Gibson range of pickups, wound to nearly 14 KOhm it drives amp quite hard producing that nasty grainy rock sound with a good definition and pronounced mids. Yeah, it doesn't clean up pretty well, like classic 57, but played clean it is not muddy. Overall it's a great rocking pickup.