I'll be interested to hear them, especially if you find a decent budget 335 to put them in. Not sure if your ESP LTD is a darker guitar but my LP knockoff definitely is so I am not particularly enthused by a neck pickup geared for a 335 listed as "stratty and clear" and a bridge that is "punchy and dark". I just took out a Seth pickup that could maybe be described that way out of the neck of my Edwards ES. It was clear. Too clear. It cut through the mix but was always a little too bright and a little short on output through a Twin. I have preferred a 490r and a 57 classic more in my ES stuff. Honestly even liked the Probucker II better in my Sheraton than a Seth in my ES, yet the Seth's are highly revered apparently. The bridge Seth worked good in my dark Paul's neck, that's how clear.....
Not enthused by the price of these either but I guess at least it ain't thro-bak level insanity. I have had a few different Duncans now and have yet to be blown away by any of them yet. If these are anything tone wise like Lucky Peterson's 335 they might be dang good.
Hey there!
I'd rank the Esp Ltd EC1000 (Eclipse) at around the same level of an Epiphone 1959 Les Paul. I wouldn't say in my experience that the Eclipse is any brighter than a standard Epiphone 1959 LP.
The Green Magics are an amazing set from the short time I've spent with them but I havent had alot of time enough to know the in's and out's.
Before I put the Green Magic set in, the Eclipse originally came stock with the JB/59 set which is, like the Seth's, highly revered. I plugged in the Eclipse, and out of the box, I hated the sound so those Seymour Duncan's had to go, too brittle to me. The Green Magic's seemed to remedy this issue and proved that the issue was the pickups and not the guitar. I'm happy with the way the Green Magics sound but because of that middle position being flipped, they can be a bit gimmicky. I just don't use my Eclipse all that much and think that could possibly change with these.
I do know that the Green Magics are very honky, very mid-range vocal like quality, so they are great for lead. I'm not sure how they would do for rhythm playing. In the video, I was playing around alot with the tone controls because the Green Magics interact so well with the tone controls.
Finding those magical pickups makes all the difference, I have an Ibanez JS100 that I really hated because the bridge pickup was so brittle. I have seen people play them online and get great tone, the guitar was given to me and I'm not sure where the gifter got it from or if I just got a lemon, I couldn't get good sound from it. I didn't use it for like 10 years, one day I decided to put in some Fender Kingfish PAF style pickups and now it sounds like a beast- one of my favorite guitars now. I know I'll never replace them.
How the Eclipse sounds currently:
Compared to the sound of my Les Paul (when it had the Burstbuckers)
My Les Paul no longer has the USA Burstbuckers 1&2 though, I swapped them out for Bare Knuckle Peacemaker pickups seen here:
Which are PAF's but very unique sounding, definitely have their own character. Which reminds me, I gotta do a video/demo of those soon, maybe this coming weekend.
All that said,
I wonder if your guitar would benefit from a new wiring scheme. Something that is made specifically to cut the highs, add lows and not cut the lows. Similar to the Greassbucket wiring diagram for the Strat. That would darken the guitar a bit for sure.
Either way, I'll be making a video whichever way I decide to go. This way you can hear The sounds. Yeah, the price sucks. And yet, can't imagine they will be easy to get a hold of for long.