Hey everyone, I know this is a fender forum, so please don't curse at me too much . I own a Fender Mustang 2 amp, but I have an epiphone les paul guitar, I was wondering is anyone could suggest some good, budget humbucker pickups to upgrade the stock ones. I don't want to spend alot. Music style is classic rock, some 80s rock, and contemporary christian. Thanks for the guidance.

I think a Seymour Duncan JB is about the best humbucker out, unless you play metal. And it would even handle stuff like Metallica etc... just fine but when you get into all out extremely heavy metal might be the only time it couldn't keep up. I had a Dimarzio FRED in my Les Paul everyone that heard the guitar loved (and I loved it at first too) but the mids were a little excessive and I tired of it.
Other than the Seymour JB I really like the tone of Gibson BurstBuckers too.

Hey and don't worry about the non-fender speak, a good number of us here probably have more 'other' brands than Fenders. I for one only have one Fender in my stable, and I think I've even seen a few pics of people's collections that had no Fenders! Sac-religious I know but what can you do...lol.

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Welcome.

You said, "good budget pickups". That's what the Epiphone ones are. You've also stated, you "don't want to spend alot". For a true upgrade, you'd be looking at used Duncans, DiMarzios, etc. The "magic number" for most of these each is about $45. This is about as inexpensive as you're going to get. Remember, like anything else, you buy cheap, you get cheap and there's certainly no point in going lateral with replacement pickups. Meaning, to replace the imported pickups you have with another set of imported ones is a waste of time and money.

As always, this is merely IMO where YMMV.

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Bill Lawrence Pickups. http://wildepickups.com/The_Custom_Series.html

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

Nothing really "bad" about the stock pickups, just wanted to upgrade to something with a little better tone. I really have no real issuses with the epiphones. They're just a tad muddy.

As far as cheap, I'm talking $150.00 - $200.00 range, thats what I have seen as far as "cheap" in price. Some of the gibsons and other brands I've seen have been 3-4 hundred mark. The only cheaper ones I've seen are stewart mac golden age pickups, but I can't really find a lot of info on them.

Thanks, I appreciate it, I've been checking out the duncans, I'm torn between the SD 59s and dimarzio vintage, I am just looking to make a good informed decision, I'm a very beginner, and this will be an eventual upgrade, maybe Christmas or after. Just trying to get set on what I want.