10 months later, and the Whitey Les Paul Studio turned out to be a great guitar. The 490R/498T humbucker set are great pickups. Very raunchy bridge, mellow on the neck.
For this guitar, yes yes. The bridge pickup gets all the praise from reviews I see about the pickups. Metal players seem to love the pickup set, and maybe that's why I do, though they do handle Blues Rock well if anyone wanted to try it.