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Fuck JB pickups

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12K views 77 replies 32 participants last post by  Mike 
#1 ·
Ughhh I am so over the buzziness and lack of clarity of my JBs. What should I switch too? Something with less output for less buzz and more clarity? Anyone try a SD 59 pickup? I regret selling my PAF
 
#4 ·
Before you remove the JB, try lowering it. They don't come alive until you set them pretty low. The resistance is high enough that you can get away with that, unlike a PAF. The JB in my '85 Soloist is set about 1/8" below the strings.

At that height, it's driving the amp about like a PAF, but with excellent tone and clarity. Still has the upper-mid spike at about 2kHz but no harshness or wooliness.

If the mid-spike is a problem, get a Wolfetone Timbre Wolf and set it at the same height. Probably better for metal rhythms, while the JB at the right height kills for leads.
 
#13 ·
Before you remove the JB, try lowering it. They don't come alive until you set them pretty low. The resistance is high enough that you can get away with that, unlike a PAF. The JB in my '85 Soloist is set about 1/8" below the strings.

At that height, it's driving the amp about like a PAF, but with excellent tone and clarity. Still has the upper-mid spike at about 2kHz but no harshness or wooliness.
Yeah man, I already tried lowering them to the point they were almost in the guitar. It still had the quality I did not like but just to a lesser degree.
 
#12 ·
The Super Distortion has appeared on way more famous records than the JB. No question. All genres too. Reign in Blood is Super Distortion, Jazz fusion, Ace Frehley. Whatever. You name it. It predates the JB by quite a few years.

Cliplocks and the Super Distortion (and their cables, I've used those forever) are the only reason for Dimarzio to exist. Although Evos and Breeds are also awesome pickups.

Taken as a whole line, like, 95% of Dimarzio's pickups are just unusable "premium tweaks" of the Super Distortion that have no reason to exist. Taken as a roster, Seymour Duncan has way more usable varieties of pickups.

Dimarzio has 700 varieties of unusabley bad pickups, and the Super Distortion. But since the Super Distortion is pretty much the pickup to popularize the concept of aftermarket pickups and has been around for fucking ever and never gotten less relevant, it's enough.

It's almost as important in the grand scheme of pickup history as the all important double cream trademark Dimarzio so jealously defends.
 
#15 ·
As far as JBs go, it's highly guitar specific.

A lot of people will tell you older JBs sound better, and if someone hasn't already said that, they will. How much of that is attributed to changing spec and how much of that is attributed to pickup aging and degaussing and mellowing is conjecture that depends on the person. Most pickups sound better with age.

As far as new JBs go, most of them suck. The gold covered ones in like, 2006-2012 Schecters are amazing though. I have no idea what is up with those. If it's just a good match between pickup and guitar, or if it's a slightly different OEM spec or what. I had one in like, a $300 Schecter I got on an Amazon Prime deal, and it was an awesome pickup.

That's sort of a grey area. Sometimes, OEM spec models, and the off the shelf aftermarket models of guitar centric parts have slightly different specs. Mesa's V30s are one of the more prominent examples. I have no idea if OEM JBs and the off shelf ones have any variation, but it's not something that's out of the question. In general, most pickup connoisseurs consider OEM pickups to be slightly less valuable. I have no idea if there is any reason to that or if it's elitism or whatever. But if I'm buying a used JB or whatever, I will almost always go for the one that was sold aftermarket in a clear box for $70-80 over the one someone pulled out of a guitar it was stock on. If they are actually different or not is conjecture, but that's just how the market works.

This guitar to be exact. The OEM JBs with covers in those decade old schecters sound awesome.



I actually know people who have pulled the gold covered ones from modern Schecters and sold the guitar but kept the pickup. I have no idea what is up with that. If it's just the same spec as all modern JBs or what, but they sound great in those.

SD's in general have a difference between F spaced pickups and non F spaced pickups. It varies from manufacturer to manufacturer how different they are. But SD has some models where the F spaced ones and the non F spaced ones are practically different pickups. There will obviously always be a difference, but some manufacturers have f spaced and non f spaced variations of the same pickup that sound practically identical, but SD has some models where people will be raving about the non F spaced one they've had forever and then get an F spaced one and be like, "this is total shit".

A lot of pickups are also scale length specific, which is something I think a lot of people don't consider. 24.75" guitars and 25.5" guitars have different harmonic content. In general, some of the more abrasive, obnoxious sounding pickups that don't work in a 25.5" guitar at all can sound great in a 24.75" one. It works the other way too. There are plenty of pickups that are perfectly fine in 25.5" guitars that are absolute trash in Gibson scales.
 
#16 ·
As far as JBs go, longer guitar cables are something to try.

Also 250k pots. Bleed some high end before it hits the front of the amp.

The older aftermarket pickup designs were all designed partly because people were suddenly play arenas and they had like, a 40 ft cable going into a pedalboard going into another 40ft cable into their amp. That's a lot of high end being bled off. So they are purposely designed with slightly too much right out of the gate, because it's going to bleed off.

That's why most wirelesses have cable simulation options. Usually three for cable simulation off, short cable, and long cable. A lot of the earlier designs for aftermarket pickups aren't meant to sound good with a 3 foot cable straight into the amp. They are purposely designed with too much of certain things, because it will bleed off in long cables.

The JB was originally designed in a time when that was definitely in effect. As things grew more modernized, things changed. But when the JB was developed you didn't want to do a pickup that had the exact right amount of everything in the signal when the signal leaves the guitars 1/4th jack, because due to capacitance and all that, it is no longer going to have the right amount of everything by the time it hits the front end of the amp.
 
#23 ·
eh, sort of. I mean there's the physical principal of lower output pickups being "clearer" because they have more headroom, the waveform they produce isn't as big so it doesn't get clipped by the amp, so you get the note wholesale (just put any lower output pickup through a clean channel on a big amp and smack an open A chord, fuck me that hurts) but that doesn't necessarily mean they will have clarity over all in all amp/music/band situations. I've used the 59 live with high gain, and whilst it has great clarity and note fundamental on its own, I felt like it lacked those juicy mids you get with overwound pickups.

Conversely, overwound pickups sound like shit for almost anything but high gain. They're almost always all honk and nothing else - But not the Aldrich for some reason. The wind is such that it's really even across the board for quite a lot of applications. It's bright, but not in that horribly cutting/shrill way. It's just got a ton of upper mid snarl, like a JB, but not as stiff and honky feeling.

I dunno, they're just magnets and copper at the end of the day, there's no magic to them what so ever, and you can only go as far as magnet type and wind volume in terms of manipulating their output. Some of them just feel nicer to play than others, and the Aldrich is smooth and easy to play under the fingers (easy harmonics, easy sustain, don't have to fight it) where as the JB feels stiffer and a little more raw.
 
#25 ·
I've never owned a JB before and I don't think I've ever played them before, but I have heard a lot of recordings with them that I like and I installed a set of Seymour Duncan 59s into a Les Paul I had when I was in high school (20 or so years ago) that I thought sounded great and used as my main guitar for maybe 1 year and as my backup guitar for about 3 years, but were not great for high-gain metalzzzzzzz (extra z for extra brutal annoyance). If I had decided to stay in one place and hadn't sold tons of guitars every time I moved and had something like 40 guitars now instead of only 2 (from the idea that I didn't sell the roughly 16-20 guitars I've owned in my life and bought more as a result of staying in one place), I definitely would have a Les Paul with 59s (and technically I didn't sell that guitar. I gave it to my brother and he still has it) and probably have a guitar with JBs (which, as I said, I've never played, but I know are extremely highly regarded and popular).

But yeah, it strikes me as a good pickup for rock and bluesy stuff, but maybe not for pure unbridled aggression. And while I have never played the JBs (but liked the recorded sounds I've heard from them), I am a fan of the Seymour Duncan 59s and can personally recommend them if you're going for THAT kind of sound.
 
#31 ·
All I want to know is how in God's name does Alex Skolnick get a JB to sound so glorious.
He is the only guy I know that makes it happen and I can't figure it out. Cause' I kind of hate them too, until my Dad put one into his Heritage like Skolnick.



 
#34 ·
The pickups that to me sound like idealized JBs:

Wolfetone Timberwolf - Tighter low end and less spiky in the top end, slightly less compressed
Suhr Aldrich - Smoother and less low end woof, more compressed
BKP Rebel Yell - Less hot and more vintage flavored, less woof in the lows but not any tighter, less spike in the high mid, less compressed
Lollar DB - The perfect JB to me, less woof, tighter, good top end bite, but not harsh, less compressed
 
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