[Mike]

If anyone claims they have the "real" recipe for an old JB it has to be snake oil. It doesn't mean Wolfe or someone else can't rewind you a killer sounding pickup that sounds more like what you remember an old JB to sound like, but no one is going to "out-Duncan" Seymour Duncan. The Custom Shop has tons of pickups that they'd call "JB's" because they are all within spitting distance of the stock JB, but maybe they'll do one with a degaussed A5, or Alnico 2. They'll do them over and under-wound, and if you say "I want it to sound like an old one" they'll do it, because it's the same sort of processes as when someone says they want to duplicate the sound of an old P.A.F. The magnet might be charged slightly differently, maybe it's a little more loosely potted, etc.

Wolfe actually doesn't claim it sounds like an "old" JB - that's actually Dave and I saying that. What we had Wolfe do was rewind the JB7s to have about 14.4K of resistance, with a specific wire he likes to use (which you'd have to ask him about), and whatever he does when he winds them. It ended up sounding almost identical to a very early ('85 or so) JB I have in another guitar - plenty of punch, but "sweeter". I have little doubt the Duncan CS could do exactly the same thing, I just happen to have JB7s around, and it's cheaper. :lol:

That info about the magnets is pretty interesting. I suspected age really did have something to do with it. Interestingly, the best sounding "newer" JB I have is now 12 years old, so I wonder...

 

[Mike]

And I hope it didn't sound antagonistic. If you tell a winder to get you a certain sound, and he does it, then the recipe is completely irrelevant. I don't care if there's Play-Doh and Mountain Dew in there somewhere. Sonic success IS success.

But a 7-string wound to read 14k has no physical connection to a JB. It either has far less turns of the same gauge of wire used on a JB, or it has thicker wire. The math is undeniable. But it's cool that it sounds good, it's just that the DNA is not a match you know?

Exactly. I pretty much told him I wanted the "vintage" six string JB sound in a 7 string pickup. I don't know how he got there. I *do* know he nailed it. The JB was just the base, and I know he didn't change the magnet.

I was mostly referring to someone who would tell you that the old JB's are different, and that they can wind a pickup that is somehow "more accurate" than ours.

Yeah, that's crap. :lol:

Custom Shop HB's are about $160 wound to whatever you want. So you just describe it and they take it from there. If your description is "a JB but with more ______ or less ______ etc." then that is what you'll get. Saying you want one that sounds like a vintage one is a good start, MJ will know what you probably mean, and make adjustments to get you there.

Like I said - if I didn't already have JBs to play with, I might well have gone that route myself - and there's a good chance I'll go the "Lee route" and get Duncans custom made under covers if I ever buy an EMG-equipped 7 string.

That's highly likely, given the builders' infatuation with the damn things. :lol: