Novak or Lollar?

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idropinus
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Novak or Lollar?

Post by idropinus » Thu May 18, 2017 8:22 am

Ok, talking in terms of QUALITY.

- LOLLAR (standard jazzmaster on the neck/p90 on the bridge)

- NOVAK (Jm-v on the neck/Jm-90 on the bridge)

It's the same configuration.

Thanks.

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Jaguar018
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Re: Novak or Lollar?

Post by Jaguar018 » Thu May 18, 2017 9:01 am

Just choose one. They are both well-respected pickup makers and I don't think you can go wrong.

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Embenny
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Re: Novak or Lollar?

Post by Embenny » Thu May 18, 2017 9:38 am

No difference in quality. Both use the best bobbins, magnets, and wires. Both scatter-wind. I have noticed that Lollar's idea of a "vintage" wind is actually a little overwound compared to others. Novak's "vintage wind" could truly have come off the line in the '60s. Some people enjoy slightly overwound pickups more, and some like the gentler mids and increased clarity of a lower output wind.

So, basically, I am not saying that they sound the same, but they are built to as high of a standard as any pickup can be.
The artist formerly known as mbene085.

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sunburster
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Re: Novak or Lollar?

Post by sunburster » Thu May 18, 2017 6:47 pm

Lollars have radiused pole pieces, they are a bit unique in that regard. The radius is set to 7.25", so if your fretboard doesn't match that it may not be ideal. Also, the pair I had (made in 2016) measured 8.0k ohms in the neck and 8.55k in the bridge. Almost identical to my AVRI62 pickups in output (though they sounded quite different).

I'd listen to the sound samples in the pickup comparison thread here and choose which one sounds better to your ears.

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fisonic
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Re: Novak or Lollar?

Post by fisonic » Fri May 19, 2017 2:28 am

I inadvertently found out that I could "adjust" the pole pieces on lollar pickups. If thats an issue for you.

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BTL
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Re: Novak or Lollar?

Post by BTL » Sat May 20, 2017 6:51 pm

Yes.
Owner, Lowe Custom Guitars

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countertext
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Re: Novak or Lollar?

Post by countertext » Mon Nov 12, 2018 5:27 pm

Tacking a note onto this dead thread just for documenting purposes.

Today I visited Lollar Pickups in downtown Tacoma, just a few minutes from my house. I wanted to get a Tele bridge pickup for an Esquire project I’ve had sitting for a long time, and I had an old Gibson minihumbucker with only about an inch of lead on it - looks like it was removed by twisting the pickup until it broke off - that I wanted to get repaired.

I didn’t know if they were open to the public or if they did repairs, but I don’t often get weekdays off to do stuff like this, so I called them up and the guy on the phone said “Ok, I guess you can stop by if you’re buying a pickup...”

They’re in a cool, old, small factory building, and they’re clearly not set up for walk-in business. However, customer service dude politely took my old pickup to confer with an expert, and Stephanie Lollar walked out of her office and started chatting. She took me on a tour of the building, showed me the stockroom and the workbenches - “I can’t show you everything because we’re working on some new ideas that we want to keep under our hat. But... it’s still guitar pickups, so, it’s not exactly revolutionary stuff...” I also got to see all their testing guitars and amps. They’ve got some NICE stuff, and even a couple of handbuilt Lollar guitars, which is apparently what the original business intent was before the pickups got so profitable.

We talked to some production boss guy about fitting my mini in a P-90 cover so I can install it in my LP Special, and he ran me through the best way to handle it. Turns out they’re planning on putting together a conversion kit for that exact thing, but they don’t have the cover molds finished yet. Stephanie rounded up a laser-cut cover and a baggie with screws, springs, and spacers and told me that’s what was going to be in the kit. They sold it to me for a few bucks!

Sadly, they wouldn’t put a new lead on my mini because they’ve accidentally killed a few pulling the covers off (nice dude whose name I don’t remember said Gibson was inconsistent with their potting methods and sometimes the coils stick to the covers). They said they could charge me a whole bunch of money to graft some wire onto the nub, or they could sell me $1 worth of wire and I could do it myself. I bought the wire.

On a positive note, they were happy to sell me a Vintage T Bridge pickup for my Esquire build.

Anyway, word up to Stephanie for being so nice. I hope I finish this Esquire reasonably soon so I can recommend their work in addition to their kindness.

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hugocaster
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Re: Novak or Lollar?

Post by hugocaster » Wed Nov 21, 2018 3:57 pm

I think both are great products. I use that configuration, Lollar JM90 on bridge and Seymour Duncan Antiquity 2 on neck with 250K pots. I also used to have Lollar on my tele and have no problem. Changed it because I want different sounds.

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peterjh85
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Re: Novak or Lollar?

Post by peterjh85 » Wed Nov 21, 2018 6:20 pm

Really happy with the Novak JM90 set...so much so that I stupidly sold a guitar and the JM90's and then rebought the same setup. 8)
My Offsets:
Fender Cyclone - 1x Vintage White, 1x Pewter
Fender Mod Shop Jazzmaster - Fiesta Red

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zepset
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Re: Novak or Lollar?

Post by zepset » Mon Nov 26, 2018 5:37 pm

Novak gets my business.

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hwestman
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Re: Novak or Lollar?

Post by hwestman » Tue Nov 27, 2018 5:43 am

As others have said: I have a hard time seeing that either of them is below absolute top quality.

That said I switched a set of Lollars that came in my CIJ JM to Novaks because the Lollars were darker than I liked.

And Curtis Novak is AFAIK a totally custom business that'll wind whatever you like. Also he has tons of cool variations on the JM theme.

I ended up with a JMT - telecaster bridge for JM and his standard JMV in the neck position.

Very happy with them.

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hwestman
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Re: Novak or Lollar?

Post by hwestman » Tue Nov 27, 2018 5:45 am

Also, if you're in Europe I would recommend checking Creamery out.

They have loads of fun variations of a lot of pickup models.

Have a set of Rickenbacker pickups from them and they both look and sound great.

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lammy
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Re: Novak or Lollar?

Post by lammy » Sat Dec 29, 2018 9:18 am

Having spent many days in the dark worm hole of pickup tonequest, I would just say that you probably can’t go wrong with either!

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Re: Novak or Lollar?

Post by Rasalrew » Sat Dec 29, 2018 10:50 am

I can't speak for Lollar, but I've been using Novak for years. Had him rewind and replace some DeArmond PUs back in 2013 and haven't really looked back since.

Recently got a Jag-V bridge pickup & a Lipstick Jag Pickup drop in for a custom JagCaster build with phase inverter and cap selector switches.

They sound so sweet together and on their own. Below is a demo of everything going through a VOX AC30. The Jag-V Bridge is around 8ohms and the Lipstick Neck is around 5.5-6Ohms. Nice and clean but with a little push they sit really nicely overdriven. The pickup selector goes. Series // Neck // Parallel // Bridge.

https://soundcloud.com/ryan-salisbury-4 ... yote-queen
https://foreignspeakers.bandcamp.com/

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Re: Novak or Lollar?

Post by kgbAttack » Thu Jan 03, 2019 2:41 am

I installed Lollar pups last week - they sound phenomenal. I really like the neck pickup. The bridge pickup is less loud than the stock bridge pickup but sounds clearer (a bit more hifi, if you will). The poles are flat and not radiused, however. Have never heard Novaks pickups so I cannot compare, but between AVRI stocks and the Lollars I can definitely hear a difference.

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