Replacing dragsterbuckers?

[Trout]

Recently got my hands on a Jaguar special edition HH, the hardtail black one with Dragsterbuckers. I'm thinking budget here and keep looking at GFS lipstick humbucker and their Bigmouth bucker.




Both are four wired. I'm thinking the lipstick for bridge (12k) and the bigmouth (8k) for neck position. Is this doable without changing pots etc? And will I be able to get the most out of the guitar with this config?

/Trout

[Embenny]

I had that exact guitar, and put some GFS Retrotrons in it. Huge mistake. They were a downgrade for sure. I would not personally switch those Dragsters out for GFS again.

You can use the existing pots with any replacement humbuckers, FYI. As for "getting the most" out of the Jag, I'm a little confused. What do you mean? In terms of getting the most out of 4-conductor wiring, you could always have series/parallel/split/phase switching, but that would mean needing to change some electronics.

[Trout]

I had that exact guitar, and put some GFS Retrotrons in it. Huge mistake. They were a downgrade for sure. I would not personally switch those Dragsters out for GFS again.

You can use the existing pots with any replacement humbuckers, FYI. As for "getting the most" out of the Jag, I'm a little confused. What do you mean? In terms of getting the most out of 4-conductor wiring, you could always have series/parallel/split/phase switching, but that would mean needing to change some electronics.

I might reconsider using GFS... Yes, I was after most possible options without changing anything else except the pickups! Thanks!

[Embenny]

I had that exact guitar, and put some GFS Retrotrons in it. Huge mistake. They were a downgrade for sure. I would not personally switch those Dragsters out for GFS again.

You can use the existing pots with any replacement humbuckers, FYI. As for "getting the most" out of the Jag, I'm a little confused. What do you mean? In terms of getting the most out of 4-conductor wiring, you could always have series/parallel/split/phase switching, but that would mean needing to change some electronics.

I might reconsider using GFS... Yes, I was after most possible options without changing anything else except the pickups! Thanks!

I recently bought back a Jaguar HH Special after regretting for several years that I had let mine go. I'm about to try putting Duncan Triple Shot rings on it with some customized pickups I'm hacking together in a Frankenstein kinda way - I'm taking a Stewmac Golden Age lipstick humbucker, removing one lipstick from the baseplate, and cobbling them together with a mismatched second coil. That way, each pickup position will have a lipstick, a single coil, a parallel mismatched humbucker, and a series mismatched humbucker option, plus you'll be able to combine the two pickup positions of course.

I've had some stuff at work keeping me too busy to get to it, but I'll be sure to post a project thread when I do. It seems relevant to your interests, and I'll let you know what I think of the Stewmac lipstick humbucker. I did a ton of research and it sounded like a better option than the GFS because it uses a stronger magnet to get a more reasonable output than most of the GFS ones, which just overwind with a weak magnet (which is not at all how the original lipsticks were made).

[Mad-Mike]

I put a GFS Protubes Humbucker in my FirstAct ME-437 and it sounds incredible. I think it's a bit microphonic though. It's hotter than that model Jag with the Dragsters though, I had the exact same one I bought in 2008 and kept stock - my CIJ 98' Jaguar was hotter - so I kept the burst 98' and sold the black HH, plus I like having a whammy bar.