Am I the only one who hates AV65 Jazzmaster pickups?

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wooderson
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Re: Am I the only one who hates AV65 Jazzmaster pickups?

Post by wooderson » Wed Feb 13, 2019 11:37 am

Depends on the amp for me - with my Ampeg V2, I can run them full blast on volume and tone and they sound great, with my Princeton Reverb clone the ear-piercing high end comes out.

I think you'll be happy with the Antiquities, those seem universally beloved.

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Re: Am I the only one who hates AV65 Jazzmaster pickups?

Post by Igorilla » Thu Feb 14, 2019 2:53 am

I didn't care for the AV65 pickups with 1M pots. After I installed 500k pots (both volume and tone) they got much better. And since I staggered the pole pieces on the bridge pickup slightly I like them very much. Overkill, isn't it?

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Re: Am I the only one who hates AV65 Jazzmaster pickups?

Post by Jestapali » Thu Feb 14, 2019 3:52 am

This is interesting. I quite like the Pure 65 pickups that I put in my Jazzmaster CP. I don't know why but this guitar has more lower end that my Av65 and I don't have to lower the tone knob as much. I can actually have it maxed up with the neck pickup.
Now, I have a Jazzmaster AV65 that shows a lot more shrill and in order to use the neck pickup, I need to lower tone to 6 or so. The bridge is now a Novak JM Fat, and although it is an improvement (mostly for the middle position), I'm not thrilled with the sounds. I have been thinking about antiquity 1's for this guitar for awhile, so I will be curious to know how it works for you.

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Re: Am I the only one who hates AV65 Jazzmaster pickups?

Post by Debaser » Thu Feb 14, 2019 1:22 pm

With 1Megs and '65s I keep my tone control at around 4 to 5. Perfecto, saved some money buying another set of pickups that nobody will hear the difference anyways. I'm not interested in swapping pots on my AV at the moment. Besides I like to roll up the tone to "10" on the neck position sometimes, because that's a sound I love with Jazzmasters.
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Re: Am I the only one who hates AV65 Jazzmaster pickups?

Post by optofonik » Thu Feb 14, 2019 4:43 pm

Do the AVRI JMs use the "Pure Vintage" pups? I thought, for some reason, that the PVs were a way for Fender to sell the pickups they installed on the AVRI separate from the guitar as an upgrade for people who owned other non-AVRI JM models.

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Re: Am I the only one who hates AV65 Jazzmaster pickups?

Post by 601210 » Thu Feb 14, 2019 10:15 pm

optofonik wrote:
Thu Feb 14, 2019 4:43 pm
Do the AVRI JMs use the "Pure Vintage" pups? I thought, for some reason, that the PVs were a way for Fender to sell the pickups they installed on the AVRI separate from the guitar as an upgrade for people who owned other non-AVRI JM models.
The pickups that came with the AV62s are different from what came with AV65s. AV65s are the same as the PV65s. And yeah, I think "Pure Vintage" is just what they call them when they sell the parts alone.

But the main thing is that the 62s are different from the 65s.

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Re: Am I the only one who hates AV65 Jazzmaster pickups?

Post by timtam » Thu Feb 14, 2019 10:24 pm

The 0054443000/0054444000 pair were used in the AVRI62 JM, and the 0094012000 / 0094013000 pair used in the AV65 JM .. which I believe is the same as the Pure Vintage 65 set (0992239000)
https://darrenriley.com/product-categor ... r-pickups/
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Re: Am I the only one who hates AV65 Jazzmaster pickups?

Post by optofonik » Fri Feb 15, 2019 12:02 am

Do they sound like the originals from 1965?

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Re: Am I the only one who hates AV65 Jazzmaster pickups?

Post by mackerelmint » Fri Feb 15, 2019 2:49 am

Telliot wrote:
Wed Feb 13, 2019 7:56 am
Before I bought my ‘66, I went through a ton of pickups on my old CIJ JM. After much experimentation, I found I much preferred Antiquity I’s with 250m pots. Those sound like a JM to me, much closer to the tone of Nels’ Watt.
Yyyyyep. Cosigned. I've got a Timbo set that do that thing pretty well.

I also think the VM duncan designed pickups sound pretty damn good.
This is an excellent rectangle

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Re: Am I the only one who hates AV65 Jazzmaster pickups?

Post by AstroGhast » Fri Feb 15, 2019 7:00 am

I have a Classic 60's Lacquer Jazzmaster with these pickups in it, which I bought partially because of the rave reviews of these pickups. I just don't hear it. I've tried flatwounds, steelwound, pure nickel, etc, different amps... It's just the pickups.

I'm planning on swapping them out for a set of Seymour Duncan Antiquity II's in the future. The 65's are thin, weak and lack any real sparkle and life to them. Different strokes for different folks, but these pickups are not for me.

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Re: Am I the only one who hates AV65 Jazzmaster pickups?

Post by redchapterjubilee » Fri Feb 15, 2019 7:08 am

I didn't like AVRI pickups. Replaced them in all my AVRI's. When I started buying guitars with AV65 pickups I was surprised that I didn't like those either since all the reviews on OSG were positive. Replaced all those too. Last summer I bought another AVRI and played it stock for a month or so. I liked the AVRI pickups better than I remembered. Still replaced them. I like Pickup Wizard and Novak the best. Working now on getting them into all my Jazzmasters. 5 down, 2 more to go.

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Re: Am I the only one who hates AV65 Jazzmaster pickups?

Post by ctu » Sat Jun 04, 2022 2:57 pm

I have a question/remark regarding JM 65 pickups, hopefully someone will know the answer - I've been playing AV65 last nine years mainly on rhythm circuit, rarely on lead and even then mainly on neck and rarely on bridge. I have been using another guitar (HB) for the "bridge" duties until recently when I decided to replace it with Squier JM CV modified with a pair of HBs and 500k pots. While playing around and comparing the two JMs (while CV is still stock), I measured both neck and bridge pickup at 6.8k on my AV65 - is this normal? One of the reasons I stick to my other guitar for bridge pickup sound was that AV65 always sounded way too thin, shallow and much quieter in this position (in comparison to neck), but I thought this was the intention. Furthermore, the difference in sound between neck and neck+bridge pickup is negligible. I tried changing the heights but even with the neck at minimum and bridge pickup on maximum height, the difference in volume was still there, never occurred to me to actually measure the values as I was playing mainly neck pickup anyway.

Does someone know what should be the values for neck and for bridge pickups on AV65 please? I know there's much more to pickups than their simple resistance value, but these being the "same" pickups with same components assumingly, I would expect the bridge pickup to be at least 2k higher value. For comparison, the Fender Designed Alnico Single-Coil pickups in my new JM CV measure at 6.8k and 11.6k for neck and bridge respectively.

Was the same value for both pickups intended for AV65...? Thanks in advance for any info!

If this is not the right thread for this section, please move it to correct one, there are quite a few pickup-related threads.

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Re: Am I the only one who hates AV65 Jazzmaster pickups?

Post by andy_tchp » Sat Jun 04, 2022 4:04 pm

ctu wrote:
Sat Jun 04, 2022 2:57 pm
Was the same value for both pickups intended for AV65...?
Yes. This is normal for this series, and accurate for 'vintage spec'.

The (perceived) volume disparity has always been a thing, that's what Jazzmasters do; way less string movement to pickup right next to the bridge compared to the where the neck pickup is.
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Re: Am I the only one who hates AV65 Jazzmaster pickups?

Post by ctu » Sun Jun 05, 2022 8:14 am

Thanks, that clarifies it then. Maybe that's (one of) the reason why people are complaining on AV65 pickups...? Anyway, now I understand people upgrading with Novak's etc. better, keeping mine as it is and just complementing it with modified CV.

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Re: Am I the only one who hates AV65 Jazzmaster pickups?

Post by andy_tchp » Sun Jun 05, 2022 2:33 pm

ctu wrote:
Sun Jun 05, 2022 8:14 am
Thanks, that clarifies it then. Maybe that's (one of) the reason why people are complaining on AV65 pickups...? Anyway, now I understand people upgrading with Novak's etc. better, keeping mine as it is and just complementing it with modified CV.
People like to complain and also 'upgrade' things.

Aftermarket pickups do the exact same thing unless you specifically request an overwound bridge pickup. The physical placement of the pickup in the guitar matters a lot.
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