Toltec JM Fat bridge pickup review.

[Guppy]

I recently bought this pickup for a steal. Lee was a pleasure to deal with in completing the transaction even though I practically stole it in an auction.
I've had good experiences with Toltec pickups before. I had an A5 set first. Great sounding "standard" JM pickups. 8.2 and 8.5kohm. Then I bought an A2 set because I was looking for something a little bit more mellow because of my bright Bassman amp (sold the A5 set). Also an excellent set of traditional pickups. Great definition and that deep hollow thump you want on a Jazzmaster.
But the set naturally has it "traditional" shortcomings. Fantastic neck pickup but a rather thin and bitey neck pickup. Although with great definition and complexity. Then I saw that he also offered a JM-Fat "based on the Novak JM fat".
I don't know how the Novak is constructed but this has a thicker coil wire (41awg) and the coil is really oversized. The pickup is a little bit higher as well but it fitted the the cavity just fine. Resistance is only 7.3kohm despite the huge coil.
Now the sound: everything I hoped it was. It has that typical JM bridge characteristics but it just sounds bigger and deeper. Less of that nasally brightness that a normal bridge pickup has. It's still plenty bright but it balances much better with the neck pickup. I can switch between pickup without turning it to a totally different guitar. The middle position doesn't suffer. It's still ver jangly and slightly scooped.
I was worried that the pickup (7.3kohm) would be too weak in comparison with the neck pickup (8.2kohm). This is not the case. It has more output than the neck pickup but it's just enough to offset the lack of bass the bridge position naturally has.
All in all I'm really pleased with the set I've ended up with. These pickups will stay in my guitar for the time being.
Toltec is a small UK based setup and I think they only deal through a Facebook page and eBay. Check them out. (I have no affiliation).

[JSett]

I've had a few of Lees pickups. They've always been great and have come super fast. Would recommend.

Also, I would also like to mention Oil City Pickups and Gemini Pickups, both from the UK, who have made me equally awesome custom pickups as well. I love the ol' OSG favourite Jaime @ Creamery but his lead time is terrible and his comms are spotty at best. Lovely guy and products, but I can't wait 2 months to be able to place an order and then 3-9 months for them to arrive.

[gibs]

That’s wierd, there’s a Gemini pickups in the US as well, no affiliation between the two I would think, the US one I know is a one man operation.

The lower resistance with higher output is not a surprise. The fatter the wire, the less resistance typically (example Lollar el Rayo humbuckers only have a 4.2k resistance but still are higher output, but I do believe they also use 41gauge wire or bigger). Inductance is something more pickup builders need to push as that’s typically the better indicator of output level (I still need to figure out how to gauge that output level based on that number though, partly because most pickups don’t give you that value).