Jazzmaster pickup comparison

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mikeymike
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Re: Jazzmaster pickup comparison

Post by mikeymike » Wed Jan 26, 2022 8:28 am

ek11sx wrote:
Thu Aug 19, 2021 12:39 pm
Curtis Novak’s new historic Jazzmaster pickups are incredible. I got the 60-64 matching set and I cannot be happier
I'm really curious about these!

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Downsman
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Re: Jazzmaster pickup comparison

Post by Downsman » Sun Apr 24, 2022 2:04 am

wotsch wrote:
Sat Jan 08, 2022 1:19 pm
Hell, you got me convinced to give the hybrids a try! Your guitar sounds and looks amazing!
This will be my first change of pickups in ANY guitar, so this is quite exciting... And what I learned of reading here in the forum and other sites that you have to start at some point when it comes to trying different pickups.

I have a AM original 60s JM and Jaguar and I like the sound of the Pure Vintage pickups - and I don't want to start modding with these rather expensive instruments. That's why I got me a JMJM, and the P90-like pickups have something on them.

And I think you mentioned in antoher post that Q pickups deliver boutique quality at non-boutique prices - so this is definitely the way to go for me! Thanks for your help! It's absolutely invaluable!
Hi, just wondering if you got those Q pickups Hybrids in the end? Wondering what they sound like. I'm thinking of swapping pickups on my Vintera 60s Jazzmaster to move more in a P90/humbucker direction. Trying to decide between maybe a Wide Ranging humbucker in bridge and leave the neck pickup as is, these Hybrids or to look for a pair of JM sized humbuckers. There are a lot of options out there, but not too many sound samples that I can find for them.

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wotsch
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Re: Jazzmaster pickup comparison

Post by wotsch » Sun Apr 24, 2022 3:51 am

Hi Downsman,
yep, I got the hybrid pickups and like them a lot. They don't "break up" or sound "gritty" as soon or easily as regular P90s and sound brighter than regular humbuckers - but not as bright and crispy as the Pure Vintage 65 I got on my other JM.

It was hard for me to decide as well due to the lack of sound examples. I'll try to record some for you but I'm afraid I'm pretty inexperienced in recording

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Downsman
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Re: Jazzmaster pickup comparison

Post by Downsman » Mon Apr 25, 2022 3:09 am

wotsch wrote:
Sun Apr 24, 2022 3:51 am
Hi Downsman,
yep, I got the hybrid pickups and like them a lot. They don't "break up" or sound "gritty" as soon or easily as regular P90s and sound brighter than regular humbuckers - but not as bright and crispy as the Pure Vintage 65 I got on my other JM.

It was hard for me to decide as well due to the lack of sound examples. I'll try to record some for you but I'm afraid I'm pretty inexperienced in recording
Thanks, glad to hear you like them. I managed to find a good demo of the Creamery WRHB for the bridge I'm thinking about. It's hard trying to choose pickups based on people's words trying to describe tones. Things like does a "hotter" pickup give you a "warm" tone, and is "warm" the same as "creamy" and how do both of those fit with "driven", "break up" etc.

I don't even really know how to describe what I'm looking for. The best I can come up with is that for me the Vintera 60s JM pickups sound thin and a bit harsh, or brittle, and I'd like some that sound a bit richer and smoother, without necessarily pushing the amp into overdrive. That might be what you're describing, or the WRHB might be the ticket.

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wotsch
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Re: Jazzmaster pickup comparison

Post by wotsch » Mon Apr 25, 2022 11:56 pm

Same here - it's really hard to decide which pickups are right for your needs... with so many options and opinions out there. If I may quote Curtis Novak here: "let your ears decide!" (I'm not sure anymore where I read or heard this, but I'm pretty sure it was Mr. Novak who said this).

But also this is easier said than done, for it would mean getting different pickups, installing them in your guitar and see what you like best, with your gear and your setup. I just went with a gut feeling and got the Hybrids and like them, but didn't compare with other options.

Another way is listening to demos, as many of us do, and I'm glad you found a decent demo of the WRHB. I think I've found something of interest, too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GelN7MGJiiU
You can jump to the "clean and dry " demo part, which is showing a Creamery WRHB in the bridge and a classic 58 JM in the neck position. You said you want to go in the P90/humbucker direction, but as you said that the stock pickups sound to bright and brittle, the more classic JM pickups came to my mind. Less jangly and bright, but still pure JM tone. Listen to early songs of The Ventures to get an idea of the sound. I suggest "Lullaby Of The Leaves".

Sorry, I don't want to come up with new ideas making things harder for you! It's just my humble opinion. And sorry for not delivering the sound examples of the hybrid pickups yet! My two little boys take up pretty much of my time, so I can only play guitar at night...

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ctu
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Re: Jazzmaster pickup comparison

Post by ctu » Tue Apr 26, 2022 1:48 am

I am interested in Q Hybrid as well (for the bridge position) - initially, I was looking for humbucker, but as Tiho told me, humbuckers are not currently available for Jazzmaster so Hybrid should be the next best thing. If I pull the trigger and get one installed, I will do the test and post the results here. In any case, I will be swapping the bridge pickup on my AV65 (soon, I hope).

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Re: Jazzmaster pickup comparison

Post by Downsman » Tue Apr 26, 2022 2:49 am

wotsch wrote:
Mon Apr 25, 2022 11:56 pm
Same here - it's really hard to decide which pickups are right for your needs... with so many options and opinions out there. If I may quote Curtis Novak here: "let your ears decide!" (I'm not sure anymore where I read or heard this, but I'm pretty sure it was Mr. Novak who said this).

But also this is easier said than done, for it would mean getting different pickups, installing them in your guitar and see what you like best, with your gear and your setup. I just went with a gut feeling and got the Hybrids and like them, but didn't compare with other options.

Another way is listening to demos, as many of us do, and I'm glad you found a decent demo of the WRHB. I think I've found something of interest, too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GelN7MGJiiU
You can jump to the "clean and dry " demo part, which is showing a Creamery WRHB in the bridge and a classic 58 JM in the neck position. You said you want to go in the P90/humbucker direction, but as you said that the stock pickups sound to bright and brittle, the more classic JM pickups came to my mind. Less jangly and bright, but still pure JM tone. Listen to early songs of The Ventures to get an idea of the sound. I suggest "Lullaby Of The Leaves".

Sorry, I don't want to come up with new ideas making things harder for you! It's just my humble opinion. And sorry for not delivering the sound examples of the hybrid pickups yet! My two little boys take up pretty much of my time, so I can only play guitar at night...
Ha, yes, that's the demo I found, which is swinging me towards a WRHB in the bridge. Lord Fuzzman also has a demo of regular shaped WRHBs in Jazzmasters which was interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pB0IpGSDIc

I'm not in a huge rush, so short term I'm thinking I'll try swapping pots, perhaps a 250k volume and a 500k tone pot. I already re-jigged the wiring with a push push 1m tone pot to give the pickups in Series, and the rhythm circuit can now be used for the bridge and parallel positions as well. It's possible that swapping a 500k tone pot and a 250k volume might on it's own do the job I'm looking for of taming the harshness enough, while keeping the Jazzmaster character. At the moment rolling off the tone to between 2-3 helps, but the sweet spot between too harsh and too dull is tiny. A wider sweep would be useful.

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Re: Jazzmaster pickup comparison

Post by MC5tooge » Tue Apr 26, 2022 3:27 am

ctu wrote:
Tue Apr 26, 2022 1:48 am
I am interested in Q Hybrid as well (for the bridge position) - initially, I was looking for humbucker, but as Tiho told me, humbuckers are not currently available for Jazzmaster so Hybrid should be the next best thing. If I pull the trigger and get one installed, I will do the test and post the results here. In any case, I will be swapping the bridge pickup on my AV65 (soon, I hope).
Tiho will pretty build whatever you ask him to, weird or not.
I have a set of his tappable hot/vintage A2/A5 pickups in one of my Strats and they are easily the best pickups I have. With series-parallel switching I can get 24 combinations out of that guitar, all good. Could be even more if I tapped the neck and middle separately. AFAIK he can do something similar with Jazzmaster pickups.

I saw he just started doing Strat size Tele pickups - just a matter of time surely till he starts doing something like a WRHB.
I was all set to order some new pickups from him then someone local put a pair of vintage blade Hofner pickups for sale for a quarter of the going rate and ended up choosing them for the build.

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Re: Jazzmaster pickup comparison

Post by MC5tooge » Tue Apr 26, 2022 3:31 am

Downsman wrote:
Tue Apr 26, 2022 2:49 am


I'm not in a huge rush, so short term I'm thinking I'll try swapping pots, perhaps a 250k volume and a 500k tone pot. I already re-jigged the wiring with a push push 1m tone pot to give the pickups in Series, and the rhythm circuit can now be used for the bridge and parallel positions as well. It's possible that swapping a 500k tone pot and a 250k volume might on it's own do the job I'm looking for of taming the harshness enough, while keeping the Jazzmaster character.
What about adding a second push push and having switchable tone caps? That could take some of the top end off when you need it.

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ctu
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Re: Jazzmaster pickup comparison

Post by ctu » Tue Apr 26, 2022 1:29 pm

MC5tooge wrote:
Tue Apr 26, 2022 3:27 am
Tiho will pretty build whatever you ask him to, weird or not.
I have a set of his tappable hot/vintage A2/A5 pickups in one of my Strats and they are easily the best pickups I have. With series-parallel switching I can get 24 combinations out of that guitar, all good. Could be even more if I tapped the neck and middle separately. AFAIK he can do something similar with Jazzmaster pickups.

I saw he just started doing Strat size Tele pickups - just a matter of time surely till he starts doing something like a WRHB.
I was all set to order some new pickups from him then someone local put a pair of vintage blade Hofner pickups for sale for a quarter of the going rate and ended up choosing them for the build.
Yes, Tiho will build whatever; from what I understood, he can't build a JM humbucker at the moment - I'm not in a hurry, and in the meantime I'd like to see/hear the Hybrid he described, it seems it actually captures the best of all three worlds (JM, P90 and humbucker-type sound). I did set my mind on HB, but I'm open to try anything that will change the bridge pickup sound. As much as I can use the rhythm circuit and/or neck pickup, I can't get anything useful from bridge. Nothing wrong with the pickup IMO, it's just not what I am looking for from that position so usually I go to the other guitar with humbucker in that position; if I can change the bridge and make the JM a bit more versatile, why not?

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Re: Jazzmaster pickup comparison

Post by MC5tooge » Tue Apr 26, 2022 1:42 pm

The tappable JM pickup is a single coil of course - it's basically a normal JM pickup and then before final assembly another wind goes on top with its own connector wire so you can run it hot or normal. It's a really good solution.
I bet he could do a tappable hot/normal hybrid if you asked him.

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Re: Jazzmaster pickup comparison

Post by Downsman » Wed Apr 27, 2022 11:29 am

I've just ordered a Catswhisker Jazzmaster WRHB for the bridge, with 4 wires so will add a push pull pot to split as well (probably 500k). I'll keep the wiring set up I have for series, and rhythm circuit available for all positions, so that'll give a shed load of different tones to play with :)

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Re: Jazzmaster pickup comparison

Post by pikmin » Fri Apr 29, 2022 5:14 pm

I don’t know if it can help but here is a short video with my JMJM with the hybrid q_pickups , clean sound , the loop is the same guitar as well. I have 4 Jazzmasters and one thing I can say for sure is that those hybrids are not thin or brittle at all for Jazzmaster pickups,but they still sound articulate and Jazzmastery ...

https://www.facebook.com/eric.delsine/v ... 575023527/

I really should do a better recorded demo sample ...

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wotsch
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Re: Jazzmaster pickup comparison

Post by wotsch » Thu May 05, 2022 4:46 am

pikmin wrote:
Fri Apr 29, 2022 5:14 pm
I don’t know if it can help but here is a short video with my JMJM with the hybrid q_pickups , clean sound , the loop is the same guitar as well. I have 4 Jazzmasters and one thing I can say for sure is that those hybrids are not thin or brittle at all for Jazzmaster pickups,but they still sound articulate and Jazzmastery ...

https://www.facebook.com/eric.delsine/v ... 575023527/

I really should do a better recorded demo sample ...
Thanks for chippin in! I wasn't able to record any sound samples yet, so any help would be appreciated :) I'm happy that I followed your recommendation and got the hybrid pickups!

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wotsch
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Re: Jazzmaster pickup comparison

Post by wotsch » Tue May 10, 2022 1:45 am

Has anyone heard of or even tried these? Yet another promising hybrid!

https://mcnellypickups.com/collections/ ... ucts/46-58

There is a link to a demo video on the link above as well!

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