I just won a Kinman Thickmaster.

[tdbajus]

Nice!

How do they sound relative to the AVRIs?

[Embenny]

What a twist! After all these Charlie Christian comparisons, the "Jazzmasters don't sound the way Leo wanted" statements, the P90 name-drops, I was really worried about them.

Did you keep the 1meg pots?

[Larry Mal]

Here you go, if you can stand it, here's some noodling around. This is the "dry" version, which is just an Amplitube "American Tube" setting, the bass, middle and treble knobs put to 5, no compression, no reverb. If it sounds a little harsh, I'll call that good:

https://soundcloud.com/larry-mal/kinman ... 386Qggh36j

Here is the same thing but with a touch of spring reverb, some compression, and delay- it's just the rest of the preset from Amplitube, but it's a sound a little more like what one might use:

https://soundcloud.com/larry-mal/kinman-1

None of this really is all that well thought out but maybe it will tell you something.

[Larry Mal]

How do they sound relative to the AVRIs?

I'll try to get that tomorrow.

[Larry Mal]

What a twist! After all these Charlie Christian comparisons, the "Jazzmasters don't sound the way Leo wanted" statements, the P90 name-drops, I was really worried about them.

Did you keep the 1meg pots?

Yes, all the electronics are original. I don't know if you all will agree that these sound exactly like Jazzmaster pickups, but I think they are great pickups, no matter what.

[tdbajus]

You're a good man, Larry.

[Embenny]

Nice. I don't really care if noiseless pickups nail specific vintage tones, I just love single coils and am happy if they retain the high end clarity and uncompressed attack of a single coil design minus the hum.

[marqueemoon]

Nice. I like the middle position sound a lot.

[Larry Mal]

Yeah, I never was all that much of a bridge position Jazzmaster pickup guy anyway, and I don't really love this all that much more, either.

Let me know what you all think, I'm very happy, though. They may not sound the same exactly as the AVRI pickups, but they nail all the things I cared about, and so far I find them to be pretty inspiring. A lot of good sounds there, and they retain some of the flaws that Jazzmaster pickups can have, like a harsh bridge sound sometimes.

I'm happy. I would absolutely consider Kinmans again.

[Embenny]

The second link isn't working for me but I listened to the first one.

"Juicy" is an adjective I'd use. You could hear the dynamics of when you'd dig in vs not and it just seems like they'd have a satisfying quality to play through. Not that compressed stacked-pickup sound at all.

Maybe I'll get around to ordering a set of those Jaguar pickups after all.

[Larry Mal]

I changed the permissions, maybe it'll play now:

https://soundcloud.com/larry-mal/kinman-1

[Embenny]

That worked. Sounds a lot more like a Jazzmaster in it's natural habitat.

[Larry Mal]

I mean, it's just a preset on Amplitube, that's kind of what I did yesterday is run through various presets there, and with Guitar Rig, and Waves GTR. I use a lot of those (Iridium did not please me). So I don't know what that would really mean to anyone else here, but my amp is in storage at the moment so that's what it'll be for now.

Still, I am very pleased with these, and I think I have learned that Kinman is the path forward for me. I consider these to be a considerable step forward from the Fralin Hum-cancelling, which I am still learning of course. I think I will probably end up feeling that these are actually as good as the single coils that they replace.

Not the same, probably, but certainly every bit "as good".

Also, the Thickmasters are quality pickups with a good voice. If I bought a set of Kinmans for my other Jazzmaster, which would not happen anytime soon unless a set popped up used, they would not be Thickmasters but that would only be to add some variety. The Thickmasters have a great and useful voice.

I still have to adjust the pickup height, of course, and I might roll the bass down slightly.

[Embenny]

I think I'm gonna wave the white flag and just order a set of Kinmans for my AV65. It's the nicest-playing Jazzmaster I've ever owned, and I've toyed with the idea of trying all different manner of noiseless pickups under JM covers, but really, the simplicity of just wiring it up with Kinmans and letting it more or less be a Jazzmaster appeals too much to pass up. It's already got a shielded cavity and an anodized pick guard, so with a set of kinmans in there (maybe the Surfmasters, or one surf and one fatmaster), I don't know how much quieter you could ask a guitar to be.

Like your NRFB, it's just a really nice guitar that doesn't get used enough because of noise. I think I'll bite the bullet as soon as I figure out which bridge pickup to get (I'd definitely do the surfmaster in the neck).

[tdbajus]

Sounds fantastic.