What are your favorite Jaguar Pickup specs?

[Angry Jonny]

I'm in the market for new Jag pickups and usually a few names rise to the surface for offsets: Novak, Lollar, Mojo, Fralin, etc.

As I'm comparing the different pickups out there, anyone noticed any things they like about Jaguar pickup specs that might help make the choice easier?

For example: I see Fralin advertises the bridge at 7.0k ohms and the neck at 6.2k, all A5 magnets, while Lollar does a mix of A5 neck and A2 Bridge and a much resistance of 6.3k bridge and 5.8k neck.

Novak never says what he aims for.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!

[Beebe]

I'm currently loving Kinman pickups. They are hum canceling but certainly don't lack any character. Really inspiring to play. I'd go for a P-90 / vintage PAF type output (about 8k equivalent) if you want to cover a lot of basses.

Edit:. You'd get this kind of output from the Punk-Jag model which is similar to their Texas Jalapeno strat pickups... One of which I just put in the neck position of a California Series Tele for a friend of mine and it sounds so good!!

[timtam]

Unfortunately no pickup manufacturers publish specs that would give us any real sense of how their pickups sound (under standardized conditions). DCR and magnet type tells you very little. It's not hard to measure more relevant parameters. So one has to conclude that manufacturers like the status quo, where buyers are continually chasing something "different" or "better" - and thus buying new pickups - without really knowing exactly what they have, in objective terms, nor how particular new pickups might be different ...or not. That's only going to change if buyers demand full information, like they do with microphones and speakers. Which over time they can then correlate with what they hear. So maybe fire off a few emails to pickup manufacturers, asking for a full frequency response curve for their pickups. Here's an example of what that might look like (the equipment come to around US$500, and you can do the measurements yourself if you're keen):
https://guitarnuts2.proboards.com/threa ... sis-review

[Embenny]

I'm currently loving Kinman pickups. They are hum canceling but certainly don't lack any character. Really inspiring to play. I'd go for a P-90 / vintage PAF type output (about 8k equivalent) if you want to cover a lot of basses.

Edit:. You'd get this kind of output from the Punk-Jag model which is similar to their Texas Jalapeno strat pickups... One of which I just put in the neck position of a California Series Tele for a friend of mine and it sounds so good!!

Ooh, tell me more about that Texas Jalapeño. There's virtually no information/reviews/demos out there, especially A/Bs against other pickups where you can tell I have a set of the "Blues Jag" Kinmans in my '62 and they're fabulous. I've been planning to get the Surf Jag for my '65 and the Punk Jag for my Marauder II, but won't have the time for guitar modding for another couple of months.

How did it sound compared to standard Tele neck pickups? Kinman is amazing at designing pickups and absolutely horrible at conveying any real information about how they sound. You could juggle the descriptions of half a dozen models without being able to tell.

He talks about output, but not inductance or resonant frequencies or Q. Output and tone aren't direct correlates. Firebird pickups have massive output because of their magnetic circuit, but a high resonant frequency and high Q for a humbucker because of their small, lightly wound coils and relatively low inductance. Vintage Tele neck pickups have low output because of their magnetic design and small coil, with a much lower resonant frequency and Q than similar single coils because of the eddy currents from the cover. Bill Lawrence was a master of getting surprisingly high voltage output from low inductance pickups with high resonant frequencies.

I guess what I'm asking is, does the Texas Jalapeño sound like an overwound Fender single coil, with the prominent mids and subdued treble that you get from overwinding, or are they just "high output" in the voltage/gain sense? Does it sound stratty, closer to a P90, or like something totally different?

I don't know that I've ever talked to someone who has actually played a guitar with one of those pickups. They're not cheap, so I don't want to risk ordering a set without having any idea of what they're actually like, but my experience with the Blues Jag has been positive enough to presume they'd be pretty nice. They'd certainly be hum-canceling, and he remains the only winder who's bothered to design noiseless pickups in a Jaguar format.

[Beebe]

I'm currently loving Kinman pickups. They are hum canceling but certainly don't lack any character. Really inspiring to play. I'd go for a P-90 / vintage PAF type output (about 8k equivalent) if you want to cover a lot of basses.

Edit:. You'd get this kind of output from the Punk-Jag model which is similar to their Texas Jalapeno strat pickups... One of which I just put in the neck position of a California Series Tele for a friend of mine and it sounds so good!!

Ooh, tell me more about that Texas Jalapeño. There's virtually no information/reviews/demos out there, especially A/Bs against other pickups where you can tell I have a set of the "Blues Jag" Kinmans in my '62 and they're fabulous. I've been planning to get the Surf Jag for my '65 and the Punk Jag for my Marauder II, but won't have the time for guitar modding for another couple of months.

How did it sound compared to standard Tele neck pickups? Kinman is amazing at designing pickups and absolutely horrible at conveying any real information about how they sound. You could juggle the descriptions of half a dozen models without being able to tell.

He talks about output, but not inductance or resonant frequencies or Q. Output and tone aren't direct correlates. Firebird pickups have massive output because of their magnetic circuit, but a high resonant frequency and high Q for a humbucker because of their small, lightly wound coils and relatively low inductance. Vintage Tele neck pickups have low output because of their magnetic design and small coil, with a much lower resonant frequency and Q than similar single coils because of the eddy currents from the cover. Bill Lawrence was a master of getting surprisingly high voltage output from low inductance pickups with high resonant frequencies.

I guess what I'm asking is, does the Texas Jalapeño sound like an overwound Fender single coil, with the prominent mids and subdued treble that you get from overwinding, or are they just "high output" in the voltage/gain sense? Does it sound stratty, closer to a P90, or like something totally different?

I don't know that I've ever talked to someone who has actually played a guitar with one of those pickups. They're not cheap, so I don't want to risk ordering a set without having any idea of what they're actually like, but my experience with the Blues Jag has been positive enough to presume they'd be pretty nice. They'd certainly be hum-canceling, and he remains the only winder who's bothered to design noiseless pickups in a Jaguar format.

Hey mbene085! Ha! I was actually just thinking about doing some you tube posts for a couple Kinman pickups because of exactly what you are talking about. I wish I could help you out more on the Texas Jalapeno but I don't have a Tele neck to compare it to, nor the memory of how the one I had for a few years back in the day sounded. I can definitely say it didn't feel like a p-90 to me. It has all that fender glassy-ness. A kind of a liquid feel if that makes sense. And dynamic, percussive maybe. It has a strat vibe. It has the best low end I've ever heard in a neck pickup... meaning not to much. I lowered the low E side a little further from the strings and it's only slightly bassier than the bridge pickup that I raised the low E side on a bit. I paired it with the Kinman Tele Bridge Blaster and you can definitely tell it gets darker when you go to the bridge. Which I love. I want mids when I go to the bridge. And the middle position may be the most useful and I've ever played. I've put his vintage aged pickups in a mahogany mustang I built and they were also super fun. Very different than these but inspiring in a similar way. I can't wait for my next warmoth mahogany mustang body and mahogany neck to arrive so I can get to building my current dream guitar with the Kinman P-90 buckers I've just been staring at since they arrived. I'm pretty sure you won't be disappointed!

[Caddy65]

I put a set of Fender Pure Vintage’65 pickups in my 2014 Squier VM Jag and they sound great and have the early/mid ‘60’s sound they were designed to have. Sound just about as I recall my lead guitar player’s ‘64 Jag sounding back then. Really nice sounding pickups and can be found reasonably priced.

Both neck and bridge are 6.8k - 3.8h