The Pickups Thread

I kind of agree with @James Freeman though. There’s a lot less range in the BB1 & 2 almost to the point where the volume in your guitar may as well be an On/Off switch.

Personally, I don’t care about Vintage tones. I’m only after good tones. I really despise smeary pickups with no note separation but that’s somehow desirable to a lot of folks.
You must have had some pretty bad paf stuff. Note separation is normally good.
 
You must have had some pretty bad paf stuff. Note separation is normally good.
Yeah, I didn’t communicate that very well. The PAF comment was about the lack of usable range on the potentiometer. The lack of notes separation was due to the promised solution of overwinding by most pickup builders. Bare Knuckle, on the other hand, offers signal strength, note separation and clarity.

But what do I know. Apparently, I have bad taste.
 
Yeah, I didn’t communicate that very well. The PAF comment was about the lack of usable range on the potentiometer. The lack of notes separation was due to the promised solution of overwinding by most pickup builders. Bare Knuckle, on the other hand, offers signal strength, note separation and clarity.

But what do I know. Apparently, I have bad taste.
No that’s a good explanation of why PAF pickups will work well and overwound ones generally don’t.
 
The BB1 & BB2 are probably great for what they are but it's not what I want to hear from my electric guitar, especially from a Les Paul.
My ideal LP tone has to have balls and heft, yet be tight and gainy with distortion and balanced with cleans on both pickups, the JB/Jazz(59) set checks all the points above whether the PAFs don't.
Also, I'm probably used to my Edwards LP which has the JB/59 set and was my main LP guitar for 12 years, so I was kind of expecting the same if not better sound from the Gibson but was disappointed.
 
The BB1 & BB2 are probably great for what they are but it's not what I want to hear from my electric guitar, especially from a Les Paul.
My ideal LP tone has to have balls and heft, yet be tight and gainy with distortion and balanced with cleans on both pickups, the JB/Jazz(59) set checks all the points above whether the PAFs don't.
Also, I'm probably used to my Edwards LP which has the JB/59 set and was my main LP guitar for 12 years, so I was kind of expecting the same if not better sound from the Gibson but was disappointed.

They can do that perfectly but with totally different rig settings.
 
They can do that perfectly but with totally different rig settings.
Maybe, but in my short-ish experience with PAFs and weeks of trying to make them work and sound like my other LP didn't work at all.
No boost or EQ before the amps made them sound as good as the JB/59 set, and the BurstBuckers were noisy as hell because of the asymmetrical winds and requiring more boost gain.
 
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No offense to peer forumers but my GIF blocker filters are working like charm, I see a lot of empty posts and my intelligence remains undamaged. 🙂

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Maybe, but in my short-ish experience with PAFs and weeks of trying to make them work and sound like my other LP didn't work at all.
No boost or EQ before the amps made them sound as good as the JB/59 set, and the BurstBuckers were noisy as hell because of the asymmetrical winds and requiring more boost gain.
What sound are you trying to get?
 
What sound are you trying to get?
My prefered sound is a boosted JCM800 that is tight with palm mutes and gainy enough for early 80s thrash metal but also crunchy without the boost and has nice cleans on its own.
A hot mid forward humbucker does that, but not overly hot so I don't lose the balance with the neck pickup with clean tones.
 
I want to share this video (not me) because it's exactly what I'm hearing from comparing my own JB and Distortion.
Contrary to popular knowledge the JB is actually tighter and delivers much more aggressive palm mutes than the Distortion and has better cleans.
I'm really starting to believe the JB is the ultimate bridge pickups for just about everything.

 
I want to share this video (not me) because it's exactly what I'm hearing from comparing my own JB and Distortion.
Contrary to popular knowledge the JB is actually tighter and delivers much more aggressive palm mutes than the Distortion and has better cleans.
I'm really starting to believe the JB is the ultimate bridge pickups for just about everything.


Did you get a chance to this (there is s a second video as well)?

 
For what it's worth, I thought both the JB and the Aldrich were good sounding pick ups when I tried them in my LP's, but they were just a little "harsh". Both the Motor City HotHead and the EVH Wolfgang were everything those other two were, without the harshness on top.
 
<< Insert sad, rain, Les Mis, Russell Crowe gif >>
I used to love these gifs but they are so overused that that it became irritating to read the forum.
Instead of ignoring users I filter the gifs because I still want to read what people have to say.

Did you get a chance to this (there is s a second video as well)?



I usually skip the ones that have a drum track because the difference is subtle as is with high gain.
 
I want to share this video (not me) because it's exactly what I'm hearing from comparing my own JB and Distortion.
Contrary to popular knowledge the JB is actually tighter and delivers much more aggressive palm mutes than the Distortion and has better cleans.
I'm really starting to believe the JB is the ultimate bridge pickups for just about everything.


If you want two JB's you can probably just swap the magnet in the Distortion for an A5 :-D
 
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