Pickups are out and boxed to go to an OSG buddy who makes custom pickups. He has the technology. He can rebuild them. He can make them faster... stronger...
I just need to get those done and a new tremolo and it will be ready to rock. Very excited!
HNB wrote:The Jazzy I got on OSG and the Jag I ordered from Ishibashi both came today. Guitar overload. Here are pictures. DSC04064 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr It came with a white guard on it. DSC04065 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr Here it is with it's stock pickguard. (Printed tort.) DSC04066 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr Here it is with a mint guard. I like it. DSC04067 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr Pickups are out and boxed to go to an OSG buddy who makes custom pickups. He has the technology. He can rebuild them. He can make them faster... stronger... I just need to get those done and a new tremolo and it will be ready to rock. Very excited!
Lovely! Quite a pair.
Disciple of Pain
"I'm like the monkey screwing the skunk. I haven't had enough, but I've about had all that I can stand!"
Will definately do a demo of the new ones. It is cool to think that he believes it should be easy to remake the Japanese pups to be American style. Excited to hear the difference.
Thanks. Yeah, I for one am curious! If it were me I'd prolly just put an AVRI in the neck and a Novak in the bridge. My buddy has this config on his JM and it sounds great. Wonder how your rewires will compare.
Last edited by singlepup on Thu May 03, 2012 5:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
My word, they're stunning! The mint 'guard looks like a really nice change when sat side-by-side with the standard tort like that. My main axe is a sunburst CIJ JM ('99-'01 ish) too, and I absolutely love it. Suffice to say, if the house was burning down I'd be out the door with her in one hand and the cat in the other.
After dropping a pair of Novak pickups in, it sounds three times more expensive than it was...honestly, they're fantastic value-for-money guitars after a pickup upgrade. I'm still not sure whether to change the trem too or leave it as-is though.
I decided to pick up a Classic Player trem to have the screw in arm. It is on the way. I see with this one that the string ground runs to the tremolo instead of the bridge cups. I am guessing that means I sandwich the wire between the body wood and tremolo when I put the trem on?
Edit found the answer.
Fender quit using the bridge cup ground in early '62. After that, all the vintage ones were done like it the photo. I'm not sure about AVRI.
I don't know if I would say shrill and terrible. They are much brighter than normal Jazzmaster pickups. I say "normal" because Japan makes their Jazzmaster pickups phycially more like stratocaster pickups. Back when America stopped making Jazzmasters, Japan picked them up and designed their own pickups. Maybe they chose a more strat like construction for the pickups to appeal to the large strat fan base? Hard to know. Because of the success of the Japanese Jaguars and Jazzmasters, Fender US started making the American reissues. The reissues have the original style pickups as opposed to the Japanese ones.
You can always try them out and see if you like the sound. There isn't anything wrong with the pickups, they just don't sound like a Jazzmaster to me. I have had two sets of Japanese Jazzmaster pickups. To me they sound ice pick bright. Could always lower the pots or turn the tone pot down to shave it down a bit, but to me I would rather put American style pickups in instead.
Yeah, the CIJ pickups are infamously different from the originals and AVRIs, but I wouldn't say they're just like Strat pickups either. I found the stock CIJs to be a little too thin and quiet-sounding, as though they were lacking something so I went for the pair of Novaks, but you could well find that tone to your taste.
Looking at the CIJ units side-on, the pole pieces are certainly taller and the winding doesn't extend outwards as far from the pole pieces to the edge of the pickup...but they're not *quite* as tall and narrow as a Strat's. I'd say the pickup's construction is in between that of a US Jazzmaster and a Strat/Tele/Jag, and the sound reflects that.
I'm thinking of getting some "Mojo" pickups in there. UK bases company, seem better value than Seymours. In fact, I'll make a thread about my incoming purchase now!
Nice! Tracking suggests the new tremolo should be here tomorrow. Can't wait! Probably won't look too much more interesting, but I will snag a picture if I get the new tremolo on.
