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I'm thinking about switching out the humbuckers in the Jagmaster. It's my first foray into upgrading parts. The sheer number of pickup options are mind numbing. It makes my tiny brain hurt.

This much I do know. I'm not initially looking to split coils or get all fancy. (I don't do a lot of knob and switch fiddling when I play.)
I'm looking to start with pickups and eventually upgrade everything under the hood down the line. (and probably the tuners too.) I'm just looking for a basic full warm even tone across the strings. (I like my mids) I don't require high gain and vintage sounds are always close to my heart. I like clarity and clean tones.

First off does anybody have opinions or experience with some of those cheap Asian made pickups that seem rife on Ebay like GFS or Dragonfire etc... I'm sort of curious because a) they're cheap and I've got less to lose by them and b) since a pickup is essentially just wire wrapped around a magnet I'm curious as to how big a difference you actually get between something like that and a name brand.

What about boutique handwound. Do you get anything extra with something like that other than bragging rights and a price tag?

Favorite humbuckers from well known manufacturers? Opinions and recommendations anyone?

If you want mids, get a JB. It's as if someone took an EQ and cut all the treble and bass out. It sonds like shit to me, but a lot of people like them.

If you want a pickup that sounds good though, get a DiMarzio Bluesbucker.

I found the JB to be really well balanced and chunky when I had one in my Jag-Stang. My complaints about that guitar were that it was too dark and woolly and the JB was tighter in the bass and added nice mids and highs. It's a nicely bright pickup.

Shadow just doesn't like Seymour Duncan pickups for some reason. I think a JB or a '59 Trembucker would be great in your Jagmaster.

Another friend of mine was recommending the JB the other day. It's on the list, though I like what I read about the '59 a bit more.
Since I'm looking to just go ahead and do both pickups in one fell swoop, I'm trying to find a bargain on a set of two complimentary pickups. Right now I'm keeping an eye on a couple sets of Dimarzio PAF's on Ebay, but I'm not quite ready to pull the trigger until I get a bit more input.

But what about the cheapies that you see? A pickup in and of itself is a very very simple machine. Those GFS have pretty nice Harmony Central reviews even after whatever grain of salt you take. (I read them on a Bell Curve. ignore the all out glowing and the all out hatred.) It certainly seems plausible enough...

(and personally I'd have a hard time purchasing anything called a "Bluesbucker" The name just conjures up too many images of flabby middle aged suburban white guys who wear loud shirts and decide that they're too old to rock, so they hit on the brillian idea to play bland lifeless and endless versions of "Stormy Monday" while sweating profusely and making faces like they're shitting a pineapple. I refuse to become that guy...)

The Seymour Duncan Jazz humbucker complements the JB and 59 really well. In fact it's the best neck humbucker ever made.

I'm rawther against humbuckers, so I think you should get some hum-size p90s.

aen wrote:I'm rawther against humbuckers, so I think you should get some hum-size p90s.

Except for the Supertron/Filtertron combo in the Gretsch, all my other guitars are single coil. I'd like to have something different.

Lanark wrote:(and personally I'd have a hard time purchasing anything called a "Bluesbucker" The name just conjures up too many images of flabby middle aged suburban white guys who wear loud shirts and decide that they're too old to rock, so they hit on the brillian idea to play bland lifeless and endless versions of "Stormy Monday" while sweating profusely and making faces like they're shitting a pineapple. I refuse to become that guy...)

Wow. That's pretty fucking stupid. Like, impressively so.

YOU WIN PRIZE!

aen wrote:I'm rawther against humbuckers, so I think you should get some hum-size p90s.

Well, the BLUESBUCKER is designed to sound like a p-90, but is really somewhere between a Gibson 490 bucker and P-90.

theshadowofseattle wrote:
Wow. That's pretty fucking stupid. Like, impressively so.

YOU WIN PRIZE!

Wow, dude. I'm so sorry if that hit a little too close to home for you. (now I'm glad I didn't go into detail about the Erectile Dysfunction and the bald spots.)





(but seriously, I read up on them. "Bluesbucker" not for me. Get over yourself.)

Get over myself? You're the one throwing out stereotypes you find yourself to be above, despite you admitting that you don't know the first thing about humbuckers. You said "Favorite humbuckers from well known manufacturers? Opinions and recommendations anyone?" I gave you my opinion and recommendation. You're quite welcome for it, by the way.

Lanark wrote:(but seriously, I read up on them. "Bluesbucker" not for me.)

That's all I needed to hear, babydoll. <3

you want basic full warm even tone, vintage styleee

a good vintage spec PAF is all you need, sir.

Just finished modding the shit out of my Jagmaster.

Black pickguard on sunburst w/ black pickups and knobs and stuff. GFS PAF in the neck and a *gasp* JB in the bridge, replacing that awful Lace Sensor. Perfect combination for me, the trick with the JB is having a proper distance between the strings. It's no tele bridge (I even taped a tele bridge pup in my hi-flyer), but it still holds it's own. GFS came through again with the PAF, it just sings.

Pictures tomorrow (if I remember).

theshadowofseattle wrote:Get over myself? You're the one throwing out stereotypes you find yourself to be above, despite you admitting that you don't know the first thing about humbuckers. You said "Favorite humbuckers from well known manufacturers? Opinions and recommendations anyone?" I gave you my opinion and recommendation. You're quite welcome for it, by the way.

It was meant to be humorous Fer cryin' in a hankie, unbunch yer panties. Not to be taken seriously. Ok?
No need to go flying off the handle.
Use your indoor voice.

(Geesh...If something as fairly innocuous as that chaps your hide, I don't even want to imagine what would happen if I actually got sarcastic and suggested growing a pair.
You'd pop a freakin' bloodvessel.)

Now if you don't mind the adults are talking.

So Sparky, how are you liking that GFS? How does it compare with the name brand JB?

Mike wrote:I found the JB to be really well balanced and chunky when I had one in my Jag-Stang. My complaints about that guitar were that it was too dark and woolly and the JB was tighter in the bass and added nice mids and highs. It's a nicely bright pickup.

Thats good to know about the JB, my new Schecter Tempest BlackJack has JB's and 59's in it..

a JB in the bridge and '59 in the neck are a great combination, a lot of companies use that configuration on their guitars, Seymour Duncan officially recommend it as a pairing too.

The GFS '59 PAF is awesome. I was afraid that at half the output of the JB, it would be a bad match, but I was wrong. Just had to make sure that the spacing would compensate things. Surprisingly enough, they're very close in height. Thanks to my RC-2, I'll be able to make some samples either tonight or tomorrow if you're really interested.

Seeing how the only camera I own that works (damn you Nikon) is on my cellphone, just deal with the quality.



In other words, this setup > stock neck 'bucker + lace dually.

Sparky wrote: Thanks to my RC-2, I'll be able to make some samples either tonight or tomorrow if you're really interested.

Yeah, I'd love to hear the GFS and the JB in comparison. The GFS have definitely piqued my interest with the price. (the Dream 180 sounds too good to be true) That'd be quite cool to hear these in the Jagmaster since I already know what stock's like.

(But then if I don't get sniped I may end up with some hand wound humbuckers at a comparable price. It's a gamble since he seems to have just started doing them, but I'm feeling lucky. maybe. I hope...)

Ok, samples are up!

I ended up recording right into the RC-2, but it didn't sound right. I messed around with it in Audition to get it to sound similar to what it sounds like after hitting the amp EQ.

http://download.yousendit.com/A43F9C2B23F70573

Uhm, there are 3 different samples. It goes: Neck, neck + bridge out of phase, bridge for the first 2 sets, and the last sample is just the bridge pickup. I dunno why, but I love that out-of-phase sound.

The recording is a bit muddy, especially in the distorted parts. I normally run the pedal off of a daisy chain, but that's part of my pedal board, so for transfer to the computer, I'm using an old 9v battery.