Anyone else not liking Duncan JBs?

[fabien]

Or am i an exception finding them to dark, a bit dull and somewhat ´constipated´ for lack of a better word.
That one´s on a Legacy Deluxe I just bought, and it´s similar to another JB I´ve had on another guitar. Not really my taste.

They are quite creamy though with overdrive but somewhat lifeless, lack of sparkle.

Cheers
Fabien

[sam]

I have gone around with JB's, like some and others not so much. Took them out of my ASAT Deluxe (hog) and replaced with Diamrzio's but a JB in another project guitar (agathis) that seems to fit much better.

The JB is stock in the ASAT Deluxe and others seem to dig it, guess it all boils down findong the sound yer looking for.

[suave eddie]

That's a JB in the bridge position of the SC-1 in my avatar. I've always liked the sound I get out of it--but I tend to use the neck or both pickups more than the bridge alone. I also EQ the amp to the sound on the neck pickup so I'm probably starting out with a brighter sound than others who EQ to the bridge pickup to begin with.

[sam]

Eddie, you just refreshed my memory. my project has a JB in the neck and a Super Distortion in the bridge. JB in the neck is the cat daddy.

[suave eddie]

Mine's got a '59 in the neck.

[fabien]

It's mainly a question of taste, in no way would I imply that the JB is a bad pickup.

[Salmon]

I would love to know what you choose if you decide to replace it.

There definitely are flat pickups and others with sparkle whether HB's or SC's.

Sometimes a pickup comes to life in a different guitar and other times one dies a little.

[fabien]

I'm a fan of Haeussel pickups http://www.haeussel.com/. I have a set of Classics in my '76 ES345 and a set of Vin with a Blues single coil in the middle in my deGier custom made. Haeussel pups are standard in most Nick Huber guitars.
So I'll most certainly go for either a Vin alnico5 like I have or a Vin+ alnico5. Leosounds would be an option as well as a Bare Knuckles Mule as I've had a Mule once in the deGier and liked it a lot too. That's because I tend to look at european builders first, but a Lollar, Amalfitano or even a Duncan 59 would do as well. Though I would have to do some research to get the right one as I don't know their offering that well.

[SouthpawGuy]

I like the JB, I have them in a Legacy HB, 2HB and Deluxe, an Invader Plus and an ASAT Deluxe semi hollow. I'm not a fan though of thin sounding pickups, single coil or humbuckers.

[SamIV]

I like mine which is mounted in an S-500 that I have. I have a JB in the bridge and a Jazz in the neck. A bit darker than other pickups I have, but I like it. It sounds great with a little overdrive. Clean, I have other pickups that I like as much or better. Does not mean you should like it though. Listen to it in the video below, sounds quite good to me.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjM4C6njY38

[fabien]

I like mine which is mounted in an S-500 that I have. I have a JB in the bridge and a Jazz in the neck. A bit darker than other pickups I have, but I like it. It sounds great with a little overdrive. Clean, I have other pickups that I like as much or better. Does not mean you should like it though. Listen to it in the video below, sounds quite good to me.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjM4C6njY38

Sure it does. but it's just me, I prefer some more sparkle.

[Fumble fingers]

I bought my ASAT Deluxe just for the SD's .... I needed a fat sounding G&L and got it ...... as far as a favorite pick up I switch back and forth a lot but the SD's are the fattest sound I got by far , short of my LP

[Boogie Bill]

I have them in my ASAT Deluxe, and I can understand why you feel they don't sparkle. With the 250K pots, they are very mid-rangey; I think very good for rock--but without any twang. The Burstbucker 1 & 2s in my LP Historics twang like a beefy Tele pickup, but they don't have the focused mid-range of the TB-4.

You might try the Duncan Pearly Gates--I think they make a Trem-bucker version, and the PG should have a little more sparkle and a little less output. You could also try going with 500K pots to see if you get the sparkle you want from the TB-4. A vintage sounding Seth Lover would be interesting too.

Bill

[fabien]

You could also try going with 500K pots to see if you get the sparkle you want from the TB-4.

Yes I could indeed, but then the single coils would get too bright and I would have to mess with the circuit even more to introduce resistors on both SCs for them to see 250KOhm.
And when I had the JB in my other guitar it was with a 500K pot and I was still not fond of the tone.

I'll probably try with a pickup swap first.

Fabien

[jayochs]

i used to like the JB when i didn't know much about pickups, really. it sounded good in a custom fat strat i made, but when i bought my Parker with a duncan hot rod set in it, i find that without using an OD pedal in front of my Marshall JCM2000, it's way too muddy. it's just too like, thick, but not thick in a good way. I run an OD in front to get a really good chugging sound out of palm muting that you really can't get w/o it.

that pickup compared to the cheap G&L Jerry Cantrell custom wound Alnico V in my Rampage is night and day. the Rampage pickup is so damn hot that on clean channel, it clips like crazy...but when i'm using gain, i can't use an OD in front of it because it's just got so much chug to it and sounds so badass.

i even think the Alnico V in my ASAT Deluxe sounds better than the JB in my Parker. eh, i think I'm over Duncan pickups. I wanna try something new.

[fabien]

Swapping pickups and trying different makes and models is fun, and nowadays the offer is large and varied and the quality is outstanding.
I would never even dream of swapping pups in my Suhr or my CS Strat, those are just perfect. Since my custom made was... well... custom made I chose the pickups to start with so it has seen various pickups. I started with all Duncans, Jazz neck standard strat middle and JB bridge. The middle pup went first very quickly, too shrill but probably due to the 500K vol pot and made way for a Haeussel Blues, a darker pup that fits nicely with the 500k pot.
Then the JB was next to go, great OD but too muddy and compressed clean. I tried first an old Gibson pup I had that sounds great but is not potted so it squeals quite quickly. Then I had a Bare Knuckles Mule for some years and now a set of Haeussel Vin that are perfect for this guitar.
I also swapped the original pups in my '74 ES345, they had become somewhat anemic, especially the bridge. I put a set of Haeussel Classics.

After playing my Legacy for about a month now I actually start to dislike the JB less. It fits in that guitar and for what I use it, it has a great OD, nice for fusion. Cleans are still uninspiring but split is surprisingly good with more sparkle. The two G&L single coils alnico are absolutely stunning, like for my strat and Suhr they are there to stay!

Fabien

[GeorgeB]

I think the JB is absolutely a great pickup for rock in a bright power Strat like my Invader, ash body, maple neck and all. With other guitars, acoustically darker sounding ones and with shorter scale length (Gibson, PRS) I find it too dark/mid-heavy... unless when wired in parallel mode. Usually I have a switch or push/pull installed to select series and parallel (or split coil).

But my favorite SD pup, by a large margin, is the Pearly Gates, both neck and bridge models.

[jayochs]

I think the JB is absolutely a great pickup for rock in a bright power Strat like my Invader, ash body, maple neck and all. With other guitars, acoustically darker sounding ones and with shorter scale length (Gibson, PRS) I find it too dark/mid-heavy... unless when wired in parallel mode. Usually I have a switch or push/pull installed to select series and parallel (or split coil).

But my favorite SD pup, by a large margin, is the Pearly Gates, both neck and bridge models.

see, that's weird, bc mine is in a parker of all guitars..and they weigh like 7 lbs lol. maple neck, too. not sure of the body. but yeah, way too muddy for me. good for like bluesey rock, but i don't like how it palm mutes.

[john o]

i put a duncan '59 paf in the neck position and a JB in the bridge position of my korean made cherry red epi dot 335 about 10 years ago.
the original epi-buckers sounded cool and funky through my practice amp at lower volumes, but when playing with the band they just died in midair.
The duncans really expanded the tonal spectrum of the dot, but i do have to make some dramatic changes in the EQ of my amp to make it sound good - this IS attainable though. the '59 is pretty creamy, and gets to anything jazz, and some colorful bassy blues solos. The JB is pretty high output, breaks up in a complex way through my marshall's overdrive channels, and if i'm picky about the number of strings i play in a chord voicing, and mute properly with the right hand, i can coax some pretty magical stuff out of. so moral, out of the box maybe not so satisfying, but with the right recipe and trimmin's, pretty rewarding!

[MAP70]

I have some Wilde Pickups (Bill Lawrence) that I like alot...

http://www.wildepickups.com/