26 Year Old JB Losing Output And Freq Response?

[Dejoblue]

Have an old '87 Kramer with a JB, haven't played it forever. I have gotten used to the sound of my Carvin CT6 with a Custom Custom in the bridge. I pulled out the Kramer to get more high gain for some metallica riffage and it just seems to be flubby. It definitely doesn't have more output than the CC.

Here are sound clips:





They are both wired exactly the same, I rewired them about 4 years ago.
Both are set to 2mm from the strings with the last fret held down on treble and bass sides.

Am I just used to the CC or is something going on here? Is it just how the JB sounds?
Thanks for your help.

[AlexR]

Re: 26 Year Old JB Losing Output And Freq Response?

Technically the JB isn't hotter than the CC.

The wire gauges are different between them...the JB has a thinner wire which reads a higher resistance than the fatter wire given equal length. The ratio is about 20%....so you need to have a pickup that reads 20% higher to get the same output. Things get more complicated once it hits the amp and the various tube overdrive/distortions which occur. Some pickups will seem louder just because they produce more of a frequency that our ears are sensitive to.

So if you wound the JB with the same amount of wire, but with the thicker gauge it would be 13.6K. The Customs are in the mid 14s I think.

What I think is more likely is that you are so used to the Carvin and have eq'd your amp to make this one shine. Now you plug in the Kramer, and the sound you are used to hearing just isn't there. The strong JB mids frequencies has been dialled down to let the thicker CC shine.

[AudioWonderland]

Re: 26 Year Old JB Losing Output And Freq Response?

Which clip is which? I would work on the tuning/intonation. That's a far bigger issue than the differences in those pickups in those clips

[zenmindbeginner]

Re: 26 Year Old JB Losing Output And Freq Response?

The Carvin's slightly shorter scale length, set neck construction, mahogany body and neck with ebony fingerboard is imparting some extra warmth and low midrange that your Kramer isn't.

The Kramer is most likely maple body, maple neck with bolt on construction and 25.5" scale length and isn't imparting any warmth to the guitar.

And like AlexR said, 14K of 43AWG surely competes volume-wise with 16K of 44AWG and might even be a little stronger in it's volume & presence... nobody ever bought the JB for it's low midrange presence, it's a high midrange sort of pickup.

The Custom Custom is thick with lots of bloom but the JB is all edge and cut... they're not anywhere near the same ballpark sonically.

[Dejoblue]

Re: 26 Year Old JB Losing Output And Freq Response?

Ok that makes sense guys because I have been cranking up the midrange on the amp to cut through with the CC and now the JB is just odd sounding from what I remember.