Thoughts on JB + Seth Lover

[Clint 55]

Keep it. They're both flagship pups. Just marketed differently. Doubt it will sound better if you change it, just different. That's the exact kind of thing I go for with humbuckers as well even though it is somewhat non traditional, but not really.

[Mincer]

It isn't that it will pair better with the JB, it is that the EQ is different enough to provide a contrast with what you already have.

[alex1fly]

Yeah I think the best move is to leave it as is. Another jam tonight and the guitar just sounds so good. I haven't tried a Jazz but from the descriptions I can see how it might pair better with the JB than a PAF. Either way, it's kind of splitting hairs at this point. Thanks for hearing out my inner monologue.

[Mincer]

I don't know if I would switch anything out if you like what it sounds like. The best you can hope for is a sideways step, and lost time. I'd just pick up a used Jazz, and maybe a Liberator pot, so you can switch them out as you want.

[jeremy]

i have a tele with a jb bridge and seth neck and it sounds great. if you like it, then run with it and stop the second guessing and go sound like steely dan

[Calsip]

I would say the JB bridge and SL in Neck, however... I like both. So if you like it you like it? Do what you want not what us on the forum say!

[ArtieToo]

The Seth Lover is the same - super fun, lots of recognizable tones, cool variety with OD/Dist/FX etc, sounds really dang good, out of my comfort zone. And the middle position is just like heaven - sounds like Steely Dan and I sound like I know what I'm doing!

I do find myself wondering if I should trade out the Seth Lover for something else . . .

IMHO, these two statements are out of sync. If you love it, leave it.

[alex1fly]

Running out of time on the 21 day exchange window so I thought I'd put some thoughts down here to see if anything resonates.

I posted a thread a couple weeks ago about honing in a bridge pickup for a Santana SE. Got a Seth Lover, put it in, sounded great, but curiosity got the best of me and I picked up my first JB pickup and put it in the bridge position and moved the Seth Lover bridge in the neck. After several home jam sessions and recordings over several days I'm learning about these pickups and what they have to offer.

The JB is super fun and I'm finding lots of recognizable tones in there with varying levels of gain from clean to saturated. Really different than what I'm used to (Strat singles, P90s, PAFs). It'll probably stay until I feel like I've exhausted its offerings - it's my only modern/high gain voiced pickup and I'm liking that style of playing. The cleans are also really nice, somewhere between chimey and fat.

The Seth Lover is the same - super fun, lots of recognizable tones, cool variety with OD/Dist/FX etc, sounds really dang good, out of my comfort zone. And the middle position is just like heaven - sounds like Steely Dan and I sound like I know what I'm doing!

I do find myself wondering if I should trade out the Seth Lover for something else while the 21 day exchange window is open. The JB feels smooth and modern, the Seth Lover feels honky and vintage. Makes perfect sense, but it's making a mismatch in my mind. Like the guitar "should" have a neck pickup that is closer to the tonality of the JB, even though all positions sound great. Less honky, a little smoother. Or not because hey, they both sound great and all this time spent overthinking could be spent on playing

Really this is just an exercise in "should I exchange this for something less honky" or "it's a classic pickup that sounds great, embrace the honk and see what you can do with it, or try some different mods like magnets or polepieces or orientation to fine-tune". I have another week or so before the window runs out, but don't necessarily want to rush the exchange.