Hey! First time poster here – I hope everyone is staying safe!
I just wanted to share my recent experience with a JB in the bridge position of a LP style geetar.
TL;DR: The stock pole pieces of a JB contribute to how bright the tone is; swapping them significantly changed it for me.
I have an uncovered JB with an alnico 2 in the bridge of my LP Traditional Pro 2 Gold Top, and I love it. That's my main axe, it has been heavily modded to do and sound exactly like I would want it to.
I bought a second hand Chibson pretty cheaply from someone who didn't have the know-how to put in the work to make it play. It's a downright stunning looking guitar, but came with the issues you'd expect from a Chibson. With a couple tweaks of the truss rod, and the neck was straight, and my leveling beam took care of the fret issues. After putting in a properly cut nut and an affordable Wilkinson TOM, this thing plays great!
Even though it now felt wonderful, the tone was garbage with the stock pickups. Naturally, I went for another bridge JB, given how much I love it in my LP Traditional. Because aesthetics matter more than we care to admit, I put gold covers on all 3 pickups in the Chibson, and it looks perrrrty. The JB had chrome pole pieces, so I bought a set of replacement gold pole pieces from Philadelphia Luthiers to swap them out and match the pole pieces to the covers.
I wired her up and got ready to chug-a-lug, but much to my surprise, the Chibson sounded DARK and MUDDY as all hell, as if there were a blanket over the amp. It didn't even have the JB's treaded nasally upper mids that prompted my to swap the alnico 5 for the alnico 2 in my LP Trad! I moved to 1meg pots, and even though there was more treble, it was still a mudfest. I made the tone pot no-load, so it was truly a full 1M of resistance that the pickups were seeing in the circuit, and again – improvement, but still not enough top end at all. I took the gold cover off the JB, and again, there was a slight improvement, but it STILL. HAD. NO. TREBLE.
I was frankly pretty irritated. Did I get a dud JB or something? I got it surprisingly cheaply, marked as "open box," but could it have been damaged somehow? I put the original chrome pole pieces back in with the intention of returning it to the seller, and then BAM! The high end came back!
I have no idea what the composition of the stock JB's pole pieces are, or the after market pole pieces I bought, but they definitely made an appreciable tonal difference in the pup. In this case, I'd say the change was on par with a dramatic, ceramic-to-A3 type magnet swap.
Just my experience, thought I'd share, and ask if anyone else has noticed this. Thanks!
I just wanted to share my recent experience with a JB in the bridge position of a LP style geetar.
TL;DR: The stock pole pieces of a JB contribute to how bright the tone is; swapping them significantly changed it for me.
I have an uncovered JB with an alnico 2 in the bridge of my LP Traditional Pro 2 Gold Top, and I love it. That's my main axe, it has been heavily modded to do and sound exactly like I would want it to.
I bought a second hand Chibson pretty cheaply from someone who didn't have the know-how to put in the work to make it play. It's a downright stunning looking guitar, but came with the issues you'd expect from a Chibson. With a couple tweaks of the truss rod, and the neck was straight, and my leveling beam took care of the fret issues. After putting in a properly cut nut and an affordable Wilkinson TOM, this thing plays great!
Even though it now felt wonderful, the tone was garbage with the stock pickups. Naturally, I went for another bridge JB, given how much I love it in my LP Traditional. Because aesthetics matter more than we care to admit, I put gold covers on all 3 pickups in the Chibson, and it looks perrrrty. The JB had chrome pole pieces, so I bought a set of replacement gold pole pieces from Philadelphia Luthiers to swap them out and match the pole pieces to the covers.
I wired her up and got ready to chug-a-lug, but much to my surprise, the Chibson sounded DARK and MUDDY as all hell, as if there were a blanket over the amp. It didn't even have the JB's treaded nasally upper mids that prompted my to swap the alnico 5 for the alnico 2 in my LP Trad! I moved to 1meg pots, and even though there was more treble, it was still a mudfest. I made the tone pot no-load, so it was truly a full 1M of resistance that the pickups were seeing in the circuit, and again – improvement, but still not enough top end at all. I took the gold cover off the JB, and again, there was a slight improvement, but it STILL. HAD. NO. TREBLE.
I was frankly pretty irritated. Did I get a dud JB or something? I got it surprisingly cheaply, marked as "open box," but could it have been damaged somehow? I put the original chrome pole pieces back in with the intention of returning it to the seller, and then BAM! The high end came back!
I have no idea what the composition of the stock JB's pole pieces are, or the after market pole pieces I bought, but they definitely made an appreciable tonal difference in the pup. In this case, I'd say the change was on par with a dramatic, ceramic-to-A3 type magnet swap.
Just my experience, thought I'd share, and ask if anyone else has noticed this. Thanks!
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