80's JBJ JB

LLL

LLL

New member
I've had an 80's JBJ-stickered JB sitting around collecting dust for over 2 decades... no longer.

Whipped up a quick strat pickguard with just this JB and a Bourns 500K pot (.001uF bright cap)... no tone control!

Slapped loaded pickguard into my strat et voila!

How bout some multitrack RATT? Intro is guitar volume turned down low. Sorry, no click track or drumbeat to pace myself by...



and some Q-ryche

 
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Re: 80's JBJ JB

My favorite pickup back in the day was a JBJ TB-4. It measured around 17k, and sounded awesome for anything.
 
Re: 80's JBJ JB

I know everyone has love for all things vintage because of their awesomeness vs the newer not as good same thing...

Can anyone legitimately tell me what is different about an 80's one wound by MJ? And please don't include MJ as part of the equation. Anyone at Duncan wind an MJ to spec. Been there, seen it.

Not saying there isn't - just skeptical...
 
Re: 80's JBJ JB

To my ears its the magnet and the steel material for the slugs, screws and maybe keeper bar.
 
Re: 80's JBJ JB

Aceman said:
I know everyone has love for all things vintage because of their awesomeness vs the newer not as good same thing...

Can anyone legitimately tell me what is different about an 80's one wound by MJ? And please don't include MJ as part of the equation. Anyone at Duncan wind an MJ to spec. Been there, seen it.

Not saying there isn't - just skeptical...
Click to expand...

Got a JBL - similar era to the JBJ, just different winder and recently got an ESP with a newer JB. They both sound..........awesome. Couldn't say one is 'better'. One thing about the older more beaten up one is it has that played in mojo. I think as guitarists played in mojo and 'feel' counts for a lot, hence popularity of vintage reliced stuff. If it has mojo and inspires you then that probably counts for something for the player. Can the audience hear any difference...........er..........maybe not so much.
 
Re: 80's JBJ JB

Of course the whole "wound by so-and-so sounds better than the others" is a bunch of bullhockey but people carry on the myth.

I'm happy to know I have a pickup that will at least keep its value (or more) should I ever decide to sell it (which I won't).

Still, I'd give overall creedence and professionalism to certain winders due to their longevity in the biz.

Fender's Abigail Ybarra = Seymour Duncan's Maricela Juarez and vice versa.
 
Re: 80's JBJ JB

So this pickup... since I hadn't played it in decades (it was my go-to replacement humbucker back in my "glory days"), I wasn't sure what it would sound like.

And now that my ears are so much more attuned to frequencies at this age vs. youth, here's what I'm hearing -

This is not a scooped pickup. It's actually pretty warm and has a slight nasal "honk" to it.

Compressed but not to the point of zero dynamics...

The low end is there but not as prominent as the SH-5 (my current fave)... squishy, too. For an A5 mag anyways...

And it's got that upper mid bite!

1.2KHz area seems prominent as well as 6KHz (works great with SM57's hi-mid spike)

It plays/feels hotter than the SH-5 (because it is); I can definitely tell the difference. But not a ton more.

Cleans up decent (not as good as SH-5) enough to pass for "turn down volume knob for sorta-cleans".

Awesome pickup and definitely unique. Think "warm crunch"...

I'm running mine with no tone pot through essentially (my mods) a cranked '68 50W Marshall plexi... no problem with overbearing treble at all...
in fact, it works beautifully.
 
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Re: 80's JBJ JB

Aceman said:
I know everyone has love for all things vintage because of their awesomeness vs the newer not as good same thing...

Can anyone legitimately tell me what is different about an 80's one wound by MJ? And please don't include MJ as part of the equation. Anyone at Duncan wind an MJ to spec. Been there, seen it.

Not saying there isn't - just skeptical...
Click to expand...

That JBJ was one of the first pickups I got. Pretty sure I swapped a Screamin Demon that was the first one I bought for it. That pickup went into at least half a dozen or more guitars over the course of about 3 or 4 years. I foolishly traded it, then obtained a newer JB (early 2000's) shortly thereafter. Going into several of the same guitars, it did NOT sound the same. Given that this was 12 or 13 years ago, I don't remember all the specifics, but I distinctly remember being really bummed out with the newer pickup, and how it did not feel like the same pickup.

Definitely understand the skepticism, and had it not been for first hand experience, I'd be standing on your side of this.

I'll also note that I'm not saying JBJs are better than other JBs, but rather one particular trem-spaced JBJ I owned was, to my ears, way better than a newer JB I owned afterward.
 
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Re: 80's JBJ JB

LLL said:
Of course the whole "wound by so-and-so sounds better than the others" is a bunch of bullhockey but people carry on the myth.

I'm happy to know I have a pickup that will at least keep its value (or more) should I ever decide to sell it (which I won't).

Still, I'd give overall creedence and professionalism to certain winders due to their longevity in the biz.

Fender's Abigail Ybarra = Seymour Duncan's Maricela Juarez and vice versa.
Click to expand...

Dunno about MJ humbuckers, but Fender CS's AY singles are good stuff...
 
Re: 80's JBJ JB

LLL said:
So this pickup... since I hadn't played it in decades (it was my go-to replacement humbucker back in my "glory days"), I wasn't sure what it would sound like.

And now that my ears are so much more attuned to frequencies at this age vs. youth, here's what I'm hearing -

This is not a scooped pickup. It's actually pretty warm and has a slight nasal "honk" to it.

Compressed but not to the point of zero dynamics...

The low end is there but not as prominent as the SH-5 (my current fave)... squishy, too. For an A5 mag anyways...

And it's got that upper mid bite!

1.2KHz area seems prominent as well as 6KHz (works great with SM57's hi-mid spike)

It plays/feels hotter than the SH-5 (because it is); I can definitely tell the difference. But not a ton more.

Cleans up decent (not as good as SH-5) enough to pass for "turn down volume knob for sorta-cleans".

Awesome pickup and definitely unique. Think "warm crunch"...

I'm running mine with no tone pot through essentially (my mods) a cranked '68 50W Marshall plexi... no problem with overbearing treble at all...
in fact, it works beautifully.
Click to expand...

That would describe a JB. I think a lot of people would say that from this description alone....
 
Re: 80's JBJ JB

SO, I don't want to sound like a "cork sniffer" here with this statement, but the old JB's DO sounds different, cant say sound "better", but they are a different beast. Modern JB's from the late 90s or so onward that i have used seem to be pretty muddy with very little articulation. Older JB's i have used are definitely better in those departments. Can't attribute it to a given winder or not but i WILL say that most all the MJ wound pickups i own sound amazing no matter what model they are.
 
Re: 80's JBJ JB

STLMTLHD79 said:
SO, I don't want to sound like a "cork sniffer" here with this statement, but the old JB's DO sounds different, cant say sound "better", but they are a different beast. Modern JB's from the late 90s or so onward that i have used seem to be pretty muddy with very little articulation. Older JB's i have used are definitely better in those departments. Can't attribute it to a given winder or not but i WILL say that most all the MJ wound pickups i own sound amazing no matter what model they are.
Click to expand...

+1. Mine are notably different. I will say my old one is better, or more accurately, the old one is very usable clean to distorted, the new one is only usable for a specific kind of distortion and not much else.

A former SD employee once posted a detailed explanation of construction differences that might have contributed to the sonic differences, but I’d have to dig up the post.
 
Re: 80's JBJ JB

I think the difference is the magnets. It was not until the last few years that so much attention was paid to magnet formulas, and so whoever Duncan was using at the time of three initial stickers had a pretty good batch of magnets. Who can really say without knowing who the suppliers were over the years or even if the same recipe was used.

Everything affects everything but the mojo in any pickup is the magnet
 
Re: 80's JBJ JB

In my opinion, Ayrton hit the nail on the head. I've owned dozens of vintage JB's, including many "JBJ"s and a handful from the very first couple of years.

I can't tell any significant difference between an early "JBJ" and an early "JBL" (in fact, my favorite JB of all time was a "JBL" wound by Lydia Daniels, not MJ), but there is a discernible difference between an early-'80s, big-logo baseplate JB and the later '90s-2000s models.

I, too, believe it comes down to magnet composition followed (possibly) by screw/slug composition and suppliers changing in the 1980s.

There's also a small difference between the earliest roughcast magnet versions of the JB (first year production through '82 or so) and the polished mag versions that immediately followed.

All versions "sound like a JB", but some really do have a more complex and dynamic character.

That said, the particular guitar any JB is in can make a sizable difference.
 
Re: 80's JBJ JB

Another difference noted from a former SD employee was the butyrate bobbins being softer and squeezing inward under wind pressure, which if I recall correctly, affected the treble response. It was a while ago, so I’ll have to find the original post.
 
Re: 80's JBJ JB

Ayrton said:
I think the difference is the magnets. It was not until the last few years that so much attention was paid to magnet formulas, and so whoever Duncan was using at the time of three initial stickers had a pretty good batch of magnets. Who can really say without knowing who the suppliers were over the years or even if the same recipe was used.

Everything affects everything but the mojo in any pickup is the magnet
Click to expand...

Was it the fact they used rough-cast mags or were the mags sourced from a certain country/supplier? I know they are all now smooth cast but are they now made in China?
 
Re: 80's JBJ JB

I remember discussions about this some years back about this. IIRC, it was found to be due to the magnet used, rough-cast vs smooth. That would definitely have an affect on the sound/feel of the pickup.
 
Re: 80's JBJ JB

STLMTLHD79 said:
SO, I don't want to sound like a "cork sniffer" here with this statement, but the old JB's DO sounds different, cant say sound "better", but they are a different beast. Modern JB's from the late 90s or so onward that i have used seem to be pretty muddy with very little articulation. Older JB's i have used are definitely better in those departments. Can't attribute it to a given winder or not but i WILL say that most all the MJ wound pickups i own sound amazing no matter what model they are.
Click to expand...

Muddy with little articulation sounds like a good description of the JB I had (and killed trying to swap magnet with an A3 btw). Funny thing is a friend of mine, who plays a strat I sold him, found an old JB used, and put it on that same strat.
My JB never sounded like that, there was a "breath" to it and an harmonic complexity mine never had. I tried with the degauss thing, and tweaked the screw poles quite a lot. Things improved, but still not there.
Of course the guy wont sell me the pickup no matter what.
 
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