A2 JB and 59N

Hsb

Hsb

Well-known member
Ive always liked the idea of what an A2 brings to the party, so sat down Friday eve and swapped out the A5 dor RC A2sin both a JB and a 59n I have in my LTD M1000.

59n I think is a definite improvement for me, really like the sweetness it adds to the pickup. Need to do a bit more tweaking to get it just right, between height and amp/modler settings.

JB, I think I like it, need to spend more time with it. It does lessen that mid hump that everyone either loves or hates. I need to play with the pickup a bit more and tweak it a bit before deciding to keep it pr swap back to the og A5. It does bring some 80s goodness to the party.
 
I love the A2 JB and 59n. They're super fat. I didn't find that A2 lessens the mids in the JB, it just shifts em down a bit.
 
I've always been curious about the RTM, but I'm not sure I'd dig what A2 would do to the JB. The JB is already stuffy in the low mids as it is stock, and it doesn't have all that much going on high up either.
 
The JB2 is pretty popular. Tames the spikes grating high, keeps the mid punch, and softens the bass a little. 2 out of three ain't bad...
 
My JB/A2 is definitely different from both my newer production JB and my old Seymour-JB. My JB/A2 sounds like a really loud Whole Lotta Humbucker.
 
Aceman said:
The JB2 is pretty popular. Tames the spikes grating high, keeps the mid punch, and softens the bass a little. 2 out of three ain't bad...
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the bass on a standard JB are not the punchiest of the bunch, still I have to try one of these days this comb, I have a JB in the drawer piling dust
 
Nearly every JB combo is covered thru the Custom Shop and well known. The JB2 is part of Seymours personal guitar called the Concept Set. I own two JBJ and one of them was my testfield. In the wildest times i used a JB alnico 8 in the bridge with a JB alnico3 in the neck. Up to now is the 35th anniversary JB is my favorite blend of typical JB sounds with less spikes. It uses an unoriented A5 as magnet.
 
Has the internet hivemind reached a consensus as to whether or not "roughcast" is a reliable designation for a magnet? I personally have tried a roughcast and sintered cast A2 from the same source, both of which were polished, and couldn't determine a meaningful difference
 
Chistopher said:
Has the internet hivemind reached a consensus as to whether or not "roughcast" is a reliable designation for a magnet? I personally have tried a roughcast and sintered cast A2 from the same source, both of which were polished, and couldn't determine a meaningful difference
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If it was "polished", then it WASN'T roughcast.
 
GuitarDoc said:
If it was "polished", then it WASN'T roughcast.
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Well you can polish any magnet, regardless of how it's made. The roughcast magnet is clearly rough on the sides and clearly polished on the top. The polished magnets have a slightly lighter tint on the faces. These were from Stanford (not Sanford) Magnets. They were leftovers from a magnetism experiment at work and were slightly thicker but shorter than a standard humbucker pickup.
 
Chistopher said:
Well you can polish any magnet, regardless of how it's made. The roughcast magnet is clearly rough on the sides and clearly polished on the top. The polished magnets have a slightly lighter tint on the faces. These were from Stanford (not Sanford) Magnets. They were leftovers from a magnetism experiment at work and were slightly thicker but shorter than a standard humbucker pickup.
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For the purposes of guitar pickups and magnets made for guitar pickup applications, roughcast remain rough when installed and polished are polished before install. So what you had were not magnets manufactured for guitar pickups, ergo a different definition, apparently.
 
I guess, but the means of manufacture makes a much bigger difference than the surface of the magnet. Sintered has slightly weaker magnetism as a trade off for cheaper production and stronger mechanical properties. Polishing the magnet doesn't change that
 
Chistopher said:
I guess, but the means of manufacture makes a much bigger difference than the surface of the magnet. Sintered has slightly weaker magnetism as a trade off for cheaper production and stronger mechanical properties. Polishing the magnet doesn't change that
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Both have their place and their effects on tone are slightly different.
Polishing the magnet may not have much of an effect on a sintered mag, but it will completely change the effect of roughcasting a mag.
 
More on-topic...I haven't found that changing to any magnet in a JB has much effect on it's basic sound. Not worth the trouble. (Actually, it's not worth the trouble to even install a JB). :bigthumb: :biglaugh: :laugh2:
 
If I ever get to the point that I'm focusing this much on whether the magnet in my pickup is sintered, roughcast, half-roughcast, or polished, you guys will be AMAZED at my ability to play. It'll be so good that I won't even need a band, because in that context, this discussion doesn't even slightly matter.
 
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