Coming home to the JB.....

Binnerscot

Binnerscot

New member
I just felt like reflecting on the JB for a moment.

Just about any guitar (except Fender and Gibson) came with a JB back in the day and many still do.

I alway thought it was OK, it did the job and sounded decent enough, but I always changed the pups to something like a DD, EMGs, PAFs (basically something that didn't have the nasally honk of the JB).

Ever since I got one of the new Charvel US production models, I have fallen in love with the JB/59n as the perfect combo for me! Mellow to full bore, lead and rhythm.

I now realize that all these years I just needed to remove that damned tone control and away goes the honk and in comes balance and bite...if Seymour and Co. had just put a blurb on the JB page "If the mids seem too nasally for you, just remove the tone pot from the circuit"....

...now I have a few guitars that are coming full circle back to JBs.
 
Re: Coming home to the JB.....

I've always loved the JB in my SG Junior but I had my tone controls re-wired as coil splitters years before I got the JB. I've never heard the mid spike others talk about. It is because my guitar was re-wired this way ?
 
Re: Coming home to the JB.....

I have owned and used a few JB SH- and TB-4 humbuckers over the years. I cannot say that I have had problems with a midrange "spike" but, then, I have never owned a guitar with a dirty great big lump of metal (AKA double-locking fulcrum vibrato) mounted onto the front. Maybe that has something to do with it? :D
 
Re: Coming home to the JB.....

Funkfingers said:
I have owned and used a few JB SH- and TB-4 humbuckers over the years. I cannot say that I have had problems with a midrange "spike" but, then, I have never owned a guitar with a dirty great big lump of metal (AKA double-locking fulcrum vibrato) mounted onto the front. Maybe that has something to do with it? :D
Click to expand...

...just maybe. :)
 
Re: Coming home to the JB.....

Funkfingers said:
I have owned and used a few JB SH- and TB-4 humbuckers over the years. I cannot say that I have had problems with a midrange "spike" but, then, I have never owned a guitar with a dirty great big lump of metal (AKA double-locking fulcrum vibrato) mounted onto the front. Maybe that has something to do with it? :D
Click to expand...

Ummm...no
 
Re: Coming home to the JB.....

Funkfingers said:
I have owned and used a few JB SH- and TB-4 humbuckers over the years. I cannot say that I have had problems with a midrange "spike" but, then, I have never owned a guitar with a dirty great big lump of metal (AKA double-locking fulcrum vibrato) mounted onto the front. Maybe that has something to do with it? :D
Click to expand...

I find it funny that people say that. I have two Jackson Soloists with JB's in the bridge. The Japanese one has a floating Floyd (a real one), and it sounds dark on the top end. The mids are smooth and liquid. Definitely nothing spiky about it. The USA one has a tune-O-matic bridge and sounds brighter, with very prominent mids and a lot of crunch.
 
Re: Coming home to the JB.....

Jessie Sammler said:
...and it sounds dark on the top end. The mids are smooth and liquid.
Click to expand...

That isn't too far off from what I was trying to describe, the lack of the tone control just brings a lot more life to it (I generally like a brighter response).
 
Re: Coming home to the JB.....

Binnerscot said:
I just felt like reflecting on the JB for a moment.

Just about any guitar (except Fender and Gibson) came with a JB back in the day and many still do.

I alway thought it was OK, it did the job and sounded decent enough, but I always changed the pups to something like a DD, EMGs, PAFs (basically something that didn't have the nasally honk of the JB).

Ever since I got one of the new Charvel US production models, I have fallen in love with the JB/59n as the perfect combo for me! Mellow to full bore, lead and rhythm.

I now realize that all these years I just needed to remove that damned tone control and away goes the honk and in comes balance and bite...if Seymour and Co. had just put a blurb on the JB page "If the mids seem too nasally for you, just remove the tone pot from the circuit"....

...now I have a few guitars that are coming full circle back to JBs.
Click to expand...

Is that in a hardtail? Floyd?
 
Re: Coming home to the JB.....

JBs were always too attenuated on the highs for me, personally...

riccola.jpg
 
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