Custom Custom or JB II?

[Benjy_26]

Hello all.

I finally received a pair of baseplates in order to build my own Nighthawk bridge pickups.

I had a Custom Custom and a Ghetto-Holdsworth (Two JB screw coils, Alnico II mag) in my parts drawer and now I need to decide which to try first in my Epi Nighthawk Custom RI.

For reference, the neck is a SM-1n, the middle is a Sentell S35 single (alnico V, 7.5k) and I'm using standard strat switching witht 500k pots and a push pull to split the bridge.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Custom Custom or JB II?

 

[Aceman]

Re: Custom Custom or JB II?

What are you doing/playing with this guitar? Styistically....

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Custom Custom or JB II?

This is my general purpose guitar, I guess. Everything from pop-country to classic rock to 90's and early 2000's alternative rock. So, it needs to get a bit of twang sometimes, needs to have sweet cleans from the neck, and the ability to do chunky rythms and midrangey leads in full humbucker mode.

 

[Mr. B]

Re: Custom Custom or JB II?

If you have them both assembled, why would you not try them both? The JBA2 remided me of Jake E Lee, and the CC reminds me of EVH.... if that helps.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Custom Custom or JB II?

Oh...they will both be tried!

I'm just having a hard time deciding which to throw in first.

 

[Jeff_H]

Re: Custom Custom or JB II?

I think the CC covers far more stylistic ground than the JB will. The CC is a great bridge pickup and my favorite out of all the Custom products or hotter pickups.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Custom Custom or JB II?

I'd pick the Custom Custom every time. The JB2, btw, doesn't really sound much like Holdsworth, as he was using a 59n in the bridge for many years. He might have used a JB2 in the early 80s for a little while.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Custom Custom or JB II?

Well, I learned something today.

The Epi Nighthawk Custom RI pickup ring has an opening that is too small for a Trembucker to fit. Due to this, I've been limited to the JB2 pickup. I'll let y'all know how it works out in this guitar.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Custom Custom or JB II?

I'm not really feeling the CC in there. This is not a flooded super-strat....pretty close to Les Paul territory so I say JB2 anyway.

Honestly, neither of those would be my first choice.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Custom Custom or JB II?

I'm not really feeling the CC in there. This is not a flooded super-strat....pretty close to Les Paul territory so I say JB2 anyway.

Honestly, neither of those would be my first choice.

It's what I had laying about, so it got thrown in. First imoression is that the JB2 mixes fairly well with the middle when split and has a big bump in volume when in full 'bucker mode. It's got an almost chirpy initial attack and a pretty big, if a little loose bottom end when pushing distoelrtion. This is at low vol7me through a practice amp, though.