How much difference does angling pickup make?

DeadandBuried

DeadandBuried

New member
I'm going to be putting a JB SH-4 humbucker in the bridge of my Strat. Only cos I wanna play Green Day songs lol, most noticeably the Dookie album. I had the JB Jnr but I don't like the sound of it.

I notice Billie Joe has his JB angled, so just wanted to know if this makes much of a difference to the sound? If I get a pickguard which is straight for the bridge pickup I'll still be in the right ballpark right? (I'd need a modded Marshall plexi anyway to get "the Dookie sound").
 
Re: How much difference does angling pickup make?

People do it more for reasons of spacing than to get a diff. sound. I’d grab a trem-spaced pickup and avoid angling.
 
Re: How much difference does angling pickup make?

I swear people do it because Van Halen did it. It might add a bit of treble, but nothing you couldn't get from your amp.
 
Re: How much difference does angling pickup make?

A JB is going to sound like a JB regardless of how much you angle it. Dialing the right settings on your amp is going to be more important to you here.
 
Re: How much difference does angling pickup make?

Somebody correct me if I’m wrong but I remember reading that makers began angling pickups to more closely match the pickup poles to the string spacing. Back when Floyd’s we introduced there weren’t any F spaced pickups then and the angle helped get the poles closer in alignment.
 
Re: How much difference does angling pickup make?

Mincer said:
I swear people do it because Van Halen did it. It might add a bit of treble, but nothing you couldn't get from your amp.
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Ed did most likely because 2 reasons:

#1 Makes it square with single coil route; Just carve out one more coil
#2 Make pole pieces line up/fit when using PAF with Strat

Never felt the need honestly.
 
Re: How much difference does angling pickup make?

Silence Kid said:
People do it more for reasons of spacing than to get a diff. sound. I’d grab a trem-spaced pickup and avoid angling.
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I'm originally going for a H/S/S pickguard but the bridge slot will be straight. I'm not replicating his guitar cos I'm still using the single coils in the neck and middle.
 
Re: How much difference does angling pickup make?

Chistopher said:
A JB is going to sound like a JB regardless of how much you angle it. Dialing the right settings on your amp is going to be more important to you here.
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So nothing to do with the lower strings sounded less spikey cos the pick up is in a different position?
 
Re: How much difference does angling pickup make?

Aceman said:
Ed did most likely because 2 reasons:

#1 Makes it square with single coil route; Just carve out one more coil
#2 Make pole pieces line up/fit when using PAF with Strat

Never felt the need honestly.
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I think that is totally why he did it. But everyone else did it because he did.
 
Re: How much difference does angling pickup make?

DeadandBuried said:
So nothing to do with the lower strings sounded less spikey cos the pick up is in a different position?
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They will, but it will be a subtle difference. If your issue with the JB is a spikey sound, you might want to transition to a Perpetual Burn in the bridge, which can be described as a less spikey JB.
 
Re: How much difference does angling pickup make?

Chistopher said:
They will, but it will be a subtle difference. If your issue with the JB is a spikey sound, you might want to transition to a Perpetual Burn in the bridge, which can be described as a less spikey JB.
Click to expand...

I don't know how my Strat will react to the JB SH-4. I know with a JB Jnr it was weak and lacked any power.
 
Re: How much difference does angling pickup make?

The PB is a fair bit more balanced than the JB and has more power than the JB Jr., which while it tries it's best to sound like the full sized version, is lower output and gives a thinner tone.
 
Re: How much difference does angling pickup make?

Basically the tone I want is in this vid from 0.11 to 0.17 seconds!


Obviously a large proportion comes from his modded Marshall heads but to get into the same ballpark would be good enough.
 
Re: How much difference does angling pickup make?

That’s a pretty standard boosted Marshall sound. What amp are you playing now?
 
Re: How much difference does angling pickup make?

Not sure if it’s been asked already but what about this time are you not getting with your current setup?
A friend of mine has the DSL40c and that amp can absolutely get this tone, I’d imagine yours can too?
 
Re: How much difference does angling pickup make?

Gtrjunior said:
Not sure if it’s been asked already but what about this time are you not getting with your current setup?
A friend of mine has the DSL40c and that amp can absolutely get this tone, I’d imagine yours can too?
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Yeah to be honest its mostly going to be for home playing. I will be getting a Kemper at some point so I'm pretty sure there'll be a patch on there to get that sound.

But for now its a DSL5c! There's no crunch setting on there though to get that grit without it being overly distorted. Used to own a JCM2000 which you could push the button in on the clean channel to give it an extra gain stage. That would have been ideal but I sold the amp!
 
Re: How much difference does angling pickup make?

DeadandBuried said:
Yeah to be honest its mostly going to be for home playing. I will be getting a Kemper at some point so I'm pretty sure there'll be a patch on there to get that sound.

But for now its a DSL5c! There's no crunch setting on there though to get that grit without it being overly distorted. Used to own a JCM2000 which you could push the button in on the clean channel to give it an extra gain stage. That would have been ideal but I sold the amp!
Click to expand...

I wonder if a clean boost or a mild OD pedal might get you the extra push you need?
Plus yeah, the right pickup as well.
Was Billie Joe using a JB?
I’m a Greenday fan but I really don’t know much about his rig.
 
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