Re: How old is the JB?
Here's a press release that just went out about the 30th Anniversary of the JB. I hope it helps.
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In 1974, a twenty-something American blues guitarist named Seymour W. Duncan was burning it up in London’s bars and clubs by night. During days, he performed guitar repair for Ivor Arbiter at the Fender Sound House on Tottenham Court Road. It was during those days that Seymour struck up a friendship with his all-time guitar hero, Jeff Beck.
After Jeff’s assistant sent his favorite Les Paul® to a shady repairman who switched out the P.A.F.’s for newer, squealing, pickups, Jeff came to Seymour for help and advice. Seymour repaired Jeff’s Les Paul, and then set about creating a special guitar for Jeff with a pair of pickups that would capture Jeff’s amazing ability to coax a wide range of tones out of his axe. The result was a guitar that Seymour gave to Jeff as a gift. The body and neck were clearly Telecaster®. But the pickups were two re-wound humbuckers made from broken P.A.F.s Seymour rescued from a destroyed Flying V® previously owned by Lonnie Mack. Seymour called the guitar a “Tele-Gib,” and nicknamed the bridge pickup “JB” and the neck pickup “JM,” after the hot rod racer, “John Milner,” in the classic film, American Graffiti. (Eventually, “JM” would change to “Jazz Model,” which is what it’s called today.) Jeff used the Tele-Gib on his amazing 1975 release, Blow By Blow, where it gained notoriety for the haunting volume swells heard on “Cause We've Ended As Lovers,” which Jeff dedicated to Roy Buchanan. Interestingly, it was Seymour who introduced Jeff to Roy a few months prior.
The JB bridge pickup became very popular, very quick. Soon, many of England’s top guitarists, including more than a few legendary names, sought out Seymour’s “JB Mod” for their guitars. They found that the JB gave increased output (16.4K Ohms) without sounding harsh or dark, like other high-output pickups of the mid-‘70s owing to special Alnico magnet. When Seymour returned to the USA the next year, his reputation as a pickup designer and the JB’s reputation as a great pickup preceded him. And the rest was history.
In traditional marketing study, products generally have a life cycle with a period of growth, followed by maturity and eventually decline. However, the life cycle of the JB flies in the face of traditional marketing. Year-after-year, for the last 30 years, it has continued to gain in popularity, easily garnering its spot as both the oldest and the most popular Seymour Duncan pickup. Nowadays, the JB can be heard on recordings by such diverse rock bands as 311, Allman Bros. Band, Bad Religion, Garbage, Kings X, Megadeth, Motorhead, Sevendust, and Static X; Country recordings by the likes of Trisha Yearwood, Kentucky Headhunters, Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney, and Reba McIntire; and pop acts such as Jessica Simpson, Bee Gees, and Shania Twain.
According to England’s Guitarist magazine, "[Y]ou really can't beat the beefy tone of a genuine Duncan JB. Not for nothing is this humbucker Seymour's personal favourite, and it's also probably ours; the fact that it can handle almost all styles equally well is a big bonus..." Long live the JB!
