waltschwarzkopf
New member
Hi guys,
About a week ago I installed a Jazz/JB combo (I found it used at a good price) on my guitar and was amazed at the sound. Clean it sounded full and great for anything (really) and distorted it was powerful and I loved the note separation and clarity that I would get. I don't use and pedals, only rely on the overdrive of my amp which I keep mid-low for a natural crunchy tone and to be a able to clean up by rolling off the volume.
I found the Jazz/Custom5 combo at a good price (also used) and installed it to give it a try, this set has chrome covers, whereas the other had open coils. I wired it the same way, to get neck-both-bridge and two separate switches to split the neck to the screw and the bridge to the slug.
I plugged it in and clean sound good (not great), the jazz is very bassy (in a good way) and the custom5 sounds louder (but not unbalanced). Compared to the JB, it doesn't sound as good split, too little output in single coil mode, and I liked the "twangy" tele-like sound that the slug coil of the JB gave.
Then I switched to the dirty channel and that is were the disappointment began. Both pickups are very muddy, no note separation when chording or riffing. When soloing it's ok, but not as good at the other set. I tried reducing the gain but it didn't help much.
What do you think? Could this be because they have covers? On both sets I adjusted the pickup height so they be as high as possible and so they'd sound even. I'm really bummed out from this and I don't know what to do. I compared it with my Les Paul that has BurstBucker Pros and there is a big difference. I'm not a big fan of covered pickups and I don't know if removing them would improve the sound.
Cheers,
Walter
About a week ago I installed a Jazz/JB combo (I found it used at a good price) on my guitar and was amazed at the sound. Clean it sounded full and great for anything (really) and distorted it was powerful and I loved the note separation and clarity that I would get. I don't use and pedals, only rely on the overdrive of my amp which I keep mid-low for a natural crunchy tone and to be a able to clean up by rolling off the volume.
I found the Jazz/Custom5 combo at a good price (also used) and installed it to give it a try, this set has chrome covers, whereas the other had open coils. I wired it the same way, to get neck-both-bridge and two separate switches to split the neck to the screw and the bridge to the slug.
I plugged it in and clean sound good (not great), the jazz is very bassy (in a good way) and the custom5 sounds louder (but not unbalanced). Compared to the JB, it doesn't sound as good split, too little output in single coil mode, and I liked the "twangy" tele-like sound that the slug coil of the JB gave.
Then I switched to the dirty channel and that is were the disappointment began. Both pickups are very muddy, no note separation when chording or riffing. When soloing it's ok, but not as good at the other set. I tried reducing the gain but it didn't help much.
What do you think? Could this be because they have covers? On both sets I adjusted the pickup height so they be as high as possible and so they'd sound even. I'm really bummed out from this and I don't know what to do. I compared it with my Les Paul that has BurstBucker Pros and there is a big difference. I'm not a big fan of covered pickups and I don't know if removing them would improve the sound.
Cheers,
Walter
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