Jazz JB or Jazz 59

Jazz JB or Jazz 59

  • Total voters
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Knightrich

New member
Hi all, I have a Gibson Les Paul Studio with Seth Lovers in it, and it is kind of dark at least through my rig. I play through a Princeton Reverb, and I have an Epiphone Dot with Seth Lovers in it so I wanted to try something different in the Les Paul. I want more clarity in the neck so I have decided to try the Jazz. I am torn though, on which bridge pickup to get. I am trying to decide between the JB (Hot Rod Set) and the 59 bridge. I want to do coil splits with whichever I get.

I originally wanted the 59 neck but read that it can be a bit bassy and this is a darker guitar and the Princeton doesn’t need any help there either. I like chimey, vintage sounds. I like clean and overdriven/distorted tones. I play worship, blues, country, and classic rock.

Which set or combo do you all suggest?​
 
I just pulled a JB out of the bridge of a basswood floyd rose strat. To me it had no treble ring and a big mid Honk and was overall just fat and tubby sounding.
For hot pickups I'd much prefer a Siper Distortion over JB.
Not a puckup expert. But if you have Seth Lovers decide what ot is you want to be different from them. If you like that vintage output you probably don't want a JB.
I can't comment on the 59...while I have a 59n I haven't tried it yet
Serious though, befor you swap anything play with height adjustments. Spend serious time on it...there is ALLOT to be had.
 
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To solve what you are asking, my first thoughts are Jazz set, Pearly Gates set, or Custom 5 bridge, Jazz neck

My preferences in my LP Studio are
Bare Knuckle Black Dog bridge (Duncan Whole Lotta Humbucker would be equivalent), Duncan 59/A4 neck

Also liked
Duncan 59/Custom bridge, Jazz neck
Duncan '78 Model bridge, Jazz neck
Duncan Custom bridge, Jazz neck
Gibson 500T, 496R
 
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Yeah, my first thought was the Jazz bridge...also consider the Full Shred bridge.
 
chimey vintage sounds doesnt sound like a jb at all. the jazz bridge is a fine match for the jazz neck, go figure! you find the seth bridge dark in the lp?
 
jeremy said:
chimey vintage sounds doesnt sound like a jb at all. the jazz bridge is a fine match for the jazz neck, go figure! you find the seth bridge dark in the lp?
Click to expand...
Not so much the bridge, but the neck, and since I already have a pair of Seth’s, I kind of wanted to try something different. I’ll look into the jazz bridge!
 
If I were you I’ll go with a PGn and 59/custom hybrid. If you already have the jazz, you can pair it with the hybrid as well
 
Only good advices above. For instance, I was recently surprised by how well a Custom/59 Hybrid works in bridge position of a dark Gibson scale guitar so that's certainly something that I'd consider in this case.

Conversely, if a pair of Seth's sound too dark in a LP, I wouldn't try a JB instead: it has a high inductance and consequently a low pitched resonant peak, so it bumps the high mids rather than high frequencies.

in a dark sounding LP, something to keep in mind is the whole wiring: there's some serious length of wires from pickups to pots / pots to switch / switch to output jack. Swapping all that for low capacitance cable can help to bring back the missing clarity. That's what I've done for the guitar mentioned in my first sentence, FWIW. HTH. :-)
 
freefrog said:
Only good advices above. For instance, I was recently surprised by how well a Custom/59 Hybrid works in bridge position of a dark Gibson scale guitar so that's certainly something that I'd consider in this case.

Conversely, if a pair of Seth's sound too dark in a LP, I wouldn't try a JB instead: it has a high inductance and consequently a low pitched resonant peak, so it bumps the high mids rather than high frequencies.

in a dark sounding LP, something to keep in mind is the whole wiring: there's some serious length of wires from pickups to pots / pots to switch / switch to output jack. Swapping all that for low capacitance cable can help to bring back the missing clarity. That's what I've done for the guitar mentioned in my first sentence, FWIW. HTH. :-)
Click to expand...

Good point! This currently has the Gibson PCB (it is a 2018) and I have a wiring kit with 500k pots ready to install as soon as I buy the pickups. I didn’t know until recently that some of those PCBs use 500k for the tone pots, but 300k for the volume.
 
I'd also check the value of the volume pots, as noted by some above. If they are nominally 300k (usually there's a +/- tolerance), you may find a lot of pups sounding a bit dark.
 
Anything sounding dark through a Princeton Reberb strikes me as odd...maybe rewire it (the guitar) with the current pickups...then if that is still off you'll have a better basis for describing what's missing.
If you change everything together you won't know which made the bigger difference, just the overall change.
I have a prri '65 and a LP style guitar (Hamer Monaco Elite) and I wouldn't describe it as sounding at all dark but ymmv.
 
Well ironically I was reaching for 59 to vote and tapped JB instead so maybe there's a reason.

But seriously I also don't see the JB as a great match here.. it's wonderful in bright guitars but definitely can get flabby with mid-oriented guitars..

Side bar there's no way to change your road is there?
 
the jazz bridge is a very, very good bridge pickup. I remember I once had that in an LP and I was like: this is so underrated?! The jazz bridge is imho a sleeper pickup. It is a great neck pickup in its own right and seems to combat the issues most have with the jazzN, being a bit weak, thin, soft. The jazzB has more girth, more balls, without losing the clarity the jazz is known for.

JazzN-Alnico8 was by the way an insanely good LP pickup. very clear, chimey, but balls to the walls because the alnico8 gives so much mids and power. I matched it with a JazzN Alnico2 (i.e. alnico2pro).
 
orpheo said:
the jazz bridge is a very, very good bridge pickup. I remember I once had that in an LP and I was like: this is so underrated?! The jazz bridge is imho a sleeper pickup. It is a great neck pickup in its own right and seems to combat the issues most have with the jazzN, being a bit weak, thin, soft. The jazzB has more girth, more balls, without losing the clarity the jazz is known for.

JazzN-Alnico8 was by the way an insanely good LP pickup. very clear, chimey, but balls to the walls because the alnico8 gives so much mids and power. I matched it with a JazzN Alnico2 (i.e. alnico2pro).
Click to expand...

Now I am torn on whether or not to get the 59 bridge or the Jazz bridge.

If I let price decide, and I want the 4c, the Jazz is $9 cheaper at least.
 
playas said:
Anything sounding dark through a Princeton Reberb strikes me as odd...maybe rewire it (the guitar) with the current pickups...then if that is still off you'll have a better basis for describing what's missing.
If you change everything together you won't know which made the bigger difference, just the overall change.
I have a prri '65 and a LP style guitar (Hamer Monaco Elite) and I wouldn't describe it as sounding at all dark but ymmv.
Click to expand...

Very good point. I do need to upgrade the wiring. I do want to know what the Seth’s sound like with the full pots for sure.

Now though I am tempted to get the Jazz bridge.
 
Knightrich said:
I am tempted to try it! I don’t hear that much about it. I guess I worried it was kind of plain Jane.
Click to expand...

The Jazz set, is kinda like the 59 set. Just a great pup pair. Clean and clear. The music is in your fingers. (Which I can barely do.)
 
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