Jazz (music) pickups

[Clint 55]

All are welcome. If you like a bright jazz sound on mini hums or p90s, cool. I think I for sure prefer fat, scooped hums. The 59 set is my favorite so far. I also like the Jazz/A2P. The Fralin Pure PAF is for sure fat and scooped so I ordered a neck model to go with the bridge model I have and that's gonna go in a ax. Also have a SNS set that I'm gonna try out this coming week. I wonder how warm they'll end up being. The eq says they're scooped, and the brief clean demos do sound pretty warm even with A4s. Honorable mentions that I've tried are the Phat Cat and Seth but those aren't quite fat enough for me.

 

[SirJackdeFuzz II]

Very interesting.

I do not really play jazz, 'but', i do love my FAT-N-WARM neck pick ups, as if i am about to play jazz (if that makes sense)

I am super happy with my neck Seth Lover (in a 24.5 inch PRS) & the neck A2P in a 24.75 inch scale Mahogany body.
It is hard to believe there is a warmer neck unit than an A2 mag driven A2P neck pick up.

 

[Mincer]

My favorite is the warm Alnico II Pro in a solidbody, or an Antiquity in a semi-hollow.

 

[Snake Aces]

I play some jazz, but not very often at the moment. That could change again in the future. With that being said, I do love the Jazz set for playing jazz.

 

[Clint 55]

A3/A6 and A2/A6 loaded SNS set ready to go into roundwound jazz ax.

 

[Clint 55]

They sound great. Reminds me of the Jazz wind. They respond the same but are a little hotter and have some soft mid character. Could be mostly due to the mags but I sense something. The mags came out great. The A3/A6 is in the neck with the A3 on top and the A2/A6 is in the bridge with the A6 on top. Super wooly but with a touch of bite.

I also changed the caps on my 4 way switch. Went with 3, 6.8, 10, and 18nf orange drops. Really digging the lower value caps. The 18nf I believe is the lowest value that still cuts mids so it's bassy. 10 and 6.8nf retain mids. While 3nf is the point where highs are still retained a bit.

 

[Mincer]

Believe it or not, the Black Winter works well in a solidbody for traditional jazz.

 

[Clint 55]

AAHH!!

 

[Artie]

For more fusion kind of jazz sounds, Larry Carlton or Robben Ford, where you're going to play some clean chords but maybe solo with overdrive, I like those pickups I mentioned but with roughcast Alnico 5.

Robben did some cool stuff with a Tele too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRil3JBW35c

 

[Clint 55]

The SNS set wasn't soul enough so I swapped in a coil to each pup from an 80s 59b. Soul!

 

[weepingminotaur]

Believe it or not, the Black Winter works well in a solidbody for traditional jazz.

Seconding this. The Winter generates some seriously excellent archtop-vibe jazz tones.

 

[Mincer]

Allan Holdsworth used a neck 59 in the bridge (with double screws) for his space fusion. It really depends on what your vision for the music is- jazz could be played on anything really with the right conviction.

 

[Lewguitar]

For warm jazz chords and clean sounds, I like a 59N with roughcast Alnico 3. That's my favorite neck humbucker for clean sounds.

Kind of takes the 59N slightly in the direction of a neck Strat pickup but still warm, smooth and full like a humbucker.

In the bridge 59B pickup I like roughcast A2. Great clean tones but also a great overdriven tone through a cranked small wattage amp or a nice OD pedal.

So one favorite set is a set of 59's with an A3 and A2 magnet swap.

 

[Lewguitar]

If you're playing fusion jazz, like Larry Carlton or Robben Ford, their ES-335 guitars have alnico 5 pickups and Duncan 59's work well.

I prefer replacing the magnets with roughcast A5 for a little fuller sound.

The T-Tops in Larry Carlton's ES-335 used a short 2 3/8" Alnico 5 magnet that gives a pickup a weaker, cleaner sound that I like. I like using it in the 59N neck pickup, with a regular 2 1/2" A5 magnet in the 59B bridge pickup.

But my favorite set of 59's for both clean jazz and overdriven rock tones from BOTH pickups would use A2 in the neck and A4 in the bridge. Roughcast as always.