JB and 80's hair metal, correct me if I'm wrong

smauk43

smauk43

New member
Searched high and low and here's what I've found. JB = hair metal. But I also read, I think from Lew, that the JB can be ice picky or shrill if you play at home within 10 ft or so from the amp, which is my situation exactly. So to cover hair metal with solid mahogany or with a mahogany/maple cap,(hardtail by the way) I'm leaning to the custom or even 59b.
 
Re: JB and 80's hair metal, correct me if I'm wrong

A lot of players also used the Duncan Distortion during that era.
 
Re: JB and 80's hair metal, correct me if I'm wrong

Hmmm, didn't even think about the Distortion. I have one guitar with a Super Distortion and Norton (neck) already in it. Are they comparable? Wanting to go Duncan on this second guitar, always had Dimarzio before. I had the Tone Zone at one time, but I tired of it eventually.
 
Re: JB and 80's hair metal, correct me if I'm wrong

I am in the same situation as you as far as playing in front of the amp. I swapped out the JB and 59 several times with my Les Paul, and eventually went with the 59. The 59 let the natural characteristics of the LP through a little more. I can do everything from Aerosmith to, with a little more distortion, Dokken, Y&T, and Whitesnake. If that is what you are after.

-Mark
 
Re: JB and 80's hair metal, correct me if I'm wrong

Adam Jones from Tool uses the JB/Jazz combo... supposedly. That's what it says in his bio on toolshed.down.net. I don't know if that means anything to you or not, but I'm just saying that if he really does use those pickups, it can do more than just hair metal. Tool is far from hair metal.
 
Re: JB and 80's hair metal, correct me if I'm wrong

I think it's got a lot more to do with the notes you play than the pups in your axe. and i bet the JB will sound fine in your Les Paul.

-X
 
Re: JB and 80's hair metal, correct me if I'm wrong

I don't have much doubt the JB sounds good. A lot of the players in the era I'm from (god I'm gettin' old:smack: ) back then used it. Maybe I was dreaming, but I could have sworn I have seen where some don't like it up close to the amp, as in playing at home. I'm talking spandex hair metal, you know stuff like Cinderella, Stryper, Faster *****cat, Poison, Motley, etcc.... and a lot of AC/DC and Priest thrown in there as well.
 
Re: JB and 80's hair metal, correct me if I'm wrong

You are all wrong! Hair metal is all about the rack! Honestly - the tones are mostly so over-processed that any pup will work. I've set up up a pedal board to do Poison/Rat/Dokken etc...and almost any guiatr with a tweek of the Eek (EQ) worked just fine.

Oh yes...Aquanet Ultra - Essential, but rack must still be bigger than the hair if you want the street cred!
 
Re: JB and 80's hair metal, correct me if I'm wrong

If you find the JB to be to shrill in your mahogany/maple axe, you will not be the first. You can try going to 250k pots, and you can try taping an "x" in front of your speakers, or a Weber beam blocker. I eventually just swapped mine out for a DD.
 
Re: JB and 80's hair metal, correct me if I'm wrong

Remember the 2-10 foot rule when it comes to the JB, at 2ft it sounds bright- ice pickey, at 10 ft its big aggressive and loud. Other options maybe a DD or Custom, all will do METAL very well.
 
Re: JB and 80's hair metal, correct me if I'm wrong

I remember using the JB for a while in the 80's but I switched to a Custom and I thought the tone was overall, bigger and more usable in other situations. I tried a Distortion and it was cool too. But, the Custom worked for me the best.
 
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Re: JB and 80's hair metal, correct me if I'm wrong

I don't think Lew ever said the JB can be icepicky -- although he says this is true for the home player. I played in a band recently with a guitar player who had a Jazz/Jb combo (it was the Mustaine DV8 guitar) and I thought it sounded great! I haven't played it myself.

I tend to prefer the vintage style pickups anyway. With the right amp, I can get any sort of tone I'll ever need by cranking up the gain and adjusting my eq. And I can also get a great clean tone, which has been a problem with some of the higher output pickups I've tried.
 
Re: JB and 80's hair metal, correct me if I'm wrong

Interesting thread.


I have only played the JB once, for about 20 minutes through a Mesa F-50. The JB was in a Schecter (I think).

As a disclaimer, I had little time with it, and didn't really get to toy around with settings/EQ, etc. Not to mention string guage, pup height, etc.

To my ear, the low end was positively muddy and loose. I just couldn't get past it. I don't recall what the mids/highs sounded like, but the low end really struck me.

Was my experience typical? I have read several reviews that stated the JB was reasonably tight on low-end.

Bob
 
Re: JB and 80's hair metal, correct me if I'm wrong

I've read a number of posts lately about the bottom end being loose on the JB, but in my Les Paul, I found it tighter than the Custom that I use now.
That's the only thing I liked better about the JB, and yes it smoked when doing Megadeth and Iron Maiden rhythms!
 
Re: JB and 80's hair metal, correct me if I'm wrong

Thanks for all this info guys. Computer been down for two days so I'm sorry I'm late in thanking you. The high vs. low output question brought up intrigues me. The 59 really sounds interesting to me. If the amp is set right (I have the Vox 30 watt valvetronix and a Traynor 50 blue on the way) it seems that maybe the 59 can get there, hair metal wise? Being an at home player, the JB not sounding right when close to the amp makes me wary, and so do the higher output pups like custom. Although some of you seem to think the Custom would work, so I might go with that and then swap if needed. But the 59 still really has my attention, with an APII in the neck.
 
Re: JB and 80's hair metal, correct me if I'm wrong

Good low output pickups are no problem for that type of metal (by good I mean well made). The 59 is good, the PG is good too. Heck, I have a DiMarzio PAF in my Frankenstrat and it does 80's metal as good as anything else I've tried, if not better because now I can actually hear everything more clearly with it.
 
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