JB or Full Shred???

[fatboy135]

Hi I´m fatboy newbee on the fellowship, I´m from Spain and I just bought an Ibanez RG560 circa that was born on 1989. Ok I have another Washburn Nuno with a Dimarzio Paf Pro and the Bill Lawrence L500. Now I want to have a different attitude with my Ibanez and I think that another brand of pickups like SD could be so fine.

My ibanez configuration is single-single-humbucker. For the single pickups I decided for the neck a classical SSL1, for the middle a bit agressive like the SSL3 with the tapped option, and for the bridge pickup I doubt between the JB or the Full Shred. The matter is that I have heard all the samples on the web, the SH5 duncan custom sounds well, but I need a more bronco manners so for that reason the SH10 also called Full Shred is so fine. On the other hand I also liked the all know JB. But this pickup is a bit thinner in the definition than the Full Shred. Well I saw that they seems to be on the same way of musical styles, the artist that used them are from Rob Zombie ( Sh10 ) till Dave Mustaine (SH4), on my personal taste I pretty like better the Dave sound on all his albums, but the sound of an album is about a 5% the sound of the pickup. So I´m a bit confused, I like both of them, on the website I prefer the SH10, but on the albums I prefer the SH4, and I don´t know how similar is the sound of the SH4 on the albums and the SH4 mounted on my guitar. Other issue interest, is to know the stuff used to record the samples of the web.

Of course my guitar needs the trembuckers version, and the body of my guitar is basswood. Any help will be very appreciate, thanks for all.

 

[Pierre]

Re: JB or Full Shred???

Hola amigo, de donde en Espana?

Conozco el JB y el FullShred, y me gusto el SH10 mas. Tenia mucha claridad y cojones, mas que el JB.
The JB has this kind of mid spike high that in most setups will help cut, but will make your guitar sound a little like it's been put through a wah pedal. I don't like it as much. The FullShred doesn't have that. It's real clear and powerful, I really like it. It's hard not to like basically. It's quite bright but doesn't lack midrange nor bass, and the leads still sound smooth.

 

[fatboy135]

Re: JB or Full Shred???

Hi I´m from the capital, Madrid.
I also think that the Full Shred is real amazing, but the JB was used by Dave Mustaine, and the sound of Dave is real -Take no prisoners-

 

[Pierre]

Re: JB or Full Shred???

Yo vivi en Madrid cuando fue muy pequeno.


His power comes from his amp and playing dude. The Fullshred is more ballsy than the JB I found. The JB is powerful, but it's not really as in your face as the FullShred. The FullShred also has more clarity and a tighter low end which you'll most likely prefer for this type of music.

 

[fatboy135]

Re: JB or Full Shred???

Really???? Madrid is a hateful city :grumble: full of stress, I live in Madrid because all young people make a lot of money here, but I will go to another region of Spain when I will be a bit older, maybe some place with beach

Yes the full shred as I could hear is a punchy face-big balls pickup ( heared on the web ) and the JB also likes me too, and thinking that it was used by Dave makes me think that this pickup is better for that music styles. The matter is to know how real are the samples on the web.

Pd: I said that the SH10 is the direct offspring of the SH5, I was wrong, it is the Custom Custom

 

[Pierre]

Re: JB or Full Shred???

The FullShred has some similarities with the Custom range apparently. I haven't tried neither the C5 nor the CustomCustom so I wouldn't know.

For Metal I'd chose a Custom over a JB any day. The low end is tighther, the mids more powerful, it's ballsier and perhaps a bit more articulate.

You listened to the Distortion? You should try. It's still got a wee bit of that JB character you may like, but it's tighter overall and has a less annoying (to me of course) sound.

To me the JB is a lead pickup, but not much of a rythm pickup (unless it's your sound of course). The FullShred does both. The Custom is a ballsier version of the FS, similar but different enough. The Distortion is just balls out mean.

 

[fatboy135]

Re: JB or Full Shred???

You listened to the Distortion? You should try

The SH6??? ohhhh I real hate that pickup.

For Metal I'd chose a Custom over a JB any day

What does your mean with the Custom??? the duncan custom??? the SH5????

I also like the SH5 so much, but I need a bit more punchy, but the SH5 is other that I was thinking to get. Did you tried it????

 

[Pierre]

Re: JB or Full Shred???

The Custom is punchier than the JB. It's my favorite Duncan.

My first Duncan was a FullShred, I still use it. I also use a Custom and a Distortion all the time. They have 3 different flavors:

Custom: ballsy, yet subtle and with enough vintage flavor. Tight on the low end, quite bald in tone, it's meant to drive your amp, but without overpowering it.

Distortion: Balls to the walls mean tone. Huge midrange, BIG bass (though not muddy), smooth treble... Has more of a Ceramic character than the Custom (even though they're both Ceramic)

FullShred: Probably the most subtle of all 3. Better for fast picking and lead runs, tighter in the low end than the 2 others.

I basically think the Custom is perhaps the most versatile. The Distortion the most aggresive, the FullShred the better suited for speed, thrash, and when note seperation matters more.

 

[fatboy135]

Re: JB or Full Shred???

So you own a Duncan Custom and the Full Shred...
And which one if you only could choose one???

 

[Pierre]

Re: JB or Full Shred???

Out of all 3? Probably the Custom. Tight low end and a nice tone overall, probably the most versatile.


Without their rig, the pickup in itself won't get you very close to their sound. It's possible that you don't even notice an improvement.

 

[fatboy135]

Re: JB or Full Shred???

The Duncan custom is also so nice, I was thinking about it

 

[alex1fly]

Re: JB or Full Shred???

I found the Custom to be a little too muddy on pm riffs and in the low end. Strummed distorted nonpower chords sounded great though- just not enough note seperation for me. I prefer tight high-gain tone though. My amp has a lot of bass though so that could be part of it. I have a FS on the way and it sounds like it will be a lot more to my liking. Also, the Custom seemed to have its own tone and not all that responsive to eq. It did respond very well to volume and tone knob tweaking though- cleans up and sounds great. Think about which one better fits your playing style.

 

[fatboy135]

Re: JB or Full Shred???

So Alex you had both pickups???
Ok my music style is rock music, from John Petrucci to Marty Friedman.

Another question is in the SD catalog appears an icon that means plays pick or pro shop, what does it means???

 

[fatboy135]

What about Duncan Custom????

What about Duncan Custom????

So after hearing, talking an reading about the SH5 on the seymour duncan web I think that the original topic could be replace for:
JB, Full Shred or Duncan Custom

Well what about the Duncan Custom about that other pickups??? I never have a ceramic pickup, what about ceramic features????