JB/Sentient?

[nexion218]

I tried to search the forum, but the site wouldnt let me, so I thought Ill ask...

So I have a JB/59 set in one of my guitars. While I initially loved the set and still love the JB, Ive grown to kinda dislike the 59, particularly the honky, at times even shrill (at least to me) top end. Thus I started to look into alternatives, that would be like the 59 but with a softer top end and the Sentient came onto my radar.

Im looking for opinions, experiences regarding the idea of a JB/Sentient set in a mahogany (supposedly, thats what the product sheet says... ) guitar with maple neck, ebony board and non-ss frets. More importantly , do I hear it right that the Sentient is very close to the 59, but with a mellower, rounder top end?

 

[Demanic]

Re: JB/Sentient?

Have you considered trying an A4 magnet in the 59 first? It might give you just what you're looking for.

Sent from my Alcatel_5044C using Tapatalk

 

[Chistopher]

Re: JB/Sentient?

The Sentient neck is fairly similar to the '59, except it handles gain better, has less bass, and has more of a hifi sound to it. Have you tried adjusting the pickup height?

 

[Mincer]

Re: JB/Sentient?

Well, the Sentient has a little less treble than the Jazz, and the JB/Jazz set is one of the most iconic sets ever. So, I think if you dig what the JB does, the Sentient/JB combo would be great.

 

[Demanic]

Re: JB/Sentient?

The Sentient neck is fairly similar to the '59, except it handles gain better, has less bass, and has more of a hifi sound to it. Have you tried adjusting the pickup height?

The A4 59n does most of those things, but it doesn't sound "hi-fi" to me. More vintage like.

Sent from my Alcatel_5044C using Tapatalk

 

[nexion218]

Re: JB/Sentient?

Thanks a ton guys! Yeah, I did play around with height, but the sharp treble that bugs me won't budge. As for the magnet swap, no I did not consider it. First off, even though it seems like a piece of cake job, I just wouldn't feel comfortable doing it. I am not well versed enough in magnetism/electronics and this is definitely not the guitar/pickup I want to learn on. Not so long ago I even managed to fry a set EMGs using only 9 V batteries, so... Also, I'm afraid I'd have to buy the magnets from abroad (at least thus far I haven't seen a place here where I could buy them), which would probably cost me in the ballpark of a complete pickup, especially if I find one used. Nevertheless, thanks for the tip, I'll store it in the back of my mind!

 

[playas]

Re: JB/Sentient?

Thanks a ton guys! Yeah, I did play around with height, but the sharp treble that bugs me won't budge. As for the magnet swap, no I did not consider it. First off, even though it seems like a piece of cake job, I just wouldn't feel comfortable doing it. I am not well versed enough in magnetism/electronics and this is definitely not the guitar/pickup I want to learn on. Not so long ago I even managed to fry a set EMGs using only 9 V batteries, so... Also, I'm afraid I'd have to buy the magnets from abroad (at least thus far I haven't seen a place here where I could buy them), which would probably cost me in the ballpark of a complete pickup, especially if I find one used. Nevertheless, thanks for the tip, I'll store it in the back of my mind!

Hi Nexion218,
If you don't want to play around with the pickup, don't.

If it's something you want to try out but are nervous, it's not too difficult - especially if the pickup is uncovered and, as long as you take it slowly. You can follow one of the youtube instruction vids that show it step by step.

Even getting mags from the US isn't expensive. I think there are places in the UK too.

I have never tried a sentient but imho the 59 neck should come stock with an A4 magnet. It sounds much better that way.

Sent from my Redmi Note 8 using Tapatalk

 

[Chistopher]

Re: JB/Sentient?

If the pickup's uncovered, you don't even need to take the dtrings off the guitar most of the time to swap out the magnet.

 

[Mincer]

Re: JB/Sentient?

I understand not being comfortable swapping magnets. You might like another pickup with a softer high end, something like an Alnico II Pro.

 

[nexion218]

Re: JB/Sentient?

The Sentient it is! I guess it is safe to label me as an impulsive bastard... I gave my local dealer a call, he had it in stock, gave me a cool price on it, so the King V is already rocking it. I only played a few minutes on it (had to finish building our cat's playground), but thus far I am confident that this pickup goes on the rather short list of immaculately great decisions in my life. Will have to set the height properly to get the best out of it, but it already does exactly what I wanted it to do: still in vintage-gain territory at the neck, but gone are the honky, nasal and piercing high frequencies. As an added bonus it has a tad bit more output and menacingly cool looks.

So again: thank you everyone for chiming in! Also, you've managed to plant of the magswap seed in me, for which I have a Duncan Designed set lying in the drawer, a perfect candidate to learn this mod...

 

[Mincer]

Re: JB/Sentient?

Yeah! Can't wait to hear how this one works out. The Sentient should be more popular than it is...I think the marketing paragraph makes it seem like it is only good for one thing.

 

[nexion218]

Re: JB/Sentient?

I am totally with you on this Mincer. I even heard it labelled as a "Death Metal" pickup, which is just plain misleading. It suffers from PR just as bad as the Black Winters. This marketing stuff is weird... I mean, yeah, SD fell into the same trap here as with the Black Winters: they wanted to push the product to a certain audience and with the same move they pushed it very far away from the rest of the players. But if a player wont listen to or try a pickup just because the its called Black Winter or it is usally paired with a Nazgul or because "I'm a thrash dude, shove up your sissy pickup called Jazz and gimme EMGs", its really their loss. Marketing, first and foremost, is a tool to generate sales. If someone fails to understand this, he is in for some bad choices, disappointments and tons of burnt cash.

Now for the Sentient... I'm having a blast with it! I really can't recall the last time I enjoyed banging on my fave tunes this much. I'm really bad with describing qualities (and they can be misleading), but I just love the fact that I am at ease playing full solos on this one, not just some slow bluesy passages, beacuase it doesn't get lost in mud, it still retains its wooly warmth. The range and they way it reacts to the tone pot is just insane. All the way down its the most pleasing sweet fuzzy humming I heard thus far coming from my gear. It kinda reminds me of the EMG60A, the one with the Alnico magnet.

Also, it is just a great pair to the JB. Due to the higher output of the Sentient (I mean that versus the 59), the pair seems like a seamless extension of each other. The JB/59 covers a lot of ground, but when I switched between the two, it was a very sharp contrast, at least with the amount of gain I use. But with the Sentient the same amount of ground is covered, escpecially that the tone pot's full range gives very pleasant results, and the switch between the two is more natural and fluid. Like I said yesterday? this goes on the short list of impeccable decisions in my life.

 

[Aceman]

Re: JB/Sentient?

By the way - for all the haters - here is a guy digging the hell out of a JB in Mahogany!

 

[Chistopher]

Re: JB/Sentient?

That's because it has a 25.5" scale length.

 

[nexion218]

Re: JB/Sentient?

That's because it has a 25.5" scale length.

Shouldn't that make it brighter? I mean, longer scale length, more tension, more brightness. If the brightness is the problem. If its the bottom end then yes, I guess so.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: JB/Sentient?

Shouldn't that make it brighter? I mean, longer scale length, more tension, more brightness. If the brightness is the problem. If its the bottom end then yes, I guess so.

The problem people tend to have with a JB in Les Pauls especially, is that the are too dark and the bass is "flabby", this is because the famous JB upper mid spike gets knocked a bit lower closer to the true mids. This means that the JBs quick midrange attack and response are negated, making the pickup darker as well. As for the "flabby" complaint, I don't know what they're on about with that one, I guess someone said it once and it got parroted far and wide across the forum.

Saying JBs are bad in mahogany, or even me blaming it on the scale length, is an very loose generalization at best. There are multiple different woods sold as mahogany, some have maple caps, some don't, and they all have differing densities. Even if you think wood does make a massive difference in tone, saying mahogany is a JB's kryptonite neglects the effects of the amp and cab on that sound. Given it's a very polarizing pickup, I'd also wager a good bit of people have only tried it in maybe one mahogany guitar and then when they found out it wasn't for them, they went online and found out the wood was 100% to blame.

 

[nexion218]

Re: JB/Sentient?

Ah, so it's the Les Paul's, fault, not the JB... Seriously, by the time I wrote it down I realized that I approached the scale length question from the wrong end.

I totally agree with the remark about the "identity" of mahogany, that's why I initially said that it is a "supposedly mahogany" guitar. Though I tend to believe it is, it's quite hefty.

 

[Ascension]

Re: JB/Sentient?

Am running a Alt 8 Sentient set in my solid KOA Carvin DC 127 and love it. Should make a very nice combo. Have one set up with the Hybrid and Sentient and one with the Alt and Sentient.
the Sentient is more balanced and hifi sounding than the 59 is . Has a very big warm and articulate clean tone and also holds together with gain a lot better than the 59 does.
Have a floor custom Zebra Sentient on hand that I originally intended to use with a Zebra Perpetual Burn that went into my Kiesel DC 135 instead. Thinking about grabbing another Perpet at some point and putting that set together in something as the Perpet is a rather polite version of a JB to my ear and I keep thinking that combo would be killer. Have a solid Black Hybrid Trembucker loose so have thought about pulling the Perpet out of the Kiesel and swapping it for the Hybrid so i would have the Zebra Perpet Sentient set.
Here is a clip of my KOA DC 127 running the Alt8/ Sentient set through my little Mesa Subway live no real practive memebers of several different church so nothing special musically here but shows what the set up can do tonally. LOT of tonal flexibility with this set up!!! In particular with taps on both as they are jaw dropping good tapped and run together!!