MJ-wound pickups...

Re: MJ-wound pickups...

blueman335 said:
How many guitars did you try that JBJ in? Wood comes into play here too.
Click to expand...

Mine was in three or four different guitars, and it smoked in all of them. The rational side of me says the fact that it was wound a little hot (a little over 17k) is what made it special.
 
Re: MJ-wound pickups...

could it possibly be that her winder is calibrated slightly different so everything made on her machine is slightly over-wound (or) maybe she always adds an extra wind or 2 for good measure???????

eitherway I can hear the difference.
 
Re: MJ-wound pickups...

blueman335 said:
How many guitars did you try that JBJ in? Wood comes into play here too.
Click to expand...

Just for fun, I had switched the JBJ with the original '89 JB and a current production JB in the same '89 Kramer Sustainer.....

I know my superstrats pretty well, the JBJ had just a bit more bite, again subtle but there. I discovered this years ago, before I knew what JBJ meant. That is the reason that I took notice when when it was posted on here (Lord knows when).
 
Re: MJ-wound pickups...

super rad stuff said:
no not jackson, jordan. ya know, like space jam?:)
Click to expand...
michael-jordan-mj-mj-23.jpg

Wind like an eagle let my spirit carry me, I wanna...
Wind...
Wind right into the future...

It all makes sense now!
 
Re: MJ-wound pickups...

Zhangliqun said:
Unless the wire is wrapped onto the bobbin entirely by hand, all pickups are machine wound.
Click to expand...

So based on this, MJ apparently has skills that make for a better tone by soldering lead wires onto the coils wires and assembling the pickup? :smack:



LIke I said before, Placebo. If MJ made a pickup that sounded so much better than the rest of the crew, dont ya think Seymour would have her training the other employees to do it just like her? This whole conversation makes no sense and it is retarded.:banghead: They are machine wound anyway so, the point is mute.
 
Re: MJ-wound pickups...

theodie said:
So based on this, MJ apparently has skills that make for a better tone by soldering lead wires onto the coils wires and assembling the pickup? :smack:



LIke I said before, Placebo. If MJ made a pickup that sounded so much better than the rest of the crew, dont ya think Seymour would have her training the other employees to do it just like her? This whole conversation makes no sense and it is retarded.:banghead: They are machine wound anyway so, the point is mute.
Click to expand...

You need some Kool-Aid too - get a JBJ and swap it with another JB in the same guitar....

Let us know if you hear a difference - it won't be night and day, but there is a difference.
 
Re: MJ-wound pickups...

theodie said:
So based on this, MJ apparently has skills that make for a better tone by soldering lead wires onto the coils wires and assembling the pickup? :smack:



LIke I said before, Placebo. If MJ made a pickup that sounded so much better than the rest of the crew, dont ya think Seymour would have her training the other employees to do it just like her? This whole conversation makes no sense and it is retarded.:banghead: They are machine wound anyway so, the point is mute.
Click to expand...

Sorry Odie, but I just have to disagree with you.

To wind a p'up is kinda playing a song. A blues played by Joe Average will sound... well, average. Using the same chord changes Robben Ford makes a masterpiece. The notes are the same, and they could even come from the same instrument. But the outcome is like day and nite.

You can even take lessoms from Robben Ford himself, and you could even get pretty good at it... but when Robben takes the instrument in his hands, everything changes, those same five notes from a basic pentatonic scale suddenly turn into magic.

I've said it before and I say it again: Maricela is the Mojo Queen. Nobody at SD does it the way she does it, not even Seymour himself!
 
Last edited:
Re: MJ-wound pickups...

Hi, i have souced a JBJ 80's pup, and it sounds awsome!
I wanna put it into my Aria pro II RS Warrior as i reckon this guitar would sound awsome with it.
Only issue is, the guy wants £70 for it! any advice?
 
Re: MJ-wound pickups...

Southbound Suarez said:
Maricella Juarez (MJ) is to Seymour Duncan, what Abigail Yabarra (AY) is to Fender, which is to say that both of these ladies have had many years of pickup winding experience under their belts. Seymour would not have MJ in his custom shop if she weren't a cut above the rest. Seymour heavily relies on MJ to oversee the custom shop when he's gone, and she does a stupendous job at it. Both Seymour and MJ helped me out on a set of Antiquity Texas Hot Strat pickups (w/lefty staggered magnets) that were wound by a guy in the SD custom shop in the early 90's, this guy had been given charge to wind pups while Seymour was out on business, and my set was definitely not right. I ran across Seymour at the Dallas Texas Guitar Show around this time period and described how un-Seymour like this Antiquity set was. Seymour asked that I send him the set to analyze. Seymour ended up custom re-winding the set (and signing each pup) and Maricella was the middlewoman who relayed the status, and answered any questions I might have had. Seymour and MJ are both quality people in my book.
Click to expand...

That's been my experience too.

The best sounding Duncan pickups I've owned were all wound by the custom shop either by MJ or Seymour - probably by MJ.

IMO, the best Duncan humbucker I've ever owned is the '78.

My favorite vintage style Strat pickups are the Duncan Antiquity Surfers.

My favorite single coil Tele pickups are the Antiquities and the Duncan Tapped Tele Hot bridge and Tele ala Strat neck pickup.

All were probably wound by MJ.

There are other pickup winders who wind great sounding pickups and Tom Holmes, Joe Barden and Lindy Fralin are three of my favorites. But my Duncan '78 is as good as my Tom Holmes pickups and costs a lot less. And as much as I love Lindy's Strat and Tele pickups my single coil Strats are loaded with Antiquities that I've always thought were wound by MJ.

Seymour and MJ just have the right touch.
 
Last edited:
Re: MJ-wound pickups...

LtKojak said:
Sorry Odie, but I just have to disagree with you.

To wind a p'up is kinda playing a song. A blues played by Joe Average will sound... well, average. Using the same chord changes Robben Ford makes a masterpiece. The notes are the same, and they could even come from the same instrument. But the outcome is like day and nite.

You can even take lessoms from Robben Ford himself, and you could even get pretty good at it... but when Robben takes the instrument in his hands, everything changes, those same five notes from a basic pentatonic scale suddenly turn into magic.

I've said it before and I say it again: Maricela is the Mojo Queen. Nobody at SD does it the way she does it, not even Seymour himself!
Click to expand...

Point is mute when we are talking about machine wound pickups. You can think whatever you want but, that is the FACT. If a machine winds it, MJ technically did not wind it. She may have assembled it, that is all.

Now, if we are talking about something handwound, I would agree with you but, we are not for the most part.
 
Re: MJ-wound pickups...

Binnerscot said:
You need some Kool-Aid too - get a JBJ and swap it with another JB in the same guitar....

Let us know if you hear a difference - it won't be night and day, but there is a difference.
Click to expand...

I need the Kool aid? But, it sounds like you are the one who is obviously drinking it.

I have compared and there is no difference. Well, no more than normal differences between 2 pickups that do vary little by little. I have seen JB's vary all the way from mid to high 15K's all the way to low to mid 17K's. There will be a difference and this may be what you are hearing. It cant be anything else becasue it was "machine wound". Placebo is all it is on your part assuming the DC resistance was equal and the pickup was installed at the EXACT same height. If you dont think so, I would love to hear why? Can you explain it? It cant simply be mojo or her special touch becasue it was not hand wound.
 
Last edited:
Re: MJ-wound pickups...

Also, I think we're misunderstanding what is meant by 'machine wound'

what we think - machine does the whole thing except for assembly
how zhang is using it - a machine turns a bobbin while the wire is guided on by hand.

Each of the seymour duncan pickups have a formula for traverse, angle, etc. But each is wound slightly differently because you can't guide the wire onto a bobbin the same way twice, unless you slow down the machine turning it enough to adjust the traverse of each wind. Oh, and the small task of remembering the precise angle and location of thousands of turns of wire.

So, seymour has people who guide the wire on while a machine rotates the bobbin. Dimarzio programs machines to do this so that each pickup is exactly identical, I've seen a video of him showing off the machine.

edit: the fact that seymour uses the leesona for so many pickup means that at least some of the pickups require a human operator. There are strict regulations to make sure the pickups are consistent, but its impossible to make a machine wound (in the sense that a machine guides the coil onto the wire) leesona from what I've heard/can tell.
 
Last edited:
Re: MJ-wound pickups...

IIRC, only a handful of the PAF type buckers are wound on the leesona. I am all but positive the JB is not.

Like I said before, if MJ makes a superior production bucker, it is only logical that Seymour would have had her train the production crew to do it just like her a long time ago.




I have to laugh at the people who ignore all logic and really buy this placebo crap. LOL!
 
Last edited:
Re: MJ-wound pickups...

Haha, what we really need is for evan or frank to chime in on this, I remember they've said definitively which pickups are wound on which machines, I just don't know where its at.

Also, I use low-mid output pickups almost exclusively, so I didn't really pay attention to what machine the higher output (i.e. JB) pickups are wound on when I looked at it.

I just thought I remembered one of them saying that the majority of production pickups are hand-guided, I could very well be wrong.

Just my .02
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top