Night and day in two guitars with JBs

el_jalepeno

el_jalepeno

New member
Greetings. I have an alder "Wayne" guitar with a TB4 and original Floyd Rose I added a coil tap switch, and the sound did not appear any different, in a good way... Recently, I built a strat with an ash body and original Floyd Rose. I also have some complex coil tap switching on the ash guitar between the TB4 and the L'il 59 and only a master volume and two individual pup volume controls, no tone controls.
So here's the thing: The Wayne guitar with the alder body sounds extremely fat. The ash strat sounds much brighter (as expected with ash, but this is pretty obvious tone change), not trebly like a wiring issue, just brighter. Not a bad trebly either. Just different from the other guitar. I am not noticing a difference other than the massive tone fatness of the alder strat. I can get pick squeals and harmonics just fine on both guitars. And both play fine distorted and clean. In fact, if I wasn't playing both guitars back to back, I would not have thought much of the tonal difference as each guitar sounds as you would expect.

I checked the wiring on both, and everything appears fine.

Could the coil tap switch alter the tone that much when not being used (meaning when both coils are in use)? I really need the switch (I play in an 80's cover band, so have to cover rock and pop with minimal guitar changes)

Any insight is appreciated.
 
Re: Night and day in two guitars with JBs

welcome to the forum!

i think the difference is just the guitars it doesnt sound like anything is wired incorrectly. ash is a significantly brighter wood than alder much of the time
 
Re: Night and day in two guitars with JBs

It definitely the wood. If it brighter than you want, you can try using the JB with 250K pots or putting in an Alnico 8 magnet in it. These will make it warmer.
 
Re: Night and day in two guitars with JBs

There is more to it than just the wood type difference. I had a Jackson DK2M a few years ago, and I hated its stock JB. But I liked the stock JB just fine on my Charvel San Dimas (it's now a JB8).

Both guitars have the same specs - alder body, maple neck and fretboard, Floyd Rose bridge.
 
Re: Night and day in two guitars with JBs

I think the JB should have its name changed to the finicky *****, because of how particular it is. I love the JB when it likes a guitar, but when they don't get along I want to destroy it. On a funny side note the guitar I like the JB in the most is made of Ash (it sounds as described a PAF on steroids).
 
Re: Night and day in two guitars with JBs

When Seymour designed the JB, it was for use in Beck's Tele Gib. Most of the Tele's were made out of ash, so it's no wonder that the JB likes ash so much. There is a definite love hate thing with the JB, that's for sure.

I had it in a Dean Hardtail, and it sounded ok, but not great. Ironically it sounded better in drop tuning in that guitar than it did standard. I put it in a double fat strat and really disliked it a lot. I would like to find a guitar someday that the JB sounds good in, because it is Seymours favorite pickup and a lot of great rock songs were recorded with it.
 
Re: Night and day in two guitars with JBs

Much appreciated for the feedback. I have played guitar for about 30 years and never noticed such a difference between body woods. I guess the next step would be to swap the pups in the guitars and see if I get the same response... Thanks again!
 
Re: Night and day in two guitars with JBs

if one guitar has a tone pot and the other does not, that would make a huge difference in tone.
 
Re: Night and day in two guitars with JBs

I have the Duncan Custom in my Epi LP, with the stock tone pot it measured 505K, I replaced it with a 500K CTS pot that measured 449K,, very big difference in tone, a new pot would be cheaper to test out than a new pup.
 
Re: Night and day in two guitars with JBs

My money is on the necks making the difference.

Any chance to switch them out?
 
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