Re: The JB "I call BS on everyone" thread
Only if you a) Say that there are clearly striking differences in these pickups and b) refuse to play the game - by voting in a blind listen.
You sir - had guitars cut from the same slab of wood for the regular vs Zephyr listen...
I’ll do you one better. For my Fishman R&D we have instant swap shuttle guitars. We hot-swapped whatever pickup we wanted. And yes my double cream butyrate “The JB Model” was part of that mix. When I went from that one to the stock new JB everyone in the room practically gasped. Not one person acted like the difference was small, or that they had to really pay attention to tell the difference.
Now, there are countless recordings made with JB’s that were not old JB’s or they weren’t old at the time of the recording, they were brand new with full strength magnets. So this notion that you can make a blanket statement that all old JB’s are always better is sort of half-baked. It’s whatever you like.
Personally as a guitarist, I think my double cream butyrate The JB Model is the best JB I have ever played in my life. My first pickup swap as a 13 year old was a JB, in the late 80s and I also liked that at the time. But in between, like 90s through maybe 2010 I had hundreds of pickups but no JBs. It wasn’t my sound. Today, I have a few old JB’s and that holy grail double cream. Personally as a guitar player I don’t like the sound of new JBs. I like the Antiquity JB and I’m glad I could get that pickup released while I was there.
So...Here’s why I’ll call BS on anybody calling BS on me: Some of the differences have to be felt under the fingers, but also some of the differences will be made apparent by choosing the right things to play that highlight the differences. For example for some reason when I play with my fingers, the difference between the double cream and a new JB is even huger. But the differences were also huge through a cranked JCM800, and getting harmonics sounds different the harmonica themselves are sweeter with less scratchy, icepick in the sound. Maybe the differences were a bit more subtle through a mid-volume cleanish Fender Twin Reverb...so the first issue is whether you’ll design a test that masks the differences or highlights the differences. The second issue is the differences in the way it feels to play them. The whole argument of “can the front row audience member tell the difference” is irrelevant. If the musician can feel and hear differences in the way they play and how the amp responds then that counts for a lot as well, and a lot of that would be missed by someone pounding away at some chords on YouTube.
But go ahead, have fun and do the blind vote test. I already know what I know, and quite possibly could be literally one of the worlds leading experts on this subject. At the very least it’ll be entertaining. :laughing:
pcorn:
