The 'real' Jazz pickup

[Mincer]

Ok, the pickup named 'Jazz' sounds nothing like a Jazz tone, not even close. Too many highs. The JB, which supposedly stands for 'Jazzy-Bluesy' is a bridge pickup (I have one in my Brian Moore), which gets nothing close to a Jazz tone (or Blues for that matter). Neither of these pickups will get you close to a Wes/Benson/Pass sound. Maybe close to early Mclaughlin, but he wasn't playing straight jazz- his tone is a lot more mellow now. I use an APHII for Jazz sounds. Whats y'alls recommendations? And why the confusion with the pickup names?

 

[OUTLAW1969]

Re: The 'real' Jazz pickup

I think JB stands for Jeff Beck.......

Good point about the APHII though.

 

[Fusion1]

Re: The 'real' Jazz pickup

59's in a semi or hollow body have sounded pretty good as well for jazz.

 

[Lightning]

Re: The 'real' Jazz pickup

Measured the DC resistance on a '48 Epi Deluxe Zephyr Regent's Frequientsator pickups the other day. These are the rarest…only used for 5 months in '48. I thought this was the first intelligent failure to produce a humbucker horse shoe magnet pickup but it couldn't be the one I read about cause the mag is L shaped. Don't think this was a destructive fact finding, a bottle of wine was spilt on the guitar at a gig. Sealed pickups encasing had a crack in which the wine entered and flushed out the oxidation from the air pockets in the wire opening up the coil.
The other pickup measures 4.1k. The one we opened has #42 wire. The coil was wound on stakes, then taped, then pushed into corona dope on the inside of the PU cover. The mag covers one side of the coil and the bottom of the PU. Duke Robalard uses Mini HBs on his and they are great but man the Frequientsator is it. The ultimate solid arch top pickup. I called a jeweler I know with a insertion mold to get a price on recreating the cover...bucks man. The coil would be easy 4 nails in a board and wind the coil around them, tape and reassemble with epoxy in the new cover.
I guess my friend thought my idea was to crude so he emailed WCR for a quote on a repacement (that's one sold Filmore pickup user there). Return email said just sent a set built from scratch to England, if that guy is happy... Somebody like SD should make a thin wide (like a P90) 4k pickup that has a plastic gasket that can be filed to to fit a unique and shallow arch (at a production line price) so these guys with these vintage instruments don't cut holes in the top of their guitars (even Duke did it). Seymour ...you should feel guilty. Tooo much beer guys...I've gone activist.

 

[Travis]

Re: The 'real' Jazz pickup

I think JB stands for Jeff Beck.......

Good point about the APHII though.

JB stands for Jazz/Blues, not Jeff Beck. This was discussed here not too long ago, as well as multiple times in the past.

As far as what pickups will get you the jazz tone you're looking for, first you must take into consideration the guitar into which they will be going.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: The 'real' Jazz pickup

The JB stands for Jeff Beck...that's who the pickup was designed for. But Jeff doesn't get a royalty or even use the pickup these days (he plays Strats and gets paid to play and endorse Fenders) so now it stands for Jazz/Blues. (winky wink)

As for the Jazz not getting a good jazz tone, that's not true.

If you like the warm and wooly tone of a humbucker with the highs all rolled off then a Jazz neck with the highs all rolled off will get that classic, muffled tone as well as any mid 60's Gibson humbucker.

As for the APII, George Bensen, Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, etc. didn't use an alnico 2 pickup: they used an alnico 5 pickup in thier Gibson L5's and ES-175's that is alot closer to a Duncan Jazz than a APII!

It's all in how you play and how you adjust your tone controls. Eric Johnson gets a sound that's as "Wes Montgomery" as anyone. And he does it with a Strat!

Lew

 

[Young Angus]

Re: The 'real' Jazz pickup

Master Yoda has spoken

 

[JammerMatt]

Re: The 'real' Jazz pickup

I do get a pretty good jazz tone with My APII/Les Paul combo. I have to roll off both the volume and tone to get that "mellow smooth" jazz tone.

-Matt

 

[Travis]

Re: The 'real' Jazz pickup

The JB stands for Jeff Beck...that's who the pickup was designed for. But Jeff doesn't get a royalty or even use the pickup these days (he plays Strats and gets paid to play and endorse Fenders) so now it stands for Jazz/Blues. (winky wink)



All right, I should have said "OFFICIALLY, JB stands for Jazz/Blues." Since Jeff never really had an endorsement deal with Duncan and they call it the Jazz/Blues, that is what I based my answer on.

 

[Wattage]

Re: The 'real' Jazz pickup

An A2P neck is a wonderful Jazz pickup. My friend is building a beautiful archtop and that is the exact pup he is using (it only has a neck pup), can't wait to hear it in all it's glory. Bludave may already have heard it so maybe he'll chime in.

 

[hacker]

Re: The 'real' Jazz pickup

Go tell Robben Ford that the JB is not a good jazz or blues pickup.

Just to clear up some common misconceptions:

#1) there is more to tone than just a pickup
#2) you can play any style of music with any guitar pickup, its all been done before-heavy metal with single coils, blues with anything, jazz with the JB, etc.
#3) pickups (especially humbuckers with adjustable pole pieces) can be adjusted. If you don't like the sound of a particular pup at first, adjust it.

ex. If you are not getting enough gain with your Jazz neck-raise it closer to the strings! If you think the JB has no bass, raise the bass polepieces. While this does not increase the amount of bass the pickup has, it makes your low strings louder, giving the illusion of more bass when you hit a chord. Try that with your JB kids!

#4) Don't take a proven winner like the JB, Jazz, 59, put it in a crappy, thin-neck, plywood, cheap import guitar played through a toneless solid state modeling amp and blame the pickup for cruddy tone!

#5) Use your guitars tone and volume controls! Many players, like Clapton and Hendrix, crank up their tube amps and lower the volumes on their guitars, this cleans up the sound a lot, and takes away what could be very annoying highs that many strats and teles have. Works great with humbuckers too-listen to Allman Bros, Warren Haynes-these guys are constantly adjusting their tone and volume controls. Watch SRV in concert, he does it constantly also.

Thanks for listening. BTW, if I did play jazz, I would use the A2 Pro, 59 or Jazz pup with no hesitation.

 

[Mincer]

Re: The 'real' Jazz pickup

I know you can play any type of music with any pickup, and turning down the tone a bit will get you closer to a jazzy sound. But the JB, being a bridge pickup with lots more high end than an APH2, is nowhere near 'jazz' as its name is supposed to refer to. It is also not marketed as a jazzy sounding pickup, but clearly as a high gain rock pickup. This is the confusion I was talking about. A neck APH2 is a lot 'jazzier' sounding than a Jazz neck pickup. In other words, for authentic jazz sound, you don't have to move your tone control as much.
If you own a Strat, and don't want to change to a hollowbody, and want to get closer to a jazz sound...you would buy a JB ('jazz/blues)/Jazz(for 'articulate jazz runs') combo? This doesn't make sense, as there are clearly better choices in the Duncan line- this is a great choice for a rock sound but
certainly not jazz. The marketing is misleading, that is all I am saying.

 

[seafoamer]

Re: The 'real' Jazz pickup

Neck position Seth Lover! I played Jazz for years and played tons of p-ups from floating p-ups to original PAF's to kent armstrongs. & I pick Seth lovers for jazz!

 

[jimo]

Re: The 'real' Jazz pickup

The jb originally meant Jeff Beck----it was just changed to jazz/blues for legal reasons---it was never aimed at the Jazz market. Maybe they should have said it stands for "Just Blasting".There are MANY different jazz tones not JUST the woofy neck sound. Most of the Jazz Greats were using the pickups that came with the guitar--that was all that was available. simple huh?-cheers!---JIMO :newangel:

 

[OUTLAW1969]

Re: The 'real' Jazz pickup

I know this thread is not about the correct origin of the JB, but the JB was designed for Jeff Beck , FACT!

Since Jeff no longer plays humbucker equipted guitars, Seymour decided to re-assign the JB to "supposedly" mean JAZZ/BLUES. It is his best selling pickup, he had to keep the name and just make up something that he could claim that it supposedly stood for now.

If a pickup was designed for ,lets say, Steve Morse ( "SM" ) and Steve ditched humbucker style pickups, Duncan would then say it "stood for" something like Smokin' Melody , or something like that.


Just like the specially wound "EVH" pickup is supposed to stand for ( I don't know what they claim really, but ) something like Excellent Very Harmonic pickup. That is not hard to figure out, either. The profit margin rules businesses, and if they mess with a good thing, they might be making a HUGE mistake money wise. So keep the name and change the reference point to something that is convenient. I am sure to Mr. Duncan it probably simply stands for "JUST BUY" it !!!!!!!

 

[brinton]

Re: The 'real' Jazz pickup

here's something to think about though, when you think about a jazz guitar I would imagine you'd think of a hollow-body archtop guitar with a single PAF neck HB. I don't think you could ever really get that natural sound & smoothness from any bridge position simply because it's in the bridge. To get what I'm saying pluck your strings very close to your bridge/saddles unplugged, getting a jazzy sound from there would have to be some very proccesed sound like a piezo pup system. There are guys though that use their bridge pup for jazz and stuff (beck, santana etc.) but the tone isn't traditional mellow jazz. see what I'm sayin

 

[RG 2570]

Re: The 'real' Jazz pickup

the jazz was formally the JM which was refering to john milner from the movie american grafitti which has NOTHING to do with jazz music :laugh2:

 

[strat_master]

Re: The 'real' Jazz pickup

i'd say a set of 59's? maybe alinco 2 pros i guess they have a very warm sound. The again all pick ups could be modded in tone, look at slash he uses ap2s but his tone ripped pure rock n roll and screaming leads too.