What makes a JB

[MikeM]

Hey guys

Over the years I have grown to love single coils, and quite dislike buckers... But the JB has piqued my interests. It's bright, tight and more or less what I am looking for. Well more or less. I am thinking that with an A2, or A3 (which will scoop it a little - HB wise, that'd make it a little more single coil like?) should be what I am looking for in a bridge pup.

Anyone used one in a Strat - maple fretboard? The site recommends that it's used with a warm to neutral guitar.. perhaps use 250k pots with everything to take the slight shrillness out of the JB?

Anyway, back to my question - sheesh I can get carried away... Lack focus . What makes a JB have it's signature sound? It's so different to most other humbuckers, from listening to the clips on the site, it sounds quite p90 compared to the other HBs.. I know it's A5... But that's about it.

Opinions?
Mike

 

[hamerfan]

Re: What makes a JB

Going back in the history of the JB means to speake about the glorified Jeff Beck signature 'TeleGib', an humbucker equipped Tele with gibson style frets on rosewood. It sports the first JB with 250k pots (important!!). With this recipe you can drive a maple fretboard Strat as well. My all maple Superstrat had one for years (now i go with a C8).

 

[MikeM]

Re: What makes a JB

Ah great, something to google Thanks man

 

[blueman335]

Re: What makes a JB

An A3 has treble without a lot of low end, and is low output. That may give you more of a single coil sound, as much as that PU is going to have.

 

[MikeM]

Re: What makes a JB

Ok great - now just to find out, what makes a JB a JB? It's an A5, 16,4k.. But I still don't get what makes it sound SO different?

 

[Christopher Caruana]

Re: What makes a JB

a tight bass, LOADS of upper mids, and a sharp top end

 

[MikeM]

Re: What makes a JB

Hehe, I meant physically I know the tonality

 

[Johtosotku]

Re: What makes a JB

Since when has JB had tight bass? If anything it's very loose. I don't really find it that bright either - I'd rather call it very present and middy instead of bright.

If you want some single coil tones out of your JB I'd recommend to get a switch or a push-pull potentiometer to split it when needed. As the JB is so hot it splits reasonably well and can cover a lot of ground with the two modes.

 

[MikeM]

Re: What makes a JB

I hear it splits well yes

Ok now, A5, 16.4k... and?

 

[theboatcandream]

Re: What makes a JB

The JB exists because guitarists want to sound like their heroes who recorded with Fenders but appeared live playing Gibsons.

 

[Petrovsk Mizinski]

Re: What makes a JB

a tight bass, LOADS of upper mids, and a sharp top end

If Jenna Jameson is your definition of tight, then I'd say the JB is about equal to that

 

[dr. ad]

Re: What makes a JB

i've played one in an "agathis" tele with a maple neck and liked it, it's as if those woods and shape complement what can otherwise sound like 'the icepick' and 'looseness' assosciated with the JB, making it sound a bit more cohesive (if that makes sense). still has that expressive cutting tone but came across as more 'middy' and a lot less harsh. in any application it's a pickup that benefits from a lot of tweaking, but is worth it when you've dialled it in

a bar mag and slug poles does not a single-coil tone make, but the JB gets closer than most when split IMO. don't know about a parallel JB tone..?



random noob theory:
i could be far from correct in this, and i welcome anyone who knows first-hand to enlighten me... but i'm guessing that the JB doesn't actually have a whole lot of wire on it's bobbins for a pickup that uses the thinner 44AWG wire, and that this is why it sounds looser and still cuts through. maybe this amount of wire wound a specific pitch and tension (guessing sharp and loose-ish?) is what gives the JB it's characteristic honky cut? and still having a relatively high concentration of turns on the coils it saturates well and gets quite dirty?

 

[MikeM]

Re: What makes a JB

Aha, another detail. 44 is not regular though is it? It's usually 43 or 42 right?

 

[dr. ad]

Re: What makes a JB

42 for PAFs
there are several duncans (and i believe a few DMZs) that use thinner 43 gauge
i believe the wires being used for one of the coils in DMZ's dual-resonance pickups are thinner again, no idea on the details though.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: What makes a JB

if i wanted a humbucker that sounded like a P-90 or a single coil

i'd get a P-Rails.

 

[MikeM]

Re: What makes a JB

Thanks Dr Ad. Appreciate it.

Empty, I am sure you would. I however want a bucker that's a little thinner than usual, that's got a slight single coil accent while still being a humbucker. I enjoy my p-rails

 

[MikeM]

Re: What makes a JB

Any other info?

 

[kgarvey@hotmail]

Re: What makes a JB

Although I haven't seen this confirmed I've seen it written a number of times that it uses 44 gauge wire, the customs use 43 gauge wire and the likes of the 59 use 42 gauge wire. This will have a big impact on the unique tone of the instrument. I think the unique aspect of the JB is its upper-mids. I don't ever hear it as being overly bright but just too focused in the upper mids, thats only when its paired in the wrong guitar. Its a pick-up which is difficult to get right but when it works it really works. It can sing, has a great single-coil sound when split, is thick and just ideal for soloing. It suffers in that the clean tones aren't great at all.

I think the reason the likes of the JB came out is that before guitarists started putting pedals in between their guitars and amps guitarists needed a pick-up that would drive their amp and get the amp to that breaking-up distorted tone from their amps without it being on full volume. To that end pick-up maufacturers began making high-output pick-ups to accomplish this. Dimarzio came out with their high output Super Distortion and Seymour came out with the JB, which I've heard described as his first ever pick-up he properly made for an artist (Jeff beck).

Since the creation of tubescreamers and digital processing effects units guitarists have started using lower output pick-ups and using these effects units to drive the amp in a similiar way that high-output pick-ups used to. I've heard people working at dimarzio say that they see more and more guitarists seeking lower output pick-ups and using their pedals to achieve a heavily distorted tone.

Saying that I still think the way the JB drives an amp is unique and cannot be acheived with pedals.

Hope that helps