What pickup does Mattias Jabs use?

[357mag]

The Scorpions have always had fantastic guitar tone and I was wondering what bridge pickup Mattias Jabs used?

 

[ErikH]

Re: What pickup does Mattias Jabs use?

My initial thought is the Gibson 500T. That thing could cut through anything.

 

[357mag]

Re: What pickup does Mattias Jabs use?

I watched him with Rudolf Schenker on YouTube describing and playing through Rock You Like A Hurricane and No One Like You and his tone is just superb.

 

[ErikH]

Re: What pickup does Mattias Jabs use?

I agree. I don't know what he uses these days but back in the 80's, it was the 500T. He's pretty simple with his rig too. Very raw.

 

[dystrust]

Re: What pickup does Mattias Jabs use?

I would guess he was using Dirty Fingers back in the 80s.

Wasn't the 500T introduced in the early 90s after they quit using the HB-R & HB-L?

 

[freefrog]

Re: What pickup does Mattias Jabs use?

AFAIk: Gibson Tar Back in his Explorer. T-Top bobbins, Indox7 magnet (a kind of ceramic), black epoxy under the whole assembly, hence the name.

They were low resistance (7.5k or something like that), low inductance (4.7H, just like a P.A.F. replica) but powerful thx to the mags used. Black epoxy instead of a regular baseplate was probably a way to avoid Eddy currents, in my understanding.

A PU with T-Tops specs (and not "space") should come close once deprived of its nickel silver baseplate and mounted on a fiber baseplate, fitted with a not too gaussed ceramic mag and possibly stuffed with additional metal core material in order to rise a bit the inductance...

EDIT: Bill Lawrence L90 in his Strat, too. So his tone was largely due to Bill Lawrence (who designed the "Tar Back").

 

[greekdude]

Re: What pickup does Mattias Jabs use?

I don;t know really but the tone in blackout was just fantastic!

 

[357mag]

Re: What pickup does Mattias Jabs use?

AFAIk: Gibson Tar Back in his Explorer. T-Top bobbins, Indox7 magnet (a kind of ceramic), black epoxy under the whole assembly, hence the name.

They were low resistance (7.5k or something like that), low inductance (4.7H, just like a P.A.F. replica) but powerful thx to the mags used. Black epoxy instead of a regular baseplate was probably a way to avoid Eddy currents, in my understanding.

A T-Top speced PU should come close once deprived of its nickel silver BP, fitted with a ceramic mag and possibly stuffed with additional metal core material in order to rise a bit the inductance...

EDIT: Bill Lawrence L90 in his Strat, too. So his tone was largely due to Bill Lawrence (who designed the "Tar Back").

Never heard of a Tar Back Pickup. Don't know what those are. Never heard of Indox magnets. Never heard of T-Top spacing. I've heard of F-Spacing and Arch Top Guitars though.

 

[freefrog]

Re: What pickup does Mattias Jabs use?

Never heard of a Tar Back Pickup. Don't know what those are. Never heard of Indox magnets. Never heard of T-Top spacing. I've heard of F-Spacing and Arch Top Guitars though.

https://reverb.com/fr/item/2008031-...y-potted-paf-type-humbucker-with-nickel-cover

https://reverb.com/fr/item/1830529-gibson-tar-back-epoxy-potted-humbucker-1980-nickel

 

[greekdude]

Re: What pickup does Mattias Jabs use?

Also speaking of matthias, although i got no clue of the pups, but I got an obsession with great guitarists to find out exactly when did they actually start to play *good*, I mean way over the average. About Uli Roth I know this happened in "In Trance", before that I didn't quite like his solos. But I can't seem to find a good solo of Matthias before Scorpions, so guys if you know pls help.

 

[Aceman]

Re: What pickup does Mattias Jabs use?

Great question. I have no idea. I will say that I don't think he was ever a "pickup guy" to the best of my knowledge. Definitely a Marshall 800 guy. I think most of his tone is delay/reverb and his hands. If you are with the T-Top suggestions get a Jazz Bridge.

I know this guy is using a Duncan Distortion

 

[rammer69]

Re: What pickup does Mattias Jabs use?

sub-d

 

[ErikH]

Re: What pickup does Mattias Jabs use?

I would guess he was using Dirty Fingers back in the 80s.

Wasn't the 500T introduced in the early 90s after they quit using the HB-R & HB-L?

Yeah, you're right. The 500T came out in 1990 so a DF would definitely get there. I've always been able get a really good Scorps grinding cutting tone with ceramics like the 500T, DF and even the Duncan Distortion, as Aceman has shown, regardless of whether he used lower output pickups or not. The thing about BL pickups is that they are ridiculously clear with plenty of output.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: What pickup does Mattias Jabs use?

Most of the Scorpions sound to my ears is the amp: tubes, amp architecture, speaker cabs. Most hotter gibson pickups (498, 500, DF) will get there with the right amp. Even weaker T-Tops if you roll the amp gain up.

If not using a Marshall, then it might work a bit better with hotter ceramic pickups. 500T, DF. The Duncan Custom might work as well as the Distortion IMHO. Just a matter of rolling tone knobs, volume and amp gain or boosting to get there.

 

[greekdude]

Re: What pickup does Mattias Jabs use?

^^^ I seen in older vids with his previous bands he used a normal strat, exactly like Uli Roths (maple board, white).

 

[DonP]

Re: What pickup does Mattias Jabs use?

I also agree the 500T came out after many of the Scorpion's songs were made, but the 500T does work very well.

 

[freefrog]

Re: What pickup does Mattias Jabs use?

Aceman, thx for sharing. +1 about the idea that MJ is not a pickup geek.

That being said... My first answer was trying to say which pickups MJ useD (past tense), in reply to the first post.

But as the tittle of this topic also asks what pickups he useS, let’s add this: http://www.guitarmaker.de/MC.htm

… and that: https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/Cort_Guitars_Teams_with_Scorpions_Matthias_Jabs_for_Arena_1


There's also the Dommenget "Musclebucker", described as "the strongest pickup on the market. I found this receipe by mistake, it goes against every rule of pickupmaking by reading over 20 Kohm. Never mind, it will blow you away,lots of power, attack and bite. The SCORPIONS favourite in most of their guitars".

IOW, it has probably been wound initially with a wire thinner than intended (like 44 or 45AWG instead of 43), ending with a very high resistance but avoiding the compressed mud of overly high inductance / output PU's... At least that's my hypothesis.

For those who would want to know from the horse's mouth (and/or to buy some gear used by MJ):
https://www.mjguitars.de/en/our-store/matthias-jabs/

 

[OLDERBUDWISER]

Re: What pickup does Mattias Jabs use?

MJ has a guitar store in Europe. He seems like a nice guy, try to reach out to him, you may be surprised
His store https://www.mjguitars.de/en/our-store/matthias-jabs/

 

[LLL]

Re: What pickup does Mattias Jabs use?

Guaranteed from '79 (Lovedrive) to the 80's Scorpions heyday with all of their hits, in his "trouble guitar" ('63-'64 black strat) it was a creme colored Bill Lawrence L90XL:

 

[LLL]

Re: What pickup does Mattias Jabs use?

Amp-wise for the same time period, a '78 Marshall JMP 1987 (50 watt) non-master, 4x12 w Celestion 25W speakers (black backs)

Also:

Jabs: I always used a 50-watt Marshall. I had one that had been modded with an effects loop and I put an old Echoplex in the loop. I wanted the echo but it never really worked. But it had a preamp in it and for some reason when I plugged it in, the amp was a bit hotter. I bought a few others but it only worked with this one Echoplex. It added the extra little bit of distortion, which was welcome at the time.

There is also the theory that Jabs & Schenker used wahs in a cocked-wah config; blended in utilizing the 4 inputs on a non-master Marshall amp.