12 string pup's???

[tallman]

I'm planing on building a 12 string Jmaster ala Fender XII.  I've got everything figured out, except the pickups.  I'm really not quite sure what pickups would sound good on a 12 string.

Here are the criteria I've come up with so far:
No P-90's (I already have a 2 P-90 guitar and I want something different)
I'd like pickups with either black, chrome, or both on them (to match the color scheme)
I want pickups with lower output- but DO NOT WANT THE GUITAR TO BE TO HARSH AND TREBLY

any suggestions/ prior experience?

 

[Mor Paul]

humbucker?

regular strat or something?

 

[tallman]

hmmmm. I've thought about humbuckers, but am not very sure which ones.  And I'm not a big strat fan.

 

[GoDrex]

Well what kind of sound do you want? I assume it's a clean tone?

For a humbucker in the bridge I tried a SD Jazz bridge and it sounded great clean. In the neck I can't imagine anything better than a strat single coil for clean tones. Maybe a HSS setup would be cool for 12 string. If you want 2 buckers then 2 Jazz would be my choice - and I'd set them up so they could be split. That would give you lots of options for some nice jangly tones. Or look at other low output humbuckers with alnico 2 magnets in them - like Alnico 2 Pros - or Seth Lovers. Seth's would probably sound really good.

Also if you're worried about too much treble - go with 250k pots with humbuckers. That should take the edge off. And use a tone control.

edit - maybe look at some TV Jones pickups - - might look cool on your JM

 

[mayfly]

I've been chatting with Jason Lollar about making the jazzmaster pickups work in a 12 string.  Turns out that as a special order he can make a set with blade polepieces to evenly pickup the strings.

Expensive mind you...I have not yet taken the plunge.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

In your search this might help...  Overwound = less highs more mids, Underwound = more highs less mids.  But, the old Ric's had low resistance pickups (under wound) a lot of the time so it is up to you.  You are probably pretty safe with hot pickups on a 12 string because of all the extra high notes you get.  Good luck
Patrick

 

[tallman]

Thanx everyone!

yeah, price is always the issue too- I kind of have to decide whether I wanna go the $150-200 pickup budget (duncans etc...) or the $300-350 (lollars, TV Jones etc...)

decisions decisions....

what about lipstick pickups?  Anyone have any experience?

And lollars will continually tempt me....I have 2 of his P-90s...but the humbuckers are soooo expensive....

 

[Unwound G]

Worth checking out Kent Armstrong pickups : http://www.wdmusic.com/pickups.html.

They make Filtertron style pickups which pretty much nails the tone and are priced reasonably.  Also check out their Firebird Mini-humbuckers which will be a good choice for 12 string guitars' neck pickups.

 

[tallman]

those kent armstrongs look pretty good.  I'm thinking maybe 2 firebird pickups- are they bar magnet style? I'm trying to get something with good string coverage for all the strings.

 

[Unwound G]

Yes, Firebird Mini-humbuckers are constructed with a U-shaped magnet with the coils wound around each blade.  The narrow magnetic field gives the pickup a more Strat-like tone but without the hum.

 

[nathan a]

I was going to suggest FIrebird pickups!!! or perhaps minibuckers. I think that would sound awesome.

 

[OzziePete]

Contact Seymour Duncan and have them remake the original 12 string pickups? I enquired a while ago, and they say they can do it.

Alternatively, mini humbuckers (Firebird style) would be nice sounding, but my only reservation there would be the possibility of too much jangly sound? I suppose you could use 250K pots and a different cap value to lower the treble response a bit.