Bob Hoover Ross
Junior Member
- Messages
- 178
I have an Ibanez AF-75 archtop f-hole jazz guitar that my wife gave me ~20 years ago, and it is a *surprisingly* nice instrument: super comfortable, great feeling neck, plays like butter.
The sound, however, is just a bit "meh"
I've got it strung up with D'Addario 12-52 flatwounds, and I'm playing it through a Polytone MiniBrute III combo amp; were this a classic Gibson archtop from their heyday, that'd be the perfect recipe for my timbral goals. So I'm thinking the electronics in this Ibanez are the weak link. If I had to characterize it, the sound just doesn't "pop" as much as it does in these examples; it's a little 2-dimensional, lifeless.
For reference, I'm looking for that archetypal neck-pickup humbucker "jazz guitar sound", e.g., Wes Montgomery (here playing a Gibson L-5)
or Pat Martino (here playing a Sam Koontz)
or Joe Pass (not sure what that guitar is; a D'Angelico or a D'Aquisto perhaps?)
or - sometimes - Steve Howe (here playing a Gibson ES-175D)
So... what currently available standard-sized humbucking pickup would you recommend for achieving those tonal goals?
Thanks
The sound, however, is just a bit "meh"
I've got it strung up with D'Addario 12-52 flatwounds, and I'm playing it through a Polytone MiniBrute III combo amp; were this a classic Gibson archtop from their heyday, that'd be the perfect recipe for my timbral goals. So I'm thinking the electronics in this Ibanez are the weak link. If I had to characterize it, the sound just doesn't "pop" as much as it does in these examples; it's a little 2-dimensional, lifeless.
For reference, I'm looking for that archetypal neck-pickup humbucker "jazz guitar sound", e.g., Wes Montgomery (here playing a Gibson L-5)
or Pat Martino (here playing a Sam Koontz)
or Joe Pass (not sure what that guitar is; a D'Angelico or a D'Aquisto perhaps?)
or - sometimes - Steve Howe (here playing a Gibson ES-175D)
So... what currently available standard-sized humbucking pickup would you recommend for achieving those tonal goals?
Thanks