Jazzmaster - P90s or Regular Jazzmaster Pickups?
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TBurst Std
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Well I have guitars as vehicles for different pups. My answer is you need both. What music do you play?
Verne Bunsen
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It depends on what you want the guitar to be. If you like the way the Jazzmaster looks and feels but you want beefy P90 tones, then there's your answer. If you want it to sound like a Jazzmaster, then it's Jazzmaster pickups. Neither one is right or wrong, just a matter of application. I'm with TBurst, you need both! I've got a Paul with P90s that I love and I've got Jazzmaster pickups in my Jazzmaster and I love that one too.
To answer your other question, I'm running Rumpelstiltskin Pre-CBS Jazzmaster pickups and I like them rather a lot! There are some audio clips of them a little ways down the page in the build thread for my JM:
http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=26409.60
My dad has two Jazzmasters, one with Lollars and the other with Seymour Duncan Antiquities, both sound great!
To answer your other question, I'm running Rumpelstiltskin Pre-CBS Jazzmaster pickups and I like them rather a lot! There are some audio clips of them a little ways down the page in the build thread for my JM:
http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=26409.60
My dad has two Jazzmasters, one with Lollars and the other with Seymour Duncan Antiquities, both sound great!
TBurst Std
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For that genre group, you would probably find P90s more preferred. Lots of great P90s out there. Check out Zhangbucker as he will wind it they way you want. If it's not spot on, he'll work with you.shaps6 said:
I'm a massive Jazzmaster fanboy so I'm always going to vote for the JM pickups.
In my experience, P90s are punchy and full-bodied with a throatier sound as they break up. I've always thought of them as halfway between a humbucker and a single-coil, though I know there are people out there who hate that description.
JM pickups are a different beast. They sound bigger and fuller than single coils but for my money, they're not moving towards the humbucker sound the way P90s are. To my ears they're brighter than a P90 and there's a percussive character to the attack. To me they've got a sort of jangle and twang where P90s have a honk.
They sound great for blues and indie. Check out Television and Sonic Youth for some different examples. I wouldn't use my JM for anything approaching the 'classic' rock sound, but as you've mentioned they also do well with fuzz. My Bloody Valentine are the best example there.
(EDIT: And I can't believe I nearly forgot one of my favourite JM users ever, Nels Cline. His work with Wilco from A Ghost Is Born onwards and particularly with the Nels Cline Singers is a great example of the sounds you can get out of a JM.)
I've got Fender pickups in my JM, but my friend recently put a Novak JM pickup into the neck of his Tele and it sounds fantastic.
In my experience, P90s are punchy and full-bodied with a throatier sound as they break up. I've always thought of them as halfway between a humbucker and a single-coil, though I know there are people out there who hate that description.
JM pickups are a different beast. They sound bigger and fuller than single coils but for my money, they're not moving towards the humbucker sound the way P90s are. To my ears they're brighter than a P90 and there's a percussive character to the attack. To me they've got a sort of jangle and twang where P90s have a honk.
They sound great for blues and indie. Check out Television and Sonic Youth for some different examples. I wouldn't use my JM for anything approaching the 'classic' rock sound, but as you've mentioned they also do well with fuzz. My Bloody Valentine are the best example there.
(EDIT: And I can't believe I nearly forgot one of my favourite JM users ever, Nels Cline. His work with Wilco from A Ghost Is Born onwards and particularly with the Nels Cline Singers is a great example of the sounds you can get out of a JM.)
I've got Fender pickups in my JM, but my friend recently put a Novak JM pickup into the neck of his Tele and it sounds fantastic.
TBurst Std
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Myself, I always found JM pups more suited to surf rock, indie or even CCM. If you were to list the top 50 blues or 50 rock influences , few JM pups would be found. You would find more P90s.shaps6 said:
Let me rephrase my question, Offer artists tone you are looking for.
And by the way, since I already offered a P90 reference, for JM pups I would immediately go to Novack. And yes I have a JM build planned. There are some songs in the CCM genre that it is perfect for. But not that dreaded trem. Will use a TOM and a Bigsby or Doozy trem.
And who knows, maybe I'll have time to join a surf rock band again.
Cagey
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My Jazzmasters don't sound like Jazzmasters at all because I don't care for P90s or JM pickups. Much too noisy and limited. But, I do like the appearance/feel of a Jazzmaster, so I put a set of Seymour Duncan's "Hotrodded Humbuckers" (JB+59) in one along with a piezo saddle/acousti-phonic preamp setup and a Fishman TriplePlay, and the other has a pair of Bill Lawrence L500XLs in it.
shaps6
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Cagey said:
Yeah, I just played one of the new Fender American Professional Jazzmasters, and I kinda dug the stock V-Mod pickups. They're kind of their own thing, and I think I dig that. I've got plenty of humbuckers and p90.
Now to search for the right Jazzmaster pickup...
Day-mun
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I know I have been on a few other threads blowin' it up about Pork Roll Pickups' JM pickup set "The Waverlys", but I gotta plug Cris Slotoroff's product here, too. The price is right, the tone is awesome, and the personal attention he gives to making sure you love 'em in your guitar can't go unmentioned. If you're still shopping for pickups, I would recommend getting a hold of him. I found mine on Reverb, but he is on Etsy & fb as well. And he is currently experimenting with a hotter/overwound/higher DC resistance version for those who might otherwise be tempted to deviate from JM style single-coils and go the HB route.
