Replacement Jazzmaster pickups - experiences and recommendations?

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HorseyBoy
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Re: Replacement Jazzmaster pickups - experiences and recommendations?

Post by HorseyBoy »

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Arrived today from Adelaide. Hope to install them over the weekend.

For the curious, pulled out the multimeter and got these readings: neck is 7.66k; bridge is 8.60k. Looking forward to tinkering.
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HorseyBoy
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Re: Replacement Jazzmaster pickups - experiences and recommendations?

Post by HorseyBoy »

Did the install a few days ago and have spent today tweaking the pickup heights, going between a bright amp (VibroChamp) and a dark amp (Airline 62-9013A) to get things right. Full album of pics here: https://imgur.com/a/tA6dhiN

Install itself was easy-peasy. The only issue was the big old blobs of solder on the ground wires courtesy of Fender. My little iron struggled but flowing a tiny bit of new solder on there did the trick.

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First impressions are extremely good. I didn't touch the pots, so it's all the new pickups. Bridge is now actually useful - no ear-piercing shrillness, nice balance across the strings. Middle position is lovely and the neck is better than ever. These are really, really nice pickups.
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burgersalad14
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Re: Replacement Jazzmaster pickups - experiences and recommendations?

Post by burgersalad14 »

Happy to hear they worked out for you! They sure improved my Jazzmaster :-)
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HorseyBoy
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Re: Replacement Jazzmaster pickups - experiences and recommendations?

Post by HorseyBoy »

burgersalad14 wrote: Sat Oct 31, 2020 9:10 am Happy to hear they worked out for you! They sure improved my Jazzmaster :-)
Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction. :cheers:
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redeyeflight
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Re: Replacement Jazzmaster pickups - experiences and recommendations?

Post by redeyeflight »

I dont have any real experience with boutique jazzmaster pickups. But having played a TON of vintage jazzmasters my impression is that they started getting brighter as time went on. The early ones do seem to be a bit thicker and more robust sounding. My 66 jazzmaster sits somewhere in between but I can say my bud Frank has a 59 and it almost sounds like a giant strat! It’s an amazing guitar. Some of that could also be slab board vs veneer or other minor elements but that does seem to be the trend from what I’ve been able to experience. Any maker doing earlier design jazzmaster pickups is what I’d be looking for in a boutique build.
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Enjoyer
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Re: Replacement Jazzmaster pickups - experiences and recommendations?

Post by Enjoyer »

Check out Jason Lollar’s Jazzmaster pick ups.
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HorseyBoy
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Re: Replacement Jazzmaster pickups - experiences and recommendations?

Post by HorseyBoy »

Quick and simple run through of the JazzDoctor pickups starting at the bridge, switching to the middle, neck, then back to the bridge and finishing in the middle. Guitar straight into the amp (VibroChamp), recorded with a phone on the floor. Really happy with the clarity and sound at every position.

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innerflight
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Re: Replacement Jazzmaster pickups - experiences and recommendations?

Post by innerflight »

Love the sound of a Jazzmaster in the middle, these sound awesome :party:
’brutish in character but not thug like’
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HorseyBoy
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Re: Replacement Jazzmaster pickups - experiences and recommendations?

Post by HorseyBoy »

^ Thanks, inner!

Yeah, couldn't be happier with these. With the old pickups I basically only ever used the middle position. This is like having two extra guitars:-)
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HorseyBoy
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Re: Replacement Jazzmaster pickups - experiences and recommendations?

Post by HorseyBoy »

Slight return…

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Still love the Brierleys but haven't been able to get the idea of WRHBs out of my head. So when James at Lance Amplification managed to put his Wide Range Mini Humbuckers onto a Jazzmaster plate - and match the covers perfectly - what was I supposed to do? Another great Aussie winder, with big ups from innerflight and squarewave. Thanks, fellas, for pointing me in the right direction! :cheers:

So I'm going to give these a try as well. They’re a little deeper than standard JM pickups which means I might be carving me out some foam. Also going to throw in some 500k volume and tone pots while the soldering iron is hot.

As you can see, the pickups are offset from the base, so the tone will change depending on the orientation of each pickup, as if you were changing the placement of a regular humbucker by moving it closer or further away from the bridge/neck.

Oh, and the bridge measures at 13.74K and the neck comes in at 11.14K.
Last edited by HorseyBoy on Fri Jan 29, 2021 11:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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