Vintage tone pick up?

R

rockabilly1955

New member
I just bought a jagmaster as a back up to my Les Paul. I think the stock Duncan designed pups it comes sound pretty good for the price but a bit too piercing. What are some decent budget pups I can get that have a vintage 50s tone but without the hum and not too piercing and thin. Don't want anything too expensive as this is my backup geetar. Thanks guys.
 
I second the vote for GFS pickups. I installed one of the Liverpool Vintage humbuckers in a Strat's bridge position to replace the cheap MIM pickup and it sounds really good to me, it's one of the better sounding humbuckers in the coil splitting single coil mode too!;)

If you are looking for a less piercing tone as you stated, look into the Nashville Vintage Retrotrons with ceramic magnets, as the Liverpools have alnico magnets and a hotter output....:D

The link below has quite a few different choices to check out.

http://store.guitarfetish.com/vintagestyle.html
 
Or.....for that matter, try lowering those Duncan pickups down till they don't have as much bite as they do. That might get you the sound you want and will not cost you anything!
 
Thanks for the tips guys. I aint much of a guitar mechanic, so I prob would have to get it done at a shop. Are there any good sites that have DIY instructions? The more I been messing with my jag, the more I'm liking the sound. It just takes a bit of tweaking on the amp and tube simulator.
 
you know I used to almost think this was "tube snobbery", these type comments.

but now I have a tube amp and it's a instrument of its own. the natural compression tone, whatever.

simulating is just that..
Wiki:
A simulation is an imitation of some real thing.

I had a Marshall combo, single 12 and a Line 6 single 12 side by side yesterday. (I like to do these comparison things.)

I don't give a shit really, I don't work for the companies or anything else...
i feel unbiased between most gear.

so I compared and the tube amp takes such little effort, "its hard to make it sound bad" as they say. absolutely gorgeous tones.

so then I tweaked and tweaked the Line 6 to match this tube-tone, simulate!
and it had some good tones, very pleasing but it wasn't as good. back and forth between amps.

there was still just something missing on the Line 6.

the Line 6 is what it is. its cheaper, has all those effects and programmable 4 channels of setting memory, very nice and so easy to use.

and can't say that the expensive Marshall will guarentee a hit record on MTV....and it costs a lot, lot more!

but back to simulation.....the tube amp sounded better, it just does. it is what it is.

the tone is very addicting and its Numero Uno...#1....and an old, old technology.

damn! I'm a tube snob now! whoooa....:p


no on nthe distortion tones though....the PUP's in the guitar seem to be the big SCHWING factor?...strange these "things" are
 
rockabilly1955 said:
Thanks for the tips guys. I aint much of a guitar mechanic, so I prob would have to get it done at a shop. Are there any good sites that have DIY instructions? The more I been messing with my jag, the more I'm liking the sound. It just takes a bit of tweaking on the amp and tube simulator.
Click to expand...
Man, anyone can lower p'ups. And taking it to a shop for that will be frustrating because you're gonna have to lower it ..... see how it sounds .... lower it a bit more .... see how it sounds .... raise it back up a bit .... see how it sounds etc.
There are screws on each end of the pup, turning them one way will lower it ..... the other way will raise it.
Start out just lowering it a little bit and see what that does ..... then play around with the height until you get a better sound.
It's really not hard and you can totally do this.
 
Lt. Bob said:
Man, anyone can lower p'ups. And taking it to a shop for that will be frustrating because you're gonna have to lower it ..... see how it sounds .... lower it a bit more .... see how it sounds .... raise it back up a bit .... see how it sounds etc.
There are screws on each end of the pup, turning them one way will lower it ..... the other way will raise it.
Start out just lowering it a little bit and see what that does ..... then play around with the height until you get a better sound.
It's really not hard and you can totally do this.
Click to expand...

thanks for the tip. I will try it out. Generally speaking, how is the tone affected by lowering or raising? ( i.e...lowering makes the tone_____, and rasing it makes the tone_____.) My prob right now is that the high end is a bit bright and piercing. I havent changed the stock strings either. I think they're 9's, but I will put on some 10's soon.
 
rockabilly1955 said:
thanks for the tip. I will try it out. Generally speaking, how is the tone affected by lowering or raising? ( i.e...lowering makes the tone quieter and not as bright, and raising it makes the tone Louder and brighter.) My prob right now is that the high end is a bit bright and piercing. I havent changed the stock strings either. I think they're 9's, but I will put on some 10's soon.
Click to expand...

There you go-I filled in the blanks for you. I remember Light recently posting his way to balance the tone of the neck pickup was to fret the highest fret on the neck-21st or 24th whichever applies to you're guitar-then adjust the pickup screws to bring the pickup about 1/8" from the string, this is on both the high and low "E" strings.

I think with humbuckers with adjustable polepieces you are to measure the 1/8" between the outer polepieces and the string. I think you can do the same with the bridge pickup, but he said that you mostly adjust the bridge pickup to balance the output with the neck pickup.
 
height changes your high/mid/low ratio. lowering them will give you more highs. not more than what's already there, but the ration changes. know what i mean? just think of it as, lower pickup = thinner, higher pickup = thicker.
 
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