Seymour Duncan JB-4

"naked" without cover, bridge position

Edwards "Limited" Model (Japanese made Les Paul with closer tolerances and superior woods) fitted with an Earvana nut. I have the tuning set down to dropped "c" with DR Tite Fit 12-52 strings.

The JB rests in the bridge...but not for long. Replaced the strings because I was getting no life from the bridge...no change whatsoever and raising the height doesn't seem to do anything. I will have to agree with the post below who noticed no midrange definition. It seems as if there is a really thick wool blanket of some sort on my cabinet, the sound is muffled like crazy. I play through a Marshall TSL 100 and have all my channels set at full treble. No, I'm not loosing my signal to the preamp, I have George L's delivering the goods. My tubes are fairly new and biased properly. JJ's are the flavor up in here...so as you can see I have narrowed down the source. I can tell you its not the guitar, all electronics test out fine.

I am considering giving Dimarzio a shot. Joe, Steve, and John may be on to something...Seymour calls this the "rock" pickup, huh, could have fooled me. It should be called the "zombie" pickup...or $70 paperweight...whatever.

Pickup features: Passive Humbucker
Impedence or other specs: x

Model of guitar or bass: Jackson SL-1
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced:
Other pickups on guitar: Seymour Duncan Classic Strat
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Everything
Reason for pickup change:

Perceived output level: Medium High
Tone: Good Bass, No mids, highs come back at 12th fret on the high E (1st string)
Sonic evaluation: One of the most frustrating, usless PUs I've ever seen.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Everything

Comments: I've been playing for 38 years. This is my first Seymour Duncan, I'm not at all impressed. This is one of the most uneven PU's I've ever seen. In my lead work, I use feedback ala Steve Vai. This PU is useless for that. The lack of mids and the fact that it has scooped EQ in places makes it impossible to get any usefull feedback. It's a good match for the Classic Strats that came with it because they are useless too. I bought this guitar in the summer of 2003, I thought something was wrong with it because it so weak and toneless. I have a Strat, Carvin, Ibanez and Charvel as well. My favorite is the Carvin. BTW Carvin PU's are great for Feedback. I have tweaked all my sounds through a Rocktron Chameleon. It has Pre EQ and Post EQ where you can set the Center and Width of the Low, Medium, High and Presence frequencies, so you can tweak it endlessly. Even with all this capability, I can not get a decent sound out of the JB-4. It's a mistery to me why one of America's best handmade guitars came with this trash. I will replace all the PUs on this guitar.

Pickup features: Passive Humbucker
Impedence or other specs: Approx 16K @DC

Model of guitar or bass: Ibanez S470
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: AH2
Other pickups on guitar: AS1 (middle) AH1 (neck)
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): rock
Reason for pickup change: AH2's output inadequate for overdrive & sustain.

Perceived output level: 7 or 8 out of 10
Tone: Solid mids & highs
Sonic evaluation: Great for overdrive situations. This pickup has consistent tonal and sustain characterisics all the way up the fretboard and back again.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable:

Comments: Highly recommended for bridge humbucking overdrive. However, be careful - the high impedence of the JB4 doesn't work well in parallel combinations with other pickups. I absolutely adored the out-of-phase sound of the guitar's factory AH2 in combination with the AS1. When I replaced the AH2 with the JB4, that sound was lost. I put in a switch that can disable the AS1 middle pickup; running the JB4 by itself in split mode is an OK substitute for the lost out-of phase sound, but still doesn't quite cut it. Lots of EQ is necessary to come close. But hey, life's full of trade-offs. The better overdrive sound has made replacing the AH2 with the JB4 worthwhile.