Kent Armstrong HJGN-2GD

"ALNICO / D.C. =8K- A sweet sounding Jazz pick-up designed for use with traditional Arch Top guitars. This version has a suitable mounting bracket attached for neck mounting. Made in the tradition of the Johnny Smith endorsed Gibson??,'s introduced in the early 1960's. Has two solder tags on the underside to wire it up. Alnico bar magnets." (Manufacturer's blurb)

Fitted this to a Vintage "Brooklyn" archtop to replace the stock "Wilkinson designed" floating pickup which I found went muddy when the tone was turned down. It was also boomy on the bass notes regardless of where the polepieces were set.

New pickup was easy to solder on. The mounting brackets were a bit flimsy but this is probably so they can be bent to fit different necks. I had to hack down the old pickup and use the mounting brackets to cover the KA's to make it look right on the guitar - which was a bit of a pain.

Sound is excellent, neck pickup obviously as it is a floater. It doesn't have adjustable polepieces - but the output is very balanced so they are not needed.

I couldn't put my finger on why I didn't like the stock pickup until I fitted this one. I just knew it wasn't as good as it should be.

The KA pickup is warm but clear and defined without mudiness when the tone is rolled off - which is where most jazz players have it. Even with the tone full up it doesn't get harsh or over bright. Playing with more gain - into blues territory - there seems to be a linear response across each string - ie. the bass strings don't cause more distortion than the top E. I would say with this pickup my amplified sound is a more accurate reflection of the acoustic qualities of the guitar. The output is slightly lower than the stock PU but this is only an issue when playing through multifx with headphones.

If anything happened to it I'd get another.
Been playing for about 25 years. Play through a Sound City series 6 head and a 2x12 open backed cab. Also have a strat.