Vintage Vibe Guitars JG-90

Hand wound Single coil pickups to give a p90 sound. comes with x2 sets of magnets that can be swapped- AINiCo which were already installed and a pair of Ceramic 8 which i havent tried yet.

The pickups have been put into the neck and bridge of a CIJ Fender Jaguar. this is to replace the stock pickups that came with the jag which are very poor indeed, going from a mushy,soupy mess with no definition on the rhythm setting to an insipid shrill in the lead.

Im playing this thru a roland cube60 and the difference is stunning-this guitar now barksnbites with a really clear,chime quality to the lead setting. they also seem to have given the jag more sustain to my ears. i play mostly indie stuff- roses/blur/modest mouse kind of thing and its perfect for this. they also do the whole Smiths jangle thing brilliantly.

I anything was to happen to the jag I would most def invest in more pickups from vintage vibe. Ive been playing for 10years and have used many different guitars and pickups but these to my ears are the best ive played. The guy who installed them for me is a 40year Tele player (who is not that keen on jags) thought they sounded excellent aswell. This is the 1st time ive replaced any electrical part of a guitar and its now got me thinking instead of drooling and saving for a vintage guitar, im going to buy mid-ranged and add what i think are top-notch pickups.

matched pair of vintage vibe's JG-90. Single coil pick-ups, with a so-called P90 character. Maybe it's true, I never owned P90's. The pups are higher (due to extra magnets on the bottom) than original jaguar pick-ups. The claws don't fit, and I cannot screw the neckpup lower than it is now. It rests on the body. These extra magnets (AlNiCo V's)can be replaced by other -ceramic- ones (included). I didn't try those yet, guess it would alter the tone in someway. Although the outpit is higher than other Jag pups (besides the hotter SD's) I don't feel like having pups on fire now. And I'm very, very pleased with that.

My main guitar is a vintage '65 Jaguar, with neckbinding. Only the wood is original on this one, the rest didn't make it till today. When it came in my posession it had those terrible japanese version in it, which had to go immediatly. I replaced them with SD Antiquity II's, believing these were the best replacements in a real old Jaguar. Unfortunatly are these replica's not waxed (Should have noticed this myself) and therefore not usable on higher volumes and higher gain settings. In a previous Jaguar (MIJ) I mounted an SD SJAG1 and a lil '59 sc-sized humbucker. This time I didn't like the idea of having a humbucker in my vintage guitar.

I needed something else.

I play in an indierock band, (monstertux.nl) using an VoxAC30 and a Twin Reverb. In between the Jaguar and the amps I use several fx: RMC1, zvex FF, RAF mirage, EHX mmdlx, Emma reezaFRATzitz, DNA gainfXXker II, DNA virtual tube, Sherlock Tremit and some more.

The first thing I noticed after installing these babies was that my Jag still sounded like a Jag. This was my main concern. I like the guitar for her looks, but also for the sound. In my opinion the contruction of the Jaguar contributes largley to the sound of the guitar. More than i.e. a Stratocaster, where pup changes really can change the tonal characterics.

In fact a great compliment for these JG-90's. Now I own a great sounding, beautiful looking, neat playing tone monster, suitable for far more musical directions than it ever did before.

When stolen I have a problem. The JG-90's would be replaced immediatly, but a Jaguar like this will be hard to find.

I own a very fine relic Fender Stratocaster (30th anniversary Guitar Center), 2 Tokai Silverstars, a Fender Telecaster Deluxe, an early japanese Fender Thinline and some other stuff. Amps: Vox AC30, silverface Twin Reverb and a awesome Vibroverb Amp.
The pick-ups were nicely packed and shipped by VVG, mails correctly answered and so on. They even smelled nice! (wax?)

This is basically a P90 singlecoil pickup made to fit a Fender Jaguar. The plastic pickup covers for Jaguar pickups fit it, but the "claw" part will not because of the placement of the magnets. Pete builds his pickups so that the user can swap the magnets for more/ less powerful ones easily, leaving it up to the customer which magnets they want. I chose AlNiCo 5s installed and Ceramic 8s as the spare set. The polepieces are screws, as on a proper P90. DC Impedance is about 9.6 Ohms.

This pickup is in the bridge of my CIJ Fender Jaguar, with a Seymour Duncan Antiquity 1 Jaguar model in the neck. I had been using a Lace Sensor Red in bridge. Basic reason for changing both the pickups in the guitar for this setup was that stock, and previous replacement pickups, were terrible. Horrendous feedback, tinny thin tone and buzzing like an absolute mother were the order of the day with the stock pickups, the Lace Sensor had no clarity when played clean.

I don't know of any famous artists using any of Pete's pickups. I kind of hope it stays that way, not that I don't wish Pete the very best business, but the price would skyrocket if someone like Clapton or whoever started endorsing these pickups.

As previously mentioned, I had been using a Lace Sensor Red in bridge, but was very unhappy with the clean sound, no definition, no clarity. Thankfully, the JG-90 does clarity in spades. Distorted it gives enough meat to stand up to pretty hefty gain. It's a bit more trebly than the Sensor was. Harmonics are rich. Overall obviously not as sparkly as a normal Fender singlecoil, but not as beefy as some proper P90s I've played. Think almost a kind of Dave Gilmour sound.
The only fault I can put to the name so far is that it is not brilliantly shielded. Whether this is the pickup itself or just the wire I don't know, but I'll be putting shielding in all the control cavities soon anyway, so this isn't a massive issue.

I would give Pete my first-born son if it meant he'd make me more pickups. This sounds fantastic.
My setup basically consists of the Jaguar, a 2002 Gibson SG with Bare Knuckle Riff Raffs (Pete's pickups are a definite contender for these), an EH Double Muff, a Crybaby, a Vox Big Ben tube overdrive, an EH Holy Stain, into either a Marshall AVT50 (practise), a Laney AOR 50 tube head from the 80s (on loan from a friend), or a Selmer T'n'B 50 mk3 from 1967 run through a homemade 2x12 cab with Celestion Rockdriver Pro speakers. I play anything, but if I had to pin my musical stylings down it'd be a mixture of progressive rock, grunge and post-rock. Think stuff like Porcupine Tree, Soundgarden, Mogwai, and similar bands to those.
This pickup has *made* my guitar. A definite keeper. I just wish I could fit the claw, but that's not much of a gripe really. Sound is where it counts.