JB clipping using 5150 Red & Blue Channels with firmware 22.0

[skolacki]

JB originally stood for 'Jeff Beck'.

https://www.guitarworld.com/features/jeff-beck-seymour-duncan-jb-humbucker-history

Interesting story! So originally they used 250k pots with these. I never tried that and used the standard 500k pots. Has anyone here tried a JB with a 250k?

 

[CrosleyPop]

Interesting story! So originally they used 250k pots with these. I never tried that and used the standard 500k pots. Has anyone here tried a JB with a 250k?

Yes. Years ago I put a JB in a Fender Mustang with the stock 250k pots. I really liked it--it rounded off the sound just a little bit, but it did it in a pleasant way. Some of the hair was gone, but the midrange grunt still punched through just fine.

It was subtle from what I remember, though. You could tell if you played it back to back with a 500k guitar, but in isolation it just sounded a little smoother.

 

[Shenks]

JB pickup in a Charvel and got the A/D sensitivity at 12.5% for no clip warning. Other factors such as pickup height and how heavy handed you are may affect your own experience.

 

[dpeterson]

At the End of this article it says this:
Although we’ve all called it the ‘Jeff Beck’, officially Seymour Duncan will tell you those letters stand for ‘Jazz-Blues’.
So it seems that both of that is right.

yup so there lol. could have stood for Judy Bloom too

 

[javajunkie]

Clipping the A/D converters is never a desirable sound.

He is probably not clipping the A/D converters in Abstractlogic's case (at the input). The is a soft clip that engages before digital clipping occurs on the front input.

 

[State of Epicicity]

I had my JB go into a 250k volume and tone dual concentric, and it helped it a ton in my opinion. It was great for high gain tones, but I did not like it for anything else, with either 500k or 250k pots. I don't think any other pickup is as divisive.

 

[HarrySound]

I have a JB on my PRS and I get the red CLIP light some times. I have the input set really low (like 3-5%), but if thats what it needs to be then so be it.
The most recent firmware (on FM9) ws when it started happening.

 

[rossipedia]

The JB is one of the hottest stock Duncan pickups they offer. Every single one of my JB guitars clips like crazy until I get down to like 5~7% on the AD converter.

 

[GlennO]

He is probably not clipping the A/D converters in Abstractlogic's case (at the input). The is a soft clip that engages before digital clipping occurs on the front input.

Soft clipping?. My AxeFX, at least, has no such soft clipping. It’s a hard and nasty clip at the input.

 

[Rex]

Soft clipping?. My AxeFX, at least, has no such soft clipping. It’s a hard and nasty clip at the input.

My understanding is that "soft clipping" (limiting) is part of the "secret sauce," though that may have changed.

 

[GlennO]

My understanding is that "soft clipping" (limiting) is part of the "secret sauce," though that may have changed.

Hmm, I’ve owned an AxeFX III for a few years, but I’ve never seen any soft clipping. That would probably be undesirable. Here’s what the clipping looks like:

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/input-clipping-thread.193293/page-2#post-2402754

This came up a few months ago. Maybe the soft clipping idea is a misunderstanding that traces back to an error in the wiki?

 

[Rex]

Hmm, I’ve owned an AxeFX III for a few years, but I’ve never seen any soft clipping. That would probably be undesirable. Here’s what the clipping looks like:

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/input-clipping-thread.193293/page-2#post-2402754

This came up a few months ago. Maybe the soft clipping idea is a misunderstanding that traces back to an error in the wiki?

Dunno. That "soft limiting" concept has been around Fractalia for years. Kind of looks like a brick wall kicking in, which isn't terribly pleasant itself.

 

[mattgreenrocks]

This thread is making me wonder if my distaste for my MIK Schecter Blackjack 006 is the JB + improperly set input pad on my FM3. Have had a FOH guy remark my signal was both too hot sounding and weak (due to -10dB output) at the same time. Those peaky upper mids, IIRC?

 

[Werpinater]

I haven’t had much issue with my JB clipping the input with the sensitivity around 12% for general playing. I clip it every so often on a heavy strum or heavy palm mute, but I view those as the outlier since they are fairly infrequent for me. My Fralin P-90’s and Brandonwound T-Tops seem to hit the input harder, but also don’t clip unless hitting REALLY hard, as I already hit the strings hard. The JB feels fairly even to me because it’s more compressed due to the higher inductance of the wind, so that may be why it clips less for me!

 

[Unboxed]

Thank you - makes sense - will try that later tonight-

Reduce A/D gain in setup till the indicator stops lighting up.

Yep - what's funny is I had mine originally set up from active pickups and with FW22 my Jackson Soloist JBs were clipping. I think I went from 30-40% down to 10 or so and it stopped. My dumb assumption being that active pickups would be hotter than the JBs.

 

[jephjacques]

JBs aren't even particularly "hot" pickups by modern standards. They sound positively tame compared to a lot of the various Bareknuckles or Fishmans that all the metal guys are using these days. But if the JB is pushing more of a particular frequency range (in my experience they have more low end woof than, say, an EMG 81) that might be more likely to trip to clip warning.

 

[Unboxed]

Ah, Ok. That makes sense. Learned something new today.

 

[javajunkie]

Soft clipping?. My AxeFX, at least, has no such soft clipping. It’s a hard and nasty clip at the input.

Hmm, I’ve owned an AxeFX III for a few years, but I’ve never seen any soft clipping. That would probably be undesirable. Here’s what the clipping looks like:

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/input-clipping-thread.193293/page-2#post-2402754

This came up a few months ago. Maybe the soft clipping idea is a misunderstanding that traces back to an error in the wiki?

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/my-high-output-pickups-do-not-feel-like-it.76542/#post-934824 - From Cliff
Granted it was from the Axe-fx II, but I do not believe this was removed in the III.

 

[GlennO]

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/my-high-output-pickups-do-not-feel-like-it.76542/#post-934824 - From Cliff

Might have been true 10 years ago on the II, but as Mr Fender demonstrated in the link above, definitely not true for the III today.

But there’s no need to guess. It‘s pretty simple to see for yourself there is no soft limiting.

P..S. That’s a good thing. A soft limiter that modifies a non clipping signal is probably not a good idea at the input anyway.

 

[Deadlifts_n_Riffs]

Installed new Firmware 22.0 - now my Guitar with a JB pick up is causing internal clipping message when using 5150 red or blue channel and it’s definitely clipping big time - anything I need to do to prevent this - never happened before - also does this when Dyno cab turned off as well -

Just throwing my contribution into the pile - I’ve always had intermittent clipping issues with a SD SH14 (Custom 5?) which isn’t super hot. Have to turn the input down to around 10%. Always thought that was odd because something like an EMG81 is way hotter. Haven’t noticed any degradation in the sound, just the meters and now the “input clip” that pops up on the screen.