Is it just me or is the Duncan JB extremely muddy on the low strings ?

Whoops - Sorry-got it backwards-I have the lil 59 in the neck and the jb jr in the bridge. Cool rails in the middle. The cool rails in the middle loses some of the Strat quack-but I ave a 2008 USa Delxe with lindy fralin VH for that and 89 with CS fat 50's. I was looking to get away from the quack in the 06 and I did.


I have the JB jr sc type-in the neck of my 2006 deluxe USA Strat-sounds great-but it is the little one. This is NOT why I posted here-but I do have a loaded PG with all Seymour Duncan sc size HB's for less than the 3 pups cost with the pre wired pickguard. I love the sc sized JB jr and lil 59. But you don't get that full blown reg size HB sound of course-but I didn't want that
 
I would trying switching out to a 500K, as has been suggested. You may like how it affects your single coils as well. I agree with the JB's being guitar specific as to how well they work. I used that pickup in various guitars for a number of years and some did not like it. I hate doing the pickup dance any more so I like to find guitars that have everything dialed in already. I have an LsL Carl Verheyen strat that is perfect (for me) on every single aspect. First (non-vintage) strat I've owned (of many) that nailed it as stock.
 
It is of course guitar dependent as others have mentioned, but a 250K pot is recommended by SD for the full sized JB.

I have a Les Paul clone that has a 250K vintage 70's JB combo and it's perfect (was too bright with a 500K pot though it's a pine/maple/rosewood guitar and not a normal mahogany/maple/rosewood-ebony LP).

NOTE: The fullsized JB is a 16K hot ceramic mag'd hot output HB.

Not sure whats recommended for the Strat sized JB Jr if that's what you have?



boltrecords said:
From what I can find it looks like it comes stock with a 250k.
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boltrecords said:
I understand it will make the JB sound better but I'm a little concerned about what will happen to the tone of my singles. I read the 500k can make them sound brittle.
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It can with alnico 5's, had pretty good results wit alnico 2 duncans and Dimarzio area 58s! Maybe do 2 Volumes 1-500, 1 250 ,and 1 tone, or maybe a dual stacked volume pot with a 500 and 250 ?
 
I have JB's in my Jackson.

They have a very midrange / spiky sound to my ear. Not flubby in the bass at all. Maybe even bass shy to my ear.

They cut through a mix with a Marshall type setup really well. I do have to roll back the volume to clean them up for clean sounds though.

Not my favorite pup for listening in solo, not like a sweet Gibson bucker, but in a mix they sit nice with a drum kit, vocals and electric bass.

Richard
 
I've had the JB in 2 different guitars. I had no problems with the bass being flubby in either.

The first, which I no longer own was an Ibanez RGA121 (mahogany body, VERY thick maple top, maple neck, rosewood board). In this guitar, the JB was decent but just a little harsh in the upper mids/low treble (maybe 2-4khz). However, I tried several other pickups in this guitar and still had the harshness problem so I attribute it to the abundance of maple. In the end, that's why I sold it.

The second guitar is my PRS SE Fredrik Akesson (mahogany body/neck, thin maple top, ebony board). I've tried several pickups in this guitar as well and so far the JB is my favorite. It's got a great vocal, singing quality in this guitar that's wonderful for lead. The bass isn't flubby at all. In fact, it's fairly tight without being too tight. I've tried a couple of pickups whose bass was just overly tight IMO (Dimarzio Dominion and Duncan Full Shred). The excessively tight bass these 2 pickups had just made for a very stiff feel that I didn't care for (unless I was strictly doing downtuned metal riffing).

Since acquiring the Axe, I've been going through a big pickup experimentation phase due to how well the Axe lets you hear differences between guitars/pickups. What's funny is that I've probably tried out about a dozen or so pickups in my various guitars and have found that the classic best sellers (Duncan JB and Dimarzio Super Distortion) are my current faves. They're both very different pickups but I love the characteristics that each one offers.
 
boltrecords said:
I have had a duncan JB installed in the bridge of my strat deluxe for a while now. It's always sounded and felt very flubby and muddy to me. Especially on the low E and A strings. I'm not sure if the wiring is just messed up since it is part of the fender S1 switching system. Maybe the tech wired it wrong when swapping the pickup in. Does it have something to do with the ebony fretboard on my strat. Or is this simply how the JB sounds. But it feels like there is absolutely no punch to it. The guitar was setup when the JB was installed. Doesnt have string or fret buzz. Unless I have high gain the low strings are almost unusable on this guitar. Light crunch or mild gain is so flubby its crazy. The lollar blackface pups in the neck and middle sound great.

Does anyone have any experience with this pickup? I'm not liking it right now and am hesitant to put in another pickup before I know what the issue really is.
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I had this same experience with the Duncan that came on my Jackson Randy Rhoads RR1, I think it was the TB4, though. The upper strings were okay, but the lower strings were extremely flubby and muddy, bland, horrible. I don't know if it's the guitar or the pickup, but I swapped it out. I now have Gravity Storms and they sound fine everywhere on the neck.
 
I liked the JB's in my Yamaha Ty Tabors and ended up adding a JB/Jazz to my Les Paul. Never had anyone say any of them sounded muddy.
 
I've been listening to clips of the JB. Mine definitely doesn't sound as crisp and punchy as the clips. But then again my guitar is a strat and the clips were of a les Paul. Videos were on YouTube by Matt Thorpe. Great demo if anyone wants to watch them
 
I have a feeling this is a wiring issue. 2 reasons.

1. I have the same guitar with all the stock pickups and on the stock one in the bridge position, when i push in the s1 button, the sound doesn't change. On my strat with the JB, when I push in the s1 the sound gets very dark. I'm wondering if the tech wiredup something wrong.

2. I asked the tech who installed the JB to add a treble bleed for me. I see a very large orange cap on the volume pot but I don't see a resistor. I'm wondering if this was done wrong
 
Large orange cap if shows.001uf 100k, should be good, when you turn the volume down even to eight it should be cutting the bass,I found that a JB with a treble bleed is way too bright. I know a Jb in a basswood body is a little muddy, not to gassy, not the best clarity ,at least not what I like. I start the pickup height as followed ,1/8 bass side 1/16 treble. good starting point.
You can go to seymour's site and check wiring diagrams. Almost forgot ,adding a resistor I found changes the taper of the volume pot, like nothing to almost full gain at half volume
 
So I just checked the wiring diagram from fender and they're definitely 250k pots. That's one issue
Second the s1 pickup configurations are all wrong on my guitar. For example the bridge middle position is supposed to coil tap the humbucker. I tested my guitar and this does not occur. So something is definitely not wired correctly.
 
The difference between a 500 and 250 is not huge,250 a bit smoother,can do a quick test,maybe its wired bridge with another pickup,If your guitar is wired 1st position humbucker,2nd humbucker split with middle ect ect,anyway with the guitar plug in and on ,take a allen wrench,anything metal,with the switch in the 1st position just touch the bridge pickup pole ,should hear a loud tap,means it working ,if you touch any other pickup and sounds like that (while the switch is in first position ) mean another pickup is on too ,Could be causing the bass
 
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