Sweet bro! Not many folks out there have tried both. I kinda want all the Joe B Duncans have with a skosh more op with out loosing the clarity. Thoughts?
Sounds like you might be using me as your deciding factor? Your F*****d
Kidding of course!! My thoughts ---
Like I said the Seth’s and the Joe’s are pretty similar right down to the DC resistance, off the Duncan site the Seth Lovers are rated bridge 8.1k neck 7.2k, my Joe Bonamassa set (yes I broke out the box) bridge 8.14 neck 7.69. Pretty dam close. They do have a similar quality to them so I suspect the resonant peak on them is pretty similar (hell it might be the same wire with the same winds for all I know). Both the JB’s and the SL’s are not potted something else they have in common, so a little susceptible to feeding back, but I never had issues for what I do.
As I said the top end on the JB’s are a bit sweeter to my taste a little more mellow, in a good way not slop. The SL’s slightly more aggressive in the top end, but not brittle. The SL’s seem to have a little more push but very little and of course overall a slightly different voicing. Both pickups clean up really well when riding the volume control BTW. ( I am also using 50’s wiring)
So I think allot of it comes down to the magnets, they change over time. Like I said above the SL’s are a recreation of a pickup made 50+ years ago and the JB’s are a recreation of a pickup that
is 50+ years old. Since you do love your JB’s you already have I would say go for the Seth Lovers, I love mine and although not installed on anything right now I am keeping them and they will be installed on a future guitar most likely another Les Paul.
I also have a Les Paul with BurstBuckers like Thomas-Hawk, and I love these also a bit more midrange like stated above but it sounds great! Maybe because it’s a custom, and a bit of a heavier beast.
Other observations: Like GeezerJohn said I really like the Duncans allot because of the string clarity, rich, full, tight. Not that I had every DiMarzio on the planet in my Les Pauls but the one’s I did, they sounded fine but just did not grab me. But on the other hand all of my Ibanez guitars are loaded with DiMarzio’s. Just seems to be a trend of mine the more heavy the wood I seem to like Duncan and the more light wooded the guitar I seem to prefer DiMarzio.
John