Swapping out a Dimarzio Super Distortion for a Duncan JB

Just got back and plugged in with the JB. First impressions after 10 minutes without changing anything on my preset. It does sound a little thin when playing chords and it's not as 'dirty' as the Super D. There is some girth missing. The trade off is that when solo-ing, it is more articulate and fluid. It also takes boosts and even a stacked boost better. The JB is notorious for being mid-voiced and it is. I will most likely go back to the Super D because it seems to fit the guitars tone better. But I'm only 10 minutes into it and I've yet to tweak my preset to fit. I may flip-flop after I change the input EQ curve's range and boost and dial in a 'fuller' tone.....assuming I can. I think anything is possible with the AxeFx3 so this pickup chasing thing is sort of not needed. But I wanted to know. I may end up throwing the JB into one of my other guitars for fun.
 
Bman said:
Just got back and plugged in with the JB. First impressions after 10 minutes without changing anything on my preset. It does sound a little thin when playing chords and it's not as 'dirty' as the Super D. There is some girth missing. The trade off is that when solo-ing, it is more articulate and fluid. It also takes boosts and even a stacked boost better. The JB is notorious for being mid-voiced and it is. I will most likely go back to the Super D because it seems to fit the guitars tone better. But I'm only 10 minutes into it and I've yet to tweak my preset to fit. I may flip-flop after I change the input EQ curve's range and boost and dial in a 'fuller' tone.....assuming I can. I think anything is possible with the AxeFx3 so this pickup chasing thing is sort of not needed. But I wanted to know. I may end up throwing the JB into one of my other guitars for fun.
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I swapped out my JB for a Bare Knuckle Holy Diver and it's the business
 
Been playing tonight on the JB. I think it has more playability when soloing. I can get a lot of expression out of it even though it's a tad thinner. I didn't mess with the preset yet. I'll probably tweak one to fit it tomorrow. Thicken up the bottom and see if I can maintain the mojo it has going on in the midrange. It's missing the low end crunch, which may be fixed at the input EQ or simply rotate the bass knob to the right on the amp. Or PEQ.. lots of options.
 
I got my Mayones Regius Core 7 with JBs. Never played or had any JBs before. I planned to try them out first and then to swap them if I don't like them.

First they sounded like a mess, definitely too hot and without any definition at all. I thought ok, the Mayones guys don't put JB in their high quality hand crafted guitars for no reason. I emailed the guy from the music store who sold me the guitar and he said he messed with my guitar upon arrival before forwarding it to me, cause he had tuned it "better" than the guys from Mayones (a very decent guy BTW). Then I thought ok, since there can no harm be done now, whatever it was that the optimal original factory setup was, it's gone. Then I started tweaking it to my taste and ended up with the distance of pickups to strings around 6 mm instead of 2,5 mm as I read somewhere as a starting point. It looks strange so low but I found it the best sounding, with right balance between headroom, definition and power.

I can hit the bass strings harder without them sounding harsh, with nice vintage alnico kind of dynamics. Almost like my old '79 Gibson SG. I noticed that palm muting even sounds the best when hit harder. Then it sounds round, full and punchy. The middle and treble were a bit too much until I lowered the bridge pup some more on the higher strings side.

The neck pup sounds almost like an acoustic guitar with this lower setup but nice and even when played through clean presets.

I can say that this is the best 7 string guitar and pickup combination that I ever had. I play also a lot of metal and it works well. Without muddiness that is often mentioned in JB discussions. I know now that a few turns with a screwdriver can make the whole difference and I would suggest doing this with any set of pickups.
 
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I think I might be loving these. I'm comparing the recordings I did with the Super D and the JB. There is not much notable difference but playing the JB's makes me play better or makes it easier. The focused mid makes it feel like the notes jump off. But the recordings sound very close. Just for funs, I played my Les Paul w/ 57 classic plus with the same setup -preset/recording. The lower output pick does have 'thing' going on too. I feel like you get more of the guitar. But for leads it never gets to where the guitar sings. All 3 are great tones. Ironically they all sound like me 🧐.

I did move the Input EQ from... lol. I just looked for the values and it appears I didn't save the EQ adjustment. It's the same preset. My ears must change from moment to moment...lol. Yesterday it didn't sound this good.
 
I haven’t played this much in a long time. The JB is inspiring after dialing it in. I used the EQ input on the Fractal to find a sweet spot for a slight mid boost and I almost felt like I was cheating. The gain felt so good and controllable and I felt I was able to play with more dynamics and articulation. For a while I was thinking my ears must be tired. But every time I came back over the 4 day weekend. I’d compare my old recordings to this tone and I’m loving it.
 
I bought a JB in the mid 1980s and it's made the rounds over the years. It was lackluster in a semi-hollow body, but tamed a bright all maple solid body beautifully. Its a fine choice for some instruments, a no go in others. In the right guitar it's mid voice (that isn't too bright or bass heavy) does a fine job of driving most amps for rich mid gain harmonics without getting too fizzy. If a guitar is overly mid focused, they can sound congested. EQing on the amp won't help to extend an emphasis to the highs and lows in the way that better matching the pickup to the guitar would. Horses for courses. Oh, and 500k pots!
 
GIve a plug to wolfetone pickups. I have used JB's/Dimarzio's etc for many years. Bought a guitar from Sustain guitars, owned by Garret Overstreet that used to own Boxcar guitars.Anyway as soon as I plugged it in, wow, the sound was just great for me. The guitar came with a Timbrewolf in the bridge & Marshallhead in the neck, 5 way wiring for the series/parallel coil thing ( sorry not very up on tech stuff! ). Checked them out and Timbrewolf slightly cooler than a JB at 15k, alnico 5, but just so rounded and smooth. Got another with the Fenris in the bridge which is a Alnico 2 14.5k, which is also really good. Loved them so much that I bought a load off Wolfe and swapped most of my main guitars out for them.
Previosuly my fave was the Luxxtone Arcane Luxxbucker Hot that I have in a few luxx guitars, but a wolfetone convert all the way with the Timbrewolf...and wolfe is a great guy too!....try them, you wont be dissapointed
 
I’m building a Warmoth strat and I’m going the opposite way this time. I’m going lower output with Thornbucker plus. I’m sure that guitar will get its own preset.
 
Bman said:
I’m building a Warmoth strat and I’m going the opposite way this time. I’m going lower output with Thornbucker plus. I’m sure that guitar will get its own preset.
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The Thornbucker + is an awesome PAF-style pickup. It really does that "Telecaster on steroids"-thing well.
 
I love my JBs. I have 3 guitars with them, and each one sounds slightly different (probably due to differing tops and woods and tolerances etc). Never really heard a JB that I'd call "muddy" tho, but then again I always rock 500k pots on them.
 
JB Fan here as well. Absolutely killer with my old Boogies. Hoping for similar experience with the FM3.
 
If I was going to go 500K I would just put EMG 81/85's or 81/89's. I know Mark Day if i'm not mistaken uses the Duncan super distortion in his LP Alex lifeson
 
But I do Have a Ibanez JS-2450 MCB that has the Neck PU: DiMarzio Satch Track, Bridge PU: DiMarzio Mo’ Joe and I am very impressed with them.Ibanez JS-2450 specs.png
 
JB's are really good, better in some guitars than others. In my Jackson RR V they sounded really good!
My Jackson PC-1 guitars have the SD's and I tried a Suhr Aldrich but the SD was way more balanced and provided the hard rock tone in your head tones!

Just a great pup!
 
jlynnb1 said:
Had a JB/Jazz combo in an Eclipse I had, sounded great. Crazy how different experience/perception can be
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I jave a Jazz/L290TL pair in a $99 Teleoid guitar that sound amazing with 250k volume and tone pots. Makes me want to get a better guitar to put them in....
 
Bman said:
I haven’t played this much in a long time. The JB is inspiring after dialing it in. I used the EQ input on the Fractal to find a sweet spot for a slight mid boost and I almost felt like I was cheating. The gain felt so good and controllable and I felt I was able to play with more dynamics and articulation. For a while I was thinking my ears must be tired. But every time I came back over the 4 day weekend. I’d compare my old recordings to this tone and I’m loving it.
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I replaced the Pearly Gates Plus with a JB in my LoneStar Strat back in the mid '90s, and it was a great setup. Kinda miss that guitar....
 
cragginshred said:
My SD's thru a real Mezzabarba Trinity 4g head!

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Vivian Campbell baby!!!

Know what I love best about Dio? It's tuned to 440. Don't have to grab another guitar to play it when it comes up in my play list. And Last in line is on my playlist. I had my buddy come over and play his electric Roland kit to "Last in Line" so I could record the rest. I'll can send you the .wav file if you want or if you have Logic, I'll send you the project file. PM me and let me know if you want it. It's not perfect but you can at least have fun with it.
 
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