Fender American Ultra Jazzmaster

[eggwheat]

I prefer to call them ‘balless’..that is if they are the same crappy lace sensors in another package.

Also, I think the Fender Noiseless pickups are really pretty good to be honest. I had a Tele set that wasn't quite as good as the previous pickups, but the Strat vintage noiseless ones were great. And for the N3/N4 ones, they seem like a pretty good replacement for any of the hotter output stuff on the mainline series.

So they aren't the same? Is it a stacked humbucker?

[thenewromance]

I believe all Fender Noiseless pickups are technically some sort of humbuckers. When looking for a Tele, that's what I read about the Elite noiseless pickups. There's not that much info on the web, though.

[tammyw]

It's a nice guitar, but I'm not that thrilled with it. It sounds a little muffled, maybe a little warmer and a bit compressed, slightly heavier on the bass side. The out of phase effect isn't as pronounced as it would be with regular singles.

I like small necks, but this just isn't my favorite. At least they got the rolled edge on the binding right. Also, the neck tint is way too cheesy orange. Like if you eat Kraft macaroni & cheese every day and don't brush your teeth, your teeth will be that same orange color.

The body cavity is painted black but I don't think it's actually shielding paint; I tried poking, prodding and scratching into it but couldn't find any continuity. The noiseless thing seems to work out, regardless.

The body is about 0.010" - 0.015" thicker than an Am Pro, but at that level it's hard to say if it's wood or paint or individual variation.

It might be interesting to experiment with splitting the coils or something, and replace the volume pot with a higher resistance. But I've reached the point where I'd rather have fewer switches and knobs and buttons.

[timtam]

The body cavity is painted black but I don't think it's actually shielding paint; I tried poking, prodding and scratching into it but couldn't find any continuity. The noiseless thing seems to work out, regardless.

If you prod with probes at say 1cm apart, do you get say 100ohms or thereabouts (ie not on continuity setting). If so, that would be shielding paint.

Fender's vid below on ultra manufacture shows raw wood bodies, then finishing, then later the cavities are shown black. So unless they're using the wrong paint (I've heard the apocryphal story of a guitar manufacturer once using just normal black paint by mistake), it's hard to imagine what else it could be except shielding. I know I've seen a Fender vid recently (can't find it now) that showed black paint being applied to the cavities with a paint brush.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY00D1kLXWc

[alexpigment]

So they aren't the same? Is it a stacked humbucker?

Yeah, stacked "humbucker" (I use that word in the loosest sense here). There's a lot of fine tuning you can do within those parameters though. The amount of windings on each coil, the balance between those two windings, the separation layer between them, etc. At the end of the day, if coil 2 isn't picking up anything from the strings, you're not really cancelling out any of the string frequencies like you are with a humbucker; this should maintain the single coil sound. I think the biggest problem with stacked single coils is really just that you don't have infinite height to replicate the exact windings of a true single coil. With a Jazzmaster though, that should be a lot easier to do since the original pickups are already shallow and have extra foam padding in the cavities by default.

If you were asking about why I liked the Vintage Noiseless Fender pickups, it's really just because they're traditional low output and get very good clean tones. A lot of noiseless pickups out there are hotter and therefore more dull and compressed overall. If you get something equivalent to a 5k or 6k output pickup, you'll have more than enough brightness and dynamics on tap.

[tammyw]

If you prod with probes at say 1cm apart, do you get say 100ohms or thereabouts (ie not on continuity setting). If so, that would be shielding paint.

That's what you'd think, right? But I tried it in several different locations and couldn't get anything. If it was just poor contact then the reading should at least be jumping around, it a pretty decent meter. I've tested more than a few bodies in the past, and don't recall ever seeing one that couldn't get a reading.

[eggwheat]

So they aren't the same? Is it a stacked humbucker?

Yeah, stacked "humbucker" (I use that word in the loosest sense here). There's a lot of fine tuning you can do within those parameters though. The amount of windings on each coil, the balance between those two windings, the separation layer between them, etc. At the end of the day, if coil 2 isn't picking up anything from the strings, you're not really cancelling out any of the string frequencies like you are with a humbucker; this should maintain the single coil sound. I think the biggest problem with stacked single coils is really just that you don't have infinite height to replicate the exact windings of a true single coil. With a Jazzmaster though, that should be a lot easier to do since the original pickups are already shallow and have extra foam padding in the cavities by default.

If you were asking about why I liked the Vintage Noiseless Fender pickups, it's really just because they're traditional low output and get very good clean tones. A lot of noiseless pickups out there are hotter and therefore more dull and compressed overall. If you get something equivalent to a 5k or 6k output pickup, you'll have more than enough brightness and dynamics on tap.

Good to know..thank you.

[Fender Addiction]

I've read most of this thread and found the comments all over the place... strangely enough, this is the first time I have considered investing this much into a guitar. Most of mine are ones I have either bought that needed repair, or I pieced together, of simply bought used.

After seeing the emails from Fender about the Ultra series and knowing I wanted a new Jazzmaster and for the first time in my life I am willing to spend quite a bit on a guitar, I decided to check out this guitar without having an opinion one way or the other (aside from my affinity for Jazzmasters in general). I went to a small shop near my local GC, and asked to try it out in one of their classrooms.

This is a habit I started at a GC where I was trying to hear an amplifier and couldn't hear the amp at normal volume thanks to a very polite young gentleman who thought you had to try out EVERY guitar on the wall and that all knobs must be set to 11... but, I digress...

I sat in the room with this guitar for about half an hour... guy comes in, says, "Hey, I can make you a deal on that guitar"... takes $150 off the top. I have yet to see the Ultra JM go for anything below $1999 anywhere. I don't know, maybe this is common? Again, my guitar buying experience is usually in the used market, and certainly any new guitars have been in the "less than" $800 range and usually in the "scratch and dent" area.

Anyway, I fell in love with the guitar, then discussed their layaway terms... 20% down, 90 days to pay... and "if there are any issues, we can work with you.." (they are a mom and pop shop... no corporate office to enforce policy on layaways). Needless to say... I have 90 days to finish paying ... and for those interested... Cobra Blue...

I have now seen many of the discussions in this thread regarding fretboard radius, lack of stainless steel frets, "Noiseless" pickups and related tonal issues, color selection or lack thereof, etc...

I get all that... and it is probably a good thing I DIDN'T read this thread before I tried it out. Neither the positive nor negative comments had any bearing on my decision... the only thing thing that drove my decision was how it felt in my hands, and how it sounded when I was in that quiet, empty room and plugged it in.

Steve

[vistavision]

the only thing thing that drove my decision was how it felt in my hands, and how it sounded when I was in that quiet, empty room and plugged it in.

As it should be. Congrats!

PS We'll expect lots of pics so get ready for that.

[Fender Addiction]

the only thing thing that drove my decision was how it felt in my hands, and how it sounded when I was in that quiet, empty room and plugged it in.

As it should be. Congrats!

PS We'll expect lots of pics so get ready for that.

Current plan is to get it in Feb.. will get it sooner if I can. In either case when I get it, I will be taking some pics for this group... definitely!

Steve

[Fender Addiction]

There you have it. Maybe if I have some more time that sketch will turn into a legible drawing. There's a PCB treble bleed on the master volume, but I couldn't get a good measurement on it and forgot to draw it. The tone pots are probably 250k no-load pots, but they measure up to about 280k before they cut off, non-linear taper. Master volume is 250k linear, and the upper two are 1M.

You all have far more knowledge of the effect of the switches, pots, pickups, etc... than I do. I have a rudimentary understanding of the electronics and have developed some pretty good soldering skills, but I don't know the whys and wherefores about pickup or pot resistance.

That said, when I rebuilt a 2013 Jazzmaster American Special earlier this year, I was asked about the resistance of the pickups. When I looked at the pictures of this post 2 things stood out to me:

• The Ultra pickups look just like the stacked humbuckers in the American Special (which makes sense, in that I know a reversed coil would eliminate pickup noise).

• The resistance you report on the pickups in your last pic is higher, but only slightly than the stacked humbuckers in the American Special. I recorded the neck at 13.3kΩ, the bridge at 15.5kΩ, and combined 7.2kΩ. All my measurements were taken from the jack, and I did not desolder the pickups to isolate them nor did I take separate measurements for the upper and lower windings.

I'm sure there's a difference in there somewhere, but they sure do look like stacked humbuckers. I mean, I get the science behind it... using the "humbucker" capability of countering the noise. So, is a Noiseless pickup basically a humbucker but instead of using both coils for sound, it uses only one for sound and the other to manage noise? As opposed to a humbucker which would thicken the sound by incorporating both coils for sound?

[timtam]

That said, when I rebuilt a 2013 Jazzmaster American Special earlier this year, I was asked about the resistance of the pickups. When I looked at the pictures of this post 2 things stood out to me:

• The Ultra pickups look just like the stacked humbuckers in the American Special (which makes sense, in that I know a reversed coil would eliminate pickup noise).

• The resistance you report on the pickups in your last pic is higher, but only slightly than the stacked humbuckers in the American Special. I recorded the neck at 13.3kΩ, the bridge at 15.5kΩ, and combined 7.2kΩ. All my measurements were taken from the jack, and I did not desolder the pickups to isolate them nor did I take separate measurements for the upper and lower windings.

I'm sure there's a difference in there somewhere, but they sure do look like stacked humbuckers. I mean, I get the science behind it... using the "humbucker" capability of countering the noise. So, is a Noiseless pickup basically a humbucker but instead of using both coils for sound, it uses only one for sound and the other to manage noise? As opposed to a humbucker which would thicken the sound by incorporating both coils for sound?

Interesting. The Am Special's HBs do look a little different.
PICKUP ASSY JAZZMASTER SPECIAL HB BRIDGE AGED WHT 7701585000
PICKUP ASSY JAZZMASTER SPECIAL HB NECK AGED WHT 7701584000
http://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/Origi ... A_SISD.pdf

American Special HB

https://reverb.com/item/5874059-fender- ... dge-pickup

Ultra Noiseless ..

[tdbajus]

The American Special HB looks like it has steel slugs and a couple bar magnets in the middle, whereas the other one looks like it's two opposite coils over magnetic pole pieces, no?

[Embenny]

Yep, the JHZB is a steel screw polepiece/bar magnet construction, and the Ultra Noiseless PU's have alnico polepieces, so right off the bat, it'll sound more Fendery based on construction alone.

It's a stacked design, as are every generation of Fender Noiseless, which isn't the only way to produce a "noiseless singlecoil" but is a popular one. But not all stacked noiseless pickups are created equally. There are massive physical differences between a Duncan Stack and a Wilde Airgap pickup.

Getting more space between the two coils is, in general, helpful for getting it to sound more like a single coil, because you get the second "dummy" coil farther from the strings, unless you physically isolate it from the magnets, which Fender doesn't appear to have done. Coil plus magnet = pickup, so you get tone contribution from it if the secondary coil is in proximity to both strings and magnet.

[Always-Ben]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vigzf_dPpgY