Jazzmaster Setup and pickup questions
Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 8:18 pm
Setup Issues - Have a Mastery Bridge on my new JM. Neck is 9.5" radius, 25.5" scale, bone nut, maple neck, rosewood board, 6105 frets made by Musikraft. Neck has a shim (guitar pic). Neck is very straight on its own and I took it to a tech who actually made it a little straighter cos we saw it didn't need too much relief.
I haven't taken out the shim or added a bigger shim, but I can't seem to get decent action on it without getting major fret buzzing all over the fretboard (especially on the low E-A-D strings). I've adjusted the bridge height and messed with the saddle heights/bridge radius, but still no luck with getting somewhat medium to lower action without getting the fret buzz. The neck is brand new, but the buzzing is all over the fretboard so I don't think any of the frets are unleveled.
Questions - Do you think this is the nature of the 6105 frets (they are slighter wider and much taller than vintage frets, but slightly less wide and a little taller than standard medium-jumbos)? Do you think that getting the frets leveled/dressed will resolve this issue? Do you think getting the nut re-cut or getting a new nut that is a little taller would solve the issue? should I remove the shim or put in a larger shim?
Pickup Questions - The JM came with Pickup Wizard Vintage for Jazzmaster pickups with the FormVar Wire and Alnico 5 magents. These are the darker 50's style pickups with the black bobbins, as opposed to the 60's brighter JM pickups with the plain enamel and grey bobbins. Has 1 meg CTS pots, .01uf Orange Drop Cap, and Rhythm Circuit doesn't have any pots in it, instead it is wired as a series/parallel switch. Copper Shielding and an Anodized Aluminum Pickguard (supposedly makes it brighter).
Anyways, after having the electronics checked out buy a reputable tech who said it was done well and all the parts are high quality, I played around with the pickup height to try and find some tones I like on the neck pickup. After messing around with it for countless hours, I find the neck pickup tone sooooo dark, that even when I play it through a Twin Reverb with the bass on 0 and treble on 9, it still sounds very dark, like a blanket over the guitar.
So after asking around a little bit, I'm thinking of putting in a new neck pickup...specifically a Seymour Duncan Antiquity II, as they seemed to be the brightest tone (while still retaining a balanced tone...aka not the MIJ/CIJ pups) based on the pickup comparison thread on the tech thread. I was also told Lollars would be a good replacement as they're supposed to have a clear and hifi sound to them, but based on that same demo thread, the neck pup still seems somewhat dark/strong in the bass and low-mids. Sounds great for playing...jazz (ha, go figure), but not for rock.
My tone for the project I will be using this with is basically JM > Hoof Fuzz > Twin Reverb and the Hoof is on 98% of the time. The current pickup Wizard neck pup sounds very muddy with the Hoof (even when I turn the tone up on the Fuzz and mess around with the shift knob), and I know that the fuzz isn't the issue cos the tone sounds very dark clean.
Questions - Do you think there's something wrong with the wiring somehow? If not, do you think the Antiquity II is the best pickup for what I described I'm looking for? Lollar (should I call them to tell them what tone I want in my pickup)? Any other pups?
I haven't taken out the shim or added a bigger shim, but I can't seem to get decent action on it without getting major fret buzzing all over the fretboard (especially on the low E-A-D strings). I've adjusted the bridge height and messed with the saddle heights/bridge radius, but still no luck with getting somewhat medium to lower action without getting the fret buzz. The neck is brand new, but the buzzing is all over the fretboard so I don't think any of the frets are unleveled.
Questions - Do you think this is the nature of the 6105 frets (they are slighter wider and much taller than vintage frets, but slightly less wide and a little taller than standard medium-jumbos)? Do you think that getting the frets leveled/dressed will resolve this issue? Do you think getting the nut re-cut or getting a new nut that is a little taller would solve the issue? should I remove the shim or put in a larger shim?
Pickup Questions - The JM came with Pickup Wizard Vintage for Jazzmaster pickups with the FormVar Wire and Alnico 5 magents. These are the darker 50's style pickups with the black bobbins, as opposed to the 60's brighter JM pickups with the plain enamel and grey bobbins. Has 1 meg CTS pots, .01uf Orange Drop Cap, and Rhythm Circuit doesn't have any pots in it, instead it is wired as a series/parallel switch. Copper Shielding and an Anodized Aluminum Pickguard (supposedly makes it brighter).
Anyways, after having the electronics checked out buy a reputable tech who said it was done well and all the parts are high quality, I played around with the pickup height to try and find some tones I like on the neck pickup. After messing around with it for countless hours, I find the neck pickup tone sooooo dark, that even when I play it through a Twin Reverb with the bass on 0 and treble on 9, it still sounds very dark, like a blanket over the guitar.
So after asking around a little bit, I'm thinking of putting in a new neck pickup...specifically a Seymour Duncan Antiquity II, as they seemed to be the brightest tone (while still retaining a balanced tone...aka not the MIJ/CIJ pups) based on the pickup comparison thread on the tech thread. I was also told Lollars would be a good replacement as they're supposed to have a clear and hifi sound to them, but based on that same demo thread, the neck pup still seems somewhat dark/strong in the bass and low-mids. Sounds great for playing...jazz (ha, go figure), but not for rock.
My tone for the project I will be using this with is basically JM > Hoof Fuzz > Twin Reverb and the Hoof is on 98% of the time. The current pickup Wizard neck pup sounds very muddy with the Hoof (even when I turn the tone up on the Fuzz and mess around with the shift knob), and I know that the fuzz isn't the issue cos the tone sounds very dark clean.
Questions - Do you think there's something wrong with the wiring somehow? If not, do you think the Antiquity II is the best pickup for what I described I'm looking for? Lollar (should I call them to tell them what tone I want in my pickup)? Any other pups?