I just won a Kinman Thickmaster.

[Embenny]

That's really something special to have done, to continue her memory in yet another way in your daily life. Ditto for what you did for your kids. It's really nice to be able to pass something down that can be as meaningful in one's life as an instrument.

And your AVRI is no less special for being OTM, of course. I realize what happened - I had my blue light filter turned on on my phone, which gives everything a yellow hue. Yellow filter + OTM looks a whole lot like Sherwood green, I have now learned.

[tdbajus]

I like that black pickguard.




https://photos.app.goo.gl/YBDjiC4grZ9W6Pyz5


[edit] anyone know why the image won't display?

Does Google drive not work with the IMG tags?

[Larry Mal]

Nice J Mascis.

The black pickguard was lucky, I had already grown to dislike dealing with Tone Guard but could not find another maker of anodized aluminum pick guards for Jazzmasters.

There still aren't many. Luckily, I found that one used. I had hoped that it would help with noise, I'm sure it does a bit.

I am also pretty certain that I know the source of my noise, by the way. I keep my wireless router and modem on my desk, and I'm pretty sure those broadcast so much noise that it ends up in my guitars.

The reason I say this is because I bought a new wireless router a couple weeks ago, and moved the whole rig over a little bit. Essentially, I moved them to the top of one of my Rokit monitors from the other, and that monitor is now making noise like the other one did. Also, the epicenter of the guitar noise seems to have moved.

There may not be much I can do about this, I'm limited by the size of my apartment and also the fact that I have exactly one grounded outlet here. I am having my internet provided changed today, though, so they are installing a new modem. It's also fiber now, the reason for the change. Long story short, I might see if I can have all this moved.

[Larry Mal]

[Embenny]

That looks pretty distinct, structurally, from other pickups, so that's promising. You can see the two coils and the claw that's meant to act as a magnetic shield. Do you play with a wound G? Or is this the one you won at auction and it happens to be staggered for wound G?

[Larry Mal]

That looks pretty distinct, structurally, from other pickups, so that's promising. You can see the two coils and the claw that's meant to act as a magnetic shield. Do you play with a wound G? Or is this the one you won at auction and it happens to be staggered for wound G?

Yes, it being distinct is a good sign. That being said, it also looks nothing like a Jazzmaster pickup, not like you would expect it to, but it gave me pause. It feels good and heavy in the hand, which I think is a good sign.

No, that detail about the G string is something I kind of missed there. I didn't do much research into this at all, it was a lark- I didn't expect to win!

Not sure what to expect out of that, except it will certainly not help resale so I hope I like it.

Here's what he has to day about the magnet staggers and such.

[Embenny]

I hope the wound G stagger is not a big deal. I mean, the vintage Strat magnet stagger has persisted for a half century after people stopped routinely using wound Gs, and it was developed for flatwounds with wound Gs, but people just kind of got used to it and accepted that strats are "supposed" to have a pretty twangy G. I somehow doubt it will make or break whether you like the pickup.

And I don't know if I agree that it looks that different from a JM pickup. Under the square top plate of the bobbin, the coil itself actually looks a lot that moulded shape on the top of the pickup. At least it's a very wide coil. It's tough to tell based on the external dimensions whether the top coil itself is tall or flat - it's possible the coil only takes up the first few mm and then the region where you have that string-looking material could actually be concealing internal parts that contribute to the magnetic and electrical isolation of the two coils.

I'm sure nobody is going to dissect a $200 JM pickup, so we'll probably never see inside and get a definitive answer. It definitely looks like it has an amount of engineering that went into it beyond just two reverse-wound coils, though, which I find more palatable than the people who charge that kind of price for a simple pickup made of common materials and claim their expertise in winding them with some sort of secret magic justifies the price.

[Larry Mal]

Yes. I always get the idea that Kinman is a much more elaborate design than other things that are noiseless single coils, and pretty much everything I've read bears that concept out.

[marqueemoon]

Petition to change Larry’s username to Thickmaster.

[Embenny]

Well, damnit Larry, now you've got me looking at the Kinman Jaguar pickups. Their strat pickups have been well-reputed for years, and I'm reading on their site that their Jag pickups are just their Strat pickups built into a Jag form factor (complete with a non-ferrous aluminum claw built in to maintain the stock look without messing with the pickup's function).

I'll wait to hear what you think of these thickmasters (again...cringe...), and the sensible thing will be to wait until I finish the 3-4 wiring projects I still have outstanding, but I have pretty much stopped playing my single-coil Jags because of the hum, so the fact that they make the only stock-looking noiseless Jaguar pickup I've ever encountered is highly intriguing to me...

[Larry Mal]

Yeah, I came to the same realization that I just can't deal with the noise anymore. It ruins the guitar for me to a degree. It's not that I don't like playing them, but when I feel like recording something, the guitars that are noisy just get put back in the case.

So, I have no idea when the Kinmans will ship, they have an warning on their website indicating that they have just been able to get back to work. So I expect a delay, and it's coming from Australia or something, so it'll be a while.

I have found out that my guitar technician guys are still working, though, and I am probably just going to pay to have these pickups put in. I don't want to deal with it.

It is looking like the Fralin noiseless P90s are coming in first, so I'll have that wiring done probably by next week.

[Larry Mal]

And if you get those Kinman Jaguar pickups you will be the first person on the planet to do so or close to it.

They claim their non-magnetic claws are shielding, though, which makes sense. I'll bet they are good pickups.

[tdbajus]

Would strat sounding pickups make the Jag sound stratty?

I noticed that while I have never played a strat w/trem that I loved, I have played several hardtail strats and loved them.

Jag pickups seems very stratty to me, but does the claw change the magnetic field/sound the way I have been told that the baseplate on a tele does?

I mention the hard tail strat anecdote because maybe it's just the sound of the bridge that I dislike about strats and like about jazzmasters/jaguars. There's such a thick bullshit field around all this stuff, it's hard to know what is confirmation bias and what is actually perceived reality.

[Embenny]

Long story short, jag pickups are slightly better shielded strat pickups. I've played Cyclones and they don't sound anything like jags. The pickup placement, bridge, and scale length are the main differences between Mustangs, Jaguars, and Strats.

I have a Marauder with Jaguar pickups laid out in essentially Strat position and configuration with a Strat/Jazzmaster scale length and it sounds to me more or less like a Strat with a Jazzmaster bridge (which mine has) moreso than a Jaguar.

I would not expect Kinman Jaguar pickups to make my Jaguar sound any less like a Jaguar, if their pickups do indeed sound like the single coils they're supposed to.

[Larry Mal]

A Strat and a Jaguar pickup is the same other than the claw. The Jaguar was the deluxe Fender, loaded with shielding and kind of a correction to the Jazzmaster, which was noisy.

Fender back in the day had one great experiment away from the classic single coil, with their guitars, at least, and that was the Jazzmaster pickup. The rest were pretty much variations on a well established theme of narrow single coils.

The Telecaster neck pickup was certainly different, though. But after that and the Jazzmaster, it's all just kind of Strat pickups with variations. Probably the biggest variation is the Jaguar coil, and that takes us out of the Leo Fender era.

The Kinman pickups for Jaguars are almost certainly wonderful and you should buy a couple sets Mike, in case there's anyone out there who has a vintage Jaguar that they need to get together but is hesitant about spending his own $400 on pickups, but I can't imagine offhand who that would be.