Squier Mascis s squier paranormal pickups?

[daz]

If you don't want to spend a lot of money, check out the Chinese made Alnico 5 Jazzmaster pick ups from Ali express.
I have a set of these and they really sound quiet good. They are a steel at $ 20/25 for a pair...
They have vintage/low output (like the old P-90's) but wound on a Jazzmaster bobbin, they can be had with either black or white covers, screws and springs included.
These look a lot like the JM-JM pu's you find in the squiers (same construction), but the don't have the brass bottom shield attached to them.
But 2 Alnico 5 magnets on the bottom, adjustble pole piece screws and cloth wire.
The neck is wound arround 8.1 K and the bridge just a tad hotter 8.7 K

I put these in a Jazzmaster I pieced together and these pu's really surprised me ... They are much nicer sounding then the stock VM/CV Squier pu's and when compared to a set of expensive Jm pu's, they whitstand the test (let's say they don't sound as nice as my set of Pick up wizzard's or Creamery Jm pu's, but they really preform very well and sound good to my ears).
They have the typical P-90 bark/mids but still sound very Jazzmaster to me.
I paired them with a set of 500 K pots and didn't look back.

Well, guess what 1-those are the same as the stock pickups in mine, and 2-thats exactly what i bought yesterday ! Why buy the same as i have? Because i decided they fit the guitar sonically way better then true JM pickups and decided like the post above yours suggested that i don't like jazzmaster pickups. And the reason i bought a new set is mine are ruined. one because used hot glue to keep the pickups in the cover so i could leave those rubber foam piece off that mess with the tone IMO. And when i had to remove the glue to use the cover when i put the fender JMs in somehow it broke on od the coil wires even tho they are under tape. Long story how i think that happened but i was able to remove the tape and find the broken end and fix it, The other pickup however then broke and that one is unfixable. That one broke because these pickups have a really unbelievable design flaw....adjusting the polepiece can ruin them ! The reason i say this is i adjusted mine a few times and about t the 2nd or 3rd time it went dead while adjusting it. I took it out and removed the screws and pulled the top flatwork off and my suspicions turned out to be true. The only divider between the screw polepieces and the coil is a thin layer of tape ! So when you adjust then poles the threads of the screw can pull the tape down and expose the coil to the threads which then cut the coil wires as you adjust it. Crazy huh? I found 5 broken ends at the end polepiece so that one if dead and gone. The one i fixed still works but i figured i need another one and you can't buy one and at $25 why bother.

So i bought a pair just like the ones you posted because i decided against trying a bunch of others knowing i don't like alnico rod JMs and i also figured i may be able to get the china ones to sound great by modding them. Like i said, they are the same pickups as my stock ones but theres no tape on the coil according to the pics, and they don't appear to be heavily potted. So i intend to first try them to see if they do indeed sound the same as the stocks. If so, i basically like that sound but they are too overwound to get exactly what i want. At about 8k i think they would sound just right at 7k because that will calm the overbearing low mids i found with the stock ones and add a bit of brightness. They sound dark and congested when i roll back the volume for clean or edgy tones, and no other pickups i use are like that.(and yes, i already put a treble bleed in so thats not the reason) The pics as i said show no tape and it should be easy to find the outer wrap and unwind it to 7k. (done this many times so i know what i am doing) Then maybe more if 7k still sounds too congested. From past experiments lowering the DCR this way on other pickups i am pretty sure this will get me just what i want from them. I will do one first, then if i sounds bad that way i will just use the remaining stock one i fixed and the other new one as is and live with the tone. In any case, i won't find out if this works for quite a while because they ship so slow from china. It says they are due in abut a month and a half, and it also notes chinese shipments may eve be delayed further due to the covid i guess. Anyways, $25 is a cheap solution one way or another. If i just can't be happy with it i can at least sell it now that i will have pickups in it. Sure don't wanna sell it with the fenders in it, as those cost me over $100 and i need to sell those to get back some of the loss.

[robroe]

What kind of music are you using the cabronita for?
What kind of amp do you have? Cabinets?

I love the stock pickups in it, but I'm using a lot of drive and reverb. 50w tube amp into a 2x12 and it sounds amazing

Even if the JMJM pickup ends up to be the same exact pickup, it's still going to sound differently inside the jazzmaster than the cabronita. Everything about the 2 guitars are completely different other than the pickups

[daz]

Of course. I get all that. And they did sound great with a lot of gain. Problem is i don't generally use a lot of gain 98% of the time, more of a classic rock kinda player who likes mid gain and the guitar volume to clean up. They don't work well at all for that. I do however think they will if i unwind them to about 7k, and possibly really well. Like i said i have 2 more on the way but one working stock one thats the same. So while i wait for them to arrive on a VERY "slow boat FROM china", i will try unwinding that remaining stock pickup to 7k and see how it sounds before doing that to the new pair.

[pikmin]

based on what you've said about traditional Jazzmaster tone, it's entirely possible that Jazzmasters just aren't for you. I don't mean to be condescending- I nearly reached that conclusion myself- I found my Jazzmasters and Jaguar to be overly thin in comparison to my stratocaster and P90 equipped guitars, even after investing a small fortune in boutique pickups from Lindy Fralin and Curtis Novak and I came close to offloading them. That said, it is entirely possible to dial in the tone that you're seeking by changing the settings on your amp or using an eq pedal, which is what I ultimately did.
Unfortunately, cheap pickups are probably going to sound cheap and thin. If you want a fuller, fatter tone from a Jazzmaster style pickup, there are lots of options, but they're not cheap:

Lindy Fralin makes, imo, the best P90 pickups and does a very nice version for Jazzmasters, his Steel Pole Jazzmaster Pickup. These have a similar architecture to the pickups in your guitar already, but they're much better made. Fralin uses AlNiCo IV bar magnets in his P90s and combined with his scatter-winding technique, produces a tone with a robust, but tight bottom end, full mid range and bell like top-end. I have Fralin P90's in 6 of my guitars, they're wonderful.


Curtis Novak makes a plethora of pickups for our offsets and lots of people swear by them, the sky's the limit from him for what you want- If Curtis doesn't wind a pickup that floats your boat, nobody does. of particular note are his JM-WR, a Wide Range Humbucker in Jazzmaster form: https://www.curtisnovak.com/shop/jm-wr/ I'm putting one in the bridge of my current project, I'll likely have it completed in May.

Also noteworthy is his JM PAF, a Les Paul PAF style pickup in a Jazzmaster body: https://www.curtisnovak.com/shop/jm-paf/


Jason Lollar also makes a number of pickups for offset guitars and he is highly regarded on this forum. The pickups that he makes in conjunction with Black Bobbin sound fantastic: https://blackbobbin.com/products/lollar ... pickup-set
Offset guru Puisheen does a demo of them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtWmgXRFYPE it's worth noting that the secret to the tone he gets from his guitars is that he uses a REALLY dark amp tone- he rolls the treble almost entirely off. It's too dark for my taste, but he helped me dial in a tone I like and enabled me to better bond with my offsets. He goes on a rant about Treble on this video- I really disagree with him about treble in general, but he gives some pretty useful info here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpSONOlIOdk&t=1112s

I'd recommend reaching out to Bootstrap, Lindy Fralin, Curtis Novak or Jason Lollar to get their recommendations to dial in your tone.

Just to give my 2 cents !
I also have a Jazzmaster with Fralin Pickups and one with Curtis Novak pickups that I love .
But I also have 2 sets of Jazzmasters Q pickups and I can guarantee that the Q pickups are as good made and as good sounding than the Fralins and the Novak’s .
They have their own thing but they are really awesome pickups .
I also put a custom set in my Jaguar , and a vintage correct 64 set in my Mustang and both are awesome .

In Europe , for me , it’s the best source for boutique pickups you can find .
I should keep it secret so he will not increase his prices but he’s making such a good job and it will be a shame if people don’t realize it.

[daz]

So here's the latest. As i said i would do i took the remaining working stock pickup which was about 8.6k (thought it was less but nope) and unwound it till it read 7.3k. The result was what i was looking for as far as the type of change it accomplished but it was not enough of that change. It got clearer with less mud and less output but by far less than i expected with well over 1k removed. I would say it accomplished the type of difference i wanted but only about 50% of the way there. So next i will unwind it down to maybe 6.8k and if thats still not enough i'll go again to maybe 6.2. I don't think it will fare well that low tho. I think if it's not enough at 6.8k going much lower is going to result in getting to a point where it will just be too low a wind for this design and will be weak and useless. I'm not a winder so i'm not sure, but from what i DO know having messed with pickups is that at some point they will be too low for the given design. I think because unlike other pickups these are wound on a super short coil and the winds are much further away from the magnet on the other edge. I think that makes for a need to be wound hotter to work. Thats probably why the 6.8k fenders sounded ultra low output when 6.8k on a tele or strat pickup would be fairly hot. Well, that and bar mags with screw poles probably add to that affect. Anyways, i will report back when i unwind it more if there seems to be any interest.

[daz]

Well, i know why these sound so congested and UN dynamic....too much magnet ! Pulled one of the magnets and wham....far far better. Now it;s actually too weak with the windings i removed. So when i get the new set first thin i will do is pull a mag off each and see how they sound like that with full winding. Then i will likely wanna take about 1k off them but i'm getting ahead of myself. First pull the mags and see what i think. Really made them much more dynamic and they clean up way better when you roll off the volume. Makes me wonder if those magnets really are A5 or something wacky or maybe over charged.

[HarlowTheFish]

If the undwinding made them a bit too weak with only one magnet, see if you can find some A8, A9, ceramic, or neodymium bar magnets to try on them. A bit more magnet with a bit less wind is how stuff like the G&L MFD pickups are made, and those are really great (tiny coil, steel poles, ceramic bar mags).

You could also try going back to two magnets with something a bit weaker, like A2 or A4.

[daz]

yeah, i've thought of all that but hearing what i do now i am pretty sure i will like the stock wind with one A5 or if not i'm sure a little less DCR will surely do it. Within those 2 things i am sure i can get what i want from them. I put a 500k pot in just now which really cleared it up and i can hear what it would be like with maybe 1k more or even stock and i think it'll be good w/o further experimenting.

[daz]

Hey, just thought you might wanna hear this update. Those chinese pickups that i thought were the same as the stock ones arrived. Shocking because it was only about a week even tho the ebay ad said about 6 weeks ! But ya know what was even MORE shocking.....they sound FAR better then the stock ones, they actually sound really good ! They have the same TYPE of sound but far far better version of it. They clean up infinitely better using a treble bleed equipped 500k pot and don't sound congested and muddy at all like the stocks. From the pic i thought they were the same as the stock ones aside from the lack of tape on the coil. I think the main reason the sound so much better is smaller magnets. They also don't look potted which from many things i have read suggest potting hurts tone. Whatever the reason i literally feel they are 90% better then the stock pickups. The flatwork isn't fiber but plastic, unlike the stocks. But who cares. Both made in china so i figured they would sound the same but i couldn't have been more wrong. As i have said, the last thing i tried was putting strat pickups under the JM covers which sounded fantastic. I can't believe i am contemplating using these instead. Far cry from the stock garbage which had me wanting to sell the thing ! Oh, and i was using 250k with the strat pickups but went back to 500k for these.