To WRHB or not to WRHB?

[sciuri]

I’m wondering how “essential” it is to have WRHBs in one’s arsenal for playing rock/indie/shoegaze. I love my JMs as they are, but I’m also curious about the promise of bright hum-free tones with more output, or if the difference between WRHBs and PAF HBs is overblown and can be achieved with EQ and amp settings.

Although the aesthetics of the standard WRHBs would be badass, I’m too attached to my existing JMs to reroute them, which would mean acquiring a new guitar to experiment with, which I probably should avoid financially. So I’m leaning towards a bridge WRHB for JM sizes (Lollar, Novak, or Creamery) to try out, which should retain some of the glorious traditional JM neck and middle position tones.

[Embenny]

Literally no pickup is "essential" to anything.

I love noiseless pickups of all designs, WRHBs have their strengths and weaknesses like any other. If you like that tone, great. I don't find it particularly special, personally.

I'd venture to say that 99.99999% of all "rock/indie/shoegaze" has been made by people who don't even own a single guitar with a WRHB, let alone made it using that type of pickup.

[andy_tchp]

I’m wondering how “essential” it is to have WRHBs in one’s arsenal for playing rock/indie/shoegaze.

Absolutely non-essential.

Probably the most over-hyped pickup in history, and one of the blandest/most characterless you could put in an offset IME.

[MattK]

shots fired

[sunburster]

I had WRHBs in a JM before. It sounded good, but I found I preferred JM pickups (quite a lot), so I sold that guitar.

I do like WRHBs in a thinline tele. They sound more open and airy in that, compared to a JM. Still, I like regular ole' single coils better any day of the week, so I no longer own any guitars with WRHBs.

Not many examples of WRHBs used in Shoegaze. Rachel Goswell (Slowdive) had them in her '72 thinline tele, but she was a minor part of their guitar sound. Emma Anderson (Lush) also played the same guitar. Can't think of any others. Plenty of gazy peeps used regular teles, though.

[timtam]

Depends on which "WRHB" you're talking about ...
1. Original Fender with CuNiFe pole pieces from the 1970s.
2. Various Japanese "copies", mostly more conventional HB-like, eg Greco
3. Fender Reissues, conventional bar magnet HBs under WRHB cover (space filled out with wax), of which there were several design variants (eg Lee Renaldo JM).
4. Squier variants, again conventional bar magnet HBs
5. Boutique copies, of which there are over a dozen, with varying combinations of Alnico and/or FeCrCo pole pieces.
6. Fender's new CuNiFe pole piece version (very? close to #1)

So we're probably talking over two dozen different pickups. Some marginally different, some very different.

[adamrobertt]

WRHBs are fine, but overrated. They've only reached such cult status because they were out of production for so long, I think. Also because humbuckers aren't Fender's "norm" and I think because of that they ended up as sort of a novelty.

In my experience they aren't really that different sounding from a good PAF, tbh.

[Unicorn Warrior]

You know, they work. I have the novak jm style. At first, I didn’t like them. But now, they are a part of the sound of one of my guitars that just offers something different. I don’t find it good for searing leads. But that’s also not my playing style. They’re very in the middle as far as pups are concerned. I shouldn’t explain it this way, but I kindof liken it to a neutral sounding amp, like a Roland JC-120 or something else really clean. They’re so neutral sounding, that they make a good platform for going in different directions with your sound using other parameters outside the guitar itself. That said, to me, they maintain a good clarity with open chords both clean and distorted. Slightly brighter sound than a typical HB. I play mostly ambient/shoe gazey sounding musing and they’ve served me well.

Would love to have my guitar routed for the traditional size ones because they look rad, but it just seems like an obsessive want.



Not going to call them overated. I do agree that there is a bit of hype with them. The first time I played them They did not knock me off my feet. Bur that said, they do have a different sound. It’s likely that you want to experiment for a reason. What does it hurt to give them a shot. If you’re like me, it may take you a while to fully appreciate them for what they can offer. But once you get it, you get it.

[HarlowTheFish]

I voted for trying WRHBs in JM covers, but IMO:

Like Mike said, there's no such thing as an essential pickup. My go-to idea of a WRHB is in a 72 Thinline, so if you want to try some, I'd say you want a neck/bridge set. I like the vibe for sure, but there's a lot of other pickups that are more unique, characterful, or distinctive than these (so arguably more "essential"). Try them for sure, but don't feel like you need something super specific -- JM covers will be fine, as will AlNiCo polepiece versions, to give you an idea of how and why these are different from other pickups.

[Lost In Autumn]

You know, they work. I have the novak jm style. At first, I didn’t like them. But now, they are a part of the sound of one of my guitars that just offers something different. I don’t find it good for searing leads. But that’s also not my playing style. They’re very in the middle as far as pups are concerned. I shouldn’t explain it this way, but I kindof liken it to a neutral sounding amp, like a Roland JC-120 or something else really clean. They’re so neutral sounding, that they make a good platform for going in different directions with your sound using other parameters outside the guitar itself. That said, to me, they maintain a good clarity with open chords both clean and distorted. Slightly brighter sound than a typical HB. I play mostly ambient/shoe gazey sounding musing and they’ve served me well.

Would love to have my guitar routed for the traditional size ones because they look rad, but it just seems like an obsessive want.



Not going to call them overated. I do agree that there is a bit of hype with them. The first time I played them They did not knock me off my feet. Bur that said, they do have a different sound. It’s likely that you want to experiment for a reason. What does it hurt to give them a shot. If you’re like me, it may take you a while to fully appreciate them for what they can offer. But once you get it, you get it.

I put one in the bridge of my Starmaster and it's the best sounding pickup I have for searing leads. I'm not crazy about the Thunderbird pickup in the neck, I'm torn between replacing it with a WRHB or a Gold Foil...

[redchapterjubilee]

I have Novaks WRHB’s for traditional JM routs in my gold AV65. Love them. As Unicorn Warrior said, very neutral, hot but without a mid focus so they don’t clobber the front end of an amp as hard. That said, I only have them in one guitar. They are quite expensive. I too would love to rout a JM for full size WRHB’s of some sort but haven’t. And they don’t sound like JM pickups at all, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Depends on what you want. I also want in on Novak’s thunderbird bass pickups for JM but those cost even more than the WRHb’s.

[Ceylon]

Not many examples of WRHBs used in Shoegaze. Rachel Goswell (Slowdive) had them in her '72 thinline tele, but she was a minor part of their guitar sound. Emma Anderson (Lush) also played the same guitar. Can't think of any others. Plenty of gazy peeps used regular teles, though.

Jason Pierce in Spiritualized seems to have used a WRHB Thinline as his main guitar for a long time. At least live. Maybe not exactly shoegaze but the same sonic territory for sure, just to add one to the list.

I think Lee Ranaldo's guitar tones in Sonic Youth are some of the best there are, and one day I'll have a Jazzblaster for sure, but essential? Nah.

[tune_link]

I have Novak WRHBs in one of my Jazzmasters and I play shoegaze with it. I love the way they sound. Overrated? I don't think so. It's like flavors of ice cream or soda or pizza toppings. Something I love, you may absolutely hate. Same thing here. I also think people want different things out of their guitar tone. A WRHB, even one that doesn't sound exactly like how they're "supposed" to sound is going to be different than a normal Jazzmaster single coil. Depending on what you would use it for though, I've gotten close to a similar sound via using different amp settings and certain overdrives. I went and tried to hear different versions of them via Youtube demos first because most of them are in a specific range of what they sound like. There is a particular thing about them that you should be able to pick up on...I'm not using this in a derisive manner at all esp consider what I said above...but they sound "blocky" to me compared to how a normal JM single coil has a chime to it. I very much dig that.

[Ruttiger]

I have a set of the new CUNIFE reissue ones from fender in a Thinline Tele-if you are after the particular sounds that I have always associated with WRHB, which would be Spiritualized, The Clientele, Lee Renaldo, off the top of my head-the WRHB sound amazing, bright and full, the neck is big but articulate and the bridge can handle a ton of gain and stay incredibly clear-if that's the sound you're after they are really good for that. That said, I love Jazzmaster pickups for what they are, so I wouldn't want to mess with mine either. I think if you're just aiming for general "indie" rock sound, they are not essential, I just really love the exact sound the real ones make. As far as shoegaze, to me you could play shoegaze on lots of different guitars or pickups, it's more about effects and the order you do them and how you record/amplify it. If you have more than one JM and wanted to throw a Novak WRHB in the bridge to experiment that seems totally reasonable to me

[ryland]

I have found my favorite sound using a set of the CUNIFE reissues in a LR Jazzmaster. I absolutely love the sound of them and how they react when I dig in. I don't really think any of the 'fit em in a differnt cover' or 'almost WRHB' pickups come close to how these actually sound and react to playing. Are they essential? For some people, yes. Whether or not they are essential for you is something that you have to decide.