What's the current noise regards noiseless? Pg5 Jag & JM review

[JSett]

Yeah, thanks Larry & Mike, you really came through on these and I think they'll pay for themselves in enjoyment pretty quickly. The cleanliness of the signal in our shittily-powered rehearsal space was markedly different. The bassist asked if I'd put some kind of weird lace sensors in

I do, however, feel like these are going to spoil my ears and any guitar without them from now on will sound obnoxious haha!

[Embenny]

Yeah, thanks Larry & Mike, you really came through on these and I think they'll pay for themselves in enjoyment pretty quickly. The cleanliness of the signal in our shittily-powered rehearsal space was markedly different. The bassist asked if I'd put some kind of weird lace sensors in

I do, however, feel like these are going to spoil my ears and any guitar without them from now on will sound obnoxious haha!

Glad to help! And yeah, they do spoil you. Sometimes people make comments like, "come on, noise isn't that bad," which makes me want to gesticulate violently in the direction of my Kinmans. It's not that noise is the end of the world. It's just that, if you've experienced a truly great pickup that also doesn't hum, there's no real way to come back from that. Why would you want the noisy version, if you're not losing anything tone-wise with the noiseless one?

I basically never play my true single coil guitars anymore, because I can pick up one that sounds just as good and doesn't hum. At some point I need to get around to either buying Kinmans for them, or selling them.

[Veitchy]

The sound is the important thing. Again, these are quiet as a mouse when you're not playing which is the point. Sonically, they're definitely not as bright as the Creamery '58's I had in there before, not quite as much jangle. Very well balanced though. Notably warmer, noticeably hotter in output but that was fixed by cranking them down a little.

Regarding the sudden absence of top end, is that something you could EQ back in or maybe go to a smaller cap, or is it very much the voice of the pickup?

[Larry Mal]

I do, however, feel like these are going to spoil my ears and any guitar without them from now on will sound obnoxious haha!

Basically, I just can't imagine buying another Fender type guitar knowing what I know now. It used to be that living with the noise was worth it, since you didn't get the dynamic range and high end out of PAF pickups (especially back when I was coming up) and noiseless single coils a while back sucked.

But these just do it all, there's no downside, other than the incredible cost.

[ryanthellama]

I’ve got my first set of Kinmans (Surfmasters) coming in this week and all these rave reviews have gotten me wildly excited now that they’re almost here

[JSett]

The sound is the important thing. Again, these are quiet as a mouse when you're not playing which is the point. Sonically, they're definitely not as bright as the Creamery '58's I had in there before, not quite as much jangle. Very well balanced though. Notably warmer, noticeably hotter in output but that was fixed by cranking them down a little.

Regarding the sudden absence of top end, is that something you could EQ back in or maybe go to a smaller cap, or is it very much the voice of the pickup?

It's not a severe drop in high end, just clearly the EQ of that pickup. I expect the Surfmasters are a lot more like a traditional JM pickup

[Embenny]

Yeah, that's kind of the point of the Fatmaster. It's not voiced as a vintage style pickup, but it certainly keeps the Jazzmaster DNA, as opposed to the Thickmaster which intentionally aims to cross over into P90 territory.

Like, if you dial your amp/effects in for a brighter tone, you can absolutely do anything with it that you'd want a Jazzmaster to do. But if you A/B swap between it and a vintage style single coil, it'll be obvious that it's not the same.

Meanwhile, it'll do a few things that are hard to do with a vintage single coil. It's a nice middle ground.

[Ozone7]

Absolutely love my Surfmasters.
I think they’re the best pickups I have.
My Jazzmaster is my favourite guitar these days.

I have a Kinman P90 in the neck of my SG, an ongoing combo of Kinmans in my Jag (the neck is sublime, Bridge is not set yet) and I just fitted a (end of stock) pair of humbuckers from Soundpad in the UK to my Flying V. Sounds great.

I have to fit Kinmans (on my non EMG) guitars as I have terrible RFI at my place due to the radio mast up the hill.
But I do have to say that Kinman tonality is exceptional, even without the noise cancelling qualities.
The V used to have SD Seth Lovers. Kinmans are so much more articulate.

Just wish I could remove the logos on the humbuckers and that their website wasn’t so… odd.

[ryanthellama]

Very niche question, but does anyone have any idea which Kinman JM pickup would be closest to Fender’s JZHB from the Pawn Shop line? The JZHB’s have always felt somewhere between a JM pickup and a P90 to me, so my inclination would be the Fatmaster, but curious if anyone has any thoughts.

[Embenny]

Very niche question, but does anyone have any idea which Kinman JM pickup would be closest to Fender’s JZHB from the Pawn Shop line? The JZHB’s have always felt somewhere between a JM pickup and a P90 to me, so my inclination would be the Fatmaster, but curious if anyone has any thoughts.

I owned a guitar with those pickups. They sounded rather like bright humbuckers to me.

My Fatmasters sound way more like single coils than that. The Thickmaster would certainly be closer in that direction, but I'd still expect it to have more of that single coil dynamic response to it than the somewhat duller attack of the JZHB.

[ryanthellama]

I owned a guitar with those pickups. They sounded rather like bright humbuckers to me.

My Fatmasters sound way more like single coils than that. The Thickmaster would certainly be closer in that direction, but I'd still expect it to have more of that single coil dynamic response to it than the somewhat duller attack of the JZHB.

….Well this is how I found out the shop I bought from was wrong about my Offset Special being all stock, because turns out these are definitely not JZHBs. So that’s an interesting twist. Time to try to figure out what’s actually in here I guess!

But that’s all good to know. Thank you!

[ryanthellama]

So turns out I have Seymour Duncan Antiquities in my Offset, but on a more relevant note, I got my Surfmasters installed in my JM and I really understand the hype now. Phenomenal sounding pickups, I’m absolutely loving these. And the silence is incredible. I started running my Boss NS-2 in “advanced mode” this week too and the lack of noise in my rig now feels like a revelation.

[Larry Mal]

It's nice to see so many people validating what I've been saying for a while about these pickups. I've said for a while now that these are among the best pickups period. In every way a pickup can be good, these are good in that way, and they are also noiseless. They are also more noiseless than some other noiseless designs.

[Embenny]

It's nice to see so many people validating what I've been saying for a while about these pickups. I've said for a while now that these are among the best pickups period. In every way a pickup can be good, these are good in that way, and they are also noiseless. They are also more noiseless than some other noiseless designs.

Absolutely. I has always been curious about them but your experiences got me to take the plunge.

And it's true that they're more noiseless than many noiseless pickups. They're actually quieter than any of the stock humbuckers in my recent Gibsons (though, of course, Gibson refuses to shield anything they sell).

I sold a couple of guitars today, so I may go and order at least another set of Kinmans, possibly two. I'd rather have fewer guitars and be perfectly happy with them than have a few more guitars and be annoyed that they're noisy or don't sound right. Kinmans do that for me.