What’s a good noiseless option if I like the V-Mod II pickups?

[gibs]

Title pretty much says it. Basically I like the overwound sound of the V mod pickups. But have become so accustomed to the SCN noiseless pickups in my tele, I don’t think I could handle the hum, (especially after playing a friends P90 equipped tele and being reminded of what that’s like to deal with in my rig).

[Lost In Autumn]

I have a set of Lindy Fralin Hum-Cancelling JM pickups in my J Mascis Jazzmaster that I'm pretty enamored with. they're a little fuller sounding than most Jazzmaster pickups, but to me, that's a feature, not a fault.

[Larry Mal]

I don't know the V-Mod 2 pickups, so I can't really address this question well.

That being said, Kinman makes noise free pickups in various flavors, and I have the Thickmasters, which are the hottest wound. They are excellent pickups. Maybe look into their products.

[adamrobertt]

I also have the Kinman Fatmasters in one of my JMs and I like them a lot. Very close to actual JM pickups without the hum.

[gibs]

Found a noiseless set by Brandon wound. $100 cheaper than anything from fralin or kinman, but I’m not sure. The few YouTube clips that are out there it doesn’t sound bad, but not sure how balanced they sound, and some have said they aren’t very high output. I just don’t want anything anemic like the fender vintage noiseless have turned out to be. Even in YouTube clips they sound weak when I’ve found vids comparing them to either v mod or Novak pickups.

Kinmans look promising, not sure which to go with, thick, fat, or surf. Wish there was more than one clip of the thickmasters, the info on the website isn’t super clear where this fits to ally between the surf and fat.

[adamrobertt]

Found a noiseless set by Brandon wound. $100 cheaper than anything from fralin or kinman, but I’m not sure. The few YouTube clips that are out there it doesn’t sound bad, but not sure how balanced they sound, and some have said they aren’t very high output. I just don’t want anything anemic like the fender vintage noiseless have turned out to be. Even in YouTube clips they sound weak when I’ve found vids comparing them to either v mod or Novak pickups.

Kinmans look promising, not sure which to go with, thick, fat, or surf. Wish there was more than one clip of the thickmasters, the info on the website isn’t super clear where this fits to ally between the surf and fat.

He doesn't do a great job of explaining the differences between the versions. As I'm sure you've noticed, his website is full of "I'm a genius" type of medical quack-like hyperbolic mumbo jumbo - like he's selling some sort of miracle tonic to heal the four humors circa 1875 instead of guitar pickups...

For this reason I didn't take him seriously for a long time and always overlooked his fantastic pickups.

As far as I can tell, the Fatmaster is the lowest output, and sounds the most like a vintage JM pickup. The Thickmaster is the highest output, and sounds more like a juiced-up P90. The Surfmaster is medium output, and is in-between tonally.

[Embenny]

As far as I can tell, the Fatmaster is the lowest output, and sounds the most like a vintage JM pickup. The Thickmaster is the highest output, and sounds more like a juiced-up P90. The Surfmaster is medium output, and is in-between tonally.

The Surfmaster is the lowest output, the Fatmaster is slightly thicker, and the Thickmaster is much thicker than that.

I agree, his web site and advertising strategy makes it almost impossible to figure out what the hell to order, but the pickups are amazing.

I bought these used off RIORIO, who understandably believed they were Thickmasters. Kinman's customer service told me I "wouldn't like Thickmasters if I don't like PAFs, because that's the closest tone to them" but I took the gamble anyway. I installed them and was shocked at how Fendery they sounded.

Turns out they were Fatmasters, which are much less fat sounding than Thickmasters, apparently, though thicker than Surfmasters.

Oy.

Point is, the Fatmasters sound great but are definitely beefier than the Antiquities I had in my AV65. The Surfmasters are supposed to be a little thicker than true vintage, but based on my experiences, I'd expect them to be plenty bouncy/springy/bright/whatever adjective you want to apply to a vintage JM tone.

I've got the similarly stupidly-named "blues Jag" pickups in my '62, and those are similarly the middle of 3 outputs (though it goes surf - blues - punk for Jags instead of surf - fat - thick like JMs) and they're still bright enough to do whatever I want a Jag to do, but definitely thicker than an AV65 or whatever.

I really think the middle-of-the-road models are tough to go wrong with, though the lower and higher output ones are probably equally great. I know Larry has the Thickmasters and they still sound like single coils from the demo he sent me. Plus J Mascis has the Thickmasters in all his JMs at this point and his live tone sounds great to me (though in fairness, he uses P90s all over his studio albums, so maybe the Thickmasters really do sound closer to those).

[Larry Mal]

I think the Kinman site is absolutely bizarre, and I actually spent a little time on my last order with them taking screen shots and showing them how weird it is to navigate it. Even if the text was clear in between the boasting, you start off having to choose the "modern" or "classic" site, neither of which offers any clear advantages according to what information there is about them.

So you makes your choice and you takes your chances and none of it matters, since the same information isn't on both sites. Clearly, if your business is going to be running two websites for some reason, each of which can take orders, you would want them both to be in agreement. But they aren't.

I mean, who cares, it's more funny to me than anything else, and it doesn't change my opinion that Kinman is the best pickups around- I have three sets at this point. I'm not saying "best noiseless" or anything, either. They are just incredible pickups that happen to be noiseless. He's the real deal and no amount of clowning on his website changes that.

And I've had a lot of pickups. I have or have had vintage Fender, modern Fender, Lindy Fralin noiseless, I have the Brandonwounds, I own a lot of guitars from Gibson, Fender and I've had some other stuff like Rickenbacker, I have Q pickups and had some other winders make me stuff, like Zhangbucker and Bill Lawrence's Wilde.

I like all that stuff, and I'll be keeping it. But I've come to learn that my favorite is Kinman, and that'll just be that moving forward. I don't need to keep looking around for my favorites as I need to find money to pay for the stuff... well, I'm probably done buying single coil guitars.

Anyway, over to Brandonwound: it's good. His pickups have a pretty accurate vintage Jazzmaster pickup sound. I don't find them to sound hot or high wound. Frankly, they kind of capture the low-fi sound of my Japanese made Jazzmaster pickups in a way.

They are pretty new to me and I've only had a few hours playing time with them, so don't make too much of what I say.

I prefer Kinmans to them. That, I'm very clear on.

[gibs]

I think the Kinman site is absolutely bizarre, and I actually spent a little time on my last order with them taking screen shots and showing them how weird it is to navigate it. Even if the text was clear in between the boasting, you start off having to choose the "modern" or "classic" site, neither of which offers any clear advantages according to what information there is about them.

So you makes your choice and you takes your chances and none of it matters, since the same information isn't on both sites. Clearly, if your business is going to be running two websites for some reason, each of which can take orders, you would want them both to be in agreement. But they aren't.

I mean, who cares, it's more funny to me than anything else, and it doesn't change my opinion that Kinman is the best pickups around- I have three sets at this point. I'm not saying "best noiseless" or anything, either. They are just incredible pickups that happen to be noiseless. He's the real deal and no amount of clowning on his website changes that.

And I've had a lot of pickups. I have or have had vintage Fender, modern Fender, Lindy Fralin noiseless, I have the Brandonwounds, I own a lot of guitars from Gibson, Fender and I've had some other stuff like Rickenbacker, I have Q pickups and had some other winders make me stuff, like Zhangbucker and Bill Lawrence's Wilde.

I like all that stuff, and I'll be keeping it. But I've come to learn that my favorite is Kinman, and that'll just be that moving forward. I don't need to keep looking around for my favorites as I need to find money to pay for the stuff... well, I'm probably done buying single coil guitars.

Anyway, over to Brandonwound: it's good. His pickups have a pretty accurate vintage Jazzmaster pickup sound. I don't find them to sound hot or high wound. Frankly, they kind of capture the low-fi sound of my Japanese made Jazzmaster pickups in a way.

They are pretty new to me and I've only had a few hours playing time with them, so don't make too much of what I say.

I prefer Kinmans to them. That, I'm very clear on.

How would you compare the brandonwounds to the kinmans you have? (Sounds like you may have all 3 sets?)

[Larry Mal]

How would you compare the brandonwounds to the kinmans you have? (Sounds like you may have all 3 sets?)

No, I only have the Thickmasters in a Jazzmaster. The other Kinmans I have are a Woodstock set in a Stratocaster, that's the most recent one, and a "Staple" P90 set in my ES-330. That last set took me a while to wrap my mind around since I didn't know how to adjust the height of the pickups for a bit.

And I'll give you my thoughts on them but bear in mind the Brandonwounds are very new to me, and like I say I've only spent a few hours with them. Overall, I like them, and I think they form a good contrast to my Kinmans in my AVRI. I think I'll keep them, however, knowing what I know now I kind of wish I had gone with the Surfmasters that Kinman makes. Probably not enough to sell them on and do anything about it, though.

The Brandonwound pickups do sound very Jazzmaster accurate to me. I've been describing them as having the good parts and the idiosyncratic parts of the Jazzmaster sound very well. You can make them get harsh, for instance (I retained the 1Meg components). When distorted, it really captures that kind of "janky" sound that Jazzmasters can do. They aren't what you would call very "3D" pickups or anything.

The Kinmans, though, were kind of a different story. I didn't know what I was getting into and Mike will tell you that I kept joking about making my AVRI Jazzmaster into another Les Paul Studio, and I wasn't kidding, either. I thought that might happen.

I had no knowledge of Kinmans and other than J Mascis, didn't know anyone who used Thickmasters. Kinman's descriptions didn't mean much to me, you've been on the site, you know what I mean.

I thought that Kinman might be hype, so I got a Thickmaster cheap online and bought the other at full price. That's why I got the Thickmasters- I wouldn't have picked them otherwise.

And when I sat down with them I was trying to consider if they sounded like vintage Jazzmaster pickups. Almost immediately, though, I didn't give a shit if they did or not. They just sounded like great pickups by every measure, and I kept dialing in sounds, and they kept doing great in a variety of ways.

They sound, well, thick and powerful, but I didn't notice any lack of high end, I certainly didn't notice any kind of compressed sound like you get with the lesser PAF type pickups. They can be pretty smooth, and they distort in a round way... let's go with "syrupy". Let's go with "warm".

So that really sold me on the Kinman concept. I am tempted to recommend them to you based on what you've written about what you are looking for, but I really hate to recommend something so personal as pickups. It was my thought, though, and based on what you wrote and my limited experience I would suggest that you would prefer the hotter two wound Kinmans (Fatmaster and Thickmaster- fuck me) to the Brandonwounds.

Brandonwounds are cheap and good, though.

But take all this with a grain of salt... I don't know anything about the V-Mod pickups, which is why I can't really advise you since I have no idea how to contrast anything.

[gibs]

How would you compare the brandonwounds to the kinmans you have? (Sounds like you may have all 3 sets?)

No, I only have the Thickmasters in a Jazzmaster. The other Kinmans I have are a Woodstock set in a Stratocaster, that's the most recent one, and a "Staple" P90 set in my ES-330. That last set took me a while to wrap my mind around since I didn't know how to adjust the height of the pickups for a bit.

And I'll give you my thoughts on them but bear in mind the Brandonwounds are very new to me, and like I say I've only spent a few hours with them. Overall, I like them, and I think they form a good contrast to my Kinmans in my AVRI. I think I'll keep them, however, knowing what I know now I kind of wish I had gone with the Surfmasters that Kinman makes. Probably not enough to sell them on and do anything about it, though.

The Brandonwound pickups do sound very Jazzmaster accurate to me. I've been describing them as having the good parts and the idiosyncratic parts of the Jazzmaster sound very well. You can make them get harsh, for instance (I retained the 1Meg components). When distorted, it really captures that kind of "janky" sound that Jazzmasters can do. They aren't what you would call very "3D" pickups or anything.

The Kinmans, though, were kind of a different story. I didn't know what I was getting into and Mike will tell you that I kept joking about making my AVRI Jazzmaster into another Les Paul Studio, and I wasn't kidding, either. I thought that might happen.

I had no knowledge of Kinmans and other than J Mascis, didn't know anyone who used Thickmasters. Kinman's descriptions didn't mean much to me, you've been on the site, you know what I mean.

I thought that Kinman might be hype, so I got a Thickmaster cheap online and bought the other at full price. That's why I got the Thickmasters- I wouldn't have picked them otherwise.

And when I sat down with them I was trying to consider if they sounded like vintage Jazzmaster pickups. Almost immediately, though, I didn't give a shit if they did or not. They just sounded like great pickups by every measure, and I kept dialing in sounds, and they kept doing great in a variety of ways.

They sound, well, thick and powerful, but I didn't notice any lack of high end, I certainly didn't notice any kind of compressed sound like you get with the lesser PAF type pickups. They can be pretty smooth, and they distort in a round way... let's go with "syrupy". Let's go with "warm".

So that really sold me on the Kinman concept. I am tempted to recommend them to you based on what you've written about what you are looking for, but I really hate to recommend something so personal as pickups. It was my thought, though, and based on what you wrote and my limited experience I would suggest that you would prefer the hotter two wound Kinmans (Fatmaster and Thickmaster- fuck me) to the Brandonwounds.

Brandonwounds are cheap and good, though.

But take all this with a grain of salt... I don't know anything about the V-Mod pickups, which is why I can't really advise you since I have no idea how to contrast anything.

Thanks for your time. This build has been a Loooooooong time coming. When I planned it out, fender had nothing that checked all the boxes for me back around 2010, the Am Pro II is very close to what I want save for my aesthetic tastes, and lack of locking tuners. All that to say, this would really be my first offset, I’ve played a few over the years but am no master of the type, but I’ve always wanted one (originally a Jag, then I realized I prefer the full length scale, and the jazzmaster pickups would be more unique sounding compared to the Jaguar pickups). So I want to build a “modernized” JM if you will, but have figured I’d at least like it to still sound like the original but with more oomph and less noise, hence the noiseless pickups. That said, I do love a good sounding p90 though (fell in love with them when I played a friend’s reverend slingshot, but I think the unique construction also played a roll in how that thing sounded, haven’t heard anything since), so I don’t think the thickmasters would disappoint either. I guess I need to get my butt out to sweetwater and have my rep get me a few different JMs to play and something with P90s so I can narrow down which I’d prefer (I don’t have anything with p90s right now either, so either choice would be a win).

One final question, do the Brandon wounds seem to at least have a higher output than regular jm pickups or are they about the same, do the bridge and neck have a balanced output, or is the neck louder? Thanks for all your help!

[Larry Mal]

One final question, do the Brandon wounds seem to at least have a higher output than regular jm pickups or are they about the same, do the bridge and neck have a balanced output, or is the neck louder? Thanks for all your help!

No problem at all, wish I could help with more authority.

I don't think that the Brandonwounds are particularly high output pickups. They feel like the same output as AVRI Jazzmaster pickups to me.

That being said, I know he winds the bridge pickup more to balance with the neck pickup, and I also feel that they do actually balance well together. That being said, while I have the guitar setup and did adjust the pickups, it's the first adjustment I've done with them and if I had spent more time with them than I have I might come up with something better.

I will say, though, that I have every confidence that you could get the pickups to balance together if that's what you wanted, and I imagine you could make the bridge pickup be hotter than the neck if you wanted, although that might mean lowering the neck pickup which may not be what you want.

Also, a lot of P90s can be "rough"... frankly, modern P90 makers (including Gibson) very much hype a small fraction of what the P90s can be, emphasizing "bark" and crunch.

Not all P90s are that, but my point is, I don't detect that same kind of "bark" with the Thickmasters, and I'm glad I don't. I don't even like that with my P90s.

[gibs]

One final question, do the Brandon wounds seem to at least have a higher output than regular jm pickups or are they about the same, do the bridge and neck have a balanced output, or is the neck louder? Thanks for all your help!

No problem at all, wish I could help with more authority.

I don't think that the Brandonwounds are particularly high output pickups. They feel like the same output as AVRI Jazzmaster pickups to me.

That being said, I know he winds the bridge pickup more to balance with the neck pickup, and I also feel that they do actually balance well together. That being said, while I have the guitar setup and did adjust the pickups, it's the first adjustment I've done with them and if I had spent more time with them than I have I might come up with something better.

I will say, though, that I have every confidence that you could get the pickups to balance together if that's what you wanted, and I imagine you could make the bridge pickup be hotter than the neck if you wanted, although that might mean lowering the neck pickup which may not be what you want.

Also, a lot of P90s can be "rough"... frankly, modern P90 makers (including Gibson) very much hype a small fraction of what the P90s can be, emphasizing "bark" and crunch.

Not all P90s are that, but my point is, I don't detect that same kind of "bark" with the Thickmasters, and I'm glad I don't. I don't even like that with my P90s.

Thanks, I might take the risk on the brandonwounds, they are cheaper, but it’s still a good chunk of money, when building from scratch and trying to keep it around $1000, there’s a fifth of budget right there, and I’m not even to the neck or body yet, which would be at least half of the budget. My problem is I’ve been spoiled with 3 guitars that all have similar output levels, so I don’t ever really have to make any adjustments in my rig so it’d be nice if these seem to match the output floor, if nothing else, I have an EQ with programmable presets, I could just set it up accordingly for when I use this guitar if it does end up being a little softer than its stablemates.

[Larry Mal]

Thanks, I might take the risk on the brandonwounds, they are cheaper, but it’s still a good chunk of money, when building from scratch and trying to keep it around $1000, there’s a fifth of budget right there, and I’m not even to the neck or body yet, which would be at least half of the budget.

I really don't think you will be unhappy with them, I'm not. I know I raved about the Kinmans, but the Brandonwound are solid pickups also. I don't regret buying them, and almost certainly won't be taking them out.

[HarlowTheFish]

I've got the Brandonwounds in my parts-Stang (25.5" and JM bridge/trem though) and I really like them. I wanted something very traditionally JM-y, but I have way too much noise in my house for single-coils, and I gotta agree with Larry that they sound, for better or worse, pretty much like a middle-of-the-road JM pickup. They can get clanky and harsh, but they can also get syrupy and jazzy, and everything in between. I like them more than the PV65 set from Fender, mostly because I think the bridge pickup balances better and is a little gruntier with gain, but the Brandonwounds are more similar to those (or rather, somewhere between those and more of a black-bobbin, slightly darker voicing) than to anything else by a pretty big margin.

Kinman definitely has a quality product (I've messed with some of his Tele pickups and they were good, but not my preference), but frankly his pricing doesn't work with my wallet and I am extremely unimpressed with his website -- and that's just the content, nevermind how much of a nightmare it is to navigate it.