Suggestions wanted for a Jamie Hince(the Kills) inspired JM build.

[TvontheRadiohead]

I've been wanting to build a Jazzmaster that's inspired by Jamie Hince's tones from the Kills. I'm open to any and all suggestions for this guitar. His main axe is a Hofner 176 with blade pickups, but instead of just being boring and buying one, I was thinking of building a guitar that's inspired by his sound.

My idea is to grab an inexpensive Jazzmaster whether it be a squier or Mexican build, and modify from there. I know the Hofners are made from lower grade woods, so the tone wood doesn't matter to me, neither does the placement of the trem. However, there are a few things that I'd like some suggestions with:

1.) Pickups and pickup routing. I'm very torn on what kind of pickups I want to use in this build. I know he uses Hofner blade pickups, but I have no idea what they sound like. Going by his tone, it's a detuned guitar with some tight bass response and overall clarity when slightly overdriven. My brain is saying start with some Gold Foil pickups, but I'm open to anything. Other pickups I've been thinking about have been Fender wide range, Filtertrons, and a lot of random vintage pickups including the Hofner blades. I'm open to any suggestions.

2.) A modified tone knob like the Hofner. It's a pretty creative click style tone knob that adds and subtracts bass. I've been thinking about adding something similar.

3.) I'm looking for the most comfortable and consistent, yet affordable Jazzmaster to make this build. Should I use a J.Mascis, Squier Vintage Modified, or something else?

Appreciate the input and I'll update as I go along.

[HarlowTheFish]

Listening to some of their stuff, I get almost a Charlie Christian kinda vibe, where there's a lot of punch and weight to single notes but a kind of compressed clarity to chords (just my assessment, so IDK you get the same impression). For pickups, I'd probably go with either a legit CC from Lollar or somewhere (I do like the Lollars and they make a few in different form factors that will be easier to mount) or something like the Novak JM-CC which is just a standard JM format but is supposed to get the CC sound.

For the tone knob, I'd check out Hofner's vintage wiring schematic page, https://www.hofner.com/info/information ... ore=h00_de, and take a look to see what they have. There's a few different configurations that could get you the clicky cut/boost-feeling control, but I'm not good enough with wiring to tell you exactly what's going on there.

Depending on where you are, I'd consider a parts build as well - depending on how much work you're able/willing to put in, it could turn out both cheaper and more exactly what you want (depending on where you are, something like a Rosser body and a Warmoth neck can get you going with a really solid base for like $300 or so, but you'd need all the parts to assemble it). If you're starting with a Squier, I'd say the Mascis has the best neck, but the ToM and mismatched radius don't really work for me personally, while the VM or Classic Vibe are great all-rounders but have been a bit spottier on QC in my experience. Probably the easiest one to mod up to your spec would be the Player JM, which is a good bit pricier but Lollar makes humbucker-sized CCs (so it'll be a direct swap for pickups), the bridge works for the radius and rocks (which I find a little better for tuning personally), and overall the Players just have consistently solid QC and won't need a lot of work to get going.

[TvontheRadiohead]

Listening to some of their stuff, I get almost a Charlie Christian kinda vibe, where there's a lot of punch and weight to single notes but a kind of compressed clarity to chords (just my assessment, so IDK you get the same impression). For pickups, I'd probably go with either a legit CC from Lollar or somewhere (I do like the Lollars and they make a few in different form factors that will be easier to mount) or something like the Novak JM-CC which is just a standard JM format but is supposed to get the CC sound.

For the tone knob, I'd check out Hofner's vintage wiring schematic page, https://www.hofner.com/info/information ... ore=h00_de, and take a look to see what they have. There's a few different configurations that could get you the clicky cut/boost-feeling control, but I'm not good enough with wiring to tell you exactly what's going on there.

Depending on where you are, I'd consider a parts build as well - depending on how much work you're able/willing to put in, it could turn out both cheaper and more exactly what you want (depending on where you are, something like a Rosser body and a Warmoth neck can get you going with a really solid base for like $300 or so, but you'd need all the parts to assemble it). If you're starting with a Squier, I'd say the Mascis has the best neck, but the ToM and mismatched radius don't really work for me personally, while the VM or Classic Vibe are great all-rounders but have been a bit spottier on QC in my experience. Probably the easiest one to mod up to your spec would be the Player JM, which is a good bit pricier but Lollar makes humbucker-sized CCs (so it'll be a direct swap for pickups), the bridge works for the radius and rocks (which I find a little better for tuning personally), and overall the Players just have consistently solid QC and won't need a lot of work to get going.

Excellent call on the Charlie Christian pickups! Definitely have that clarity and punch that I was thinking of. Appreciate the wiring schematic too, I need to learn more about what I'm looking at, but it'll definitely help. Cheers!

[peterherman]

http://hutonelabs.com/pickups/

I just got a set of their square pole pickups for a JM project. They've got an older design kicking around that uses a notched rail instead of individual poles that might work too. There's a pair of that latter kind on Reverb now.

The Kills are great. In an earlier life I played on the same bill with them.

[FlacoJohnson]

I joined OSG just so I could bump this conversation and ask: how did this turn out?! What pickups did you go with and what do you think?

I am mod'ing a 2022 JM Player right now by adding a Mascis neck (from a Squier) and I'm now thinking/researching about what pickups to use in the player's humbucker slots. I also love Hince's sound so would really like to know more.

A question for HarlowtheFish too since you seem to know a lot along these lines: This 2022 JM Player I have has a coil-splitting function. I am considering the 91 Gaze pups from Righteous Sound which, if I'm reading the desciption right, are a single coil (in humbucker body) and then more of a humbucker for the bridge so coil-split would not always work but is there any other significant issue to consider when changing pups away from humbuckers (probably)? I always like versatility but could also just forget about the split-coil function if it meant going with better pickups.

[MC5tooge]

I'd love to know how it turned out too. Been a Kills fan since the first LP.
Actually got my hands on a pair of Hofner blade pickups earlier this year and put them in the Strat body I had left over from my Strat/Jag hybrid - using wiring I found on the Hofner info page.

The Hofner pickups sound like nothing else I have - this build was just to see if I liked them so it'll be getting a better neck than it has right now at some point.
Will probably use the last hole for a master volume.
The Jag selector plate is home to a Varitone circuit.

[Deed_Poll]

Massive Kills fan here too! I've actually been working on a pickup that works along similar lines to the Hofner blade pickup for my own guitars, using 3D printed bobbins and adjusting the design to be hum cancelling. I don't know much about his guitars, but I've always found those Kills sounds and ones like them are quite accessible with plenty of series wiring! A vintage-spec Marauder (or similar wiring) will really unlock a lot of that universe in my experience, regardless of the pickup design.

[MC5tooge]

What I did with mine was set up the rhythm plate as 2 tone controls wired directly to the pickups, with original Hofner value caps (different for each pickup), each wired to their own volume control going through the top switch to the Varitone to switch it on or off.

Only problem with these pickups is that they are a good deal louder than everything else - even my hottest humbuckers - so need to be careful when switching guitars. But the cleans you can get off them are spectacular.

[nnieman]

I get a pretty decent kills sound with a bigsby tele - it has a broadcaster pickup in the bridge.
Also a p90 guitar with the volume rolled off a bit.
I think any thicker single coil pickup would get you there.
I like his tone a lot of this song
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=498zUzNGQxY

Nathan

[MC5tooge]

My wannabe Hofner how it ended up...
And the actual Hofner I got last week.

[FlacoJohnson]

Those both look great. Thanks for posting a picture. Any big differences in sound between the two? I wound up putting a charlie christian and a p90 into a toronado body because it provided the best option to blend the pickups. I absolutely love the sounds. The CC pup can be very fat and huge.

[PorkyPrimeCut]

Tonal qualities aside, and presuming the guitar isn't built yet, it'd look great with blocks that stretch the full width of the fretboard...