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I'm thinking of modding a Telecaster to have a JM neck pickup.  To me the stock tele rhythm pickup is just too smooth and sounds like the tone knob is stuck at 5 or lower.  I was thinking that a non-covered pickup would work, and to match the bite of a tele bridge, I arrived at p90.  I would like to go with a more standard Fender sound though and here is my question.

How would you guys compare the JM neck pickup to say, a strat, tele, and I suppose a P90?  From what I've heard on youtube, the JM neck/Tele bridge combo seems to match very well.

I'd appreciate your input as you seem to have quite a bit of experience with these, and would know what gives the best (i.e. characteristic) Jazzmaster tones aside from the tremelo/bridge combo.  Thanks in advance, guys!

Jazzmaster pickups are very different in sound to P-90s. They look similar on the surface, but they're a different design inside and that causes them to sound different. The P-90 has a darker sound, more mids, less high end. This is (at least partially) because it's made with a bar-magnet design.

The Tele neck pup is a bit muddy, and the chrome cover does have something to do with that - simply removing the cover will brighten it up a bit.

Strat-type pickups: there are so many varieties of these that you can't really just say "a strat-type pickup" because that could mean just about anything. Even if you just want something that "sounds like a vintage strat" you still have hundreds, maybe thousands, of choices. The only advice I'd give is to stick with something that has the same parts as a vintage strat pickup: AlNiCo rod magnets. The basic "Fender sound" is the sound of AlNiCo rod magnets.

Jazzmaster-type pickups: they're a bit mellower than vintage-type strat pickups, but they still have plenty of clang. There are quite a few Jazzmaster replacement pickups around, too - perhaps the best question is to ask what kind of budget you have in mind.

The Seymour Duncan version is probably the sort of thing you want, they're around $60 US.
http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/e ... intage_fo/
I'd avoid the other Seymour Jazzmaster pups, as they're geared towards a "hotter" sound, which means more midrange and less of the classic Fender clang. Whatever you do, don't get fooled into thinking more output = better. That's a very flawed argument: with regular pickup designs, you can't have more output without also losing high end clarity and detail. That's really built into the way standard pickups are made.

For a little more money, I'd recommend you look at Curtis Novak Jazzmaster pickups, the JM-V being the closest one to vintage designs.
http://curtisnovak.com/pickups_guitar.shtml
Curtis is a member of this forum and many people here swear by his pickups - if you're going to go with a boutique maker, he's the guy for Jazzmaster pickups.

If you're trying to do it cheaply, you can probably find a used Fender JM pup for not much money - make sure you get a US one, though: the Japanese version is actually a strat-type pickup in a Jazzmaster cover, and if you want a strat-type pickup, you'd be better off buying one that's shaped like a strat-type.