Do I ‘need’ a Gibson?

[guitarsammy]

I only have one guitar: American Original Jazzmaster. I love it - feel, looks, term, tone.

I recently put after-market pickups in, with an overwound bridge, and I love it even more.

I play in a band (indie, shoegaze) and we play with some cleaner tones on some songs, more overdriven on others.

At rehearsal last week, I tried my bandmate’s cheap dual humbucker Ibanez for a couple of songs, and it really thickened my tone and made my AC15 growl in a great way. It sounded objectively ‘better’ than my JM for the more distorted songs.

Ever since, I’ve been thinking that I need to buy a dual humbucker, Gibson scale length guitar.

Thing is, I enjoy the simplicity of just owning one guitar. So a part of me wonders - can I get into a very similar ballpark with a series wiring mod on my JM, or via a boost pedal? I could try it, but these options require spending money / tinkering, so I thought I’d try here first.

TLDR; can I get Gibson-like growl from a JM with a boost pedal and/or a series mod? Or do I need a Gibson?

[sal paradise]

There's no right answer here.

1. if you love having one guitar, don't worry about it
2. if you want a Gibson tone, JM pickups won't get you there
3. you might not like Gibson ergonomics in general
4. Gibson necks can vary greatly, so play more than a few

[F15hface]

Surely the simplest solution would be to stick a humbucker in the bridge position? Then you get humbucker tones at the bridge with perhaps the greatest ever neck pickup tone for your cleans all in one package.

[UlricvonCatalyst]

The 'classic' single-coil booster for an AC is a Rangemaster (treble booster), so something like that might give you the growl you seek.

Cheaper than a Gibson, and easier to sell on/post if it doesn't do what you want it to do.

[s_mcsleazy]

ok. i'm going to weigh in. no, you don't need a gibson. HOWEVER. if you like the feeling of your jazzmaster but want that more gibson-y guitar tone, look into the fender/squier toronado. i use one as my main in my post-hardcore band and i once described it as "all the tones of a les paul without the drawbacks" aka, me snapping those headstocks.

[GreenKnee]

Do you have an EQ pedal to hand? Perhaps the Boss GE-7 will serve you well for boosting/cutting certain frequencies and giving an overall dB boost

[Axeman52]

In my experience, no, you don't need a gibson.

It seems silly to have to ask but my experience tells me most guitarists forget about this type of thing - have you tried turning the tone control down on your jazzmaster when you use overdrive? I've always done this when I want a thicker, more "growling" kind of overdrive tone with my jazzmaster, and it's always worked for me.

[Larry Mal]

I mean, no, if you want to just keep the one guitar then play music that you are inspired to play by that guitar.

I was listening to some King Crimson the other day and I always like this song, the part after the singing is frankly horrifying. Tension and release done about as well as can be done.

But man, I never heard me a more Les Paul sound that what you hear on that song. You aren't likely to get that with your Jazzmaster.

[marqueemoon]

Live I only bring a backup guitar in case I break a string. Any tonal benefits of a different guitar are pretty much lost in that situation.

I do like a Les Paul Jr. style guitar for a raw straight into the amp kind of sound.

If you rely heavily on the JM vibrato don’t expect a Bigsby to do that thing. The Les Trem will though.

[stevejamsecono]

Probably not, but I guess the question is where that's a sound you'd use consistently enough to justify owning a guitar around it?

I have to say that in my own experience, no amount of mods/pickup changes has ever made a Fender or similar guitar sound like a Gibson or similar guitar. Putting humbuckers in them just tends to fatten the sound within a narrow frequency and you don't get that low-mids grunt that a Gibson-type guitars seem to just inherently possess. I think there's a lot of factors that go into it (wood, construction, scale length, pickups, etc.) and it's hard to account for all of them.

Maybe play a few your buddies own and see if it's something you can't get enough of? If you miss it enough, maybe you want one. For me I've got a Tele and I've got a Yamaha SBG as my main guitars and although I spent most of my time on the Yamaha these days I'm glad I still have my Tele to get that 'thing' that my Yamaha will never have.

[budda12ax7]

Get one of the Jazzmasters with humbuckers.....the blacktop or HH model....

THEN
Get a gibson SG special....Win Win....

[seenoevil II]

One guitar is cool and all...but

It's hard to imagine a more dichotomous tandem of one crystalline, clean, crisp fender with its snappy 25.5" scale, and one unctuous, warm, velvet slick 24.75" Gibson. Just pick something real cool. LP Custom, ES-345, SG w/ Vibrola, Explorer.

Nothing like watching a band and being a nerdy fan and seeing the guitarist switch guitars and thinking "oh shit, this is gonna be a ________ kind of song."

"...So-and-so famous for their Jazzmaster into Vox sound, except on those occasions where they'd bust out an all black LP Custom..."

Just say'n is all.

[Unicorn Warrior]

Simply, yes. You need a Gibson. Just make sure you get a good one

[Chippertheripper]

If you were gonna get a second guitar to be different than your jm, my vote would be for an sg. I wanna have less guitars, but I’m way gassing for the right sg standard.

[MrFingers]

You don't need a Gibson, but you might need a Gibson-esque guitar (take a look at Burny, Japanese Epiphones, Orville,...), as long as it has double humbuckers, a set neck, mahogany and a 24.75" scale.