V-MOD II Jazzmaster pickups appreciation

[thevolumecontrol]

So I got around to putting the stock pickups back in my American Professional II. I got caught up in the hullabaloo that vmod II pickups aren’t Jazzmaster pickups, and I ordered new pickups before I even received the guitar. Long story short, I’m putting the hone hatch pickups back in the Squier as true upgrades over stock- but the vmod II pickups sound absolutely fantastic. Are they JM traditional pickups? Maybe not. Who cares. They’re great.

That is all

[alexpigment]

The V-MOD pickups *are* traditional Jazzmaster pickups; they're just not wound to 60s spec. Honestly, it's pretty close to a late 50s spec for the neck, although the magnet type is technically different. The VMOD-II (compared to the VMOD-I) was made with higher output on the bridge and a coil tap available to switch between moderate and high output. I don't really see this as a qualifier for them not being 'traditional', and you could really just wire it as always tapped if you wanted to limit yourself unnecessarily

For what it's worth, I use a V-MOD neck pickup as the bridge pickup in my main guitar, and have a lower output Fender J Mascis pickup for the neck. I really dig the sound.

[thevolumecontrol]

If I’ve learned anything, it’s see how you like it first. The vmod II pickups sound like they’re constantly ready to explode- just super energetic and mean sounding and really well defined, to my ears anyway.

[LeftyJ]

My Am Pro II Jazzmaster is my first ever Jazzmaster, so I have nothing to compare it to. That said, my brother in law has a lefty MIJ JM66 and one of the guitarists in my band plays a JM66 too, and both have Curtis Novaks in them (don't know which ones). So I'd love to do a side-by-side comparison with one of those (preferably my BIL's, because it's a lefty).

When I first got my APII in March I absolutely loved the tones, and I played it exclusively for a week. Then I picked up my G&L ASAT Special with Jumbo MFD pickups, which are built somewhat like JM pickups but with a hot ceramic bar magnet and non-magnetic slugs as pole pieces, and when switching back to my JM the JM sounded somewhat underwhelming... Not as sparkly and punchy. I've since come to love the JM though, and to appreciate it as its own thing - and I'm really impressed with the tremolo, something I never use on my other guitars but never not use on the JM

So I guess I was a bit disappointed by the V-MOD II's, and I too got sucked along in the "they're just Strat pickups in a bigger casing"-debate but now I love them! I'll definitely be doing the side-by-side with one of the Novak-equipped JM66's!

[thevolumecontrol]

My Am Pro II Jazzmaster is my first ever Jazzmaster, so I have nothing to compare it to. That said, my brother in law has a lefty MIJ JM66 and one of the guitarists in my band plays a JM66 too, and both have Curtis Novaks in them (don't know which ones). So I'd love to do a side-by-side comparison with one of those (preferably my BIL's, because it's a lefty).

When I first got my APII in March I absolutely loved the tones, and I played it exclusively for a week. Then I picked up my G&L ASAT Special with Jumbo MFD pickups, which are built somewhat like JM pickups but with a hot ceramic bar magnet and non-magnetic slugs as pole pieces, and when switching back to my JM the JM sounded somewhat underwhelming... Not as sparkly and punchy. I've since come to love the JM though, and to appreciate it as its own thing - and I'm really impressed with the tremolo, something I never use on my other guitars but never not use on the JM

So I guess I was a bit disappointed by the V-MOD II's, and I too got sucked along in the "they're just Strat pickups in a bigger casing"-debate but now I love them! I'll definitely be doing the side-by-side with one of the Novak-equipped JM66's!

Yea man. I got sucked into the same debate. They absolutely rip. In my opinion, they do not need replacing unless the user is going for something COMPLETELY different. Though you mentioned Novak, I believe he’s the best in the game. I wouldn’t spend the money to put them in an AmPro. A Squier or Mexican JM, maybe.

[alexpigment]

Though you mentioned Novak, I believe he’s the best in the game. I wouldn’t spend the money to put them in an AmPro. A Squier or Mexican JM, maybe.

I don't want to derail the whole thread here, but I sometimes read these types of statements and wonder if *I'm* ignorant about pickups or if other people overthink what goes into making a pickup. I would think that if you wound pickups to the same specs using the same materials, Squiers and Novaks would sound so similar that you wouldn't be able to tell them apart without an A/B test. So is Novak great at making pickups because he knows how to *spec* a pickup that has broad appeal, or because he's doing something fundamentally different in the construction?

In other words, I would think that if you like the specs of the VMODs, you would like the VMODs. If you like the specs of the Squiers, you would like the Squiers. And if Novak made an Alnico 5 JM pickup set with ~11.5k for the bridge and ~7k for the neck and used the same gauge/type of wire, it would probably be a huge waste of money to upgrade a Squier with that Novak set. Obviously most people don't know what a pickup will sound like based on the specs, and not all the specs of a pickup are published, but that's kinda always been my take on the pickup vs. pickup debate. I encourage anyone to chime in with differing opinions or expert knowledge.

P.S. I'm not challenging you and I don't have a problem with your statement. It just happened to be a good jumping off point for my question.

[thevolumecontrol]

Though you mentioned Novak, I believe he’s the best in the game. I wouldn’t spend the money to put them in an AmPro. A Squier or Mexican JM, maybe.

I don't want to derail the whole thread here, but I sometimes read these types of statements and wonder if *I'm* ignorant about pickups or if other people overthink what goes into making a pickup. I would think that if you wound pickups to the same specs using the same materials, Squiers and Novaks would sound so similar that you wouldn't be able to tell them apart without an A/B test. So is Novak great at making pickups because he knows how to *spec* a pickup that has broad appeal, or because he's doing something fundamentally different in the construction?

In other words, I would think that if you like the specs of the VMODs, you would like the VMODs. If you like the specs of the Squiers, you would like the Squiers. And if Novak made an Alnico 5 JM pickup set with ~11.5k for the bridge and ~7k for the neck and used the same gauge/type of wire, it would probably be a huge waste of money to upgrade a Squier with that Novak set. Obviously most people don't know what a pickup will sound like based on the specs, and not all the specs of a pickup are published, but that's kinda always been my take on the pickup vs. pickup debate. I encourage anyone to chime in with differing opinions or expert knowledge.

P.S. I'm not challenging you and I don't have a problem with your statement. It just happened to be a good jumping off point for my question.

So I’m not no means an expert. My opinion is when I hear demos of pickups, it seems novaks have a bit of something in it that sounds great. Though I think you’re right. To be honest- pickups have a set amount of ingredients and really if the workmanship is good, it’s going to sound good. I’m not sure if I’ve heard a ton of difference between the three different sets of pickups I own that a tweak to the amp settings wouldn’t match. You could hand me 8 different JM pickups with matching magnet types and I don’t know if I could find a real discernible difference.