I'm no expert, just some guy who likes a certain tone (or two). This is the first time I've used single-coil format humbuckers and just decided to publish my opinion so here's my Seymour Duncan JB Jr. for Tele review.
Round about 2014, I crazily decided to build myself a Telecaster! It was even a strange decision back then as I'm very much a humbucker kind of guy but for those classic jangly Gothic riffs and the cool look, well I figured I'd go where no Alexander Bhinder has gone before.
I've been fortunate to work on a variety of customers' guitars and fell in love with Lola pick-ups a long time ago. Recommending them and subsequently fitting them, I chose Lola for my Tele build.
Well, the neck pick-up turned out exactly how I expected but I was never happy with the bridge pick-up. For my ears and for my music, the low-output / wide bandwidth Lola was way too light. It was such a shame as I grew quite accustomed to the guitar itself.
Twelve years later, I thought I'd revisit my ol' Tele build. Wow, this guitar feels great! I can't believe it stays in tune like it does. Anyway, being a big Seymour Duncan user, I was quite aware of the company's 'slim' humbuckers which were developed to drop into single-coil cut-outs. There was one barrier that I had to overcome, though...
I'm ever so slightly old fashioned. The bigger the CC, the more powerful the car, right? Similarly, I've always been doubtful how you can get that full-on humbucker raunch in well, something half the size. After twelve years of being a little disappointed with my Tele build, I thought "what the hell. Just give 'em a go."
A quick look on line and the Seymour Duncan Jeff Beck Junior for Tele bridge popped up. This was particularly encouraging as several of my guitars have JBs in them. So I bit the bullet and a week later (of course it was out of stock everywhere) the pick-up arrived.
Actually, that was quite good as I had a little time to research things like pots. Do I stick with the 250kΩ volume and tone controls that are in the guitar or do I swap them out for 500kΩ potentiometers? And then there's the 470kΩ resistor mod which some people recommend. Please bear in mind that I'm keeping the Lola pick-up in the neck position so I need controls that'll work with both devices.
Seymour Duncan recommend 250kΩ pots so I figured that would be a good place to start.
Reluctantly, I pulled the Lolo bridge pick-up. I have to admit that the experience was a bit emotional. On this guitar, I wasn't interested in configuring the coil-tap feature of 4-conductor pick-ups so dropping in the new Seymour Duncan JB Jr. was pretty straight-forward. The only disappointment was that the shape of the new pick-up resulting from the dual magnet configuration, didn't sit as neatly as a normal single-coil. The only workaround would have been to put a cover over the pick-up but of course, you don't do that with Seymour Duncans, do you! 🤣🤣🤣
Okay, let's put everything back together and see what the Seymour Duncan JB Jr Tele sounds like...
Before you read anymore, please be warned...
If you want a Seymour Duncan JB Jr. for Tele review that includes sound bites, then look no further than the Internet! There are lots of much better guitarists out there than me, demonstrating this pick-up so I'm not going to do that, LOL. Another reason I'm reluctant to provide sound samples, is because I'm believer that while the transducer (pick-up) conveys the feel, most of the sound comes from the amp. Yeah, I know, some of you will be getting angry and disagreeing with me. Well, that's your prerogative. All I will say is that I've worked with a lot of artists and my perspective is based on several decades of observation. The reason I'm actually making this point however, is that although my Tele build was supposed to be for clean guitar sounds, the new pick-up suggests that it might now go beyond that and into something a little more overdriven. Indeed, this Seymour Duncan JB Jr. for Tele review is was based on playing my Tele build into my old (but pristine) 1979 Roland JC-120 and then my original (1987) Marshall Silver Jubilee 2555.
One aspect of single-coil pick-ups I really like is their phase coherency. For what is effectively, an inductive component, there's very little phase distortion. This characteristic of single-coils manifests itself as a very tight and punchy bottom end. What blew my mind when playing clean into the JC-120 in particular, was that although the Seymour Duncan JB Jr. for Tele is of course a humbucker, it had an amazing bass response which was strong, deep and tight. This was completely unexpected and a most pleasant surprise.
I'm now going to mention 'response'. "Er... why?" I hear you ask. Good question as response isn't normally a parameter which is talked about when it comes to something like analogue electromagnet transducers used for musical instruments! Let me explain...
Firstly, response in this context refers to dynamic range and transient attack. Yes, you'd be forgiven if you think that this is kinda synthesiser talk but please bear with me.
Single-coils into a clean amp always seem to have more dynamic range than their humbucking counterparts. Due to the compressing nature of overdrive and distortion, dynamic range into a dirty amp simply isn't the same, being very much more reduced. So let's go back to the clean amp (my Roland JC-120). To my ears, the Seymour Duncan JB Jr. for Tele seems to have the dynamic range I would normally associate with single-coil pick-ups. This shouldn't be the case because yet again we need to remind ourselves that the Seymour Duncan JB Jr. for Tele is a humbucker. Weird but that's how it is.
The same can also be said for transient attack. As soon as you touch a string, the Seymour Duncan JB Jr. for Tele let's your amp know!
To summarise, the Seymour Duncan JB Jr. for Tele is very responsive with a considerable dynamic range and a fast attack.
Okay, so now let's try this thing into something a little heavier (one of my Marshall Silver Jubilees).
The master volume on all my big Marshalls is set to just above 6. Yes, they all go into power soaks (otherwise I'd be deaf). All my big Marshalls are 100W because I like that sound. I didn't change anything on the amp that's used to having anything from my Gibson Les Paul Custom to my Jackson RR-1 plugged into it.
This pick-up was awesome! With a thick and tight bottom end, the mids were rich and chocolaty while the high-mids provided much articulation and definition. Guys, I didn't expect this... I really didn't. So I have a pick-up that feels like a single-coil into a clean amp but crunches and screams like a humbucker into an overdriven amp.
The spectral spread was classically vintage with no phased type resonances. This is one reason why a few of my classic guitars are loaded with the humbucker version of the JB.
To my ears, the lack of over-sizzle told me that the JB Jr. wasn't using ceramic magnets but they were a bit too 'loud' to be anything less than Alnico V. After a little digging, my hunch was proved right and indeed the JB Jr, uses Alnico V magnets.
So, one last test and the only test which uses the Lola neck pick-up and for this I went back to the JC-120. I flicked the pick-up selector switch to the mid-position thereby combining both the Seymour Duncan JB Jr. for Tele and the Lola. Wow, that's interesting. The sound was obviously dominated by the higher output Seymour Duncan JB Jr. for Tele. The Lola's influence was quite obvious, though providing an interesting edge but not as much tone shift as one might expect from combining the two pick-ups on a dual single-coil Tele.
To conclude, I was completely taken back by this pick-up. Somehow, it maintains aspects associated with single-coils but definitely delivers the crunch when and where you want it. Would I recommend? Oh yeah... most definitely!
"Seymour Duncan, I apologise for getting it wrong. The single-coil format humbucker works and I'm so glad I decided to try this!"
Seymour Duncan's website is packed with really interesting and useful stuff so if you want more information than what here in my Seymour Duncan JB Jr. for Tele review, please don't hesitate to check this out.