Home Forums Guitar Discussion Guitar New pickups for semihollow jazz guitar ?

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  • #22645
    steph_gtr
    Member

    Hello to all,

    I own an Ibanez Artcore semi-hollow, and I want to change the pickups for a while, especially because I find the bridge one not really beautiful for the ears, and both a bit too weak.

    I have to push all buttons on the guitar not to put my amp too high, and I have now some noise using a Lexicon multieffects, because not enough powerful sound comes out the Ibanez – (I own an acoustic guitar with fishman pickup, and I have more sound at 2/10 of the volume, absolutly no noise at all in amp/multieffect !)

    I would like more punch for my sound, and if possible something “fat” for the bridge, and more clear punchy and distinctive for the neck, all that from jazzy-bluesy to jazz-rock tones.

    I’ve heard recently a Gibson from 1980, with Gibson Alnico 490 pickups on it, and it was very nice to hear that! (the player was only using the neck position!). The sound was very jazzy, clear and fat, with distinctive notes, especially good mediums compared to mine (that as very poor ones !)

    So my questions are 🙂

    – I think humbuckers pickups are the best for jazz ? Is that correct ? What to think about “Alnico”, “PAF”, “58”, “59”, … that I found here and there … ?
    – I found Kent Armstrong and GFS marks, that are relativly inexpensive, and that propose different humbuckers solutions, especially GFS. Do you heard about them ? Could you suggest to go to this kind of pickups (or other in the same price range) ?
    – Is it a good idea to buy a pickup from one model for neck and a pickup of another model for the bridge ? So, a “mixed” set. I asked this question to the seller of GFS, and he answered “no”, but without explaining why.
    – More generally do you have any idea of pickups for the needs I exposed before ? I mean pickups not too weak in volume, with possibility to have distinctive notes, good mediums, and if possible something that can comes from something a bit “fat” to something more “clear” !

    Well, thank you for your patience, I see I was quite long in my post ! 🙂

    Best regards,
    Steph

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    • #65295
      lee_UK
      Participant

      Didnt know GHS did pickups, let us know what they sound like, are they the same GHS that make the guitar strings? arent they owned by Hohner?
      I must admit i would not have made a decision on pickups based on ease of availability.

    • #65313
      steph_gtr
      Member

      Hello, and thank you for your answer.

      Finally I decided myself for GHS pickups, taht I will receive in 3 or 4 days. It is humbucker ones, called “fat pafs’. The same price thant the Kent, but it was simplier for me to get these, thanks to Ebay (I live in France).

      So, i will see the result soon, I hope positive one 🙂

    • #65327
      lee_UK
      Participant

      Not being a Jazz player i cant really recomend a good Jazz pickup, but most of the top end Jazzers i see do have Humbucker pickups, and the real old vintage ones sport P90 type pickups, obviously the P90 single coil was around before the Humbucker, but one thing i can vouch for is the quality of Kent Armstrong pickups, they are excellent and in my opinion the best value for money out of all the pickups.

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