jackson j-80c piackup

[moku]

hi folks,
can someone shed some light on the tone/sound of this pickup? :think: i bought a guitar body with this pickup in the bridge position. it no longer has the black p/u cover, just the pickup itself; the poles are a bit rusted, but supposed to be working. i have not found a neck to put on the body to set it up and play it so i don't know how it sound.
i searched this forum and nothing turned up (maybe i'm doing something wrong in my search) so i cast the net out wider to search the internet and found several positive reviews of this pickup. it seems that it's stock to charvel model 3a, which is one of the models i don't have. so i was wondering if anyone dislikes this pickup? what are it's strengths and weaknesses? how does it compare to a sd jb, for example?
thanks in advance!

[DonP]

I searched for at least a month trying to find one then found and bought two on ebay.

Sorry, I haven't hooked them up yet.

[moku]

what makes you want to seek them out and buy them? heard good things about them? i heard they're suppose to be the ultimate 80s sound and are hotter than a jb... :think:

[DonP]

what makes you want to seek them out and buy them? heard good things about them? i heard they're suppose to be the ultimate 80s sound and are hotter than a jb... :think:

I have several Jacksons and Charvels that need the oversized pickups and rings. And I'm a sucker for originality. And, I can can work with just about any pickup. There is no single pickup that I hate. I have about 40 guitars all with different pickups for the most part.

I've liked the J-50BC and J-90C pickups I tried so far. I have more oversized pickup guitars to load so these will go in there.

I've read good reviews and bad. Pickups are a very personal thing.

Hotter than a JB? Not sure. They have a ceramic magnet (hotter than the JB's Alnico V) but have less resistance. Resistance isn't what matters, it's the number of turns on the bobbins, but if both are using the same size wire, the JB would have more turns.

I think the J-90C is the one hotter than a JB but just a tad less hot than a DD. It's easy to get a MOP tone with a J-90C.

[Hellbat]

I seem to recall somebody posting at one time the J80c was going for the Duncan distortion sound/feel. I had them in my Model 5 but swapped them out for Blackouts. The swapout was all about my need to tinker than the originals not sounding good though.

[peedenmark7]

J80C description taken from the grover jackson inc. pickup catalog and the original grover jackson pickup single page pickup flyer.

the j80c delivers that gritty crunch that so many are looking for.
by replacing the alnico magnet with a ceramic magnet we have combined that full bodied high output, high output signal with accentuated high frequency response. the result is a smooth overdriven sound with a distinctive crisp edge.

the J80 is ideally suited in lighter bodies ,look for this pickup to give you smooth overdriven sound with rich highs and clear lows.


J80C specs:
SR [IN K HZ} 5.4
Z {@ SR in M ohms] 4.7
INDUCTANCE [in Henries] 7.3
Q [@ SR ] 19.1
OUTPUT LEVEL [@ SR]
MAGNETIC STRUCTURE [ceramic]
RESISTANCE [in K ohms] 13.0

that should tell you everything you need... I'll add that the original dimas era pickups do not sound the same as the later covered ones. though some "transitional pickups" having left over USA parts assembled in japan will have the san dimas sticker, and combination of flat and adjustable pole pieces, they will most often have foreign metric wire and from the best of what I can gather from all of my sources a new wind formula was never established to compensate , which can make the pickup read hotter on your ohm meter, this being most prevalent with the J90c's which in some cases can read as high as 19k ohms.

covered pickups also do sound a bit darker due to the plastic cover.
some peoploe prfer the later and some will only use the early dimas era ones... tone is subjective so try them all.
I prefer the alnico 80 over the ceramic, but like the ceramic 90 better than the alnico which to me is midrangey.
then again, many rip them right out of their jacksons, while others like myself horde them.

the duncan JB has an alnico 5 magnet and measures 16.4K
the duncan distortion has a ceramic magnet and measures 16.6 K
the duncan custom has an alnico 2 magnet and measures 14.4

the jacksons [imho] sound very different than any of the duncans.

[dg]

the duncan custom has an alnico 2 magnet and measures 14.4

That's the Custom Custom (SH-11/TB-11). The Custom (SH-5/TB-5) has a ceramic magnet.

To my ears, the J-80C is quite a bit darker than a JB or Distortion, even if Grover was trying to get better high-frequency response out of it. Mine were in a 750XL (no covers on them), and I thought they didn't go well with mahogany at all. I think they sound a bit better in some other guitars with brighter woods, but I'd still opt for something else. The only Jackson pickups I haven't felt the immediate need to yank out and replace with Duncans have been the J90C and the J100 singles. Everything else just seems to lack clarity and definition to me.

[DonP]

Mine were in a 750XL (no covers on them), and I thought they didn't go well with mahogany at all.

The 750XL with a fixed bridge is very warm due to the bridge pickup being quite far from the bridge.

I have my 750XL loaded with a Full Shred set and I'm very happy with it. I was thinking of trying the J-80C's in there, thanks for squashing my plans

They might not have worked anyway because mine are covered and I "think" my 750XL has regular pickup rings.

[moku]

thanks a lot guys. good info here.
mine doesn't have a cover. just says:
jackson
pickups
made in the usa
j-80c

no san dimas sticker, but it's got the combination of flat and adjustable pole pieces. so... what does that mean? the san dimas sticker was ripped out? it's just an ordinary j-80c? never had a cover? i'll measure the ohm tomorrow and update you guys.
thanks again!

[DonP]

Yeah, what sticker says it's a San Dimas?

I'm pretty sure only the non-adjustable pole pickups had covers.

[JACKSONFREAK]

I put a J90c in my Les Paul and its heaven. The mahogany takes a bit of the brightness out of the ceramic magnet but it retains enough of it to have clarity and definition. I put a custom custom in the bridge of my 750xl. Sounds great.

[dg]

Moku, the older Jackson pickups that most folks consider better are the ones with black pole pieces. AFAIK, none of those were trem-spaced, but I'm not 100% sure on that. Later on, there were uncovered J-80C pickups with chrome pole pieces, and they had trem-spaced ones for the bridge. That's what I had on my 750XL.

Don, you know how everyone's ear & tastes are different. I liked the Distortion/Pearly Gates combo much better in mine, but I think you should try out the J-80Cs anyway.

[moku]

dg,
what's AFAIK?
the poles on my j-80c looks black but the color has worn off so it's kinda blk grayish... maybe it's just worn chrome poles.
i don't think it's a particularly high output pup. measured it the other day. it's like 7 something.

[straycat]

Its a distortion class pick up but more a mid range pick up.
I have one in my Charvel 375 and it sounds nice and warm with some bite if you attack it hard.
Never was there a San Dimas sticker just Jackson made in USA.
All the Jackson branded pick ups are great but thats JMO.

[peedenmark7]

ALL early jackson covered pickups had a combination of flat and adjustable pole pieces.

dimas era pickups in general have black oxide pole pieces where as the ontarios have black chrome plated ones. though there are transitional examples.

later you see covered pickups with nickel flat pole pieces on both coils. probably not only cheaper, but also to get rid of that hollow pop when your pick would hit the cover due to the adjustable pole sitting up depending on how lazy the assembler was.

alsdo, early pickup covers were attached with 2 way tape, later hot glue gun was used.