Jackson Pickups

[Mr White]

Alright guys, which are the good Jackson pickups to watch out for - J-90c I think?...

How do you identify these?

Thanks

James

[fett]

All I know is I bought a loaded pickguard with USA Jackson pups. The "Jackson" name was 3-D. I think that's a good thing.

[Mr White]

Thanks man - covered right? Im keeping an eye out for a buddy of mine.

[Sunbane]

It seems there are plenty of fans of all the older Jackson pups, except maybe for the J200 stacked humbuckers. The newer ones (from mid-90's and later) were just junk, and are barely worth to mention.

I personally have the J200, J50B, J50BC and J80C.

The J200 (Charvel Model 6, mid and neck) is a stacked (singlecoil sized) humbucker. It is epoxy-potted and non-splittable. It was pretty dull. I stopped using them right away, and I have yet to give them another shot. Maybe with a 1M pot or something, if that would reduce treble bleed and improve output.

The J50BC (Charvel Model 6, bridge) has Four conductors - black (hot), green (ground), red and white (coil split). The USA-made ones should be wax-potted and have Jackson-stamped backplate, with a sticker indicating the model. It sounded really nice, but had too low output for my liking. If I had been into mellower music, I may have kept it.

The J80C (Charvel 750XL, bridge); Four conductors (like above). Again, USA-made: Stamped plate, wax coat and sticker with model number. It was almost hot enough (although not quite there), and I thougt its tone was a little "unrefined" - so I replaced it with a Duncan SH-6 (Distortion). The Duncan has more output, and less obtriusive treble - the highs are there, but sound more focused. The J80C sounds a little "rawer" with its slightly lower output and broad high-end.

I don't remember much of the J50B (750XL, neck), since I didn't use it much and replaced it rather quickly - but listening to my reference samples now, I'm actually considering putting it back in. It would then replace a Duncan SH-10N (Full Shred Neck), which sounds a tad too bright and sterile for me. It is four conductor, with the sticker, wax, and plate like the others.

As far as I know, the korean made ones lacked the stamped baseplates, and the stickers indicating the model name, but I may be wrong. I've had a few Jackson pups from late 90's Jacksons, and they were AWEFUL! They had half-decent output, but no wax-potting, no model-name sticker, only dual conductor, and they were extremely muddy in the low end.

[Mr White]

Yeah I know the mid 90's pickups arent too good.
The bridge pickup in my 650xl is pretty nice though. Although I guess the mid boost will be helping it on its way...

[straycat]

J-50N and J-50B rock!! especialy with the JE 1200 mid boost circuit.they are very PAF like in tone a truly outstanding pickup.
J-92, JH-2, J-200R, J-85 are very good 90s pickups.

[DonP]

Sunbane,

I have the J200-J200-J50B in a Fusion Professional. The singles need an active preamp to clean up the mud. The Fusion comes with the JE 1500 active "Wah", and with it on, I can get a great hum-free bell-like single coil tone out of the J200. I think in the electronics manual it even says that these need to be used with a preamp.

The J50B I like a lot for smoother distortions with lots of overtones. Definitely PAF in tone (you can tell just by the specs).

In the 750XL I just picked up, I put in the Duncan Mayhem set ("Seymorizer" neck and DD bridge) and it is just powerful with a punch. I really like it. I think the last thing to do would be to add push/pull pots to run the pickups parallel/series or maybe single coils (depends on which sounds best). The Seymourizer neck doesn't sound too bad either - at least I have no complaints. This axe is quickly moving up the charts as being one of my favorites.

[Sunbane]

Good points Don. I've heard that about the J200s as well. However, I didn't find them very exciting, even with the JE1200 in my Model 6 - and I've since given away the preamp to another JCFer. I thought that maybe they would come alive with a higher value pot, but I have yet to try that.

Btw, I was also considering getting an SH-6 Distortion Neck for my 750XL, since I like the bridge version so much. But I thought I'd give the J50B another shot first.

[DonP]

Let me know how it turns out. I really like the way this guitar turned out with these pickups. I have other pickups, but this is like an "it works, don't F with it" kind of thing.

It's got the same punchy-ness as my R0 LP Historic (my current #1). I really like it a lot.