J80c lovers

[shredhed]

I've got a pair of them in my 3a. Love them! The little lower output they have is cool too. I can get ones that I can't find on my other guitars.

I changed out the 5 way super switch for a 3 way and a pp pot. That way I can get 3 strat single sounds and 3 HB sounds like a Les Paul.

Right now it's wired with both black wires to ground. The green wires to the switch and the red/white to the pp pot.

Now it's got 60cyl when it's in single coil mode in every position. I know it should have the hum with a single single only. But when both are engaged it should be hum cancelling. And it's both front coils instead of both inner ones. I'm thinking that the front pup is color coded exactly like the rear one ie: Front coils of both pups are colored the same instead of it being the rear of one and the front of the other that are colored the same.

I think they screwed up when they made it. It's like they made both pups identical except that the front one is less output. I thinking about just reversing black and green on the front pup. so it's both inner coils and hum cancelling.

These are the import kind with slug coils for both coils

[Sunbane]

Yeah, those are great pups for sure! I especially like how it nails the 80's heavy metal tone to a T. It is perfect for rhythm/riff playing, but it also has harmonics in great abundance! A little too low output for my taste, but I just boost the level up with a pedal for leads.

Mine also has all slugs for the poles, but I'm not sure where it was made. It has a stamped baseplate, a sticker with the model number, and is wax potted. It used to have the oversized plastic cover.

[Nazgul]

Mine also has all slugs for the poles, but I'm not sure where it was made. It has a stamped baseplate, a sticker with the model number, and is wax potted. It used to have the oversized plastic cover.

That's the USA one. I have one in the neck position of my RR PRO. For those rare times when I use the neck pickup it sounds good. I'd like to try it in bridge position once!

[scotty]

I have a model 2 with a J80 that absolutly screams. It is a bite bright but you can chirp anywhere on the fertboard even sometime when you don't want it to. I also have a Model 3 that had 2 J80s in it. The model 3 just didn't have the same life. Was it the guitar, was it the pups? Can pups be like amps some identical amps can sound so different?

[Cygnus X1]

Can pups be like amps some identical amps can sound so different?

Absolutely...
Winding count and interleave (overlap) have a large effect
on the pup's characteristics. Same with amps, especially in
the manufacture of transformers.

[straycat]

Just a tidbit of info Abigail Yabbara of Fender fame wound some of those pickups while she worked for Jackson.That is why some Jackson pickups sound so good.I have a pair of magical J-50s that have such a fat tone I swear she must have wound them.
J-80s as well as most Jackson pickups vary from year to year the ones with the logo on the base plate are USA made and great pickups.
I'm a jackson pickup whore and have lots of them just waiting in shoe boxes for needy guitars.

[shredhed]

Straycat, how's a J90 sound in comparison to the 80

[straycat]

J-90c is a ceramic magnet high output distortion class pickup and it is one of the best J-series pickups IMO.It is 80s tone all the way.Nice and tight and lots of mid range.
Shredhed when they match a set of pickups the neck will always be the lower out put pickup thats normal.

[HiOctane]

J-90c is a ceramic magnet high output distortion class pickup and it is one of the best J-series pickups IMO.It is 80s tone all the way.Nice and tight and lots of mid range.
Shredhed when they match a set of pickups the neck will always be the lower out put pickup thats normal.

I agree, the J90C is actually a good rock/metal pickup.
Much more useable than the majority of the J-series.

[Dreamland_Rebel]

i've got a J50BC and J50 that came out my rhoads pro. but i don't have the preamp (threw it out cause it didn't work). i put it in an alder guitar for a while and it sounded real good without the covers and preamp. i'd like to try it in Basswood and see how it sounds compared to the J80BC that i also have but haven't ever tried. they came with model 3a and i pulled them before i even listened to them and put in EMGs. well, i'm trying to get away from EMG's so...

[shredhed]

Yea, I knew that. I was just saying that the only difference in these was the output cos the north coil on both of them were the same. To the rear.

I could be said, that I could just turn the front pup around. But I still got 60cyl hum when I had 2 singles going.

What I ended up doing was to tie the black and green together and connect the red and white to the switch (front pup only). That way the current was reversed and the correct coil was engaged with no hum in the middle switch pos with no loss of output.

Make sense? LOL

BTW: how do I get emoticons?

Shredhed when they match a set of pickups the neck will always be the lower out put pickup thats normal.

[straycat]

Makes perfect sense.I posted that and then re-read your post and figured you knew that.

[shredhed]

I must say. I didn't like them at first. I still had the covers on them and they weren't as high output as I liked, and the way they were wired it always sounded muddy. In part cos of the basswood body

Now It's wired different and I've got the covers off with them right up under the strings as far as I can go. They rock.

[MortenP]

So how do I wire my j80's to get the most output of 'em?

[shredhed]

If your going straight HB sound with no splitting. I'd go black to ground, green to the switch and link the red and white togethef and tape them off. That's parallel, out of phase. (I think)lol

If you're running a Jackson with another brand pickup you may have to switch the ground and hot wire's connections on one of them.

So how do I wire my j80's to get the most output of 'em?