Best Pickups For Vintage Sounding Jackson

[Trev57]

I have several Jacksons with HSS pickup configuration, but none of them give me a vintage type sound. I wondered if anyone has got good results by changing pickups to something with a vintage flavour, Suhr, Tom Anderson etc.?

[DonP]

Vintage Heavy Metal? A JB I suppose.....

[Mr Metal]

Assuming vintage meaning vintage, how'bout a Seymour Duncan '59 Bridge or a Dimarzio PAF?

[jtr]

Your not going to get a bolt on neck to sound like a set or neck thru guitar. Pickups are only one part of each guitars sound or tone.

[Shibs]

JB is it.... Watch eBay, I see them come up now and then!

[Trev57]

I realise that trying to make a Soloist or DK2 sound like an old Strat defeats the object in some peoples opinion, But to have the playability of the beautifully engineered Jackson whilst coming closer to an SRV sounding single coil would for me be worth a try. I just wondered if anyone had already been there.

[toejam]

A Duncan '59 or Jazz will be great for the bridge.

[Mr Metal]

Assuming vintage meaning vintage, how'bout a Seymour Duncan '59 Bridge or a Dimarzio PAF?

A Duncan '59 or Jazz will be great for the bridge.

And you could coil tap these humbuckers to get closer to a single coil sound (along with the obligatory hum/buzz of single coils )

Also, I'm a little surprised that you are not already getting stratty sounds with the neck single coil of your Jackson???

[Axewielder]

Vintage Heavy Metal? A JB I suppose.....

+1 to the JB for vintage, +1 to the JB for modern. It's a timeless rock pickup!

[Sunbane]

Some people say that the Jackson J-100 is a great sounding singlecoil. I've even seen one guy putting them in his Fender strats.

[DonP]

I realise that trying to make a Soloist or DK2 sound like an old Strat defeats the object in some peoples opinion, But to have the playability of the beautifully engineered Jackson whilst coming closer to an SRV sounding single coil would for me be worth a try. I just wondered if anyone had already been there.

Get a JB for the bridge if you don't have one already. The stock DK2 pickup will work (H102B). Then get a push/pull for the tone to allow you to put the JB into single coil mode. I've heard great things about a JB in single coil mode sounding a lot like a Fender single, but I haven't tried it yet. I play on doing it to my SL2H someday.

[necrotechno]

I only recommend hum-cancelling pickups and vintage style hum-cancelling single-coils are relatively few:

- Lace Holy Grails (usually sold as a set of 3)
- Duncan Vintage Rails and DiMarzio Cruiser models (not very vintage looking, though)
- DiMarzio Area-58 and Area-61 models
- Bill Lawrence L280 and L200 models
- there are others, but now we're getting way too "boutique-y"


Vintage sounding humbucker is a bit more of a shot in the dark. What do you call "vintage" tone? You could go from something like a standard PAF style (almost every pickup manufacturer has their take on it) to something beefier like:

- Duncan JB
- DiMarzio Norton
- Gibson 498T
- Carvin C22B
- Rio Grande BBQ Bucker
- Swineshead Warthog
- okay, getting obscure again...

[Trev57]

I think that my DK1 and DK2 have some things in common with a Strat, ie. bolt on neck, maple neck (rosewood fret board on the DK2) and bass wood bodies as opposed to my Soloists which are thru neck all mahogany construction. The DK1 is not a candidate for change as it has a pair of EMGs and I love it. The DK2 might end up with a Tom Anderson H2+ at the bridge, and I am thinking of a pair of Kinman Blues single coils in the other 2 positions.
I also have a Custom Shop Contoured Koa Bodied Jackson from 1991. It is a favourite of mine, but I find it virtually unuseable live due to the reflex pickup set (HSS) with active boost. It is so powerful, that it always sounds harsh and course. I am considering taking the reflex system out completely, and replacing with the above suggested set. Being a Koa body, I expect it too will have its own sound.
As much as I love my Jacksons, most of the bands I have played with in recent years have required a more Vintage type sound. So rather than turn up with just another Strat, I would like to find a compromise that allows me to use my fave axes.

[DonP]

Soloist are not all mahogany construction. They are maple neck thru with Alder wings. The SL2MAH is few and far between, and only the body is mahogany, not the neck. A solid mahogany Jackson would be the Kevin Bond Rhoads.

DK1 and DK2 are supposed to be Alder body as well, unless they had basswood in certain years.

I think you would be very happy taking the DK2 and putting in a push/pull pot to put a JB into single coil mode when you pull it out.

[markD]

i like the SD seth lover and the antiquity 50's single coils. they are in my favorite recording guitar and sound very vintagy....