New JP16 owner love the guitar, hate the pups.

[EBS]

Hello just joined, new owner of a JP16. It is the most comfortable guitar I have ever played in 30 years. Sadly I think it sounds like crap. I am not a fan of the stock pups. I would like to switch them but I see 5 wires from the pup and most replacement pups are 4 wire. I see R B W G S on the switch, the S being the ?
Anyone familiar with swapping pups on this thing? I am dying to rip these out.

Thanks in advance, any help is appreciated.
You can see the 5 wires below.

 

[tbonesullivan]

The "S" is for "Shield", which are the strands that surround the 4 insulated wires. Pretty much all 4 conductor pickups have the uninsulated shield wire.

You should be able to put in any type of standard 4 wire pickups.

I would say however that before changing out the pickups, change the strings to your usual ones, and also mess with the pickup height.

 

[jmmp]

Ah man! I love the Sonic Ecstasy’s! They are scooped compared to most of my other guitars’ pickups. It might help if you put some pickups in more like your other guitars?

 

[beej]

It's not too complicated to swap the pickups. You just have to make sure that the new ones will fit the cavities. (Any Dimarzios should be fine.)

I had a JP6 for a while there and put a set of Axis pickups in, which I much preferred.

 

[PeteDuBaldo]

Just a reminder that the wire color codes are not standardized between manufacturers - OEM pickups are DiMarzio as mentioned above.

 

[johnnyboogie]

Congratulations and happy playing!! Out of curiosity, what is that you hate about the pickups?

 

[EBS]

Congratulations and happy playing!! Out of curiosity, what is that you hate about the pickups?

To me they sound as if the tone knob is rolled fattening up the sound, reduced treble. When I looked up the sound description at Dimarzio it does show treble on the low side with more mids and bottom. My preferred pickup is a SD Dimebucker which is almost the exact opposite of the SE.

 

[EBS]

Thanks to everyone that responded. I actually feel stupid right now. I have been swapping pups for so long and completely forgot the shield wire was there.
I'll be swapping out the bridge pup today for a SD Dimebucker. Hoping it works and can start enjoying this awesome guitar.

 

[FelipeVash]

Just to take the opportunity of the thread.
I own a MMJP6 Piezo model with the Steve´s Special Custom and i´m not happy with it. I´m planning to change for the Fishman´s Fluence Tosin Abasi.
Does anyone here knows if it´s possible to connect the new pickups to the preamp and, hopefully, use the rechargeable battery to sustain both the pickups and the piezo?
I own this guitar for the past 10 years, I feel that it´s time for a change.