JP users need advice ....

[Dror520]

Hi I have a JP6 guitar with the d-sonic in the bridge what is the difference between the Steve special pickup and the d-sonic and is there any difference between the air norton and custom neck pickup that is now installed on the guitars ? thx ... for your help ...

 

[edrod]

You can see the specs on the dimarzio page. They also have clips that you could hear.

 

[Dror520]

what do you prefer ? by the specs in the Dimarzio site I saw that the Steve Special has more bass and treble and less mid ... I prefer that ...

 

[edrod]

I got the D sonic and Air Norton on my Epiphone and like it. They sound very clean and heavy when I use distortion. I have not tried the Steve's special though. The type of guitar play a major role too.

 

[MatrixAndyR]

I have two petrucci's one with each pickup. I prefer the D Sonic, but I mainly play distortion. I had to adjust the pole pieces on the Steve's Special to get a strong enough signal out of the pickup. The D Sonic to me has a much stronger magnetic field and picks up harmonics so much easier.

 

[Dror520]

thx .... do you have any clips to compare ?

 

[Dror520]

is there a difference between the neck pickup and the jp guitars and the original air norton ?

 

[D.K.]

I had the older JP6 model with custom wound, and both the standard JP6 and the BFR JP6 with the dropped D. For me, the custom wound wins hands down, 'cause it is much more dimensional, darker and a lot warmer that the D-Sonic. However, if You only plan to play with high gain and only do metal, the D-Sonic would do this trick a bit better, as it is more focused and aggressive.

Don't get me wrong, the JP6 sounds great with either pickup, but I PREFER the custom wound, which essentially is a Steve Special

 

[MusicManJP6]

I like the D-Sonic much better in the BFR than in the standard JP. I prefer the SS in the standard JP by FAR.

 

[Dror520]

I like the D-Sonic much better in the BFR than in the standard JP. I prefer the SS in the standard JP by FAR.

So if I have a standard JP you suggest i should replace it with a SS ? do you have any clips for comparison ? thx ... and again is there a difference between the custom wound and the original sock pickups ?

 

[Dror520]

should I get the F-spaced or the original steve's special pickup ?? what's the difference ?

 

[Sweat]

should I get the F-spaced or the original steve's special pickup ?? what's the difference ?

F spaced is for Fender, so should be easy

 

[Dror520]

so by that I should get the original right ?? just to make sure ...

 

[PeteDuBaldo]

The bridge pickup on the JP is F-spaced.

 

[Dror520]

so I need a F-spaced steve's special pickup ?

 

[Sweat]

The bridge pickup on the JP is F-spaced.

Did not know that, thanks for sharing, thought the opposite my bad.

 

[PeteDuBaldo]

so I need a F-spaced steve's special pickup ?

Yes, if you want the pole pieces to line up under the strings properly.

Some people say it matters how the pole pieces line up, some people say it doesn't. I don't notice a difference between the two, but maybe my ears aren't as discerning as others.

F-spaced could be considered "T-spaced" instead of "Fender spaced" because it fits the string spacing on most tremolo systems. There is a decent article about F-spaced and non-F-spaced pickups on the net somewhere, I will try and find it.

 

[Dror520]

thx ... so i can just replace the d-sonic with the steve's special f-spaced right ?

and btw no one have answered this: does the neck is the same as the air norton pickup ?

 

[PeteDuBaldo]

thx ... so i can just replace the d-sonic with the steve's special f-spaced right ?

and btw no one have answered this: does the neck is the same as the air norton pickup ?

Yes, that is correct, you can swap in a Steve's Special that is F-spaced. And yes, the neck pickup is pretty much the same as an Air Norton.

What is F-spacing?
All of our full-size humbuckers except the X2N® are available in two polepiece spacings. F-spacing refers to the wider of the two spacings. For proper string alignment and balanced output, F-spaced humbuckers should be used in the bridge position on all guitars with string spacing at the bridge of 2.1" (53 mm) or greater. On these guitars, if the nut width is 1-11/16” (43 mm) or greater, F-spaced pickups can be used in the neck position as well.

Why are there two different spacings?

A long time ago (in the 20th century, actually) the electric guitar world was divided between Gibson and Fender designs. One of the differences between the two was string spacing. In general, Gibson chose a narrower string spacing at the bridge than Fender, and therefore the polepieces on Gibson humbuckers were closer together than the magnets on Fender pickups. When guitar shops started installing humbuckers in the bridge position of Strats, it was obvious that the strings didn’t line up with the polepieces, and if the E strings were too far outside, the sound could suffer. Our first humbuckers followed the original Gibson spacing, and we call them standard-spaced. When we released our first humbuckers with wider spacing, Floyd Rose bridges were very popular. Floyd string-spacing is the same as Fender spacing, so we naturally called the new pickups F-spaced.

How do I know which spacing to use?

F-spaced pickups measure 2.01" (51 mm) center-to-center from the first polepiece to the sixth. Standard-spaced pickups measure 1.90" (48 mm). Although some players believe that F-spaced pickups are only for the bridge position of tremolo bridge guitars, many guitars with fixed bridges (including late 1990s Gibson Les Pauls and Epiphone LPs) should have F-spaced pickups in the bridge position. Most tremolo equipped guitars that have a nut width of 1-11/16” (43mm) or more should also use an F-spaced pickup in the neck position. If you’re replacing a bridge-position pickup and you're not sure what your string-spacing is, it's usually better to get an F-spaced model. It is not necessary for the strings to pass exactly over the center of the polepieces for best performance, but it is wise to avoid a situation where the E strings are sitting completely outside of the outer polepieces.

Do some of your humbuckers come only in one spacing?

The X2N® has solid bar polepieces that work in both normal and F-spaced applications. All 7-string humbuckers are available F-spaced only. All Parker Fly replacement pickups are F-spaced only.

Is there F-spacing for single-coils?

All of our single-coil-sized pickups are designed for F-spaced applications.

 

[Dror520]

Thx !!! what is the difference between the air norton and the neck pickup ?