[EL-CeeDee]

playing both a 1997 JPM ( air norton and steve's special ) and a recently acquired 1989 JEM7PBK ( PAF pro's ) I noticed a HUGE difference in sound. The JPM pickups seemed so much more alive, dynamic and clear. While the the PAF pro's sounded organic, but pretty dull and muffled. I already tried restringing the JEM and it didn't make a whole lot of difference.

Is what I am hearing the difference....
- Between PAF pro and Air Norton/Steve's special ?
- Between aged/worn pickups and new pickups ?
- Between pickguard mounted pickups and direct mounted pickups ?
- Between other things ?

Offcourse it's a combination of the four, but which is suspected to be the of the most influence ?

 

[The Dark Wolf]

At a guess, I'd say the largest factor is age. Pickup magnets lose magnetism over time. It why some players adore 50's and 60's vintage guitars, even over modern replicas of the same axe. The older pickups are less powerful, but tend to be sweeter and more musical. This sort of thing is talked about alot on the seymourduncan.com forums. They can sound much mellower head-to-head with new pickups, however!

After that, I'd say it's a combination of direct mounting/pickup types. Although new PAF Pro's are pretty lively, aged however, that probably don't have the same juice. The quality of the body wood could also be a factor.

 

[JESTER700]

Technically, it's not age so much as other fields that weaken the magnets. Alnico can lose magnetism (you shouldn't see that with a ceramic pickup). But you can recharge alnicos with a strong neodymium magnet if you want.

 

[EL-CeeDee]

Interesting,.. how do I do that ? Might just reanimate those pups!

other thing : so exposure to other fields, like speakers, electrical wire etc would change the magnetics of the pickup ? Would in that case the use of an Ebow damage your pups as well, since it has a magnetic field ?

 

[EL-CeeDee]

I did some research on recharging the magnets... You can really bust up your pups.. Anyone with experience and some helpfull pointers ?

E-bow question still stands..

 

[Tsorovan]

Biggest cause? Um, the different pickups.

 

[megadeth]

Paf Pro is a "mild" pickup as compared to steve's special. Man !! are they HOT !!
u can read about the pickup's tone specifications on the dimarzio site. I have a JPM and Jem77FP and IMO JPM owns JEM's a$$ inside out.

 

[Angelo Guitars]

Gotta agree with Tsorovan and Megadeth, it's definitely the pickups.

 

[EL-CeeDee]

Thanks for pointing me to the dimarzio site... I just never thought of checking the specs there, even though I knew about the site for a long time.

However...

even compared to the air norton the highs on the paf pro's are not as bright. Even though the tone chart gives the paf pro's a higher rating on those frequencies. Also, the output of the air norton is lower than the paf pro's. This seems to be in contradiction with the described sound.

This is starting to freak me out !

 

[rory]

What about pickup height? It sounds like the pickups on the JPM might be closer to the strings than on the Jem.

 

[megadeth]

^^
on mine, Nopes. they are about the same.

@ EL-Cee-Dee:: air norton has a very warm sound and it seems to be like having a "reverb" of it's own....hence "air" norton.
i might even sell off my JEM FP on evilbay soon...

 

[megadeth]

also it is kinda freaky that Passion and warfare was recorded on PAFs...one can always use a booster if pickups suck donkey gonads.

 

[rgr]

Most of PAW was recorded with a Universe that had Blaze pups.