JB in a Cu24?

In the absence of any other response - the closest I've come is putting a JB in an SG. This was well over twenty years ago. It worked extremely well and I gigged that guitar for a very long time. These days I would be more inclined to look at Bare Knuckles which I have in both my PRS guitars.
 
+1 on Bare Knuckle. I had two guitars with JB on the bridge. A Gregg Bennett LP style and a LTD Ec-1000 (also LP style). Both sounded amazing with JBs. However, the moment I tried the Bare Knuckle Riff Raff and Black Dog, it was ear opening. I have a Black Dog on a CU22 replacing the Dragon II that came with it and oh my word, what a transformation. I’m a midrange addict, but mid humped pickups tend to be a bit too much, but not the Black Dog. Perfect balanced to my ears. However, that’s not your cup of tea, the Riff Raff took me by surprise of how good they were. Just phenomenal. I understand they’re pricey, but to my ears totally worth it.
 
I'll add another +1 on the Bare Knuckles. I've had Holy Diver/Mule and a set of Abraxsas. Awesome sounding pickups. The HD/Mule was in an '88 CE, and the Abraxas set was in a Bernie. Plus, the Customer Service experience was top notch!
 
I put a JB in the bridge of a SE Cusom 24, with a Jazz in the neck. The JB was great, very bright, crisp and articulate, and especially nice with distortion, very responsive to pick attack and pinch harmonics, and the tone control was very useful with this pup, giving some warmth when turned down (I liked tone at about 7). I put in this pup set to replace the 85/15 S set, original to the guitar, which I found a bit too dark and woolly, and the JB/Jazz set was an improvement IMO. Ultimately, the guitar was too close in sound to others that I had, and I couldn’t quite get what I wanted in the middle switch position, so I sold it. It actually sold for more than I paid for the guitar originally.
 
I put a JB in the bridge of my 594, and I love it. Turned it into a rock machine! It works well with the 58/15lt in the neck as well. I'm sure it would sound great in a CU24 as well, although it might mess with the stratty split positions.
 
Not quite a JB, but I used a Bareknuckle HolyDiver in one of my old CE-24's, now in my ESP Eclipse. It's akin to a much better JB, in my opinion. It's tighter on the low end when I use lower tunings, and the high is a lot sweeter and saturates stupidly well. Here's a sample clip:

 
l had a guitar that came with a JB installed , yanked it. Average at best IMO
 
Depends on the rest of the rig and desired results. It’s a good pickup, so it’s certainly worth a try.
 
Not interested in Bare Knucle. I’ve spent the last few days listening to better JBs and the only thing I’ve heard that strikes a similar vibe is the Motor CIty pickup that Cantrell uses.

I don’t normally like the JB, but it’s creating some really exciting textures and harmonics with my current amp while the 85/15 are falling flat. Big, chunky distortion that’s almost out of control sounding and screams when soloing. I’m afraid that tightning the lower end or smoothing it out in anyway will kill that texture.

Now... all I want that sound out of my Custom 24. :cool:

I’ve had a few days since I first posted this thread and the decisions been made. Now I’m more trying to figure out what I want in the neck spot. The stock 85/15 neck is doing great, but I don’t really want to mix a squabbin and a normal pickup in the same guitar.
 
Screamingdaisy said:
...it’s creating some really exciting textures and harmonics with my current amp while the 85/15 are falling flat. Big, chunky distortion that’s almost out of control sounding and screams when soloing. I’m afraid that tightning the lower end or smoothing it out in anyway will kill that texture.

Now... all I want that sound out of my Custom 24.
Click to expand...
You’ve just revealed one of the grand mysteries in guitar! And if you exchanged “85/15” with HFS/VB, I could have written this post. :cool:

To me, it’s all about how a particular guitar interacts with a particular amp/pedals/etc. that makes up the rest of your rig. The parts aren’t necessarily interchangeable. When I played my old MkIII exclusively, it got bloody tough to find guitars that bloomed the same way without completely changing up the amp. But with my current setup, it has come down to pickups that make the difference, allowing the individual guitar to add the unique character. Right now...don’t laugh...it’s the Duncan Antiquity set, but a new set blasted onto the scene when I took my son’s - again, don’t laugh - Ibanez Satriani JS1200 to practice a couple of weeks ago...the Dimarzio FRED/PAF Pro set. Joe spent countless hours figuring out how to coax a huge range of harmonics and overtones from gear, and I did just that, for 4 hours straight! I want that in my CU24. The FRED and PAF Pro will go in this weekend. I’m even setting it up with 9s. Stop laughing!

So, I applaud your questions and support your search. Sometimes you find the answer in the damnedest places. Even if you found a $29 GFS pickup that made the magic happens, so what? Cork sniffing doesn’t make you sound good, or play with inspiration. Follow your gut and what makes you grin the biggest.
 
Screamingdaisy said:
Not interested in Bare Knucle. I’ve spent the last few days listening to better JBs and the only thing I’ve heard that strikes a similar vibe is the Motor CIty pickup that Cantrell uses.

I don’t normally like the JB, but it’s creating some really exciting textures and harmonics with my current amp while the 85/15 are falling flat. Big, chunky distortion that’s almost out of control sounding and screams when soloing. I’m afraid that tightning the lower end or smoothing it out in anyway will kill that texture.

Now... all I want that sound out of my Custom 24. :cool:

I’ve had a few days since I first posted this thread and the decisions been made. Now I’m more trying to figure out what I want in the neck spot. The stock 85/15 neck is doing great, but I don’t really want to mix a squabbin and a normal pickup in the same guitar.
Click to expand...

Cool let me know how it works out, I am going to try the Suhr Aldrich bridge in my Custom 24, hopefully it will get close to the JB type of tone. I just worry about having excessive high mids with my particular Custom 24 guitar that is why I went with something different than a JB. The Suhr Aldrich pickups sound pretty amazing in the demos I have heard.
 
After much deliberation I’ve decided to sacrifice my CE-22. The Dragons and 5 way rotary are coming out and a JB/Jazz, 3 way and coil tap is going in.

My Custom 24 does too much right for me to f*ck with it. It might not be the best high gain screamer, but it does a lot of other things really well. I don’t want to kill it’s mid gain tone in the pursuit of a better high gain tone.

The CE-22 on the other hand I’ve always liked but never loved. I’m hoping the pickup swap will rectify that.
 
Screamingdaisy said:
After much deliberation I’ve decided to sacrifice my CE-22. The Dragons and 5 way rotary are coming out and a JB/Jazz, 3 way and coil tap is going in.

My Custom 24 does too much right for me to f*ck with it. It might not be the best high gain screamer, but it does a lot of other things really well. I don’t want to kill it’s mid gain tone in the pursuit of a better high gain tone.

The CE-22 on the other hand I’ve always liked but never loved. I’m hoping the pickup swap will rectify that.
Click to expand...

I just got back my Custom 24 today with the Suhr Aldrich pickups and they sound pretty killer. You should check them out if the JBs don't work out in your PRS.
 
I have that combo in this Ibanez SZR 520.

SZR520.jpg


They are really good in that guitar and they sound really nice split as single coils too. I only have SE's including a CU24 with the 65/15 's' pickups to compare it with and the 59 and JB are much louder and more articulate and do a pretty good strat impression split. Will be a bit brighter with the pickup closer to the bridge.

Considered putting them in my Zach Myers but they sound fantastic in the Ibanez. Might have to get a trembucker and something else for the ZM.
 
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