Neck HB for Jazz--suggestions?

[Brewbaker]

Looking to try something different in my Dearmond X145. Love Wes Montgomery's tone on his cuts from the era, very acoustic sound could be attributed to low volume playing and straight-forward recording techniques in those days. How would one get that sound today with all the pickup choices out there?
Thanks for any feedback...

[Bruce Kiely]

Hi, Brewbaker.

I like the Benedetto A-6. You can get it from Seymour Duncan (they make it under license from Benedetto). You can check out its reviews at Harmony Central.

It has a very balanced response from the fat strings to the thin strings. It's warm and fat, yet quite articulate. It also seems to react nicely to the woods and "air" of the guitar.

I don't know if you can get anything resembling Wes's tone with it ..... but it is a real nice jazz humbucker, IMHO.

I'm having a body built by USACG that I plan to put my Benedetto A-6 into. Mahogany, chambered, double bound ..... yum!

I almost sold my Benedetto A-6 once (doh!), but I'm real glad I decided to keep it.

As always, YMMV.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
BK

[beefandbones]

I have a harmonic design vintage plus classic humbucker in the neck position of my tele, and I love it. It's warm and woody and great for jazz.

[Tremo]

A clean HB for the neck position for jazz? Duncan jazz model. Those are the cleaniest and chimiest HBs I've heard.

[KR]

I'll give a very strong second to the Harmonic Design V+ as a great jazz neck pickup. I've used the SD Jazz and it's a nice sounding pickup, kinda on the bright side though, but the HD is so much better for that fat, warm Wes kind of sound

[dhdfoster]

I know you're asking about humbuckers, but I would get a single-coil instead. Maybe a Lollar P90 or one of his Charlie Christian style pickups. If you don't want to modify your DeArmond there are quite a few options available now in a humbucker sized format. If you are looking for an "acoustic" sound, I think P90s are better. To me, humbuckers sound too "woofy".

[BB]

As you can see, there are many opinions and responses to your question. There is no right or wrong.....just what works for you.

That said, a fairly low output, balanced bucker would seem to be the order of the day. Lollars Imperial humbucker certainly fits that bill. The Imperial is a beatuiful sounding pickup. Very open and articulate with beautiful string to string balance.

The Bennedetto Bruce recommends is also a sweet, sweet pickup.

The Duncan Seth Lover is a good one for jazz also. Duncans Jazz and 59 work well too.

I also dig P-90's in the neck for a great jazz sound. Lollars P-90's are tops in my book. Again, that's just in my book. Others swear by Fralins.....the old what works best for you program.

Dave Stephens makes a fantastic pickup called the "Kay-Bar" that may (or may not) put you in sonic nirvana. Somewhat based on the old Kay "Kleenex-Box" pickups that graced 50's Kays, it's a good pickup for swing type jazz/blues.

A pickup that has worked extremely well for me ( as I've opined on many occasions ) is the Dualtone ll by Steve Kersting of SK Guitar Specialties. One coil is wound like a good ol' P-90. The other coil is wound with alnico 5 polepieces. With the addition of an on-on-on mini switch, one can access either coil...or both to bring a nice level of versitility to the table. Both coils together give a tone similar to the Seth, but a bit more airy and open. The S-90 coil allows the rudish sweetness of a great P-90. The Alnico coil shines in the strat neck tone department. While I play much more blues than jazz, the Dualtone will get down with the Wes, Burrell tone. It retains it's voice throughout the spectrum on tone knob twiddeling.

Just a few more thoughts to confuse the ol' brain! Good luck with whatever choice you make. I hope you find the tone you're searching for.

[tjalla]

As far as straight ahead buckers go, I just dropped an antiquity in the neck of my thinline ash tele. I used a Seth in my solidbodies tele, but its was a bit too "full" to articulate clearly in the thinline.

The antiquity has a bit more clarity in the mids and a touch of that single coil "bounce", which works for me so far, but I haven't gigged extensively with it yet.

I may yet go with a P90 in a bucker... Steve Kerstings HBJ-90 is a tempting option (alnico polepieces), but I'll give the antiquity a workout for a bit.

[KR]

Despite all the suggestions above from many (including myself), after rereading your original post, it seems to me you should drop the pick and learn to play with your thumb. There's no pickup in the world that's going to get you anywhere close to that Wes sound if you play with a pick.

[Great Ape]

Go to billlawrence.com and ask in the forum. The people there are very helpful. Bill made pickups for Grant Green, among others. They are very low-priced for what they are, with low string pull, zero noise and very nice tone.