Blacktop pickup swap

[MachTele]

Howdy friends!

So, today I bought a Blacktop Tele. Next, I want to swap out the pickups. My goal is to get a nice '80s metal sound somewhere between AC/DC and Def Leppard or Night Ranger. My initial instinct was to outfit the guitar with what is on custom Explorers. That combo is Gibson Burstbucker 3 in the bridge position and '57 Classic in the Neck. A friend of mine is recommending Seymour Duncan JBs in the bridge and the SD Classic in the neck.

What are your thoughts of the right pickups for the job. Also, wax potted or not?

Thanks in advance for your pup suggestions.

[Volitan]

A Jazz/JB combo will definitly get you there. It was the fave combo of MANY 80's guys. You can also try the Dimarzio Super Distortion too, another popular pickups back then.

[MachTele]

What about the JB and Duncan Distortion combo?

[Albionic]

I have the jazz/jb set in one of my guitars and it works really well.

[MachTele]

Can I assume that it's JB in the bridge and Jazz in the neck positions?

[Robbied_216]

Originally Posted by MachTele

Can I assume that it's JB in the bridge and Jazz in the neck positions?

Correct!

[MachTele]

I ended up buying the JB/Jazz 35th anniversary set. Here's the issue I'm running into... They're single-conductor humbuckers, so I figure, "one wire?! How hard can it be?" Ha! Looked at how the original pickup were wired, they had a wire soldered to the tone and a wire soldered to the switch. The wiring diagram shows to solder the hot wire directly to the switch and to solder the shield-wire to back of the volume pot. Is soldering the shield-wire for grounding purposes only? Also, it would be easier (due to the way the pots are reversed) to solder it to the tone pot. Can I do that?

Thanks so much for your help!!

[Tuxedo Poly]

The screening (shield) wire is ground so you can solder to any common ground point like the back of the tone pot.
SD probably follow the standard Gibson 2-wire pup wiring as Jazz and JB are more frequently used in Gibsons, Epiphones.