Often times I see people comment "it doesn't make sense to put $300 pickups in a $300 guitar". Once upon a time I had done such things, because I have a lot of appreciation for $300 guitars, but thanks to economics, a very similar level of quality found in $300 pickups can not be found in some $30 pickups, features such as nickel silver material, cloth tape, properly spec'd coils, 4 conductor wire, etc. To the extent that it makes sense to put lower priced pickups in lower priced gutiars, I figure this is a good place to share this info I just gathered together. I also have an account on the Squier forum, but these humbuckers more often fit in Epi/Gibson guitars than they do Squiers.
This is a comparison of two alternatives to the JB/Jazz; the BYO Eruption for $65, and the FLEOR High Output Alnico 5 set for $30 on Amazon. Note that I haven't put these in guitars yet, this is just the electrical and magnetic values, so subjective description of how they sound, but in my subjective opinion, if two pickups are physically alike, they also sound alike, so as close as they measure to a JB/Jazz, they will sound like a JB and Jazz.
I've previously measured the electrical values of the Seymour Duncan JB/Jazz sets here [ no links to your own board ! ] . I have a new HSS Strat that I want an high inductance bridge pickup for, so I bought a could cheap "JB/Jazz" style sets that go for real cheap, so cheap that I bought more than I need, and it's still a lot cheaper than having bought a Seymour Duncan set.
The first set is the "BYO Eruption", costing only costs $65.
From a parts standpoint, it's high quality. The magnet is AlNiCo 5 base plate is nickel silver, the spacer is made of wood. The legs are about medium lengthed. The tape is a nice cloth style tape.
Electrically, the Eruption bridge is nearly identical to a JB. I measured an inductance of 8.059H for the JB, and 8.064 for the Eruption. The loaded resonant peak of each is right around 2.0kHz. The Eruption has slightly less capacitance, but it's completely trivial.
The neck pickup has a slightly higher inductance than a Jazz neck pickup, 4.4 henries compared to 3.9 henries, and the loaded resonant peak is 170Hz lower. Both are in the range that is often designated as being slightly underwound PAF.
The gauss strength at the screw tops was a little lower, hovering around 300G, instead of 350G. If the screws are clipped shorter, the field strength increases by about 50 gauss.
BYO Eruption Hunbucker Set
Bridge
- DC Resistance: 16.27K ohms
- Measured L: 8.064H
- Calculated C: 97.34pF
- Gauss: 300G
Neck
- DC Resistance: 7.68K ohms
- Measured L: 4.391H
- Calculated C: 88.42pF
- Gauss: 300G
Bridge unloaded: dV: 7.0dB f: 5.67kHz (black)
Bridge loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 1.0dB f: 2.00kHz (blue)
Br Split unloaded: dV: 7.4dB f: 5.80kHz (red)
Br Split loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 4.4dB f: 3.36kHz (green)
Neck unloaded: dV: 8.0dB f: 8.55kHz (black)
Neck loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 2.6dB f: 3.00kHz (blue)
Nk Split unloaded: dV: 9.4dB f: 10.7kHz (red)
Nk Split loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 5.2dB f: 4.73kHz (green)
The next set is the FLEOR High Output set, costing $29.51 on Amazon, as of this moment.
This set is impressive all around, using materials that are very nearly identical to a Seymour Duncan product. The base plates are nickel silver, even though the Amazon pictures showed brass base plates. A nice feature of the base plates is that they are bridge and neck dedicated, where as many, such as those used for the BYO, have holes in both corners, so that the base plate can be used for either pickup. Original PAF base plates had a single hole also. The tape is a nice cloth style, as with high end pickups.
One cheesy aspect is that the bottom half of the filister screws are not threaded, but if you cut them off with wire snips, it actually increases the field strength, so I look at it as an invitation to do so.
The bridge pickup is slightly lower inductance than a JB, 14H instead of 16H, and the loaded resonant peak is ~200Hz higher, similar to the peaks of some pickups sold as "hot" or "overwound" PAFs.
The neck pickup is relatively "underwound" also, with an inductance of 3.6H, which is on the low side of most PAF style neck pickups I've measured, and the loaded peak of 3.3kHz is also high.
Overall the BYO is closer to a vintage PAF pickup, but price-wise, the FLEOR beats everything. If you're looking for a dirt cheap JB/Jazz set, the BYO set is slightly closer. The JB/Jazz set sells now for $140 USD, so even having bought both these sets, I still spend less money than the Seymour Duncan set would have cost. I'm installing the FLEOR bridge pickup in an HSS Strat, the rest are going into a drawer.
FLEOR High Output Alnico 5 Guitar Pickup
Bridge
- DC Resistance: 14.938K ohms
- Measured L: 6.551H
- Calculated C: 111.73pF
- Gauss: 350G
Neck
- DC Resistance: 7.451K ohms
- Measured L: 3.617H
- Calculated C: 95.17pF
- Gauss: 350G
Bridge unloaded: dV: 7.8dB f: 6.43kHz (black)
Bridge loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 1.7dB f: 2.20kHz (blue)
Br Split unloaded: dV: 7.2dB f: 8.46kHz (red)
Br Split loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 2.8dB f: 3.76kHz (green)
Neck unloaded: dV: 7.0dB f: 7.81kHz (black)
Neck loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 3.0dB f: 3.32kHz (blue)
Nk Split unloaded: dV: 6.7dB f: 11.9kHz (red)
Nk Split loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 3.7dB f: 5.30kHz (green)
This is a comparison of two alternatives to the JB/Jazz; the BYO Eruption for $65, and the FLEOR High Output Alnico 5 set for $30 on Amazon. Note that I haven't put these in guitars yet, this is just the electrical and magnetic values, so subjective description of how they sound, but in my subjective opinion, if two pickups are physically alike, they also sound alike, so as close as they measure to a JB/Jazz, they will sound like a JB and Jazz.
I've previously measured the electrical values of the Seymour Duncan JB/Jazz sets here [ no links to your own board ! ] . I have a new HSS Strat that I want an high inductance bridge pickup for, so I bought a could cheap "JB/Jazz" style sets that go for real cheap, so cheap that I bought more than I need, and it's still a lot cheaper than having bought a Seymour Duncan set.
The first set is the "BYO Eruption", costing only costs $65.
From a parts standpoint, it's high quality. The magnet is AlNiCo 5 base plate is nickel silver, the spacer is made of wood. The legs are about medium lengthed. The tape is a nice cloth style tape.
Electrically, the Eruption bridge is nearly identical to a JB. I measured an inductance of 8.059H for the JB, and 8.064 for the Eruption. The loaded resonant peak of each is right around 2.0kHz. The Eruption has slightly less capacitance, but it's completely trivial.
The neck pickup has a slightly higher inductance than a Jazz neck pickup, 4.4 henries compared to 3.9 henries, and the loaded resonant peak is 170Hz lower. Both are in the range that is often designated as being slightly underwound PAF.
The gauss strength at the screw tops was a little lower, hovering around 300G, instead of 350G. If the screws are clipped shorter, the field strength increases by about 50 gauss.
BYO Eruption Hunbucker Set
Bridge
- DC Resistance: 16.27K ohms
- Measured L: 8.064H
- Calculated C: 97.34pF
- Gauss: 300G
Neck
- DC Resistance: 7.68K ohms
- Measured L: 4.391H
- Calculated C: 88.42pF
- Gauss: 300G
Bridge unloaded: dV: 7.0dB f: 5.67kHz (black)
Bridge loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 1.0dB f: 2.00kHz (blue)
Br Split unloaded: dV: 7.4dB f: 5.80kHz (red)
Br Split loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 4.4dB f: 3.36kHz (green)
Neck unloaded: dV: 8.0dB f: 8.55kHz (black)
Neck loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 2.6dB f: 3.00kHz (blue)
Nk Split unloaded: dV: 9.4dB f: 10.7kHz (red)
Nk Split loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 5.2dB f: 4.73kHz (green)
The next set is the FLEOR High Output set, costing $29.51 on Amazon, as of this moment.
This set is impressive all around, using materials that are very nearly identical to a Seymour Duncan product. The base plates are nickel silver, even though the Amazon pictures showed brass base plates. A nice feature of the base plates is that they are bridge and neck dedicated, where as many, such as those used for the BYO, have holes in both corners, so that the base plate can be used for either pickup. Original PAF base plates had a single hole also. The tape is a nice cloth style, as with high end pickups.
One cheesy aspect is that the bottom half of the filister screws are not threaded, but if you cut them off with wire snips, it actually increases the field strength, so I look at it as an invitation to do so.
The bridge pickup is slightly lower inductance than a JB, 14H instead of 16H, and the loaded resonant peak is ~200Hz higher, similar to the peaks of some pickups sold as "hot" or "overwound" PAFs.
The neck pickup is relatively "underwound" also, with an inductance of 3.6H, which is on the low side of most PAF style neck pickups I've measured, and the loaded peak of 3.3kHz is also high.
Overall the BYO is closer to a vintage PAF pickup, but price-wise, the FLEOR beats everything. If you're looking for a dirt cheap JB/Jazz set, the BYO set is slightly closer. The JB/Jazz set sells now for $140 USD, so even having bought both these sets, I still spend less money than the Seymour Duncan set would have cost. I'm installing the FLEOR bridge pickup in an HSS Strat, the rest are going into a drawer.
FLEOR High Output Alnico 5 Guitar Pickup
Bridge
- DC Resistance: 14.938K ohms
- Measured L: 6.551H
- Calculated C: 111.73pF
- Gauss: 350G
Neck
- DC Resistance: 7.451K ohms
- Measured L: 3.617H
- Calculated C: 95.17pF
- Gauss: 350G
Bridge unloaded: dV: 7.8dB f: 6.43kHz (black)
Bridge loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 1.7dB f: 2.20kHz (blue)
Br Split unloaded: dV: 7.2dB f: 8.46kHz (red)
Br Split loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 2.8dB f: 3.76kHz (green)
Neck unloaded: dV: 7.0dB f: 7.81kHz (black)
Neck loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 3.0dB f: 3.32kHz (blue)
Nk Split unloaded: dV: 6.7dB f: 11.9kHz (red)
Nk Split loaded (200k & 470pF): dV: 3.7dB f: 5.30kHz (green)
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