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We all know that Jolly is one of the great personalities on this forum, and a lot of joking is done about his 'life is a party' attitude and everything, but there's a few things I gotta say about my friend, Jolly. First of all, the guy is a real deal meat and potatoes guitar player who knows what the hell he's talkin about.
Second, behind all the hardcore George Dikkel drinkin, cussin, southern drawl is a real southern gentleman to the core.

When we met at UGD, he told me he had a present for me, and after a few whiskeys on ice, presented me with a Jazz Model Bridge as a gift. Let me remind you that he's the biggest proponent of the Jazz model on this forum, and uses it to record some of the heaviest hard rock clips people have heard......which is quite frankly what the Jazz Model was NOT intended for.
His answer is that it's the cleanest and tightest humbucker under gain.

While I decided not to use it in my Les Pauls, since I'm happy with my C-5's and Seth Bridges, I decided to throw it in my HSS strat w/2 Surfers.
HSS strats have always been difficult guitars for me to find a proper humbucker to mate with vintage singles. I've tried a bunch of humbuckers, and Lew insists on the 59, because of it's lower output. Well, I figured quot;why not the Jazzquot;, since it's low output, tight, and clean sounding?quot;

I figured right, at least for my taste. It's unfortunate that the Jazz is very overlooked, and doesn't even come in a trem version, although the regular version lines up good enough under the strings. If you're a REAL strat player, who likes the sound of a strat bridge already, but wants a humbucker that retains all the clarity and brighness, only thicker.....the Jazz is your pickup! I've been using it for a month now, and appreciate the fact that it balances fairly well with the vintage singles, but has enough wallop to sound great on gainy tones. Since my guitar has the Fender Delta Tone electronics, I'm able to adjust it's brightness with the 2nd tone control. The Jazz Model is bright, but not too bright. It's basically like a 59 that has a harder sound with more glassiness, but also sounds very even across the frequency spectrum. It's one of the few pickups that can twang like a superhot single coil tele pickup, but also produce super chunky highgain rhythm tones.

Jolly already knows that he can get great metal tones with it in a Les Paul, but I've discovered that it's one of the best pickups for an HSS strat, if you're looking for a pickup that balances well and doesn't sound too heavy or dark next to vintage strat pickups. Duncan should consider offering it in a TB version for that reason, but I guess maybe some others should try it first and see what they think. To me, it matches with singles better than the C-5,
JB, CC, PG, or 59, which I've already tried.


Originally Posted by GearjoneserTo me, it matches with singles better than the C-5, Jazz, CC, PG, or 59, which I've already tried.

Did you mean JB?
I do love my Jazz Model neck in my SG, and I'd like to try a Bridge model sometime, in both the Bridge and Neck spots.
As far as Jolly's concerned, I have no trouble believing he is as great a guy as you make him out to be. I've never met or spoken to him, but in all my dealings with him on the forum and off (in chats, etc) he's come across as a totally standup individual. And I LOVE his clips, especially the Jazz model ones.

Great . . . more GAS.

Nice review GJ. Thanks.

Outstanding review buddy! More GAS.....thanks alot!

Where can I hear the jazz clips?

Great stuff Joneser, hmm gotta dig one of those up then, I love lowoutput buckers.

Yeah, I'd love to hear some clips of a Jazz in the bridge under some high gain. Maybe that's what my Hamer Special FM has been needing, a pair of Jazz humbuckers.


Originally Posted by Boleslaw Gers 666I was going to drop one in the bridge of my fat strat, but it doesn't come in a TB.

Check the string spacing on your Fat Strat. A lot of them actually use SH-spaced rather then Trembucker-spaced. If the string spacing, over the bridge pickup, is 2quot; or less, you'll be OK with a standard SH-2b.

In response to the request for clips:

from : localhost//forum/s...ad.php?t=37345

First off Joe and everyone else, thanks for the kind words!! Man,, that's an awesome review of the pickup. I'm good at talking about it in person or over the phone, but I just can't ever quite convey a good review of the jazz bridge in words on here. You did a perfect job of it. I still remember how I first got turned on to that pickup. I bought a JB/Jazz combo and put it in an Epiphone Les Paul. I absolutely loved the Jazz neck model, but the JB just wasn't me. I guess that's about the time I found the old old old Forum. I sent an email to Rodney Gene. I told him how much I loved the Jazz Models glassines, clearness, tightness, etc... I asked him what he would recommend for the bridge position that was the same. He said why not try the Jazz Model Bridge. I did and I haven't looked back. Thanks Rodney!!!

Once again, thanks for the kind words Joe and the great review!!!

I played Jolly's Amber colored Les Paul and it can get down and dirty! I have been thinking about using the Jazz bridge ever since UGD.

awesome review, GJ ... and HELL YEAH Jolly's a helluva guy who can play real deal guitar

the world needs more Jollys .. and GJs ...

cheers
t4d

The Jazz bridge is always a good choice, and works extremely well with single coil pups in the neck and middle positions.

Gearjoneser is right on the money. I asked Seymour once what humbucker to use as the bridge pickup in a Strat with vintage output neck and middle single coils and he said the Jazz! I wound up using the 59 TB as I wanted trembucker spacing, but the Jazz worked beautifully...except for the polepieces not quite lining up under the two E strings.

Personally, I think the next new humbucker Duncan should offer would be a Trembucker spaced Jazz designed specifically to sound great with SSL-1 and Surfer style single coils.

But I've been suggesting that for quite a while now.

I guess the market isn't there for it. To many players are convinced they need more output than the Jazz to get the overdrive they think they need.

However, anyone who's heard Jolly wailing on his Jazz humbuckers should be convinced that the Jazz can rock out with the best of them because Jolly gets a great tone...as Gearjoneser mentioned.

Personally, I think most players only think they need something hotter than the 59B or Jazz...but that's another story.

Lew

That's cool that Seymour went right to the Jazz, when asked what to use with vintage singles! He's never wrong about anything, as far as I've seen. I think it's unfortunate that the Jazz Bridge is grossly overlooked, because if you judge a pickup solely on it's overall sound, the Jazz is really one of the most balanced and natural sounding pickups.
It may be on the bright side for those used to CC's or Seths, but if it's in the right guitar it sounds very toneful. I like it because of it's tight and glassy sound, which is why it works so well in strats. Mushy pickups don't sound good in pickguards, so the Jazz stays tight and focused......almost moreso than single coils.

Right now, all my guitars are getting to the point where they couldn't possibly sound better......mostly because I've done a lot of swapping in all of them. Some of the tonal winners are these combos.

my UGD overwound 15.3 Custom 5 and 59N in my LP Goldtop
50th Anniversary Seth Lovers in honeyburst LP Std Prem Plus
Jazz Bridge/2 Surfers in Fender alder/rosewood strat
C-5/59 in PRS McCarty

Those guitars kick complete ass through every amp I plug into.

Truth that Jolly gets some huge tone from a Jazz !

I also appreciate his quot;booze'n'groovequot; state of mind !!!

I tried the Jazz bridge in a LP and wasn't convinced . But I change my tone and playing since then , I learned to low down the drive and I think I'm gonna give a chance to the Jazz in another axe . I think a PRS swamp ash is the good axe for it and my pall wants to sell one .
I'll tone report eventually

I remember a Thread about changing the Jazz PU's name : my vote goes to quot;The Jolly Modelquot;

I'm looking at converting my Strat to an SSH model.

You heard me right -- single coil bridge and middle, with NECK humbucker. It will be my quot;futuristic fusionquot; guitar so the humbucker neck pickup will be able to get a great jazz tone. The Jazz model (neck version) is one I'm considering for that slot because it would match up better with the single coils, though at the moment I've got a guy looking into custom-winding one for me.

It's impossible to find an SSH pickguard off the rack but I understand you can get Warmoth to make a custom pickguard for this configuration. True?

1 for the Jolly Trembucker

This thread has me wondering if I should try a Jazz in the bridge of my Les Paul as opposed to a '59 (which I thought I'd decided on -- well this week anyway )

I think if you have a dark sounding guitar, the Jazz would be a great choice. If your guitar has plenty of brightness, like a brightish Les Paul or strat w/maple neck, I'd go toward a 59 or C-5. I'm just talking about Alnico 5 pickups here.