Best neck humbucker for that Wes Montgomery/Gibson L-5 jazz sound?

[Jimmy Mack]

I have never swapped magnets out but I'll bet it's a lot less painful than changing the whole P/up. Thank You.

But to be clear, I have had the p/up up and down, poles up and down, I even rotated the whole thing so the screw poles are farther away from the bridge. I have a Faber bridge with brass saddles, the Stop TP is raised on the treble side. And still... a plincky sounding E string.

I've had this problem, and wrote about it before, with an Epiphone ES 355 that had new Gibson p/ups. I know it's not my ears! I think the magnets deserve a look.

[rpjazzguitar]

I have never swapped magnets out but I'll bet it's a lot less painful than And still... a plincky sounding E string.

I've had this problem, and wrote about i.

Plinky E strings, high up the neck, drove me crazy for years.

I had one guitar, a 2009 or so D'A EXDC that didn't have the problem for the first few years. But all my others had it.

I tried every kind of pickup adjustment. Different gauges of E string (maybe an 11 sounded a little thicker than a 10, but just barely). Changing E string often (seemed to help, I think -- it was subtle or imaginary). I put little pieces of thin rubber like material over the saddles - didn't help. I had Hideo Kamimoto, a master luthier, go over the frets of several guitars. His summary: maybe it can't be fixed.

Here's what finally helped -- and apologies in advance if this isn't going to be helpful to anybody else.

I eventually accepted that the fizzy, plinky sound was there in the instruments - part of the sound, and not an error of some kind. It helped when, at one point, Gary Brawer, a luthier who used to write for GP, played one of my guitars and said, "it plays the way it should play, maybe it's not the guitar for you".

But, when I turned down the treble control on the guitar far enough, the problem went away. The good news was that I liked the sound I was able to get that way. (I've posted a bunch of stuff on the Showcase subforum, if anybody wants to hear this -- the guitar on the recent posts is a Comins GCS-1 strung 11 13 16 22 32 42.

Meaning, I had to accept that some plink is normal, but can be dialed out. No guarantee that somebody else will be happy that way.

Btw, the D'A arrived from the factory with a dark sound which is why, I came to think, that it didn't have the problem. At least, not for a couple of years. Eventually, it did develop more of a fizz, which I attributed to worn frets, but really, I'm not sure.

I just switched back to a 10 E string after years with an 11. Jam tonight. I'll report back.

[arnie65]

The Guild pickup is the pickup that Jimmy D'Aquisto liked and included on his built-in pickup guitars. But results vary according to the player, setup, strings, picks, amp, touch, and even the room.
Whether you think this pickup is a Wes sound is up to you. But it's the pickup Jim Hall had on his Jimmy D.
Just to keep your options open.

Luthier Roger Borys used to install Guild pickups on his his guitars early on before the Armstrong pickups, as a matter of fact Emily Remler's guitar (Borys B120) had Guild pickups on it. They are great pickups...






Cheers,
Arnie..

[2bornot2bop]

Luthier Roger Borys used to install Guild pickups on his his guitars early on before the Armstrong pickups, as a matter of fact Emily Remler's guitar (Borys B120) had Guild pickups on it. They are great pickups...



Cheers,
Arnie..

She was so talented and beautiful. Sometimes I wonder if she’d still be around if she’d not met Larry. I think she was simply heartbroken. Fabulous teacher too!

[Jimmy Mack]

There quite a few different Guild Humbuckers. I had a 1990 X170 with h/bers. Again...a very thin and plinky sounding E string with the Bridge p/up. I didn't use that p/up much, but it did affect the tone when I used the middle position with both p/ups on.

I should answer my own question: I installed a Gibson Classic 57 there. Problem gone. Neck p/up was fine.