Pickup advice?

[overdriven07]

I just bought an Ibanez JTK3 (http://www.ibanez.com/ElectricGuitars/model-JTK30). It has Ibanez soap bar pickups, which are apparently supposed to be comparable to p90s. I'm thinking that I would like to upgrade the pups at some point. Any advice on good pickups to consider? I want kind of a vintage blues-rock sound (i.e. Hendrix, The Black Keys, etc.) Thanks!

 

[thilton59]

Well... in terms of what will fit in a soapbar route you'll be a bit limited. My thought would turn to:

TV Jones Pickups, he makes a variety of Gretsch style pickups in various mounts, including the soapbar.

Good P90s form lollar or Fralin.

 

[curtis]

Bareknuckles soapbars are very tasty, I love the higher output BKP92.
'just fitted some to a gretsch electromatic, sounded big, warm and toneful.

 

[benjammin420]

dont know how deep the pups routes go, but stacked p90s might be cool if you like it on the heavier side

 

[Quarter]

Bryan over at BG-Pups winds a great P90. Tell him the flavor you are after and he can do a custom wind to dial you in.

 

[overdriven07]

Nice, thanks for the tips, I appreciate it.

 

[socalscott]

Fralin has new noiseless(stacked) and maybe Kent Armstrong has re-released his noiseless, which are said to be very correct vintage tone. Armstrong's being affordable.

I'd say go for a custom wind. I did so for $40 per coil that had taps. I found that I really like the way under-wound taps sound. They are Strat spec., i.e. 4.3K and 5k. I also use alnico 2 & 5 bar mag combo on each pup. This brings more vintage over modern A5's only. Be sure to try 250k vol pot if you have 500k, much less harshness.
A good set could be Neck @ 6.75k and Bridge around 9k. There is balance between mine with the N @ 4.3 tap and B at 11k. Great Tele-ish combo tapped.

One good move is to install a treble bleed on the vol. pot.. It allows nice chime when you roll-off git volume. Way down to 2 or 3 with amp volume up...very Straty output.
https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/110507&highlight=treble+bleed

Enjoy