I'm curious... How the hell is jimmy's neck pickup so clear and strat-like (NO COIL TAPS) at that high of an output? And I can't find anything about a Wizz Jimmy Page set even existing... I'd love to know what the bridge reading is. I've been chasing the mid-70's middle position quack for too damn long
So it looks like for Pre-72 get two plain enamel 8.9k's and for Post-72 get a plain enamel 8.9k in the neck and a poly wire 7.9k in the bridge.
What magnets are they?
I'm curious... How the hell is jimmy's neck pickup so clear and strat-like (NO COIL TAPS) at that high of an output? And I can't find anything about a Wizz Jimmy Page set even existing... I'd love to know what the bridge reading is. I've been chasing the mid-70's middle position quack for too damn long
When I had the fun opportunity to play Jimmy Page's 1999 tour guitars (Black Crowes tour) in order to acquaint myself prior to building him a guitar, I did notice a couple of things that gave me a little insight into his sound (and this has nothing to do with "sloppy").
The guitars included the two iconic "Led Zeppelin" old Les Pauls, and I paid more attention to these since they were the main guitars.
The frets were wide and very low; the strings (9-42) were set down very low as well. In addition, he uses a very thin pick (can't recall the brand but his tech begged me to find more as they were no longer available) that wasn't celluloid, rather nylon and white semi-translucent.
When the guitars were played with a regular Fender tortoise shell pick, the strings would rather easily buzz at every fret. However when played with Jimmy's choice of pick, that sort of "scribby" response happened. Hammer ons/pull offs were a breeze, and overall it became easier for me to understand how the guitars responded to the pick attack.
The guitars weren't setup in a way that would be ideal for a very legato, sustainy style ala Carlos Santana, but it was ideal for the more staccato approach that we know and love from JP.
my 2 cents piece of advice:
First try to find the sweet spot on your current pick-up. In some case it might work and save you 400 bucks.
Tone is 100% hardware, the rest is nuance, feeling, and emotion
JP definitely practiced/practices 'the lost art of tone control' and after ofc getting his pups dialed in and the bass on his amps set to virtually zero he could go from clear to raunchy with a flick of the wrist... being able to split the coils in both pups also allowed for that chimey neck when needed even with an overly hot neck pup... and, ofc, he's Jimmy... so there's that... :hee
"99% of those original tones were in the fingers"
If the above were true, why do so many people spend so much time, effort, and money chasing pickups instead of simply practising their technique ?
Tone is 100% hardware, the rest is nuance, feeling, and emotion
You got it over under sideways down, mate. Last time I saw Richard Betts with the Allmans, he used a 50's Mary Kaye Strat all night and sounded like the Dicky Betts we all love so much. I've seen Johnny Winter with a Glazer, Leslie West with a bunch of notagibsonjr mongrels, Ronnie Montrose with a Tele, Joe Bonamassa with a menangery of guitars and many more. Guitarist I followed for decades and I can identify their tone from a few notes.
Different guitars, amps everything, still sound the same. I have a tone. I also have a large collection of guitars, amps, fx and stuff to sound different, yet everyone tells me they can tell it's my tone.
The gear supplies the nuance, my decades of playing, ability to use emotion and feeling through my touch has the single greatest effect on tone. Hendrix used a Flying V and Fender and Sunn amps, yet very few, very, very few can tell the difference. Purple haze was a flipped over Tele!
Yes educated ears, with careful listening hear and discern the nuance and fine details that gear may present, despite the overpowering influence of touch and technique upon tone. BUT, big but here and one that gets lost all to often, ....
gear don't make the music, gear don't make the musician, gear enables a musician to make music.
In this age of digital wonders, where a mere mouse click, keystroke or button pushed can supply an exact, flawless clone of your favorite guitar tonemeister is common simply cannot happen if you don't have the chops!
How many times have you seen a "Hero in a Box" effect demo'd by a competent guitarist with a fluid command of the Hero's technique, just nail the desired tone, EXACT!!!!
OMG! great an easy way to get that tone. Then you see all the following youtube vids. Deluded hacks with no real knowledge or facility in the Hero's technique at all. They may be good players in other styles, most seem to be this generic shredder zippity doodley do da crapola that bears no relationship to the targeted style or they just suck. Crappy ass wanabes that really should not be making video's, they should be studying. But, they graphically demonstrate that unless you have Jimi chops you wont get Jimi tone plugging into a Jimi box.
It ain't the gear, it's the player.
Jimmy didnt have any push/pulls or pickguard buttons on any of his guitars until The Firm. He was somehow getting that almost single coil clarity out of a very hot PAF, which according to Tim Mills at BareKnuckle who got to examine Jimmy's Number One, read 8.97k. My neck pickup is an A5 7.5k and i still cant get the clarity he has...
Jimmy didnt have any push/pulls or pickguard buttons on any of his guitars until The Firm. He was somehow getting that almost single coil clarity out of a very hot PAF, which according to Tim Mills at BareKnuckle who got to examine Jimmy's Number One, read 8.97k. My neck pickup is an A5 7.5k and i still cant get the clarity he has...