Installing Fender CuNiFe WideRange humbuckers into a J Masics Jazzmaster - with sound samples!

[@michaeledmondsonrock]

Sounds like a proper jazz guitar now. Thanks for the content.

[@molsuzero]

Best jazz WR walkthrough, review and demo, it helped me a lot, thanks!

[@konstantinosernestoeconomo3265]

Hello! I just wanted to jump in and say that Halon from Greece makes probably some of the highest quality offset bridges in the world and they make a direct replacement to the Tune’o’matic/ adjust’o’matic bridge with adjustable saddles to match whatever radius you throw at it. Plus you can customise the bridge with really unique materials to really enhance certain tonal characteristics. Hope this helps

[@heldmusic]

I've seen good things about them! Definitely on the list.

[@erickt1974]

I can't find this AOM/TOM? Bridge anywhere!!! What's it called? Please it's the only upgrade my JMJM still needs

[@heldmusic]

@@erickt1974 If it's the Halon you're after, they're here: halonguitarparts.com/

[@TheColourofawesome]

Seconding Halon. I have one in my JMJM and it's great, dropped right in. I spoke with him on Facebook and he helped me pick the best materials for my ears. Highly recommend.

[@xiscogg]

I have one

[@hectorfigueroa6648]

This definitely challenged my assumptions on what I thought WRHBs sound like! Great demo, glad to see you're enjoying your guitar

[@heldmusic]

Cheers!

[@sundrenched6248]

Thanks, not many reviews of these out there, and you did a very thorough job, the way you cover different types of music. I've been gassing for these since the great demo put out by Fender (but that player could make anything sound wonderful). Ultimately I think it takes away some of what makes a Jazzmaster distinct, so I'll try the Cunife/Cobalt-Chrome single coil set instead.

[@heldmusic]

Thanks! I hope the CuNiFe/Cobalt set sound great, should you go down that path. (If you do and remember this, I'd love to hear your thoughts!)

[@pedalscapes]

Both sets sounded good to these ears but a very distinct lift in clarity and articulation with the Wide Range... It sounds great, had the TD with the original SLWR Cunife and that sweetness seems to be there. Great work, Cheers 😎 Just took delivery of a JMJM don't think I'll be doing this upgrade anytime soon though!

[@erickt1974]

Sleazy bedroom track huh? Good choice for the intro

[@michaelrosa2589]

I put Fender'65 Pure Vintage jazzmaster pickups in my JMascis and it was a big improvement a fuller sound in my opinion.

[@titichartay7216]

Lovely cat ... good demo. Thank you

[@snakey8095]

Thank you for making this video! Was curious of how the new CuNiFe Jazzmaster PUs sound, this is a perfect demo! They definitely sound glassier and more "scooped" than the stock J Mascis PUs, while being less "compressed" than a tele neck pickup. I play jazz (as intended on a Jazzmaster! :P) and your low gain demos are very helpful to hear what the PUs really sound like. On a side note, the J Mascis PUs sounds closer to my Am Pro II (with Pure Vintage 65' pickups and 1M pots) than how usually people describe them, most noticibly how the J Mascis are not as unforgivingly sparkly, which i believe is contributed by the different valued potentiometers, 500K on J Mascis (i believe?) vs 1M on "original" Jazzmaster wiring.

[@erickt1974]

Mascis usually have 1 megs but they're p90's not regular jm pickups

[@andyblakely7576]

I think the new mascis sig pups are a better option for $130. The WRHB sound decent and hum cancel. But for that kind of $$$ I’ll look at other options like fralins, Novak, etc. but for my squire JMJM, I’ll be doing the Mascis sigs. FYI, SD does custom HB in JM bobbins for 200.00 a pup. Looks like a JM pup but you can have a JB/jazz or whatever you want underneath.

[@meadish]

Woop woop, You Am I. Not a frequent sight these days.

[@voidburner8271]

I dont understand the schematic. It shows 1 connection for the bridge pickup on the pickup switch . So i dont have to connect the ground to the volume pot?

[@stephpride9374]

Hi, I'm doing the same swap in my Jazzmaster, just wondering if Red Spot pickup went in Bridge position & Blue in Neck? I don't have access to a multi meter so your advice would be appreciated, Thanks for taking the time to do your video!

[@heldmusic]

Thank you! In the end I put the red dot in the bridge position and blue in the neck. Apologies for the delay, but hope that's useful to yourself (and possibly others!)

[@stephpride9374]

thanks mate! Got a Troy van Leeuwen JM with Vintage ‘65 pickups that are so noisy they are virtually unusable, so the CuNiFe WRHB should be a massive improvement, thanks again for your vid!

[@heldmusic]

@@stephpride9374 Oh nice! If you remember once you're done I'd love to hear how they go for you.

[@thecappy]

Just put a set in a mij jazzmaster. Did you ever adjust them?

[@waffleshadow6840]

Do you have a wiring diagram with the actual color codes in the pickups? Like a picture posted somewhere? I just ordered these my self 😅

[@chappy2312]

Howdy, What was your go to pick up hight?

[@joshgray3581]

I put Curtis Novak pickups and a Rothstein pre wired pickguard sounds fucking awesome

[@mistopraro666]

hey, i bought a wide range humbucker from a 70s telecaster, do you think i can use the stock pickup cover to mount it on my jazzmaster? im really trying to figure out how to do it...

[@jmCodinach]

I wonder how it would sound in a blues setup. I would like to use my jazzmaster to play blues and I'm not sure if this pickups helps. It possible a demo playing blues?

[@flapjack413]

I noticed that there's shielding tape on the back of the guard. Were the pickguards on the J Mascis not actually made of aluminum?

[@heldmusic]

I believe they are, but I think you have to scrape back the anodised areas to connect them to the body shielding - maybe this is a quicker and more reliable way to achieve that?

[@petehughes9297]

I installed these was surprised how low the volume/ output was compared to other guitar/pickups. Did you find this?

[@vintdest]

I put a set in my vintera 60’s jazzmaster it sounds amazing

[@heldmusic]

Yeah, I'm really enjoying them but I am curious as to the differences to normal Jazzmaster pickups.

[@editorjuno]

Thanks very much -- now I know that these (pretty danged good!) pickups would be nowhere near enough of an improvement (if any) over the MFDs (also in the P-90 category) in my G&L Doheny to justify their stratospheric ($400 USD!) price tag. For about half what Fender wants for just these pickups, I could get a humbucker-cut pickguard and have my choice from among the hundreds of great pickup options available nowadays in that form factor.

[@heldmusic]

I've always been tempted to try out a G&L, but they don't seem to be very common here in Australia.

[@editorjuno]

@@heldmusic-- I should point out that the G&L Doheny shares the Fender Jazzmaster's pickup and offset body shapes, but it's definitely *not* a Jazzmaster clone.

[@johnr.b.murray3417]

The originals sound highly preferable to me. Sometimes gilding the lily is just that...

[@luisgarcia8321]

This model is made of poplar. I would LOVE to hear these pickups on alder.

[@fdodasilva]

After saw a lot of “pickup upgrades”… how difficult is to justify spend hundreds dollar when hear the result!!!

[@Killstrike6660]

If you are putting different pickups in a J Mascis Jazzmaster, you’re missing the point of having a J Mascis Jazzmaster. It’s not supposed to sound all nice and sparkly clean and jangly. It’s supposed to be used with a high gain amp and a ton of pedals and sound awesome like J Mascis. Duh. 🤪

[@noahpennington5993]

the neck alone is worth the purchase of this guitar

[@jungleperry]

single coil is way better

[@heldmusic]

They're not bad! I'm still liking the WRHBs more myself, but I won't deny the originals are good (even if they're not "proper" Jazzmaster pickups)

[@Followthecat47]

Man why you make a long ass video then give a bunch of "idk haven't had much experience with them yet" 😂 please do follow up and I'd like to see how they do in metal. More of a jazzblaster situation! Thanks for the video!

[@heldmusic]

'cause I literally had only just swapped them over! 😛 I will do a proper video on just them soon, hopefully.

[@patrickhernandez9529]

Why the disrespect bro?

[@Great-Documentaries]

Just so that we are clear, these pickups are more expensive, not better and certainly not an upgrade. They are a sidegrade. Your guitar sounds different, but not better. And of course, CuNiFe WRHBs sound even LESS like Jazzmaster pickups than the JMascis pickups do. Not that it is a problem, but do not think that you have made your guitar better or that it is worth more now. Hopefully you enjoy your sidegrade to the bizarre CuNiFe WRHBs that were completely rejected by the marketplace when they were introduced in the early 1970s and remain odd.

[@1986toyotasprintertrueno]

damn bro is it your guitar

[@heldmusic]

To each their own, but I'm happy with the change. No, it's not night and day difference, but it makes me happier with the guitar, which is surely the point of any upgrade? And yes, they're expensive, but they're also bringing a magnet type back into commercial production which is not cheap! You seem to have a pre-existing opinion of WRHBs, which is your right, but there is a reason why they've stuck around and why Fender and so many of the boutique makers have kept making them. I like 'em, at any rate. 😊 Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@flapjack413]

Jeeeeez. Where did the WRHB's touch you when you were a kid?

[@Paralung]

I understand they weren't exactly rejected, but the CuNiFe alloy became nearly impossible to find.

[@stephpride9374]

Dude, it wasn't the CuNiFe Pickups that were rejected by "the marketplace", it was Fender's shoddy '70's workmanship, 3 bolt necks and oversized neck pockets that made it impossible to get tuning stability (in STRATS & TELECASTERS), but CuNiFe were never used in Jazzmasters before [which are inherently NOISY under Gain] , so the humbuckers can only be an improvement. "Better" is a subjective term.

[@misubi]

Those pickups are just too ridiculously expensive.

[@heldmusic]

I mean, they're roughly in line with the prices for high-end boutique WideRanges, and perhaps the economies of scale that Fender *should* be getting are countered by the fact they're making the CuNiFe magnets again. (The alternative I was considering buying was a limited run MIJ Jazzmaster which comes with the full-sized CuNiFe WideRanges... but that would have cost me more than 4x what the pickups cost.)

[@misubi]

@@heldmusic if I remember correctly the original cunife magnets weren’t anything special. It was whatever alloy they had around that was cheap and plentiful. It only became rare because cunife stopped being used widely. Not saying they don’t sound good. Just that there’s a lot of money to be made on things marketed as legendary like germanium, vintage spec, etc.

[@heldmusic]

​@@misubiYeah, it wasn't that it was some legendary tone magnet, it was just that they could machine it into threaded pole pieces. But it also does have a sound, and it's cool at least to try it out.

[@iamthat787]

I'm a cunife fan, I picked up a pair of originals and they do sound magic compared to the reissues, they seem to have a more peak resonance, and harmonic sound. I get this also with cunife reissues, it's just more tame. Maybe just changes after 40 years? Legendary CBS era fender wildly inconsistent specs? Whatever it is I'm going to say there *is* something magic about the Seth Lover weak cunife but more winds. You can deep dive and learn the magnetic field pattern in cunife is a bit different.

[@lennonscope]

Dude the” umm ahhsss “constantly is insane. Sort that out. Otherwise well done.

[@heldmusic]

I do understand what you mean, but while I'm still learning to make videos if they get any more complex at this point (like scripting or retakes) then they're simply not going to happen at all. Yes, this is a me problem but for now they have to be somewhat off the cuff which does mean the occasional um and ahh. Hopefully it's a phase I can work through.