Leo Fender designed and released the Jazzmaster in 1959 to be the luxury guitar that would fight Gibson for the jazz market. Little did he know that this guitar would be embraced by generations of indie players and noise makers decades later.
Once a surf icon, later an alternative rock flag, and now an indie statement, the Jazzmaster has seen it all.
Although it’s not as famous as the Stratocaster and Telecaster, the Jazzmaster is a truly unique instrument.
At its core are the famous soapbar pickups, the ones that were made to compete with Gibson’s slightly hotter single-coil design, the P-90s. These one-of-a-kind pickups can take your guitar to the next level, change its sound, or just be a fun experiment.
Top 3 - Jazzmaster Pickups
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I’ve tried a bunch for you and here are my picks; these are, in my opinion, the best Jazzmaster pickups in the market today.
Top 6 Jazzmaster Pickups to Take Things Next Level!
1. Fender Pure Vintage ‘65
If you are looking for Jazzmaster pickups to put in your Fender or Squier, who better to go with then Fender themselves. Enter the Fender Pure Vintage ‘65’s.
Fender Pure Vintage ‘65 Jazzmaster Pickups
One of the things we players look for in a Jazzmaster is the low-end and the singing highs. The massive alder body gives you enough warmth to add a layer of low-mids to anything you play and complements the trademark Fender mids and highs perfectly.
Well, these pickups were a great surprise, especially looking at the price tag. Fender has done a fantastic job recreating their original Jazzmaster pickups.
One of the keys of this faithful recreation is that they used enamel coating for the magnet wire. This adds to the warmth of the pickups and makes them more vintage-sounding. But that’s not all, because just like they did in the old-school days, each of these pickups is wax-potted so you can forget about microphonic noises and squeals.
Speaking of which, I did what every healthy son of the nineties would do and put these pickups through obnoxious levels of fuzz and they held up really great. If you own a Squier Jazzmaster, for example, it can turn your guitar into a much more faithful recreation of the real deal.
Moving over to cleaner territories, the way the Alnico V magnets and the flush-mounted polepieces work for even string response is great. You can play arpeggios, chords, and riffs and it all sounds balanced and jingly with a nice warmth underneath.
The sound is very well-rounded. They are nice and bright, with booming low, and mids that cut really well.
The neck pickup is especially beefy sounding. I had a ton of fun playing some Dick Dale on the neck pickup. The bridge pickup is a bit thin clean, but sounds fantastic once some overdrive and reverb is added, perfect for indie and alt rock.
Both pickups is my favorite position, however. This is the perfect blend of both tones.
Fender has also made installation super easy with these pickups. The pickups are indicated with small colored dots, red for the bridge and blue for the neck. They even went as far as using period-correct cloth wire and fire-bobbin construction. The guys at the Big F always go the extra mile and this is not an exception.
Plus, I really like these small details. To enjoy these true vintage tones and the magical world of Jazzmaster sounds, all you need is a screwdriver and some soldering skills.
2. Seymour Duncan Antiquity II
Saying that Seymour Duncan is one of the best makers of pickups around today is no news. Every pickup they make is just fantastic. Their Antiquity II Jazzmaster pickups are no different.
Seymour Duncan Antiquity II Jazzmaster Pickups installed on a '60s reissue Fender Jazzmaster (made in Japan).
The Antiquity II’s are very well-balanced. They aren’t as heavy on the low end as some other Jazzmaster pickups and the mids have also been dialed back a bit. That’s what most folks call the “scooped surf sound”. Indeed, these pickups are very ‘60s sounding. They are another set of pickups that inspire my inner surf rocker.
The highs are definitely a standout with these pickups. They are nice and bright, with some pleasant, musical high-end; they don’t go into shrill territory.
Let me tell you that these pickups sound great clean, they have a nice openness to them. Every string and note rings out. They are very balanced, perfect to play big chords, arpeggios, and fast-picking those surf leads with dripping reverb.
Both the neck and bridge pickup have enough weight to their sound and neither sounds thinner than the other. This makes a terrific middle-position sound with just enough beefiness from the neck pickup and brightness from the bridge. I tried some funky and neo-soul chops that way and it sounded marvelous.
For those who love the whole Tame Impala, Warpaint, and atmospheric music, the neck pickup is a treat. It’s got more definition than the Fender Pure ‘65s and a little bit more gain, which is perfect to make those whammy-bar swells we love so much.
After having some fun with clean tones, I engaged the distortion, and boy these things scream. And I mean that in a good way, these too are waxed and have enamel coating on the wiring. Therefore, they scream and shout but don’t feed back or squeal.
Also, I think that they really shine when they are overdriven. On low amounts of gain, the Antiquity II’s have a nice bit of crunchiness and a solid midrange that cuts through perfectly. That extra gain push really makes a difference here.
Turning up the gain, these pickups start to growl. Stepping on the fuzz is a beautifully balanced kind of mayhem that can fill an entire room with a single note.
I wouldn’t call them aggressive. They just have this nice and chunky attitude.
As a small detail, Seymour Duncan also provides two little carrying bags for the pickups. So, if they aren’t in your guitar, you have a pleasant looking way to store them. This isn’t such a big thing, but small touches like these show me that a company cares about their products.
The Antiquity II’s are super simple to install. Although, I should point out that you will need to add your own soapbox covers or buy replacements. Other than that, they are basically a simple drop-in and solder install.
But even if you are struggling, Seymour Duncan has a handy Pickup Installation 101 to help you along the way.
3. Fender J Mascis Signature Jazzmaster Pickup Set
Arguably, J Mascis, captain and leader of Dinosaur Jr., is one of the main players we can call responsible for the late rise of the Jazzmaster in the hands of alternative rockers, noise-makers, and rock players of any kind.
He commanded a legion of avid tone followers for decades, and the sword that pushed that army forward was always his Jazzmaster with the heaviest gain, and the three iconic Marshall full stacks.
Well, the man himself was involved with Fender in recreating his favorite Jazzmaster sounds and creating a pickup set that could withstand the obnoxious levels of gain and sound beautiful when clean.
A refinished Vintera '60s Jazzmaster with Fender J Mascis Signature Jazzmaster Pickups.
J chose Alnico II magnets, which give these pickups a kind of darker tone than that of traditional ‘65 pickups. He worked with the company to give them the exact number of wiring rounds to sound with the gain he needs to do his thing. These are enamel-coated rounds, so you can count on that warmth and, since the pickups are wax-potted, you can also count on the noise-free mayhem you can unleash with them.
Mayhem was what I got when I turned ON the fuzz pedal. These pickups can handle fuzz, phaser, and delay together as if it was a walk in the park. They never get muddy and got that punchy element that’s very Jazzmastery.
When playing clean, you have that fat low-end that adds another dimension to the sound and makes chords and riffs sound big; very big. Furthermore, you can mix that with a slight overdrive and a myriad of effects and the midrange will cut through making every nuance of your playing heard.
Sometimes, when you buy a piece of gear made for a particular artist, you have to fight to make it sound like you. Well, this is by no means that case. What I should warn you about, though, is that they do have a dark element that’s closer to the ‘50s than the ‘60s, so if you want that treble-infused, bright edge, you should look for Antiquity II or Fender Pure Vintage 65s.
4. Fender CuNiFe Wide Range Jazzmaster Pickups
CuNiFe is not a name, it’s an acronym that means tha these pickups have a unique magnet made of three metals: copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), and iron (Fe).
To give you just a little background, Fender was losing terrain in the ‘70s overshadowed by the big rock band oozing tone with their Les Pauls. Everybody wanted to sound like Jimmy Page. Well, to fight back, the company created the Telecaster Custom and Deluxe, two guitars with a special type of humbucker called Wide-Range made with these innovative magnets.
They were discontinued for decades but Fender decided to bring them back recently. The result? Overwhelming acclaim because these humbuckers can give you the Fender treble-infused clarity with the noiseless oomph of a humbucker.
So, these CuNiFe Jazzmaster pickups are the drop-in replacement for soapbars that can put your Jazzmaster in humbucker-mode instantly. Yet, unlike other humbuckers that sound compressed and overly tight, these pickups can retain your guitar’s airy element adding only power to the equation.
Fender CuNiFe Wide Range Jazzmaster Pickups
Let me tell you that, for those about to rock, these pickups are fire. Yes, they can take that same tone you love from your Jazzmaster to a wilder territory. The cleans sound bright and powerful with punch and a slight overdrive that’s always present. Your guitar turns into something close to a PAF-loaded rock guitar. The gain sounds vintage and it’s easy to clean up.
Speaking of cleaning up, the overdriven and distorted territories were a given, but as I rolled down the volume knob and turned off the gain stages, this pristine-clean, powerful tone came along that’s great for playing clean leads drenched in delay and arpeggios with some chorus and a lot of reverb.
If you’re looking for a pickup set that can give your guitar more gain without compromising tone, this is a must-check. I know, they don’t come cheap, but believe me, they sound like nothing else.
5. Seymour Duncan Antiquity I
This is another bombastic set of Jazzmaster pickups by Seymour Duncan. The Antiquity I pickups shouldn’t be confused with their Antiquity II pickups.
Seymour Duncan Antiquity I Jazzmaster Pickups
They have their own unique sound. Where the Antiquity II’s have a ‘60s sound, the Antiquity I’s sound is firmly rooted in the late ‘50s.
Their tone is a bit more evenly spread across the lows, mids, and highs. They aren’t quite as bright as the Antiquity II’s and they have a bit more warmth on lower notes.
They also sound a bit tighter to me. The sound isn’t as open and feels quite controlled overall. This actually makes the bridge pickup quite nice for jazz as well. Speaking of which, the neck pickup is made in RWRP (reverse wound reverse polarity) so, when you engage both together, they cancel each other’s hum and you have a hum-free, utterly usable middle position to play super-clean tones.
When playing clean you can really hear that typical ‘50s darkness that contrasts with the ‘60s wild, treble-infused glory from the Pure ‘65s and Antiquity II. This is historically correct too, since the move from the ‘50s to the ‘60s brought a lot more clarity, sharp edges, and wild colors to the guitar world. Fender was a spearhead in that movement. Well, these pickups bring you to the sound of guitars before that revolution took place.
Moving over to distortion, these pickups are also much more aggressive than the Antiquity II’s. Where those pickups sting, these bite. By bite, what we’re talking about is those growling low-mids that are sharp enough to cut through the mix but give your guitar tone the lows needed to push a rock band forward.
This is because instead of Alnico V magnets, the company used era-correct Alnico II magnets which give the sound a more tamed edge and a better low-end response. These pickups are tight and compressed, perfect for punchy rhythms and beautiful, soaring leads.
Speaking of which, while playing surf rock with these pickups, they sounded just as great, but when playing hard rock I even managed to do some light to moderate shredding without feeling like I was engaging with a bee swarm about to devour the entire room as it happens mostly when you put a lot of gain to single-coil pickups.
I also feel like the neck and bridge pickups are a bit better balanced. They sound equally great on their own as they do when played together.
If you don’t want such an aggressive sound, these pickups do tone down nicely when you dial back the volume knob on the guitar. You then get a nice vintage sounding distortion that works quite well for softer genres like indie rock.
Just like the Antiquity II’s, the Antiquity I Jazzmaster pickups are a simple drop-in and solder installation. You will also need to either use your original soapbox covers or buy replacements.
6. Lollar Original '58 Jazzmaster Pickups
Lollar is one of the best-known electric guitar pickup manufacturers in the world. The company has made pickups that have rocked crowds around the world by the thousands.
Well, Jason Lollar, the company’s founder and owner, is lucky enough to be the owner of a pre-production Jazzmaster made in 1958. These pickups I’m about to review are a modern take on those originals.
Lollar Original '58 Jazzmaster Pickups
What I got when I put the Lollar Original '58 Pickups in my Jazzmaster was quite the surprise. The first thing I noticed when I started playing was that they aren’t as bright as other Jazzmaster pickups. Their tone leans much more to the low end of the frequency range. This is one of the main differences between the ‘50s and the ‘60s, and these pickups make that point very clear.
Unboxing the Lollar Original '58 - comes neatly packed in and marked!
Their midrange is especially prominent. These pickups are really going to help your guitar cut through the mix. Moreover, Lollar claims that these pickups have slightly above average attack. Coupling the increased attack with the midrange bump, what you get is a pickup set that’s prone to overdrive any amp and that sounds beautiful when pushed with a pedal like the Tube Screamer, a Micro Amp, or your favorite booster.
The distorted signal was quite a breakthrough for me because I wasn’t expecting these pickups to go so powerfully into P-90 territory, but they do. They make it perfectly clear that Leo was going after the folks at Gibson, trying to steal their jazz playing customers with this guitar and its pickups.
When I stepped on the fuzz pedal, the monster really came alive. This is because when you push a guitar with a big low-end into such a gigantic pedal, sometimes your tone gets muddy or lost in the mix. This was the exact opposite. These pickups ooze the perfect blend between razor-sharp Fender-approved tones and the bite and growl you’d expect from the brand with the big G.
Well, I did try some Dick Dale moves because, well, I was playing a Jazzmaster and you just have to. In that territory I found that these pickups lack the brightness to get that dripping surfy tone we love so much.
So, if you’re on the quest to find the perfect Jazzmaster pickups that can tame your guitar’s high-end and give you a beefier, bigger sound, these are a must-try-before-you-buy.
What Type of Pickups Can I Put in a Jazzmaster?
The increased popularity of the Jazzmasters made them a great canvas for exploration and customization. You can now buy Jazzmasters with all kinds of pickup configurations or, as you saw above, change the guitar sound with some drop-in replacements.
Fender features Jazzmasters with traditional soapbar pickups but also with active EMG pickups like Jim Root (Slipknot) signature model. But that’s not all, because the Gold Foil Jazzmaster is also loaded with uncanny gold foil pickups, the Squier Paranormal Offset Telecaster features a Telecaster-like bridge and pickup (anybody said twang?), and there’s even a Squier Mini Jazzmaster with a dual-humbucker configuration featuring passive pickups.
Furthermore, since the Jazzmaster has that bigger-than-life pickguard, you can carve as much as you like underneath and install three humbuckers to create your own Jazzmaster Black Beauty version if you like.
So, bottomline, regardless what configuration you’re looking for, there’s a Jazzmaster waiting for you.
How are Jazzmaster Pickups Different?
Ask the average guitarist what a Jazzmaster pickup is and they will probably tell you that it is like a single coil, but sounds a bit different. Ask that same guitarist what a P90 is and they will likely give you a similar answer.
Yet, these two pickups differ drastically in their structure, and thus, their sound. While P-90s are screws that go into a big magnet underneath. Jazzmaster pickups, (just like every other Fender single-coil pickup) have magnetic slugs surrounded by coil wire.
But what’s the difference between Jazzmaster pickups and the rest of Fender single-coil pickups? Well, the surface is bigger and allows for more wire. Since the magnetic field created is wider and bigger, what you get is more of the strings’ motion, and thus, more frequencies.
These characteristics give these pickups the big, round sound they have.
What Are Jazzmaster Pickups Good for?
The term “Jazzmaster” might make you think that these pickups are only good for playing jazz. The reality is that Jazzmaster pickups are actually quite versatile.
They can easily cover a wide range of genres from jazz all the way to rock and even metal. That doesn’t mean that every Jazzmaster pickup is this versatile.
The Fender Pure Vintage ‘65’s, for example, have a very different sound when compared with the Seymour Duncan Antiquity II’s. While the Fender PV ‘65s have a much sharper edge and a pronounced treble-oriented sound, the Antiquity I’s have a much warmer low-end and can push your amp into overdrive easier.
On the other hand, the CuNiFe Jazzmaster Pickups can give way to a much heavier sound.
Because of these guitars’ surge in popularity and demand, you can install a pickup set to make them do whatever you want; the Jazzmaster has become a very versatile guitar, even fighting for the pole position with the Strat.
What about Boutique Pickups Like Lindy Fralin & Curtis Novak?
Boutique pickups are a great alternative to big name brands. You can look at them as the mom-and-pop shop variety to the chain store versions of big-name brands.
There are pros and cons to both types. Big brands are mass produced, making them readily available everywhere.
Boutique brands are usually made one by one in a mad scientist’s basement and often require a long wait.
But it ultimately comes down to what you are looking for. Some boutique brands try to recreate the sounds of old pickups that are no longer in production. And other boutique brands want to set themselves apart with their own unique sound.
Lindy Fralin and Curtis Novak pickups are two examples of boutique brands that have gone their own way in terms of tone. Fralin pickups have a more modern sound that leans to the indie and alt rock side.
Novak pickups, on the other hand, have a much warmer and thicker sound, reminiscent of grunge.
Closing Thoughts
If you are looking for the true Jazzmaster sound, Fender has got you covered with their Pure Vintage ‘65’s. For a more modern or aggressive sound, Seymour Duncan makes some of the best sounding Jazzmaster pickups.
Or you want something a bit more unique, then look no further than smaller brands like Lollar, Fralin, or Novak pickups. Regardless of your taste, there should be a Jazzmaster pickup out there for you.
I’m thinking of putting antiquity II in the neck and antiquity I in the bridge. Do you think that is a good combination? Has anyone tried?
Obviously your opinion with some bias to major brands. My customer’s rate Curtis Novak #1. They replace Duncan’s with Novaks.
Kinman Jazzmaster HD pickups are another excellent pickup. It’s growl will win you over in a sec. By far my favorite boutique replacement pickups I’ve had, it’s like an honor bestowed upon me for getting them.