JB alternatives?

Published: March 28, 2019

So I'v been crushing on the Duncan Custom 5 for a long long time now. It has a decent mid range scoop with even bass and treble(14.1k), but I'm running a mesa dual with the mids pretty cranked so it balances out nicely.

I wanted something like it with a little mid range bump or at least compared to the custom 5. Just something to fill out the midrange and pair with my C5 loaded guitar. Gotta have alnico 5's in it though. As time goes on I'm moving more and more to alnico and away from ceramic. I have some duncan distortion loaded guitars as well but the alnico just has they punch thats grabbing me the last few years.

So the C5 has a very nice, even sound with my setup. Maybe a little hollow, but it has character for solo and mid gain stuff, but when I dig it, I can get nice cut and crunch with it for any death metal. Its like a hot rodded paf type sound.

So in researching, the JB seems to be what I'm looking for. I get one, and throw it in my Vader(alder wings, maple neck through, ebony board) and it sounds pretty fucking great. It sounds alot like the C5 but with more body and obviously more mids. But it sounds nice and full.

My ONLY complaint, is that its a little wooly in the low end for palm mutes. Its totally workable, especially when i couple it with the C5's crunch and cut. The C5 is just a touch lower output but feels dryer, and I'm not sure if its the bump in output, or the midrange, or both, but is there anything out there that might have just a touch more crunch in the lower register but still retain the smoothness of the mid and high registers of the JB?(I'm tuning to C# standard) The JB actually has less bass than the C5 so I assumed the bass would be just as tight.

I know some of you guys dig the wolftone's, but I remember how the guy is finicky or something like that and I just would prefer to not have to order on the 3rd sunday of the month when the moon is in retrograde so I don't piss the guy off and he won't answer my emails or something.