Easy-install single-coils are loaded with a vintage-style Retro Active preamp, and also offered in a prewired pickguard with additional boost options
(Image credit: EMG)
EMG has long been one of the preeminent names in guitar pickups. But the company doesn’t just produce great single coils and humbuckers for a variety of genres and styles; it also makes them extremely easy to install. Whether it’s solderless pre-wired Strat pickguards (including excellent signature offerings from the likes of David Gilmour, Kirk Hammett and Steve Lukather, among others) or T-System Telecaster replacements, EMGs not only sound great, but are player-ready in just minutes.
Now, EMG has done it again with its JMaster prewired pickguard and pickup set. The new offerings venture into the offset world with an active pickup designed for Fender Jazzmasters. Featuring Alnico V magnets and wide-stacked coils, the single-coil features EMG’s Retro Active preamp design, offering a vintage feel and response with the added benefits of an active preamp. So you get rich and balanced tone - minus, significantly, much of the noise of a standard single coil, and with even string response and consistent output.
The pickups are offered in black, white or ivory, and like other easy-install EMGs, include a solderless wiring kit with a master volume and master tone that allows players to swap them in without any modifications to their instrument – or the need to seek out a guitar tech.
But this is only where the fun begins with the JMaster. Because in addition to standalone pickups, the single coils are also available as a prewired pickguard that will serve to supercharge your Jazzmaster. Along with a set of JMasters and standard master volume, tone and three-way toggle, the pickguard is equipped with a powerful pair of boosts on the upper horn of the instrument for additional sound shaping via two roller wheels.
(Image credit: EMG)
One roller controls the company’s EXG Expander, which boosts low and high frequencies for chunky yet sparkly sounds, while the second roller adjusts the SPC Control, which fattens up tone with a broad midrange boost. The SPC can also be changed into a 12db clean boost via a switch on the upper horn.
The result, may we say, is a considerably jazzed-up Jazzmaster, with hot looks, supreme sound and seriously boosted tone, all achieved via quick and easy, solderless installation.
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