J Mascis looks to offer sweet vintage tones in abundance with new signature Fender Jazzmaster pickup set

Dinosaur Jr. frontman and electric guitar player J Mascis is most well-known for his ferocious, deep-in-the-red live lead guitar sound, aided always by healthy stacks of Marshall and Hiwatt guitar amps.

The alt-rock guitar hero is aiming to bring out another side of tone, though, with his new signature set of Fender Jazzmaster electric guitar pickups.

The new pickups, Mascis said in a press release, have "sweeter, more vintage" sounds on tap than those that can be found on either his recently-released signature ‘58 Telecaster or his signature Jazzmaster.

The wax-potted pickups feature Alnico 2 rod magnets with enamel-coated magnet wire, and flush-mount polepieces, and are wound to Mascis's specifications. 

According to Fender, they offer a modernized, slightly warmer tonal palette than typical Jazzmaster pickups, but are also designed to, of course, respond optimally to drive and fuzz pedals.

Fender's J Mascis signature Jazzmaster pickups are available now, as a full set, for $129.

In tandem with the pickups, Fender also released a broader line of Mascis signature accessories.

These include a signature guitar strap – available in Magenta Flower or Yellow Burst iterations – guitar cable and guitar pick tin.

Each of the straps retails for $32, with the cable ringing up at $59. The pick tin, meanwhile, contains six medium gauge printed picks, and is available now for $11.

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The announcement of the new accessories and pickups comes just a few weeks after Mascis gave Reverb.com an extensive tour of his already-formidable collection of guitar gear. During the video interview, the guitarist made the surprising confession that – despite his recently-released signature Ram’s Head Big Muff Pi and the Jazzmasters that bear his name, he almost never uses either of those products in the studio.

For more info on J Mascis's new signature pickups and accessories regardless, visit Fender.