grunge-fan said: unfortunately that not always right, cuz the jag HH has 250ks
Actually, the Jaguar HH has 1Meg ohm pots. I just got one a month ago, and I have looked it over. Under the hood, it's essentially a stock Jaguar with a tune-o-matic and low-medium output humbuckers. I actually like the sound, sort of like a hardtail Jaguar if anything.
As for pot values, the higher the value, the more treble goes through. I prefer 500K's on my guitars, to me they just sound clearer and increase the bite. The best sounding strat copy I ever had had 500K pots in place of the original 250K pots.
Single Coils will never be obsolete. Most of my favorite neck position pickups are single coils (Jazzmaster, P-90, Texas Specials, EMG SA-1 (yes the SA-1 is a single coil pickup, albeit an active one)), and I also love, LOVE the early 60's Jaguar, early 50's Tele, and Stratocaster bridge position single coil pickups.
As for single sized hums, be careful, some are meant to be noiseless single coil pickup replacements (cool rails, vintage stack, and the like), while others are meant to be full out shred humbuckers (George Lynch lil' screamin' demon and the like). I see them as a good option for when you don't have a router, or don't want to destroy the body and/or it's particular resonance due to the existing routs.
Then you have some weird humbuckers to approximate the single coil sound....like the DiMarzio "humbucker from hell" (yes, that's the name). It's for people who want a single coil sound in the neck position of their Gibson style guitar for the most part.
I find the biggest hurdle with pickups is "to rout" or "not to rout". I usually make my choice dependant on the guitar.
- Vintage Guitars/High End/Booteek Guitars - I never change anything, I feel if you pay $1000+ for it, it should sound good with no modifications, and if it's existed for years with minimal/no mutilation, it's better to leave it be.
- Mid Range Common guitars - They usually don't need routed much anymore, especially Strats, Teles, and anything Ibanez with a pickguard and no offset waist, as they have humbucker sized routing already installed.
- Mid Range Rare Guitars - specifically, Jaguars, Jazzmasters, Mustangs, Jag-Stangs, and the like. Jazzmasters and Jag-Stangs and Humbucker Jaguars are the only ones I would put a full sized humbucker into when not modified already, the Jazzmaster is the special one because I can fit a full-sized hum in the stock routs, and could even make it "stealth" without any extra routing. Mustangs, regular 2X S-coil Jags get single sized hums if I need humbuckers, which I usually don't.
- Cheap Guitars - It's Porter Cable time! Anything plywood and/or under $350 is game for the router in my eyes.
