x175 with Franz pickup or Humbuker?

weibassist

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i am a jazz player.
i am interested in getting a 60s x-175 . I know some of earlier one have Franz single coil pickup . And later ones have Hunbukers. Wonder can anyone give some suggestions about the tone difference? Also , if it's Franz single coil pickup , will it get more noise when played with amp?
thanks a lot!
 
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My very opinionated take:

Poke around a little here, and you'll see lots of love for the Franz single coils. They're similar to P90s, but generally brighter and punchier. It's a terrific, and very distinctive, sound. Many use these on the jump swing and rockabilly side of things, but with a rosewood bridge and flatwound 13s or 14s, you'll get classic '50s jazz tones, too.

You will get some single coil buzz from them, but that's usually manageable.

Guild's humbuckers have never seemed that interesting to me. Admittedly, I don't like humbuckers as rule, but Guild's '60s versions have always seemed especially nasal and honky to me -- bright, but not in a good way, if that makes sense. Plenty of folks have good luck with them, though, so don't take my word for it.
 

billydlight

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Psssst Hey Smiert, I think we gotta start telling the newbies that Franz' suck. We should definitely be steering them in the other direction. Keeps down the competition. :twisted:
 

proffrog

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franz for me

I just got (a month ago) a Franz-loaded 1962 X175, and its the coolest set of sounds I've found. I think I'm in love.
I do like the small humbuckers on my Starfires, used to think they were the business, but they can't do the bright stuff lso well as the X175, so I'm afraid they're staying at home a lot these days (their day will come again, I know. I'm fickle)

But seriously the X175 with Franz's feels good, sounds great and looks like the dogs' proverbials. Not very noisy either, though a bit microphonic, and I guess this is something to watch for with Franzs

BarryJ
 
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