I just snapped this photo a few minutes ago. I'm gonna change the strings on the Special Jet before tonight's show. But I wanted to check out any differences in layout between this guitar and what I consider a more "standard" issue Jet, in this case a 2004 Jet Firebird 6131TDS.
Nothing really glaring to my eyes. Obviously they have different bridges, one has a Bigsby while the other is hard tail. No master volume on one(well, theoretically, they both actually have masters, just that one doesn't have it on the
cutaway). Easy to see things like one has an arched maple top while the other is essentially a slab o' mahogany. But the one thing that really stood out to me(being the geek that I am about these things) was the position of the neck pickup. Notice on the Special Jet that the neck pickup is slightly further away from the neck than the one on the Jet Firebird, which has the neck pickup right up against the edge of the neck. Any tonal difference? Well, I haven't plugged in today and A/B'ed them, but I do remember from Wednesday night's show that the neck pickup on the Special Jet sounded very sweet by itself, which strangely enough I can't say about the Jet Firebird or my '05 6128TSP(which is my regular gigging axe). The "upscale" Jets have a better sound with both pickups used together, and especially when using the bridge pickup alone. But I do give a slight edge to the neck pickup on the Special Jet.
I still stand behind my earlier assertion that I will replace the 2ks on this guitar with Dynas however, sometime in the future.
Nothing terribly revealing about this post, I know. I just noticed the pickup placement differences and wanted to share. Cheers!
