What exactly do you mean by calling all these pickups "hot rodded PAFs"?
It's just a slang term that I
personally use.
The JB is about as far away from a PAF as you can get, thin wire, even windings, high DCr etc. The AT-1 is even more different due to the Dimarzio technologies (airing, VV).
I have a bad habit of seeing the PAF roots of many modern humbuckers.... I see active pups, PAF style humbuckers, Filtertrons, FWRH, single coils and stacked single buckers as definitive categories. Bill Lawrence low inductance designs are quite unique and are a category onto themselves and I don't have much experience with Bartolinis or DeArmonds (outside of one that was on my 12 string as a young teenager).
Categorizing things has always been one of my strengths
and weaknesses. lol.
One final thing, what do you mean by saying a JB can sound harsh in a 25 fret guitar (I'm assuming that you meant 24). Not only does Andy not play a 24 fret guitar, but the extra frets would only affect the neck pickup, where the JB is rarely if ever used.
I've always found that shorter scale lengths have a sort of warmer sound and the longer scale lengths can have more edge and cut, that's sort of where I was going... but I clearly meant 25" not 25 frets. lolz.
I was up all night editing video and typed the post right before I caught a long overdue cat nap. I'll change the frets to inches.
I've found that the JB's edge and cut is a bit subdued in shorter scale lengths and the harsh upper mids on the unwound strings aren't really ever an issue like they are on 25" scale lengths. I dunno... it's just my experience.
I'm a JB nut and if the pickup was a woman, I would have married her already! I've got JB2s, Bugseybuckers, JBJs, custom shop double creams and just picked up a 35th Anniversary commemorative JB and a liberator... if I ever get ahead of work, i'd like to do some back to back tone tests.
It was love/hate and I HATED the JB for many years and avoided them like the plague. I became a believer after picking up a really cheap guitar that happened to have a JB in it despite my misconceptions and misguided notions.
It took me a couple of years of working on my picking technique... basically refining it and paying extra attention to the way that I hold angle my pick. It wasn't until I moved to an angled pick attack for most of my picking on the unwound strings that I started to understand the mojo of the JB.
Not trying to call you out or say you are wrong, just trying to clarify...
I needed that Oilpit! Thanks!
![Grin ;D](https://www.dimarzioforum.com/forum/Smileys/default/grin.gif)