Everything you need to know about the best jazz guitar pickups out there.

Picking the best jazz pickups requires a different set of guidelines than choosing the best pickups for a lot of other genres. Jazz guitar players are less interested in output and the unique voice pickups can bring to their instrument. Instead, jazz players often focus on tonal purity and translating their guitar’s natural voice with detailed accuracy.

There are a ton of different pickups to choose from today. But it’s important to remember that all of the first humbucking pickups were jazz guitar pickups. They were created in a time when rock guitar was still getting its legs. Most players were playing electrified jazz and western swing music. And they needed hum-canceling pickups that delivered clarity, warmth, and detail.

These characteristics have made the original Seth Lover-designed, Gibson PAF humbucking pickups the standard for many different genres. But they’re also the same characteristics that define our choices for…

…The three best jazz guitar pickups

• Jazz Model
• Seth Lover Model
• Benedetto S6

Jazz SH-2

The name seems to make this pickup an obvious choice. But the Jazz SH-2 humbuckers are somewhat of a wild-card on this list. Their tight low-end, scooped mids, and detail treble has actually made them go-to pickups for rock and metal guitarists. In fact, a Jazz neck humbucker paired with a high-output JB bridge humbucker is one of the most popular rock ‘n’ roll pickup combinations in the history of Seymour Duncan.

Yet, like the first humbucking pickups, the same tonal characteristics make them ideal for their namesake genre. Place a Jazz SH-2 humbucker in the neck position of your favorite hollow-body electric guitar, and it greets you with incredible articulation and warmth. And best of all, its ability to eliminate wooly low-end will keep your guitar’s natural characteristics front and center.

Yes, the Jazz model humbuckers have built their legacy on delivering outstanding tone in a wide variety of genres. But it’s important to highlight how astounding these pickups sound when used within their original context.

If you’re a jazz player, don’t sleep on these “rock” humbuckers. Instead, install one in your guitar’s neck position and enjoy.

• Alnico 5 bar magnet
• Nickel silver bottom plate
• 4-conductor lead wire for multiple wiring options
• Vacuum wax potted for squeal-free performance
• Also available in a 7-string configuration
• Hand-built in Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Seth Lover SH-55

Seth Lover invented the first humbucking pickups for use by jazz guitarists in the early 1950s. (There weren’t a lot of other guitarists out there at the time.) And not many humbuckers come closer to those holy-grail pickups than the ones named for their inventor, the Seymour Duncan Seth Lover SH-55s.

From the ground up, Seth Lover humbucking pickups painstakingly recreate every detail of Lover’s original design. They feature Alnico 2 bar magnets and an unpotted construction underneath their nickel silver covers. We even use specially manufactured 42AWG plain enamel mag wire, and custom machined metal and maple spacers to ensure accuracy.

On top of the vintage-accurate materials, we put Seth Lover humbuckers through a vintage-correct manufacturing process. This includes using butyrate bobbin molds made by the same factory that built the original PAF mold for Gibson. And we wind them on our original Leesona winding machine from the original Gibson factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

The SH-55 humbuckers are as close as you can get to Seth Lover’s original pickups without dropping a mint on ’50s originals. So if you’re a jazz guitarist who loves the smooth, articulate top-end and vintage-humbucker warmth, the Seth Lover SH-55s are the best jazz pickups for you.

• 2.5-inch Alnico 2 bar magnet
• Specially manufactured 42AWG plain enamel mag wire
• nickel silver bottom plate
• custom machined metal and maple spacers
• Nickel silver cover

Benedetto S6

Traditional jazz players are passionate about gear that translates an unadulterated sound from their fingertips through their amp’s speaker. That’s why Benedettos are known as some of the best jazz humbuckers in history. It’s also why we had to put the Benedetto S6 on our list of the best jazz pickups.

These humbucking pickups are for the purist. They’re for the guitarist who wants to hear the sound of their archtop’s acoustic voice, only louder. And the only way to truly achieve that is to embrace the Benedetto S6’s floating design.

The S6’s low-profile installation—hidden under your pickguard—secures the pickup in mid-air between your strings and guitar top. This means no unnecessary routing into your beloved instrument. And it lets your guitar’s archtop sing with a pure, acoustic voice, uninhibited by a traditional pickup and pickup ring.

Their pure sound and sleek design aren’t the only beautiful things about the Benedetto S6 jazz humbuckers. They also wear a stunning Ebonova pickup cover that enhances your guitar’s beauty while never distracting from its unique aesthetics.

• Alnico 5 bar magnet
• Beautiful Ebonova covers
• Low-profile, floating pickup design
• Single-conductor co-axial cable
• Hand made in Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Let’s talk tone!

If you have any other questions about finding the best jazz pickups for you, check out our Knowledge Base here. You can also email us here. And don’t forget to dive deeper into the Seymour Duncan blog! There’s a ton of in-depth information on all of our different designs, how-tos, tone demonstrations, and a lot more.