DP240 Vintage Mini Humbucker

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Offline darkbluemurder

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DP240 Vintage Mini Humbucker
« on: April 29, 2014, 06:25:23 AM »
Having always fought with humbuckers in the neck that sounded too muddy on the low strings for my taste I read this thread with great interest:

http://www.dimarzioforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,4434.msg34291/topicseen.html#msg34291

I simply had to have one and I put it into my in my double cutaway LP Special/Hamer style guitar. Body and neck wood are mahogany (according to the builder swietenia macrophylla), the fingerboard is rosewood (probably Indian). Bridge is a Tone Pros AVT-II. The guitar has a 3-way toggle, one volume and one tone control (nominal 500k log each, volume about 520k, tone about 490k). The tone control is a push-pull which is used to series/parallel switching for the DLX Plus. Tone capacitor is a Xicon MPP 0.0022uf.

I also bought a DLX Plus for this guitar. That review is here: http://www.dimarzioforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,4976.0.html

I tested this through my self-modded Marshall and a Bassman converted to a D-style circuit for the clean tones.

I had to modify the guitar slightly to get the DP240 low enough to not overpower the DLX Plus in the bridge but with some careful Dremel routing it worked perfectly. I used a black GFS mounting ring (they have mounting rings for minibuckers in black and cream) which fit perfectly into the P90 slot. It looks very good on that guitar, not strange at all.

Tonally this pickup is bright, brighter than any big humbucker and also brighter than any 'tron humbucker. It has lots of treble and clarity, even with the 500k volume pot. I have not played a Firebird pickup in this guitar but that definitely cannot be much brighter! Mids are there but they are rather controlled. Bass response is very good but not muddy. This tone lends itself well to clean or mildly overdriven playing but it can also hold its own in a high gain situation with a bright, cutting tone. And here, the 0.0022uf tone capacitor comes into play very nicely: with the tone pot down the DP240 almost sounds like a big humbucker but without the mud on the low strings. Very very cool.

Together with the DLX Plus in the bridge you get a very clear middle position sound, which will get even clearer with the DLX Plus used in parallel mode.

I am still contemplating to change the volume pot in this guitar to 1 meg to make the DP240 even more clear and use a 1 meg resistor for the DLX Plus to bring the load for it down to 500k. But for now I will keep the guitar as is and play with it a little more.

It's great that this pickup exists. I think we should have more pickups between the humbucker and single coil food groups, such as Minis, Firebirds and Filtertron types.

Cheers Stephan
Area 67, Area 58, Area 61, VV Pro 54, Injectors, VV HB2, Virtual Solo, SDS-1, Area T, Area Hot T, Area T 615, Virtual Hot T, Chopper T, Bluesbucker, Breed set, Air Norton, Super Distortion, DLX+ set, DLX-90, DP240, DP198, DP168, VPAF b, AT-1, Mo' Joe, FRED, Super 2; GS b

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Offline darkbluemurder

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Re: DP240 Vintage Mini Humbucker
« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2014, 02:41:53 AM »
Yesterday I changed the volume pot to 1 meg log. This still increased the articulation in the DP240. I wired a 560k resistor to ground from the bridge pickup lug at the 3-way toggle so the load on the bridge pickup is roughly 500k.

Cheers Stephan
« Last Edit: May 13, 2014, 02:43:31 AM by darkbluemurder »
Area 67, Area 58, Area 61, VV Pro 54, Injectors, VV HB2, Virtual Solo, SDS-1, Area T, Area Hot T, Area T 615, Virtual Hot T, Chopper T, Bluesbucker, Breed set, Air Norton, Super Distortion, DLX+ set, DLX-90, DP240, DP198, DP168, VPAF b, AT-1, Mo' Joe, FRED, Super 2; GS b

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Offline darkbluemurder

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Re: DP240 Vintage Mini Humbucker
« Reply #2 on: July 03, 2014, 10:55:33 AM »
I posted this in the forum and post it again here in the relevant thread. It's a great demo of the Di Marzio Minihumbucker by Jim Soloway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpmYODAarXc

Not sure whether it's the exact same pickup since the description says it's a prototype but anyway - enjoy.

Cheers, Stephan
Area 67, Area 58, Area 61, VV Pro 54, Injectors, VV HB2, Virtual Solo, SDS-1, Area T, Area Hot T, Area T 615, Virtual Hot T, Chopper T, Bluesbucker, Breed set, Air Norton, Super Distortion, DLX+ set, DLX-90, DP240, DP198, DP168, VPAF b, AT-1, Mo' Joe, FRED, Super 2; GS b

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Offline darkbluemurder

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Re: DP240 Vintage Mini Humbucker
« Reply #3 on: December 18, 2014, 10:08:02 AM »
Meanwhile I scored a used one on the bay and replaced the Cruiser bridge in my telecaster with it. I mainly did this because the pickguard which I ordered with a strat pickup route did not fit - apart from the fact that it had a tele neck pickup route so the supplier screwed this one up big time :(.

Anyway - I still had two white tele pickguards routed for minihum/Firebird in the neck so in went the DP240. This is a great tele neck pickup, and IMHO it balances better with the Chopper T in the bridge than the Cruiser that was in there before. It is clear, articulate yet warm and has the tight enough low end I want - no mud at all. It simply sounds like it belongs in a tele's neck spot. Cruiser was great, too, though but I like this one even better. Highly recommended.

Cheers Stephan   
Area 67, Area 58, Area 61, VV Pro 54, Injectors, VV HB2, Virtual Solo, SDS-1, Area T, Area Hot T, Area T 615, Virtual Hot T, Chopper T, Bluesbucker, Breed set, Air Norton, Super Distortion, DLX+ set, DLX-90, DP240, DP198, DP168, VPAF b, AT-1, Mo' Joe, FRED, Super 2; GS b

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Offline darkbluemurder

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Re: DP240 Vintage Mini Humbucker
« Reply #4 on: January 31, 2019, 06:04:53 AM »
For completeness' sake see here for the DP-168 Mini Humbucker: http://www.dimarzioforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,7074.0.html

and here for the DP-198 Hot Minibucker: http://www.dimarzioforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,5416.0.html

Both available through the custom shop only.
« Last Edit: February 06, 2019, 08:03:17 AM by darkbluemurder »
Area 67, Area 58, Area 61, VV Pro 54, Injectors, VV HB2, Virtual Solo, SDS-1, Area T, Area Hot T, Area T 615, Virtual Hot T, Chopper T, Bluesbucker, Breed set, Air Norton, Super Distortion, DLX+ set, DLX-90, DP240, DP198, DP168, VPAF b, AT-1, Mo' Joe, FRED, Super 2; GS b

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Offline Mew

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Re: DP240 Vintage Mini Humbucker
« Reply #5 on: September 28, 2019, 12:40:20 PM »
Just a bump question; has anyone tried DP241, bridge version of Vintage Minibucker? Is it closer to 36th PAF or Air Classic? Thanks.