DimarzioForum.Com > The Pickup Place
Pickups that have left you less than impressed?
Marshall Law:
I wanted to hear from others which pu's they tried that left them :P
for me it was and keep in mind this is ONLY MY OPINION NOT A CONCRETE FACT
First off is the super d(yeah i know it is known as a classic and it is not a bad pu but i felt it was rather plain sounding,no real magic for me
The X2N wow what i got from it was hot output ,hot output and more hot output but that was it!)very bland EQ
the screamin demon(another pu that i had high hopes for but left me asking thats all it is?)
the steves special(now to be fair this is a specialty pu in that it was developed for guys that need a midrange reduction because their amp is very middy(ala MESA BOOGIE)
the duncan 59(wow i certainly hope that this is not the tone of the pu that some pay thousands of dollors for when they buy a real deal PAF) this one was very boring to me, Plain jane!
duncan PG another pu i bought thinking this is goin to blow me away after reading all the great things about it! NOT! LOL!
Duncan invader(can you say FUGLY LOOKING and MUD BOMB in one sentence!)sold this one so quick i for got i even owned it! LOL!
there are others but those are the main ones,and while i am listing the bad ones for me,ones that surprised me were the double whammy(this should have stayed in production, and the virtual hot PAF's(killer models that i think were better than the 36th that replaced them)
Megadrive( wow this is a steve special without the midrange taken away real nice! great drive and eq!) how about you what models made you say "why did i buy this?"
mesa0131:
Great Dislike's:
EMG 81/85 (altho i didnt buy them, they were stock in two of my guitars) I was happy to have them when i bought the guitars new, then realized how bland and useless they are once my ear for tone matured
D Activator A cheap pickup, no real great EQ, just harsh upper mids/highs and couldn't work out in 5 of my guitars. Not a good sign.
Crunch Lab I didn't mind this one so much, but when I swapped a D-sonic in its place I realized how mundane the CL was. a rolled off EQ and more gain, didn't sit well with my ears. Don't miss it, wouldn't buy it again
Super 3 (Came Stock in a MIJ Super Strat) NOT a real hair metal/thrash fan. Mids out the wha-zoo
SuperD Sounded great in a cheap Jackson JS30RR V, but not great enough to keep it around.
D Activator X A very VERY powerful pickup, I liked the EQ in my baritone, but I don't play breakdowns inside of breakdowns (a la Acacia Strain/Oceano) and my baritone sounds more than thick enough with my go to pickup (dsonic) so i had no real use for it.
Cruiser Neck Very Boring, turned me off of ceramic dual blade single coil pickups. Lifeless, quiet... Turned my ear more towards HS/VV and standard single coil pickups.
Liquifire I realize what this pickup was made to do and it just isn't my bag at all... Will have a Paf Pro replacement.
Honorable Mentions:
D Sonic Clear thick organic and just the right amount of output
Paf Pro Perfection for neck applications with D Sonic
Virtual Solo Great in the middle with higher output pickups!
HS-2 Well just awesome anywhere, series or split!
Twang King Neck Surprisingly amazingly warm tele neck tone! Glad i went with it over all else. It has made me love playing neck pickups!!!
Twang King Bridge Great Tele tone, very spanking, and takes overdrive really well! I love mine! For when you REALLY need to twang
G&L MFD ASAT Special Pickups Overwound single coils, minimal hum, and great output and tone. Compared to my tele this thing wins hands down. Very thick! But they are completely different animals. I would compare these pickups to a cleaner sounding P90, with all that great qualities when overdriven or gained out on a good amp.
Joey Voltage:
DActivator - is the top of my list of disappointment. I'm still messing with it though. I was really hoping for something clean, and accurate, but hot and smooth at the same time.
super 3 - generally like it but I like it in some guitars better, and it was my first DiMarzio model, sounds better if you have a floyd, a basswood body, and a maple neck and fingerboard. I always run hot and cold with it though, I love the dark sing for some things, but at times I find it kinda boxy.
Fred - HATED it as a bridge pickup, which i originally bought it for - had a weird dense character, and I was really expecting just a subtly different paf pro. Recently i auditioned for a local prog/thrash band and the guitar i had gotten used to playing had a hum from hell in the neck, i swapped this in on grounds of maybe getting a more singing neck sound, and was pleasantly surprised it stil had a very nice glassy sheen to it. LOVE it as a neck pickup, works well with a tone zone, which is what I have in the bridge of this guitar.
PAF Pro - Default neck pickup, but a little wimpy for a bridge pickup though, especially for floating locking trem guitars. So it gets an A as a great neck pup, but I don't like it as a bridge pick up.
Steves Special - Tried to like it twice, and at one point I did like it briefly, but its not my thing, might sound good for some detuned stuff, haven't tried it for that, might screw with it though. Didn't care too much for the plasticky treble it had.
Jackson J90C, I liked this one iirc, had a nice muscular midrange, wish I still had it for comparison. I ended up replacing it with a super 3, and then put it back a couple years later and thought it was everything I was hoping the super 3 was. Although I owned the version with the philister and slugs. They also made a dual slug version they encased in a plastic cover like an emg.
Humbucker from hell - I like this one alot too for the neck, but it didn't quite have enough oomph for me for it to be a staple. Its kind of picky about guitars too, and I couldn't get it to work for me as a general blend, like say a paf pro for the neck. Which surprisingly works well with most.
Tone Zone - One of my favorites! have never had a problem with muddy, farty low end. It seems to work very well with my picking. And I love the mid punch.
Air Norton - Meh, I don't feel one way or the other about it, might un-air it and give it a try.
Air zone - cool fat grind, didn't quite have the drive I was looking for at the time though, might give it another try.
EVO - Just couldn't make them work for me, or my guitars, actually sounded great in a real alder bodied jem though.
Ibanez V7/V8, boring, came stock with a RG1570
Ibanez inf's - belong in the garbage
1997 Peavey wolfgang stocks - Neck pick sounds good, fat, with good drive, bridge pickup is weak, and lacking in comparison though.
Hs3 have them stock on a YJM. I LOVE the sound of these. they are weak in output, but make up for it in the tone dept.
ToneZone S, was okay, but not like the real thing. But I don't know how you could expect it to be.
Fast Track 1, I think I liked it, but I was just a teenager when I had it so I dunno
Chopper, mated it with the TZs, not bad as a neck pick up, but wasnt overly thrilled with it either.
mesa0131:
Joey! I was confused on which you liked and which you disliked... or if you kind of liked some but after all got rid of it...
SouthendSteve:
Area '61 were a bit thin. In my opinion, the output was a bit on the low side, but that's more for me than anyone else.
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