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The Pickup Place / What's the most sledgehammer-ly DiMarzio?

« on: October 29, 2017, 12:27:03 PM »

Got a 1989 USA Neck Through Warlock here.  It came with matching vintage DiMarzio PAFs.  Expected it to have a Super Distortion in the bridge.

Here's what I want from a hot bridge humbucker- I want it to hit with a broad, all-at-once battering ram kind of sound.  Not a stab, but a bludgeon.  I know this means ceramic.

I've used the Super 3 before and I think that's a great candidate, my only concern being that it's a bit of a one trick pony.  I can live with that since this is supposed to be my dedicated metal guitar.

I'm curious about the Dominion bridge.

Other suggestions?

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The Pickup Place / CLEAN & CHORDS: Tone Zone or Norton?

« on: September 07, 2017, 02:24:09 PM »

So I've tried both pickups before, and have extensive Tone Zone experience.  I elected to go with a Norton in the bridge of my PRS McCarty 594, specifically because I'd used the TZ so much in the past, and wanted to retain the option of a slightly lower output PAF sound in the bridge, with enough power and immediacy to do the metal thing also when needed (I play a lot of variety).

Out of the gate, I'm regretting the Norton and wishing I'd stuck with the Tone Zone.  Despite its higher output and bass, I feel the TZ has more natural, less honky sounds for cleans and light grit, and a less honky nasal lead tone.

I play a lot of double stops in my lead playing, and my rhythm/lead uses lots of "small chords," three-note chords on strings  2-4 and 1-3.

Anyone else weigh in on this?

General TZ vs Norton discussion welcome always:)

Gaucho

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The Pickup Place / Tone Zone/PAF Master Neck combo (video run through)

« on: April 01, 2016, 01:18:32 PM »

Reclaiming the Tone Zone as a fantastic, versatile, not-for-metal-only pickup is one of my missions in life. 

https://youtu.be/zlxHidH7Ivo

The PAF Master Neck is a jewel too.  Nothing that's gonna change your life (unlike the Tone Zone) but a great warm, open neck pickup with plenty of bite to cut through.  I'd say you could use it with literally any bridge pickup.

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The Pickup Place / Versatile, punchy bridge pup for "soft" sounding Superstrat

« on: March 27, 2016, 01:11:25 PM »

My alder bodied, mahogany neck, ebony board Warmoth Soloist has a beautiful sound unplugged- warm, balanced, resonant, shimmery, and long sustaining.

It has the JB/Jazz set, covered.  My problem is something like mush- not muddy exactly, it just doesn't have the punch and immediacy I want.  I'm accustomed to hardtails, and with the gain turned up it just doesn't have the right combination of cajones and cut.  The JB has plenty of high highs (pick attack), but overall I do not find it a bright pickup.  It's extremely warm actually.

I've had a Crunch Lab which cut great but is just too compressed, it robs this beautiful instrument of its nuance.

I typically go Alnico though I'm not against ceramic.  I actually think k the Duncan Custom (SH-5).

I'm thinking-
Dominion bridge
Norton
Mo Joe

What else?

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The Pickup Place / Humbucker From Hell: an alternate view

« on: January 09, 2016, 01:22:25 PM »

So I've got the HFH in the neck of my main ride, a long-tenon set neck mahogany/maple carved top double cutaway.  The guitar is warm but bright if you can imagine.  Woody, sharp, complex.

I'm here to tell you, the last word I would use for this pickup is "transparent" (and this is not my first go round with the HFH).  Transparent, to me, means the sound of your guitar's wood comes through.  By contrast, HFH makes HFH come through.  It took all my guitar's hard earned harmonic complexity, bound it, gagged it, and shoved it in a closet where no one could hear it cry for escape.

Despite the low resistance (5.89Kohm- single coil range), the effect of the pickup is very compressed.  Notes do not evolve harmonically after the attack- not at ALL.  For some, this might be a good thing. If you want absolute evenness between your notes, and have decent technique, this will be a good pickup for you. But for me, the effect is an extremely focused midrange voice that is absolutely flat, No maturation in the tone as the note sustains, with an extremely loud and again compressed highest frequency range - in other words, your pick attack comes through like a freshly sharpened axe slamming into a steel plate.  Soften your attack? CLANG.  Change pick angle? CLANG.  You follow.  It's extremely consistent in that piercing high end click.

So even in spite of its brightness, it's actually a fairly forgiving pickup if your right hand technique is lacking. I am hating it at the moment because I want my electrics to respond like acoustics - I want my hands in charge, and with this pick up I feel like whatever I put into it comes out exactly the same.

I've been guilty of yanking a pickup impulsively, so I'm going to give it a chance. But I had to chime in not for the sake of bashing it, but because I think there's a shortage of critical listening based feedback on this pickup, and a surplus of opinions based on previous reviews and party line noise. That said, it does what it is described to do. There is something strat like about it, although without the scooped midrange, and sweetness of a strat neck pup.  It is bright as hell. I have no idea how John Petrucci used the Tone Zone / Humbucker from Hell combination live, since EQing one to sound its best yields the worst possible settings for the other.

I'd love more feedback.

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The Pickup Place / Wiring help? 5 way super switch

« on: December 31, 2015, 11:07:53 PM »

Rewired my H-H Warmoth Soloist with a super switch.  Positions 1-5 should yield Bridge Humbucker, Bridge N coil, Bridge N coil and Neck S coil, Neck N coil, and Neck Humbucker.

Positions 1-4 work (need to flip neck pup to get right coils active, easier than rewiring and almost same result), but neck Humbucker (position 5) is extremely weak. Like Parallel, but way weaker.  Almost inaudible.

What gives?

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The Pickup Place / PAF Master Bridge in Neck position...I've seen the light (video)

« on: June 13, 2015, 09:43:02 AM »

https://youtu.be/MCVW1dB4Edw

The perfect neck pickup (for me)...and it's not a "neck" pickup.

Playing  starts at 3:00.

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The Pickup Place / DiMarzios for alder bolt-on Warmoth Soloist

« on: June 01, 2015, 11:44:56 PM »

Building a Warmoth Soloist (which they should call an 8/8 Dinky- since, having a bolt-on neck, it is by definition NOT a soloist...but anyway).

Alder body
Wilkinson trem (non-locking nut)
Non-slanted headstock- no string trees
Mahogany neck
Ebony fingerboard

If there were one word I had to use to describe what I want out of this guitar, it's fusion.  But NOT in the sense of fusion jazz (though I'd want to be able to play that on this guitar if need be). 

Obviously it's basically a rock guitar.  But not a straight-up metal guitar.  I wanted better tone than I can get out of a locking trem (if you want to have that argument let's do it elsewhere), a fatter sound, and to that end used a mahogany neck rather than a maple neck which would land this guitar squarely in the shred/metal camp.

In short, I need it to do everything but country, with my main emphases being classic/southern rock (think Black Crowes more than Bad Company) and metal (Think Sabbath through Dio through Opeth rather than Lamb of God or Black Dahlia Murder).

I've been reading about the Transitions, and the official DM Lukather video hugely piqued my interest.  They sound huge.  I'm into huge.

Most players around here seem obsessed with "clarity."  That's not a huge issue for me as I play through a vintage style Fender 75 amp, and usually feel more slighted by the lack of upper mids than the lack of "clarity."

PUPS I LIKE:
     Tone Zone- beautiful, organic, detailed (I LOVE DETAIL and HARMONICS) tone.  Lack of presence/upper mids and high end bite bugs me.

     Norton- awesome presence...but cheesy upper mid honk.  Probably rocks in basswood; too up-front in my main guitar (mahogany, but a strangely bright and extremely present mahogany neck-through (basically) mahogany doublecut).

     AT-1- Strangely stiff in my main guitar, but great (GREAT) in my Alder Samick Blues Saraceno signature TV-20. 

     PAF Pro- what's not to like.  Classic with just a hair of that DiMarzio "blippiness" that the Air Norton takes too far (in the neck position that is)

     Liquifire- Would be perfect if not for the overly compressed and somewhat overly push-y upper mids.  Would like some more bass out of it.  Still very nice.

     Seymour Duncan Custom (not Custom-Custom).  Rockin, in your face with loads of bite and harmonics and tight bass...just a little too compressed for me.



As  you can see I have an opinion about everything.  Looking for ideas of all kinds.

Thinking:
Seymour Duncan 59/Custom bridge (sorry DiMarzio forum, I know)
Transition set
Crunch Lab/Liquifire set
Gravity Storm set (though the talk of the neck being single-coil like turns me off- I like FAT neck tones)
SD Perpetual Burn (bridge)
Talk to me people!