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The Pickup Place / My Dimarzio Cruiser Neck Review

« Last post by nienturi on September 02, 2025, 06:28:02 AM »

Hello,

This is my Dimarzio Cruiser Neck review. Hope you like it;

https://www.tonejourney.com/post/dimarzio-cruiser-review

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The Pickup Place / New Pickup: DiMarzio Colossal Bass pickup

« Last post by buddroyce on September 01, 2025, 05:01:34 PM »

Sorry I haven't been that active. Work's taken over more of my life than I thought it would.

But I got this in my e-mail today and figured I'd share. Looks like a great passive replacement for anyone that's already spaced for an EMG soapbar pickup.

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Living up to its name, “Colossal,” this pickup set has more of everything. Play them softly and they deliver an unmatched airiness to the notes; play them aggressively and they will blow your hair back. These passive pickups are designed to effortlessly respond to soft touch, slap, or aggressive pick attack with ease.

As with our game changing Relentless™ pickups, we removed all the hard edges from the metal covers, and added an arch to the top contour, bringing the sensing coils closer to the middle strings. These improvements increase the string balance and overall dynamic range.

The Colossal™ pickups are a fully humbucking design and are completely shielded, making them a better choice for both recording and live shows. These pickups can be used with the coils in series, parallel, or split configurations, making multiple sounds easily achievable without the need for digital filters. The Colossal™ Bridge and Neck can easily be combined with active electronics.

Using a thick .09375” circuit board baseplate as the foundation, the Colossal™ pickups are simple to install and use our quick connect cable system. The soapbar shaped (EMG40® sized, 37.75mm x 101.25mm) pickups incorporate Neodymium magnets, producing significantly more output and dynamic range than traditional active or passive pickups.

To improve the balance when both pickups are used together, we made the bridge position pickup louder than the neck position pickup. When the pickups are blended, you get a better volume match.

Colossal™ pickups have a richly detailed mid-range that growls, delivering notes with definition and openness, and they work well with dropped tunings. The highs are present and precise without harshness, and the lows are thunderous and tight, like the footsteps of a giant.

Available in Nickel, Gold, or Matte Black finishes.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Neck pickup to go with Air Norton in the Bridge of a Les Paul

« Last post by gregr on September 01, 2025, 02:49:10 PM »

Regarding whether DiMarzio pickups are hand-guided I dug this up. It’s an interesting read with contributions from someone who used to work at DiMarzio.

https://www.dimarzioforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=7154.0

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The Pickup Place / Re: Neck pickup to go with Air Norton in the Bridge of a Les Paul

« Last post by gregr on August 31, 2025, 08:41:17 PM »

If it reads ~8.6k out of the guitar then I guarantee the pickup is mislabeled. At that point it could be anything, really; so it’s probably most accurate to say that if it doesn’t measure ~7.3k then it most definitely isn’t a 36th Neck. I’ll be charitable and say anything between 7.1k and 7.5k. +/-200 ohms is a large variance for a modern DiMarzio pickup.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Neck pickup to go with Air Norton in the Bridge of a Les Paul

« Last post by Zoo Keeper on August 31, 2025, 05:18:55 PM »

So the 36th is definitely the neck model based on the model number on the base. Maybe it was an unusually hot version, although I doubt it based on the fact that they are not hand wired. I did a quick reading so there is a chance I got it wrong. What is 100% is the levels between the two pickups.  I decided to put the AN and 36th in the guitar because I wasn't happy with the previous pickups and I had these two waiting for something to do. A little research said that it could be cool, and by and large the AN in the bridge is pretty nice.  ( you are waiting for the "but", I know it. lol)

BUT in going down the rabbit hole I started gravitating towards a more classic PAF family of sounds.   I  was looking at Duncans  Alnico Pro II, Antiquity, and Custom Shop Pearly Gates. All some form of known versions of a PAF. 
I ended up putting in an order  for a Wolftone Legend set.  They seem to be a little bit of everything I ended up wanting, and was hoping to get when I bought the Skinnerburst set. Wolfe was great to work with, responded to my emails quickly and  with a great knowledge base. He already has them in the mail and I should get them this coming week. It might take a week to get them in unless I try it myself.  I've swapped pickups before but my soldering is not pro level so I might leave this to my longtime repair person.
I'll give my 2 cents once they are in and compare to what I have now.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Neck pickup to go with Air Norton in the Bridge of a Les Paul

« Last post by gregr on August 28, 2025, 10:42:06 AM »

You cannot compare the DC resistance of the Air Norton to the 36th for output because the coils are wound with a different wire.

This is especially true with DiMarzio pickups in general since air bucker, virtual vintage and dual-resonance technologies effectively render DCR numbers useless.

That out of the way I’m not sure why this is being raised.

The mV value is a better indicator.

The 36th Anniversary model that is spec'd with a DCR of 8.6k is spec'd with an output level of 285mV.

The Air Norton is spec'd with an output level of 270mV.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Neck pickup to go with Air Norton in the Bridge of a Les Paul

« Last post by darkbluemurder on August 28, 2025, 05:43:57 AM »

You cannot compare the DC resistance of the Air Norton to the 36th for output because the coils are wound with a different wire. 36th uses 42 AWG, and one of the AN coils uses 43 AWG which is thinner and has a higher DC resistance. The mV value is a better indicator.

Cheers Stephan

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The Pickup Place / Re: Neck pickup to go with Air Norton in the Bridge of a Les Paul

« Last post by gregr on August 27, 2025, 10:39:33 PM »

Okay, I am not great with guitar electronics but I cab use a meter. AM comes in at 12.5k ohms and the 36th neck at 8.5.

https://www.dimarzio.com/pickups/vintage-paf-output/paf-36th-anniversary-neck

Check the resistance specification of the 36th Neck.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Neck pickup to go with Air Norton in the Bridge of a Les Paul

« Last post by Zoo Keeper on August 27, 2025, 09:43:42 PM »

That someone might have a problem pairing the 36th neck with an AN in the bridge doesn’t come as a big surprise to me. It is no wonder that you would have to bottom-out a 36th bridge in the neck position, assuming that is what you have.

I have a DP103 36th Anniversary  neck pickup in the neck.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Neck pickup to go with Air Norton in the Bridge of a Les Paul

« Last post by gregr on August 25, 2025, 05:10:32 PM »

The spec for the 36th Anniversary Bridge model is 8.60k. The neck model is 7.31k. 8.60k connected to a 500k pot will measure 8.45k.

That someone might have a problem pairing the 36th neck with an AN in the bridge doesn’t come as a big surprise to me. It is no wonder that you would have to bottom-out a 36th bridge in the neck position, assuming that is what you have.