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Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: FRED

« Last post by darkbluemurder on October 21, 2025, 11:00:10 AM »

I thought some of you might be interested in a direct comparison to the Mo' Joe, which I had back to back in the bridge position of the same guitar (a partscaster tele, poplar body, roasted maple neck w/ rosewood board, two humbuckers, two 500k audio controls for volume and tone, 3-way toggle, very simple set up).

The Mo' Joe sounded fat and good in there but a bit too dark compared to the Fralin Twangmaster in the neck so I tried the FRED as I wanted to brighten things up and to have a better balance with the neck pickup.

With the original wiring intact, the FRED sounded way different from the Mo' Joe. This was a surprise for me as the Mo' Joe was supposedly developed on the basis of the FRED but the FRED was much brighter and thinner and did not sound anything like the Mo' Joe. It was only when I added a 680k resistor from hot to ground to drop the load to about 290k, then the sound got closer to the Mo' Joe with a load of 500k. The missing midrange came back, and I reached the goal of getting a tone that is a bit brighter and leaner compared to the Mo' Joe. So from my experimentations I like the FRED with a load of 250k to 300k max. I also like the middle position so far, which got more quack than it had before.

These are only my first impressions after having installed the FRED in that guitar.

Cheers Stephan

12

The Pickup Place / Re: Dimarzio Virtual Hot PAF (DP214) Review

« Last post by nienturi on October 15, 2025, 04:00:10 AM »

Yes, here's mine I bought.
Nice black matte cover, brass back, black plastic wire tubing and F-Spaced.

I removed the cover and it had double black bobbins, which I prefer. I also removed the wax on top of the bobbins (as DiMarzio double-wax pots after installing the cover).
If I had a black Les Paul Custom, I would have used it with the the black matte cover and would have installed gold screws - I just love that look in a black LP Custom (I had one like this 10 years ago).

The DCR of mine measures at 9.33K

Awesome

13

The Pickup Place / Re: Dimarzio Virtual Hot PAF (DP214) Review

« Last post by Schneidas on October 14, 2025, 04:06:43 AM »

Yes, here's mine I bought.
Nice black matte cover, brass back, black plastic wire tubing and F-Spaced.

I removed the cover and it had double black bobbins, which I prefer. I also removed the wax on top of the bobbins (as DiMarzio double-wax pots after installing the cover).
If I had a black Les Paul Custom, I would have used it with the the black matte cover and would have installed gold screws - I just love that look in a black LP Custom (I had one like this 10 years ago).

The DCR of mine measures at 9.33K

14

The Pickup Place / Re: Dimarzio Virtual Hot PAF (DP214) Review

« Last post by nienturi on October 09, 2025, 08:02:22 AM »

It's always good to see another VHP

15

The Pickup Place / Re: Dimarzio Virtual Hot PAF (DP214) Review

« Last post by headcrash on October 09, 2025, 05:01:28 AM »

Pics

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The Pickup Place / Re: Dimarzio Virtual Hot PAF (DP214) Review

« Last post by headcrash on October 09, 2025, 04:51:16 AM »

To me it looks like LAG doesn’t build electrical guitars anymore and Musicgooddeal bought off some of their stock of DiMarzio Pickups.
It seems, they still have some DP 214‘s in stock: go to their website and type dp214 in the search - et voila. But I have no idea if they ship to overseas…

I have a DP 214 F-Spaced, with brass baseplate, black coating, and it came with a chrome cover, which I removed, because I don’t like covers.
I think it also came „stock“ with no threads in its lugs. It’s cable is equipped with a white heat shrink marked with „B“, similar to the custom pickups in EBMM EvH and Axis guitars.
I don’t use it, these days I’m more into higher output pickups (again), but I am reluctant to sell it, because it’s so damn good, and I’m afraid I’d regret it

17

The Pickup Place / Re: Dimarzio Virtual Hot PAF (DP214) Review

« Last post by nienturi on October 09, 2025, 02:36:16 AM »

I have found it. It is LAG Imperator I3000. VHP was used as a neck pickup for that model.

https://en.audiofanzine.com/lp-shaped-guitar/lag/imperator-3000-qm/

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The Pickup Place / Re: Dimarzio Virtual Hot PAF (DP214) Review

« Last post by nienturi on October 08, 2025, 07:01:57 AM »

Yes, I have a DP214 with brass plate and the plastic tubing is also the standard black and not clear as usual.
I bought this from an online retailer. When I asked DiMarzio, why my DP214 has golden brass plate and black plastic wire tubeing (not sure of the exact term for this part of the humbucker) they replied with:

"The pickup is authentic. It is an OEM version of the DP214 that was made for LAG Guitars."

Really? For LAG Guitars? Now, we got to find what LAG models have that pickup

19

The Pickup Place / Re: Dimarzio Virtual Hot PAF (DP214) Review

« Last post by Schneidas on October 08, 2025, 06:59:41 AM »

Yes, I have a DP214 with brass plate and the plastic tubing is also the standard black and not clear as usual.
I bought this from an online retailer. When I asked DiMarzio, why my DP214 has golden brass plate and black plastic wire tubeing (not sure of the exact term for this part of the humbucker) they replied with:

"The pickup is authentic. It is an OEM version of the DP214 that was made for LAG Guitars."

20

The Pickup Place / Re: NGD - Ibanez JS1000

« Last post by headcrash on October 07, 2025, 09:47:19 AM »

Hey Zoo Keeper,
The difference in position of the bridge pickup, resp. in the JS being closer to the bridge, will result in a thinner or at least less bassier sound - at least in my experience (assuming you set the pickups to the same distance to strings, using the same string gauge, overall as similar conditions as possible).
I think nowadays we all know that tonewood does not, or better: CAN not make a perceivable difference in sound on a purely electric guitar, and since both of your guitars have at least a very similar vibrato, we can rule that out too. 22 frets vs 24 frets also doesn’t make a difference, since both guitars have the same scale length.
We all know that neck pickups in general sound much fuller and bassier than bridge pickups: because of the position in relation to the bridge.

I have a guitar I absolutely love, and its bridge is around 5-8mm closer (depending on which saddle I measure) to the bridge pickup compared to my EBMM Axis (Super) Sports. The Axis Sports still sound quite a bite fuller and bassier using the same bridge pickup and adjusting everything as close to each other as possible on both guitars.
I ended up using a Tone Zone in that other guitar and I absolutely love it, and it also balances really well to a low output PAF-ish neck pickup there.
So I‘d recommend a Tone Zone or Air Zone. Also a AT-1 might work well there, but I remember it being a little soft in its attack, almost being a bit spongy (had it in my Axis Sports as well).
Keep in mind, that TZ or AZ won’t sound too dark or dull compared to many other guitars, because a position closer to the bridge balances things out quite well. At least, that’s what I experienced.
TBH, I didn’t expect the 5..6..7..8 mm to make such a difference, but well, it did.
I think that most folks don’t take this into account (I didn’t either!), when evaluating the sound of pickups.