I agree with you on the whole marketing approach they are taking. Especially w/ the aforementioned hipsters. Nothing about those two is prompting me to spend a dime. I think with the boutique builders coming up, and the kind of “cork sniffing” consensus of some sites that suggest that Larry and Seymour are kind of low brow (not my opinion at all), and that a pickup costing less than their $200 early P.A.F. replica is junk isn’t helping get people to Larry even though Dimarzio has some TERRIFIC stuff. I may be misremembering the 80s and I don’t have an old brochure in front of me, but it seems the catalog of readily available pickups has shrunk. I could be VERY wrong about that so nobody hold my feet to the flame on that last statement.
I am constantly reminding people in other sites about my era when you went into a brick and mortar store and had a choice of Dimarzio, Duncan, or maybe Bill Lawrence. Then EMG became the trend, but still mainly Larry or Seymour. Like I said, I could be very wrong, but it seems as though the Dimarzio pickup catalog has shrunk. Did they get rid of some slow or non sellers? I would be willing to bet yes. BUT....When you have a large number of people telling you with their ears that you left a gap by getting rid of something, it might be worth a looksie. I am considering buying four or five double whammys before they decide to stop doing them through the custom shop. To my ears, even though they say the TZ covers that ground, it just doesn’t seem to do it as smoothly.