16

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?

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

17

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The AT-1

« on: December 19, 2015, 05:16:54 PM »

Couple med-high gain demos.

https://youtu.be/u70PIa0aUG8
https://youtu.be/trn4hnd11S4

It seems to have some nice 'spongey' qualities, maybe a tad too loose in the lows, but to me it also seems to lack some bite that I'm looking for.
Then again, it would probably pair awesomely with an EVH 5150 III 50W head and Vintage speakers; bite aplenty.

I'd agree with all that.

I've had it in three guitars...and I don't own it any more. 


Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

18

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: Gravity Storm

« on: December 19, 2015, 02:32:25 PM »

Overall, I’m quite impressed with these pickups. They have the power, tightness and crunch that you’d want from a pickup design for hard rock/metal or anything you’d play with a bit or a lot of distortion from blues right up to really aggressive metal. The bridge pickup definitely blew me away here and I do see the neck pickup taking over a lot of the recommendations that the Air Norton and LiquiFire tend to get, especially for solo instrumental/shred stuff. The inability for me to get a clean sound just by rolling down the volume takes a bit away from the versatility of the pickups, but that’s easily remedied by switching to a proper clean channel.

If you’re looking for a set of pickups for instrumental metal/shred but want something more aggressive than the Tone Zone and don’t want the darker rounder sound from the Air Norton in the neck? Get the Gravity Storm set. If the key words in your tonal description includes tight, aggressive and crunchy, get the Gravity Storm set. Heck if you have a single humbucker guitar and need an awesome bridge pickup that’s got versatility, GET THE GRAVITY STORM. It’s that good!

You may have just sold me.  At least on the bridge.
My main ride is a mahogany set neck, maple carved top hardtail double cutaway, but is nothing like a Les Paul or SG (It's a Jack Dent Raven for the record- NC builder).  The neck tenon goes all the way through the one-piece body.  It's full and balanced but extremely bright.  Strong but tight bass. 

I CANNOT get the pickups right.  I love the Tone Zone, especially for cleanish-mid gain playing.  I love the harmonic complexity.  But it's too dense.  Not too bassy exactly-too dense, when playing gained out.

I use a clean amp (Fender 75) and dirt pedals.

Duncan Custom-tight but too stiff.  Harsh highs.

Crunch Lab- Nice harmonics and definition, but very boxy/stiff for cleans and too polite/polished with gain. 

I could go on.  I wanted a Tone Zone with tighter bass and some space in the mix (less lower mids is what this amounts to).

I had also considered the Dominion bridge.

NECK: this one scares me a little. Any pick up that gets recommended for people who want more clarity out of the neck is generally something I avoid like the plague. This guitar is so clear already that it needs a fatter neck pickup to get any sing out of it. So the thought of a ceramic neck pickup does not appeal to me. I love for you to prove me wrong because I like the idea of a matched set. I am tired of fighting volume and color differences when mixing and matching pickups.

19

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The AT-1

« on: July 06, 2015, 05:51:04 PM »

Couple med-high gain demos.

https://youtu.be/u70PIa0aUG8
https://youtu.be/trn4hnd11S4

20

The Pickup Place / Re: Crunch Lab or Dominion?

« on: June 15, 2015, 02:22:11 PM »

Commander Chaos, I'm building a Warmoth Alder soloist with Wilkinson trem to be a great all-around rock guitar.  It will do a lot of duty as a metal axe but also needs to be versatile for everything from classic/southern rock to funk (I don't really care if it's not a great funk guitar but just saying, I'll be playing all of the above).

I'm going with the Liquifire in the neck PROBABLY as I've used it before to good effect.  It's a great warm fat but tight (if that makes sense) neck pickup whose only downside is not being able to do the true PAF thing. 

I'm also considering the Transition set (the official DM Lukather video makes them sound like God) and the Dominion set.

So specifically about the Dominion bridge, do you see it being well suited to my needs?  Morton himself describes his personal non-LOG playing as including classic rock and blues, so that makes me think good thoughts.  But then other people talking about it are like TIGHT TIGHT TIGHT which makes me think STIFF STIFF STIFF. 

Worth noting that for me "metal" means Ozzy-Opeth.  Nothing "heavier" than that.

Thanks.

21

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

« on: June 15, 2015, 02:06:19 PM »

A4 indeed.

It is a hot pickup for the neck- I have it lowered quite low, almost flush with the mounting ring, and it balances great volume and density-wise with the Tone Zone which of course is a very hot pickup in my book (375 mv and 17.5K resistance approximately).  Would overpower a vintage output bridge pup for sure.

22

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: PAF MASTER SET REVIEW

« on: June 13, 2015, 10:02:12 AM »

PAF Master Bridge in Neck:  Sweet glorious glory.  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MCVW1dB4Edw&feature=youtu.be

23

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.

24

The Pickup Place / Re: Neck Bucker anti woof question

« on: June 01, 2015, 11:58:05 PM »

24" scale...

just sayin

25

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!

26

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Tone Zone

« on: April 20, 2015, 12:27:26 PM »

For anyone interested in the Tone Zone in the neck position.

https://youtu.be/_gOL6uatg8I

27

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Air Norton

« on: February 04, 2015, 07:10:06 AM »

Forgive if this is out of line, but I saw that my video has over 1,300 views which had to have been driven mainly by this forum. Would folks like to see more DM demos on dimarzioforum?

28

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Air Norton

« on: November 10, 2014, 07:41:16 PM »

DiMarzio Air Norton Bridge Demo: http://youtu.be/u_l-vJ_yqN0

29

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

« on: August 12, 2013, 09:17:32 PM »

I too am shocked to find no info on Fred, and having recently acquired one I suppose I'm now qualified to comment. 

I was highly skeptical about Fred for all the wrong reasons...despite owning a large chunk of Mr. Satriani's catalog, the one thing I have never liked about his playing is his tone, especially on his classic records.  I had always assumed that the uber-fizz tone that's all over SWTA and FIABD was a function of Fred.

I have never been more happy to be wrong about a pickup.

Below is some information about what guitar it's in, to give context.  for those not interested in that, skip down below the line of asterisks.

I've got it in the bridge of a Raven model from up and coming guitar builder Jack Dent (jackdentguitars.com).  Carved top double cutaway with Mahogany body, mahogany neck, thick maple top, and rosewood fingerboard.  The neck joint is like a cross between set neck and neck-thru- one piece mahogany back has a channel from end to end in which the neck is set, through the whole length of the guitar.

I mention all this to give context for the pickup description.  This guitar overall is surprisingly bright and very, very clear in tone, while still retaining a very strong but tight bass presence.

************************************************************************

I was concerned Fred would be too bright, as I've always heard it described as a very bright pickup.  And to be sure, it IS bright.  Awesomely clear and defined, but still with plenty of bass presence when gained out. 

Surprisingly to me it REALLY shines when played clean.  I play a telecaster often when I'm not playing my Raven, and the Fred comes closest of any humbucker I've ever played to delivering the immediacy, brightness and cut you get from a tele bridge. 
     Now before anyone reads this and thinks "I don't like bright pickups," read a little further.  I historically haven't either.  My favorite all around bridge pickup is the Tone Zone (I should say "was" now that I've tried Fred).  I cannot overemphasize this fascinating quality it has of seeming to have this big, lovely bass presence come out of nowhere as you add gain.  But it's still perfectly clear and tight.  The DM website says that in contrast to other humbuckers that get fatter with added gain, Fred gets "tighter and brighter."  I can't agree with that- it does NOT get brighter, but it doesn't get at all muddier either.  I wouldn't argue with the idea of it getting "tighter" since to me that's a harder idea to put my finger on. 
     What I will say is that no matter how the gain is piled on there is still a very clearly present "space" between the notes.  It has all the good qualities of the Humbucker from Hell used in the bridge (clarity, clear bite in the high harmonics) but without the overly biting tone that can get ice-picky, and without the total lack of low end.  Sorry for the double negative there...you get my point.

Could say more (and probably will).  Hope this helps someone.

30

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Norton

« on: June 24, 2012, 05:22:19 PM »

I did try the Norton in the neck.  It did require lowering it a good deal, but the volume didn't overpower the Tone Zone.  The problem was with the tone... too airy, the attack was too fluffy and not responsive enough. 

It will probably find a semipermanent home in my mahogany strat.  It sounds pretty good there.

I'm curious as to the Tone Zone in the neck though.  Why would you be more apt to try that than a Norton?  Just doesn't make sense to me since the TZ has more output, more bass, and more mids. 

Gaucho