1

The Pickup Place / Transition Bridge

« on: November 05, 2021, 02:56:33 PM »

I am diggin the transition bridge in the HSS Luke III I picked up. 

I know it's a ceramic mag, is it a standard size or a thick ceramic?

It's got a good amount of power. 

2

The Pickup Place / D-Activator X wire gauge

« on: October 22, 2020, 11:16:54 AM »

Does anyone know what gauge of wire the D-x is wound with?  42awg?  43awg?  Since blade bobbins are bigger i'm guess its one of those two.  Judging by the output I'm thinking 42awg.  43awg would be my guess on standard bobbins at 14.5k.  I bought a broken used one that needs a rewind. 

Any thoughts?

3

The Pickup Place / Evolution Bridge - Coil DCR

« on: September 18, 2020, 12:49:57 PM »

Does anyone have the DCR for each coil of the Evolution?  Overall is everywhere. 

Thank you!

4

The Pickup Place / Number of winds/turns per coil

« on: September 04, 2020, 11:50:17 AM »

I remember seeing some posts with number of turns/winds and type of wire per a bobbin on some of the more popular Dimarzio pickups.  Does anyone have that info handy?  I would love to look it over. 

Thanks!

5

The Pickup Place / Illuminator, Super Distortion, or?

« on: November 04, 2016, 12:08:39 AM »

I have a Ernie ball JP6 that currently has a tone zone in the bridge.  It's a basswood body guitar.  While I enjoy the tone zone it's just not what I'm looking for.  I'm going to put it in an alder stray with maple n ck and it should sound amazing. 

Using the pick up selector dimarzio keeps coming back with two common choices.  The Super Distortion and the Illuminator.  A near third is the D activator.  I loved the Super D in my Les Paul I had once upon a time. The Illuminator samples I have heard sound nice. 

I'm looking for something that has great palm mutes, has a nice burn when picked hard and has good scream when playing lead without being ice picks. 

Any thoughts or other models I should look at are appreciated.

6

The Pickup Place / I did the 1/2 air mod.......

« on: July 13, 2016, 06:44:12 PM »

Did the half air mod to the Tone Zone.  Took about 20 minutes and that was mainly spent finding a spacer.  What a quick and easy project. 

I am shocked at how it opened up the midrange and tamed the low end. I feel that this mod is worth it.  Only bad part (to me) is the output dropped a little.  I might try either and A8 or ceramic in their next after rolling with this for a month or so. 

I also found that there is not as much need to adjust the height.  Has a wider sweet spot now.  For now this is a keep mod. 

7

The Pickup Place / Tone zone vs suhr update

« on: June 19, 2016, 10:49:35 AM »

Many of you probably remember my thread on picking new pickups for my JP6.   I ended up with a Tone zone/air Norton combo. 

A/b vs my les Paul standard with Suhr Aldrich pickups the dimarzios kill it in terms of clarity and harmonics.  It even, at least to me sounds tighter on the low end.  This is playing through a line 6 hd500x into either an FRFR powered speaker or my Tracktion DAW.  I was a little shocked to say the least.  It took time to dial in the tone zone but I didn't even have to change how I eq. 

8

The Pickup Place / Tone Zone vs Gravity Storm

« on: March 03, 2016, 01:42:04 PM »

So, I've been doing a ton of reasearch on pickups for my JP6.  I had ordered pickups but i got a reply that that they were not in stock at my go to place so I stopped the order. 

The JP6 i have come with factory special order Virtual PAFs.  While they are very good sounding pickups it is totally not what I'm after.  Typically you get the Crunchlab/Liquifire and I have been checking those out as well.  The pickups are direct mount

All my searches and pickup picker at Dimarzio keep bringing me back to the Tone Zone or Gravity Storm. 

They have almost identical specs

TZ 5.0 H
     8.5 M
     8.5 L
375millivolt

GS 4.5 H
     9.0 M
     7.5 L
340millivolt

The differences in millivolts is so low there should be no real difference between the two.  Thats where the EQ comes in. 

How much difference is there between the two in overall tone? 

9

The Pickup Place / Dimarzio Kiko Louriero

« on: February 03, 2016, 12:07:11 PM »

Anyone know the specs on his signature model for his Ibanez?  His tone on the new Megadeth Album - Dystopia is pretty killer.

He has used Air Classics, Breeds, and Drop Sonics in the past with solo and Angra work.

Thanks!

10

The Pickup Place / So I bought a used EBMM JP6........

« on: February 01, 2016, 06:13:42 PM »

And it didn't come with the stock Crunch Lab/Liquifire combination.  The guy said "they are PAF's".  I haven't pulled them out to check them (brand, model, etc).  But they don't have what I'm looking for under the hood.  They sound pretty good to tell you the truth, but not good enough for the guitar that feel has taken over as my number one (It beat out my faithful USA Jackson SL2H with the JB/59 combo and Les Paul Standard Premium Plus with Suhr Aldrich set). 

Their are parts I like about all 3 guitars tone.  Each sounds dramatically different then the other.

I know I need to take the pickups out to see what they are but I'm trying to find something that has good chunk on palmutes but that doesn't mean it can be a good crunch.  I do like the lead tone of my Jackson but that is WAY different wood (Alder, Maple, Ebony where the JP6 stealth is Basswood, bolt maple, rosewood). 

I play it all from 80's hair to thrash, to power metal, AIC type stuff.  I primarily play in standard E tuning, and drop D.  I play through a Hd500x into a FRFR powered speaker

Any thoughts?