[darkbluemurder]

Pearly Gates - A PAF with laryngitis.  Way too bright and the bass was farty.

Fully agree with the too bright comment, disagree slightly with the farty comment. Bass on mine was non-existent so I gladly add that one to my list.

Here is my list:

- EMG 81/S/S: they replaced a set of Lawrence OBL pickups and managed to make the guitar sound even thinner. And the added hiss from the active electronics was just unbearable on high gain settings.

- Duncan JB: tried to like it but it's not my thing. To my ears it was worst of both worlds - it did not have the open sound of a lower output pickup but at the same time it did not have the punch of a higher output pickup either.

- Duncan Vintage stacks: sounded nothing like true single coils to me.

- Duncan Alnico II Pro Neck humbucker: what a muddy mess.

- Duncan P-90 Hot neck: too muddy in the lows for a single coil pickup and felt weird to play. 

- PRS Dragon II: they sounded small, thin and brittle, and I tried them in two different guitars with the same results. I have absolutely no idea why any manufacturer would use them stock in any model. 

- PRS #7 Bass: what a muddy mess. See comment to Dragon II. PRS have better options in their pickup line than these.

- Lindy Fralin PAF humbucker set and Blues Specials strat set. Not that these are bad pickups but they do not live up anywhere near to the massive hype they are getting.

- TV Jones Magnatron set: Had them in a custom built hollowbody guitar which started out with a set of TV Jones Classics, the goal being to get the Gretsch sound. Turned out that it sounded more like a 335 which was not what I was going for with this guitar. Thought I could get the twang with the Magnatrons but all I got was a bright, brittle and harsh tone on both pickups which made the guitar feel very stiff and completely unmusical.

I am sure there are more but these just came to mind.

Cheers Stephan

[Marshall Law]

take the duncan 59 off my un impressed  list, with a magnet swap(roughcast A5 or a regular A2)  it is so much better. brought back the missing mids
Plus i would like to add i prefer the older duncans(MJ ones) to the newer made one?
add to the list of not impressed the crowd pleasers by guitar force.
I sold these a day later!  all hype!

[Marshall Law]

not really a big fan of those Seymour Duncan '59s. A bit too mid scooped for my tastes...

thats why they made my list but i fixed that by swapping the magnet out for a roughcast A5 or a A2)

[KH Guitar Freak]

I think I honestly prefer the Jazz neck that I have now. Running it with 250k volume and tone pots though. I might give the JB a shot again with 250k volume and tone pots. May not be the best pickup to me, but at least I have some variation in my lineup. If that doesn't work, I might swap it out for a Custom 5 maybe... 

[slugworth]

Somehow I missed this thread before, but since it's resurrected, here are some Dimarzios I've been pretty disappointed with. JMHO, YMMV and all of that...

• PAF Joe - Sounds killer on paper, but ugh. I could never recommend this pickup to anyone for any guitar or playing style.
• Liquifire - I love its companion the Crunch Lab, but for me this thing is just a mushy, slushy, liquid mess.
• Fred - I'm such a pinch harmonic junkie, but my problem with this pickup is that it goes straight from fundamental to harmonic with no edge in between. Thought I would love it so much, but for me it was hateable.

[LPBII]

Lace Sensors: Just so bland and lifeless.

Fred: A strange combination of compressed and weak.

Duncan Designed version of JB: A loud, inarticulate but thin, mess. Don't like the regular JB either but not for the same exact reasons.

Most ceramic mag pickups.  Many ceramics sound great with high gain, but that's not my only game.

[mesa0131]

Seymour Duncan Pegasus 6, didnt have much to offer in the low end, fairly trebly. Cleans were nice, and coilsplit sounded very straty but under gain it wasnt the prog monster I expected it to be, it sounded more like an over processed 80s hair metal tone. Sold it right away. Apparently it was better suited for drop tunings.

Dimarzio Paf Joe, thought I liked it but it felt too squishy, and lacked in articulation for a neck pickup. Paf pro was a good replacement.

Air Norton S good placement on a 24 fret 
Guitar but bad on a 22 fret. Just mud, and doesnt balance out well with any bridge pickup.

Pre-B1 nothing special, doesnt have the twang but isnt that thick and powerful either. Forgetable.

Fs-1, same as the pre-B1

Fender SCN bridge pickup too bright, although does well under gain.

Area 61 thin and lacking in output, hard to pair well with bridge humbuckers

Air zone liked it but not enough output and had some sag/squishyness on higher gain. Assuming it was the air-ing.

Tonezone results vary on p/u height placement. Too much bottom end for most applications, might be good in alder body maple neck/board with floating trem?

Honorable mentions

Bareknuckle rebel yell set nice amount of power in the bridge, with an interesting vocal vowel sound, neck is warm and very paf like with added clarity.

Gibson 57 classic warm thick and great with tube distortion

Gibson burstbucker pro similar to the rebel yells but a little less output on the bridge.

[darkbluemurder]

Area 61 thin and lacking in output, hard to pair well with bridge humbuckers

I can see that they would be hard to pair with any humbucker higher than vintage (read "low") output. Thin - I guess that depends on the guitar and the rest of the equipment.

Cheers Stephan

[satch_jr]

Tone Zone: way too bassy even in a bright guitar
Air Norton: too smooth, kinda dampening all notes, didn't like it at all
Fred: kinda thin to my ears, but still like Satch tone (like to hear but not to have that tone with my guitar)

[Fendercrazy]

I can’t think of many I don’t like.  Here are some that just didn't work for me.   

EMG 81 & 85.  They just aren't for me.  Tried them in a few different guitars with just ok results.  They have a processed Digitech GSP5 tone to my ears (if that makes sense?).   I think their SA & T sets sound great.
   
Duncan Distortion.   I've owned two.  First one in the 80's by local music store recommendation. The salesman personally used one in his Explorer and it probably sounded great in that guitar.  Didn't work so good in my guitar.  It was to metallic sounding.  Harsh treble.  About six months later I swapped it out with a Super Distortion.  Much better!   I recently acquired a DD in a trade.  Installed it in an old 80's Kramer.  Same result.

Greg

[Speeddemon]

Air Norton: too smooth, kinda dampening all notes, didn't like it at all

Have you tried flipping it? It becomes a bit brighter and open sounding. I agree it's kinda smooth, but too me not too smooth.

Less than impressed with:
Seymour Duncan '59 Neck in a Les Paul Custom (with maple cap). Boomy, muddy, indistinct mids.
The GFS Vintage '59 Alnico PAF that replaced it (at 1/3rd of the price!) was much better.

Note: the '59N in my ESP Horizon NTII was a much better match, although it could use more juice. Replaced it with a Duncan Distortion neck, but after a few weeks, replaced its ceramic magnet with an Alnico 5 for more character. Pretty happy so far. Replaced tje bridge JB in that guitar with a Duncan Custom 5 (SH-14). Best move ever!  Love that pickup!

Seymour Duncan Jazz Neck (in a HSH superstrat, w/floating trem.) What a lifeless, hifi POS!
It made a Evo Neck sound vintag-y, juicy PAF like by comparison! (and that's saying something!)
Replaced it with a Duncan Distortion neck (hey...a theme!), couldn't be happier at the time. Sold that guitar eventually though.

DiMarzio Super Distorion S (in neck position (in a HS superstrat, w/floating trem.)); too big, bold, boomy.

[greenlion]

I tried really hard to like the AT-1. I bought it twice and tried it in 3 guitars. It sounds thin to me, like the entire tonal spectrum is piled up in the high mids. It worked better "in the mix" but I didn't like it when I was just playing.

[satch_jr]

Air Norton: too smooth, kinda dampening all notes, didn't like it at all

Have you tried flipping it? It becomes a bit brighter and open sounding. I agree it's kinda smooth, but too me not too smooth.

Yes I tried, but considering how smooth it was, the flipping was not enough. I must say I was very disappointed as this was the neck pup of Petrucci for years and though it would fit well the neck slot of my basswood body ibanez RG. But if fact, it was a fail...

[slim_blues_boy]

my list:
- Seymour Duncan JB, read a lot review about one of the most popular bridge pickup. but felt like generic pickup for me.

- Seymour Duncan Floor Custom 59' neck with Alnico IV & unpotted, read a lot good review about Alnico IV as something between Alnico II and Alnico V. well I quite like stock 59, but as we already knew, with stock Alnico V sometime it just too boomy in LP neck slot. I thought the Alnico IV will bring the best out of the 59 model. but it just didn't work for me. I'd prefer Alnico II in the 59 neck.

- Tonerider Alnico IV Classic. bought both Alnico II dan Alnico IV Classic, and again I like the Alnico II more. well perhaps I tend to be more Alnico II's guy, but sometime I also miss the attack and brightness from Alnico V ( that's why I like 36th PAF so much). and with what I read about Alnico IV as something between Alnico II and V, my expectation was high. maybe I just didn't get along with Alnico IV, or perhaps I was expecting wrong result from the Alnico IV.

[mesa0131]

So recently picked up a Seafoam Green Fender Roadworn with custom shop fat 50's.

Fender Fat 50's bridge. Aweful pickup, not fat and not even present when compared to the others, I thought maybe there was something wrong with it, it had this nasaly, thin out of phase sound, when use by itself. measured 6.5 kohm instead of the spec'd 6.2. Couldnt get any volume out of high strings at all, they almost disappeared. However neck and middle sound great, I just dont get it.