DiMarzio Forum
DimarzioForum.Com => The Pickup Place => Topic started by: Hugo77 on June 28, 2015, 04:06:43 AM
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About a year ago, I posted some questions about replacing pu's on my Strat. Got a few tips and suggestions. Thought I'd revisit those and contact DM customer support once more on the matter. Friday I made a decision and yesterday I ordered the pups.
I had a high powered Strat with 2 Seymour Duncan Little 59's in neck and middle, plus a JeffBeckjr in the bridge. I have been struggling with the latter since. Maybe in a mahogany body it would have been halfway decent, but in my swamp-ash body...not so much. The little 59 in the middle didn't make a lot of sense either, though I had the neck pup switched in parallel in pos 4 and the middle one in pos 2.
Still, the only pu I really liked was/is the neck. In combination with the amps I use, it sounds pretty good to my ears.
Anyhow..I decided on 2 new pickups that had peaked my interest; a DM Chopper in the bridge and a Injector (bridge version) in the middle. I figured a bridge Injector would make more sense because of the slightly higher output and tuned down high end. A bit of a gamble, cause there are no demos on Youtube on this pup in a middle position, only in the neck or bridge.
Customer support suggested a BC-1 in the bridge and I did consider this to be a interesting idea. I don't like a tone zone and the BC-2 is basically a TZ S modified. The BC-1 has less mids and bass so I'd probably liked it in the bridge.
But again, no demos of this configuration to be found so I decided against it. I'm very curious on the end-result. Looking at the specs, the Chopper makes less sense than let's say a BC-1. The Chopper has a lot of high end which is one thing that bothered me in the SD JBjr. But all the demo's I've checked out (listened a lot to Richie Kotzen too, the albums he uses his ash Tele) and all I here is a beefy, full sounding pickup.
I'll post my findings when I got the guitar back and have played it for a bit.
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The Chopper is indeed a beefy pickup but still has a lot of bite to it - similar to the bite a PAF style pickup in the bridge would have. I cannot give you any comparison to the JB jr. or the BC-1 because I never played either.
I find youtube demos or clips to be of limited value because most of the time
- the player will play differently than I do
- the guitar the pickup is used in may be vastly different from mine
- the amp, speaker cabinet and other equipment may be substantially different from what I have, too, and
- the recording and replay equipment may pose further limitations on the sonic end result.
If I go by clips then I try to get as much background information on the points I outlined to put the audio information of the clip into context.
The Injector bridge does not come to my mind first when considering the middle position - that's where I would rather put the Injector neck (I have one in a strat together with a Heavy Blues 2 in the neck and a JB-like humbucker in the bridge). It's bright but not too bright, works well with a higher output pickup in the bridge and with a 500k volume pot.
Given the fact that you seem to be afraid of too bright pickups you may like something warmer and more output than the Chopper.
Cheers Stephan