1111

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

« on: February 17, 2015, 03:55:02 AM »

As far as as I know there is only one model which can be used in both positions. Unfortunately I never used one in the bridge so I cannot comment on how it balances in a set.

Cheers Stephan

1112

Guitar Lounge / Re: Ibanez 450m Custom "Skittles"

« on: February 11, 2015, 03:32:02 AM »

80s flashback - great looking guitar! Have fun with it.

1113

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: Area 58, 61 and 67 Strat Pickups

« on: February 05, 2015, 07:24:41 AM »

Dimarzio Area (and Virtual Vintage) strat pickups can be mounted inside soapbar P90 covers! It's not much trouble at all if you have a Dremel or similar tool. Remove the two baseplate screws from the Area pickup. They hold the coils together, but also line up well with P90 mounting screw holes. The poles don't line up quite so perfectly, so on the P90 cover you'll have to Dremel out the outer edge of the 1st and 6th pole holes a tiny bit, and the 2nd and 5th holes an even tinier bit. For me this is a much better solution to strat tone in a P90 form factor than, say, this.

That's a very cool idea. I may try that with one guitar I have a P90 in the neck position at the moment.

The other thing I wanted to add was, for me, the Area 67 completely nails "that sound in my head" of what a strat neck pickup should sound like, mainly inspired by Mr. Hendrix.

Fully agree to that one. I had it in a few guitars and have yet to find one in which it does not sound good.

And to respond to the quack discussion, to me the VV 54 Pro is the perfect middle pickup complement to the 67 in the neck, both in terms of output and notch (quack) tone. I've tried all the Area, VV, and Injector strat pickups, and if you're looking to match the 67 in the neck, then the 54 is the one.

Since I now have two spare VV 54 Pros I may try that instead of the 58 I have in the middle.

Cheers Stephan

1114

Everything you wanted to know about .... / DP-198 Hot Minibucker

« on: February 02, 2015, 04:30:55 AM »

I had this pickup lying around for quite a while before I got around to put it into the guitar - it went into the bridge position of a three pickup Firebird monster and replaced a Lollar Firebird bridge model. I only spent a short time with it so far but here are my first impressions.

The pickup's DC measured 13.1k. Wire guage is probably 43 ga. Output is noticeably hotter than the pickup it replaced but not over the top hot. It still balances well with the Lollar FB neck and middle pickups.

I expected the Hot Minibucker to be a definitve step toward a full sized humbucker tone but that was not the case. It does not at all sound like a full sized humbucker, not at least any that I played before. Tonally the Hot Minibucker retains the Firebird bite but with a lot of low end and a healthy dose of midrange added. The good thing is that low end still retains clarity as well. Very cool tone indeed.

I think this is a great pickup for all LP Deluxe and Firebird owners who want to retain the treble bite but want to add girth and power to the tone without going to a full sized humbucker tone.  My vote is to bring it back into the regular DiMarzio line - there is always a place for a vintage minibucker and a hot minibucker.

Cheers Stephan

1115

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

« on: January 19, 2015, 04:57:32 AM »

Just very recently I found that the Bluesbucker sits really well in the neck spot of 24 fret guitars.

1116

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

« on: January 19, 2015, 04:56:22 AM »

Here is a link to a thread in the LP Forum. See reply #12 for a description of Air Norton in the bridge and Bluesbucker in the neck.

http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=140916&highlight=nash

I have that combination in a guitar that is acoustically rather dark sounding and it works very well.

Cheers Stephan

1117

Guitar Lounge / Re: Tuning problems with Les Pauls

« on: January 12, 2015, 06:50:06 AM »

Meanwhile I replaced the tune-o-matic bridges on two guitars with Graphtec Resomax bridges. That helped a lot and to a point where it's working OK.

Thanks for all your input,
Stephan

1118

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues 2 (DP 409)

« on: January 07, 2015, 04:58:31 AM »

Wired the second tone pot for the bridge pickup with a 0.001uf cap but either I messed up the wiring or it does not have any audible effect. I will probably up that to 0.0015uf or even 0.0022uf.

Turns out I did not mess up the wiring but the 0.001uf cap was indeed too small. 0.0015uf gave me the expected result.

1119

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: DP240 Vintage Mini Humbucker

« on: December 18, 2014, 10:08:02 AM »

Meanwhile I scored a used one on the bay and replaced the Cruiser bridge in my telecaster with it. I mainly did this because the pickguard which I ordered with a strat pickup route did not fit - apart from the fact that it had a tele neck pickup route so the supplier screwed this one up big time .

Anyway - I still had two white tele pickguards routed for minihum/Firebird in the neck so in went the DP240. This is a great tele neck pickup, and IMHO it balances better with the Chopper T in the bridge than the Cruiser that was in there before. It is clear, articulate yet warm and has the tight enough low end I want - no mud at all. It simply sounds like it belongs in a tele's neck spot. Cruiser was great, too, though but I like this one even better. Highly recommended.

Cheers Stephan   

1120

The Pickup Place / Re: Want to replace Illuminators on MusicMan Majesty

« on: December 03, 2014, 12:17:12 PM »

I believe BKP has an option you can ask for to mount on baseplates with the triangle tab.

That's correct - you will need to put that into the comments box when you order, then they will do it that way.

Cheers Stephan

1121

Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The Cruiser Bridge Model

« on: November 25, 2014, 07:37:20 AM »

Just scored one on the bay and replaced the Bluesbucker in my telecaster (bridge pickup is a Chopper T). Not only because of this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldxzTZFgEKg

but also because I got increasingly tired of the Bluesbucker in the neck. I am just not a real fan of full size humbuckers in the neck. Even though it is one of the least muddy humbuckers around it still does not have the tight low end that a P90 or a strat style single coil can offer. Of couse I had it set up so that I could split it but then it loses the humcancelling effect.

Basically I have nothing to add to Budd's excellent review - the Cruiser does all that and does it really well. It is however much lower output than the Chopper T so I had to back the Chopper T off quite a bit (it was quite close to the strings before to match the Bluesbucker's output in series humbucking mode). Now I got it set where the volume between both pickups is balanced with the Chopper T in parallel mode so I can have a boost when in series mode. 

The tone cap right now is a 0.0047uf. This works well for the Cruiser and for the Chopper T in parallel. For the Chopper T in series mode it's a bit too much but not bad. We'll see what I will come up with to resolve that

Cheers Stephan

1122

The Pickup Place / Re: HFH vs Super 2 vs 36th

« on: November 19, 2014, 03:47:08 AM »

I am also curious is anyone has any experience with the D Activator neck, Bluesbucker, PAF Joe, and the Dominion neck.

Have the Bluesbucker in the neck position of a Tele right now paired with a Chopper T in the bridge. Had it in a Les Paul and in another guitar before (always in the neck position). It is slightly less muddy in the lows than most full size humbuckers. The downside is that in some guitars it can get thin overall. In the Tele where I have it now it works well but I found that I mostly play the bridge position on that guitar.

No experience with any of the others.

Cheers Stephan

1123

The Pickup Place / Re: Hum canceling replacement for the FS1?

« on: November 15, 2014, 04:40:33 PM »

Yes, but closer to the HB2.

Cheers Stephan

1124

The Pickup Place / Re: Pickups that have left you less than impressed?

« on: November 13, 2014, 04:08:05 AM »

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

1125

The Pickup Place / Re: HSS configuration. what works best for you?

« on: November 13, 2014, 04:02:42 AM »

Sorry Stephan, I should note it needs to be a standard single coil, for humcanceling in the 2 and 4 position. I am thinking a Red Velvet for output and warmth, since it will be between an AT-1 and Chopper. Red velvet is standard on many high end Ibanez and is often found in between a set of evo's if im not mistaken, so I have confidence it will lend the tonality im after, which is 2 and 4 quack and jangle.

OK I see. No experience with the Red Velvet but it should work as intended.
The DiMarzio humcancelling pickups can be split so in a "regular" strat combination you could have the middle pickup in #3 as humbucker and split it in #2 and #4 for humcancelling combinations with the bridge and neck pickups. But as you mentioned in the other thread that you would use bridge + neck in #3 you don't need a humcancelling single coil in the middle. You will probably need a 24 pole switch (aka super switch or 4 level switch).

Cheers Stephan