1

The Pickup Place / Re: Bridge pickup for Strat

« on: February 01, 2026, 02:43:23 PM »

Chopper, or Air Norton S (darker).  Never cared for the Duncan little series, and I've heard them all.  They don't sound like full sized pickups; the DiMarzios do.

2

The Pickup Place / Re: Which Pickup Features Which Technique

« on: February 01, 2026, 02:41:53 PM »

The bobbins are normal sized (for DiMarzio) and not overflowing.  10.8k of 43 is roughly equivalent to 8.5k of 42, number of turns wise, which would be ballpark correct for A5 and the stated output.  Might be and in-between gauge, hard to say.  Why they would have gone with 43 instead of 42 for that number of turns, who knows.  The Duncan "Screamin Demon" is wound with 43 but #turns roughly equivalent to an 8k ish 42.  No idea why they did that.

3

The Pickup Place / Re: Which Pickup Features Which Technique

« on: November 19, 2025, 10:38:49 PM »

Quote from a forum member on the mylespaul forum on the Al di Meola set:

Al DiMeola Neck (DP201): output=230mV, treble=6, mids=4, bass=6, DC=10.87K.
Al DiMeola Bridge (DP202): output=275, treble=5, mids=8, bass=8, DC=10.84.

The magnets are AL5, they are not airbuckers, and the neck pickup has dual-resonance coils.

From these specs it looks like the neck pickup is wound with a wire thinner than 42 AWG - otherwise the rated outputs do not make sense given both models use the same magnet.

Neither are PE42.  Try to fit 10.84k of PE42 on a pair of humbucker bobbins, I dare you!

4

The Pickup Place / Re: Neck pickup to go with Air Norton in the Bridge of a Les Paul

« on: August 23, 2025, 09:14:45 AM »

Not typical at all of my experience with AN in the bridge, which I have in quite a few guitars.

I suspect something is wrong with your wiring or pots.  No way should a 36th neck overwhelm an AN bridge, especially backed off. 

Check your wiring, measure your pots.

I use the duncan full shred neck with AN bridge, which is typical PAF output.  Even very close to the strings, it doesn't overwhelm. 

AN is on the hot side of PAF output, similar to 36th bridge.

5

The Pickup Place / Re: EC preamp with Areas

« on: June 18, 2025, 04:03:43 AM »

HS are much lower output and not fatter, just darker/duller.

Areas should be fine with the EC

6

The Pickup Place / Re: Air Norton Bridge Position

« on: June 18, 2025, 04:00:40 AM »

I still love these in the bridge.  Come across much hotter than specs would indicate.  Modern sound but still in the PAF tonal family.  Very liquid lead sound without requiring a lot of gain.

7

The Pickup Place / Re: Accuracy of DCR values

« on: June 18, 2025, 03:55:35 AM »

I put in an air classic bridge tonight.  Actual measured DCR 8.1K.  Stated on dimarzio site:  8.62k.  Quite a bit different, not a hot pickup.  Measured a couple others, all in the 8.1k range.

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The Pickup Place / Air Norton Bridge Position

« on: November 15, 2023, 01:10:25 PM »

Anyone else do this?  I'm just loving this pickup in the bridge position.  Output wise and tonally, it's in the PAF camp even though nothing like a PAF on paper.  Very open, articulate high end but enough grunt and growl in the lows to sound angry through a Marshall, but not muddy at all.  DiMarzio lists it as having slightly less output than a 36th bridge, but it comes off as hotter in practice due to the frequency response.  Pushes a marshall style front end harder.  More open highs, less squawk, more grunt/growl than the 36th bridge. Extremely responsive to pick attack, and very shred friendly in terms of tracking speed.

Really digging the hell out of it in 2HB guitars.

9

The Pickup Place / Re: PG-13 Middle in Bridge

« on: November 15, 2023, 01:03:40 PM »

PSA Bump.  This is still by far the best mini for bridge position I've ever come across.  KILLS through marshall style amps.

10

The Pickup Place / Re: PAF 36th (Bridge) + PAF Pro (Neck) on a LP

« on: January 30, 2023, 04:29:16 PM »

Mo Joe is essentially a 9k PAF with two rows of screws, should work well in that application, but you'll still need to lower the PAF pro probably, and raise the pole pieces.  PAF Pro is fairly hot for a neck position.

Mo Joe is a pickup that doesn't get much attention, but it's very much in the DiMarzio PAF family.  36th bridge, Mo Joe, DiMeola Bridge can all be considered variations on a flavor, kind of all chocolate but the difference is how much coacoa is in your chocolate.  PAF Master is a little farther outside that group, but not much farther.

11

The Pickup Place / Re: HB2 vs. Injector Neck

« on: January 27, 2023, 05:58:50 PM »

Might try fast track 1.  Very bright with 500k, and more output than heavy blues 2 or injector neck.

12

The Pickup Place / Re: Pickup similar to AT-1

« on: January 27, 2023, 05:55:38 PM »

If you've never tried air norton in the bridge, give it a go.  Really nice paf.

13

The Pickup Place / PG-13 Middle in Bridge

« on: January 23, 2023, 04:49:23 PM »

DiMarzio intended this is a special use middle in the case that it's much lower than the neck and bridge. 

But if you look at the specs, it's a little monster for a mini.  Similar output to a '59 bridge or Air Classic Bridge.  Still has the standard mini bite and snarl due to the Neo mag, in spite of the high (for a mini) output and DCR.  Sounds like a great mini, plenty meaty in on low note chords and plenty bitey on the high notes, and with far more output than other minis. 

I've been going through options for mini and P90 routed guitars, been through 20 pickups or so for that position, this one is by far the best I've found for a bridge.  Still sounds like a mini (if you want a sound like a full sized bucker, use a full sized bucker...), but has plenty of output which most minis lack.

14

The Pickup Place / Re: Any chance of a stickied DiMarzio Mods post?

« on: January 23, 2023, 04:40:59 PM »

[...]

Super 2 in the neck: Remove all poles from neck side coil. Result:  Sounds like a big, loud single coil.  Loud enough to easily keep up with a mid range bucker in the bridge (Air Zone, AT-1, etc.).  Tight, bright, but with output no single can cop. 

I tryed your mod on my Les Paul : Super 2 neck pup, poles under the 3 bass strings removed. Works great as expected. Thanks for that awesome trick !

Actually this pickup has a PAF style cover installed, and I wonder what would be the result if I remove the poles which are hidden under the cover instead of the visible ones.
What do you think ?

I have to give this mod a try sometime. Sounds promising.

As for removing the poles under the cover, those are typically slugs and not screw poles so you're going to have a much harder time with those since they can't easily be screwed out. Worth a try though. Let us know if if you attempt it and it's results

Slugs are quite easy to remove.  The only thing that might give you an issue is the wax potting may give some resistance.  Chop sticks can poke em right out of the bobbin, I do it all the time.

15

The Pickup Place / Re: Which Pickup Features Which Technique

« on: January 23, 2023, 04:39:09 PM »

Great Post!