1

The Pickup Place / Re: Which Pickup Features Which Technique

« on: April 21, 2025, 08:52:23 AM »

Done - thanks!

2

The Pickup Place / Re: Reply Help me choose next pickup HSH set.

« on: March 31, 2025, 04:13:52 AM »

I also find that position 2 quack sounds better when splitting to the outer coil.

Agreed. It has just that little bit of extra glass compared to the inner coil.

My HSH is The Breed Neck in the bridge

Great choice.

The switching is as follows:
1: bridge
2: middle
3: bridge and neck inner coils connected in series with a passive filter to reduce bass and midrange.
4: middle and neck outer coils; again, connected in series and filtered.
5: neck or neck in parallel with the bridge. There’s a push-pull on the tone control to add the bridge to the neck, which only works in this position.
All positions are hum-cancelling.

If I had a second HSH it would be as follows, borrowing from things I’m already doing in other guitars:

Bridge: JB/Screamin’ Demon hybrid; JB coil on the outside in parallel with the middle for position 2.

Middle: A traditional single coil, perhaps a True Velvet, but that would depend on what magnets I use in the humbuckers. The middle would only get used in positions 2 & 4. Position 3 would combine bridge and neck humbuckers.

Neck: Screamin’ Demon/Full Shred Neck hybrid; Demon coil on the outside in parallel with the middle for position 4.

Nice switching ideas, thanks for sharing.

Cheers Stephan

3

The Pickup Place / Re: Reply Help me choose next pickup HSH set.

« on: March 27, 2025, 05:36:44 AM »

The only HSH I ever set up for myself had a Bluesbucker in the neck, an Injector neck (permanently wired as single coil) in the middle and first a Norton in the bridge, then a SD Custom 5 and finally (and my favorite in this guitar) a Mo' Joe. 500k pots (master volume, neck tone, bridge tone) and a Schaller/Eyb Megaswitch type E which gave me

1 - bridge HB
2 - split bridge neckside coil + middle, humcancelling
3 - split bridge bridgeside coil + split neck, humcancelling
4 - split neck neckside coil + middle, humcancelling
5 - neck HB

I later wired the neck tone pot as auto split for the neck humbucker so that I could also have the neck single coil (of course not humcancelling but the split Bluesbucker sounds excellent).

Very simple but still versatile set up. There is a more detailed thread on that guitar (you will find it when you search for threads I started).

Cheers Stephan

4

The Pickup Place / Re: Dimarzio Transition Bridge Review

« on: March 20, 2025, 04:21:52 AM »

My understanding of "dynamic" matches yours

5

The Pickup Place / Re: Dimarzio Transition Bridge Review

« on: March 19, 2025, 05:11:37 AM »

Very nice review, thanks for sharing. I can only comment on the bridge pickup, and I agree to the "balanced" verdict. As regards "dynamic" - my impression is that many people seem to confuse "dynamic" with "punchy". I would rather describe the bridge pickup as punchy.

Cheers Stephan

6

The Pickup Place / Re: Which Pickup Features Which Technique

« on: March 17, 2025, 05:45:42 AM »

Transition bridge - Dual Resonance
Transition neck - Dual Resonance

For completeness sake, here are the patent numbers:

Dual Resonance: 4,501,185
-Airbucker: 5,399,802
-Virtual Vintage: 5,908,998

I think there is a slight incorrect info here. Transition set has Virtual Vintage patent, not dual resonance

;From old website;

Wiring: 4 Conductor
Magnet: Ceramic
Output mV: 390
DC Resistance: 11.05 Kohm
Year of Introduction: 2012
Patent: 5908998
Pickup Dimensions

Many thanks, I updated the first post.
Cheers Stephan

7

The Pickup Place / Re: Accuracy of DCR values

« on: February 21, 2025, 08:19:14 AM »

Ambient temperature has a huge effect on the DCR measurements, particularly on higher wind pickups.

This is also what I experienced.

Anything +/- 10% is inconsequential to me.

Cheers Stephan

8

The Pickup Place / Re: SSS Strat Pickup Combinations

« on: February 18, 2025, 03:18:32 AM »

With the same load, the Area 67 is a lot brighter than an Injector neck in the same pickup position. As a rule of thumb, when I like an Area 67 with 250k, I mostly like an Injector neck with 500k. The 67 is still a bit brighter than the Injector neck with these loads.

9

The Pickup Place / Re: SSS Strat Pickup Combinations

« on: February 17, 2025, 03:37:04 AM »

Wow - certainly not an easy task to finish - congrats!

Based on those values my guess is that your guitar is quite bright.

Cheers Stephan

10

The Pickup Place / Re: SSS Strat Pickup Combinations

« on: January 28, 2025, 03:56:13 AM »

The Injector definitely benefits from a lighter load, though the 250k total load from a pair of 500k pots is not enough. If I were only using two controls one would be a 500k and the other would be 250k, which is essentially what I am getting with three 500k controls (167k). The problem with reducing the load too much is that a spike begins to develop in the top end. The real key to getting an extension in frequency response with the Injector Neck lies in shunting the dummy coil. Configuring the second tone control the way I did I am able to do both. Again, the linear taper allows for more precision at the upper end of the control. I also use a series resistor with tone controls in order to prevent the tone from folding over, allowing me to quickly get the exact sound I want without undershooting.

My observations were quite similar. In two different guitars where I had Injector necks with 500k volume and tone they were a bit stiff sounding. Using a no-load tone pot solved that. In another guitar however removing the tone control load made the guitar too sizzly in the top end whereas with the 500k tone control the top end was nasal. A 1 meg tone control was the happy medium where I landed.

I did not want to shunt the shunt coil as I wanted to preserve the hum-cancelling ability.

Cheers Stephan

11

The Pickup Place / Re: SSS Strat Pickup Combinations

« on: January 27, 2025, 03:26:58 AM »

I found that linear pots (BXXX) work best for clean and semi-clean tones, especially with a treble bleed. For higher gain tones I cannot hear much happening until I turn it down almost completely.

Injector neck is a great choice for the neck position, in particular with 500k pots.

I am still to try a Fast Track 1 in either neck or bridge position.

Cheers Stephan

12

News & New Guys / Happy New Year 2025

« on: January 06, 2025, 09:40:03 AM »

Hello all,

I wish you all a Happy New Year 2025.

Cheers Stephan

13

The Pickup Place / Re: PAF pickups that are close in brightness to singles?

« on: November 22, 2024, 03:39:56 AM »

Hi,

I have two guitars, one is a Strat with a set of Heavy Blues 2 / Area 61 / VV 54 Pro, and the other is Firebird Studio with PAF Master set. There is a colossal difference in brightness between, and I'd like to reduce it somehow. I used to have yet another guitar where I put the Air Classic NECK in the bridge position, and I remember that being much closer in brightness to the singles. I still have that pickup, so I was thinking of replacing the Masters; I'd put the Air Classic Neck in the bridge, but what would pair well with that pickup in the neck position? Is EJ Custom a good candidate, and would I go then with the bridge or the neck model?

Keep in mind that the guitars themselves may be very different in brightness due to the construction and woods. Also, the VV Heavy Blues 2 in the bridge position is still a very bright pickup. I personally prefer the Injector bridge. That one would reduce the brightness but since you were not saying the Heavy Blues 2 was too bright I do not advise changing it.

Since you already have the Air Classic Neck why not try that in the bridge first to see whether you like it there.

As regards bright and tight neck pickups that is a quite difficult task. The one I liked most so far is the Fralin Twangmaster. That one would reduce the brightness difference between the guitars to almost nothing. I also have used the Seymour Duncan Full Shred neck but with mixed results. In one guitar it sounded great (well it still does), in another ok, in one too thin and in one too fizzy so it is guitar sensitive.

No experience with the Air Classics, PAF Masters or EJ models, unfortunately.

Cheers Stephan

14

The Pickup Place / Re: Dimarzio Steve Morse Bridge DP200 Review

« on: September 18, 2024, 05:52:57 AM »

Many thanks, very informative.

Cheers Stephan

15

The Pickup Place / Re: Rick Derringer pickups description from Steve Blucher

« on: August 15, 2024, 03:22:21 AM »

As a series model it is discontinued but still available from the custom shop, see here: https://www.dimarzio.com/faq

Cheers Stephan