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Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: The AT-1

« Last post by corypheus on September 22, 2026, 09:53:51 AM »

I have moved my AT-1 from guitar to guitar, always finding something lacking in the end - mostly too much bloated midrange.

That is until I put it in a bolt-on Junior type guitar with a Paulownia body and maple/rosewood neck. It replaced a Mo' Joe which was fine but lacked the substance on the higher notes. I had thought long and hard about what to put in there and initially thought "not the AT-1" as I did not think it would be a good fit. But I did - and I am glad I did. The guitar loves the AT-1. It filled the missing frequencies nicely to make the high notes fat. The bottom end is not overly tight but not flubby either. And, finally, it does not sound nasal in this guitar. Like the JB, the AT-1 appears to be more sensitive than the average humbucker to the guitar it is in.

It is the only pickup in that guitar, which has a volume and a tone control (both 500k audio) and a 3-way toggle wired for series/parallel/single coil.

Cheers Stephan

I'm sure you know this even better than me, but I remember reading that AT1 on a 500k vol pot was basically designed to sound like a TB4 loaded with 250k volume pot. I always approached this as the "bible" and simply always mated AT1 with 1000k volume pot (I don't use tone pots), and had great success. It's still smoother sounding than a JB, but the bigger volume pot really opens the congested bloaty midrange, at least in my experience. This was mostly in two Les Pauls, so shorter scale heavier guitars (mahogany made if you tend to believe body woods have an impact on the end sound, fwiw).

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

« Last post by corypheus on September 22, 2026, 09:45:56 AM »

I have played Nita Strauss JivaJr that a friend swapped in DiMarzio Pandemonium and modded the guitar to accept schaller floyd rose. The guitar really negatively surprised me as the neck was twisted (mind you this was a fairly new guitar) slightly towards the bass side at the ending of the neck nearing the locking nut but the biggest surprise were the DiMarzios in it.

I found the bridge to be very in your face, which is a quality I actually personally like - but both of the pickups were lacking articulation and presence. Both were quite nasal sounding, congested in the mids and at the same time somehow they both felt stiff and dry.

I don't remember if I tried this years ago when they came out, I possibly could have, but I don't remember if I did and what were my thoughts back then - but trying them now really made me think they are possibly the worst DiMarzios I have tried, and I tried probably 90% of everything in the "high power" category and most in the other two as well. Could it possibly have been the guitar? Maybe, as the guitar wasn't really a good one.

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The Pickup Place / My review of the D-Activator Bridge

« Last post by nienturi on September 18, 2026, 09:14:53 AM »

Hello. This is my review of Dimarzio D-Activator

https://www.tonejourney.com/post/dimarzio-d-activator-bridge-review

Hope you like it

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The Pickup Place / Re: My X2N Review

« Last post by darkbluemurder on September 10, 2026, 04:40:42 AM »

Cool - I like that story.

My oldest pickups are with me since the late 80s, among them a Bill Lawrence OBL L-500 XL, Gordon Smith humbucker and a Gibson HBL+. The one that gets used now and then is the OBL - also very high output.

Cheers Stephan

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Gear Closet / Re: Roland Blues Cube BC-30 (original version)

« Last post by kookaburra on September 09, 2026, 06:24:29 PM »

I know I enjoy my Microcube, and the larger models I’ve heard others play sounded good!

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The Pickup Place / Re: My X2N Review

« Last post by kookaburra on September 09, 2026, 10:32:04 AM »

I always enjoy your reviews, thanks!

I used the X2N in 1981/82.  I wanted a hot pickup for the bridge of my Strat, and the local music store guided me that way.

I used it in a hard rock band, guitar, Tube Screamer, Twin Reverb w/Celestions in the combo, and a Celestion loaded 4x12.  Rocked like a mofo!

I managed to hold on to that X2N until the 90s, where I  dropped it in Hamer Scarab II.  Sounded great in that guitar also, with various British amps being used.

I sold that Hamer with the X2N in it, so that was the end of my enjoyable X2N journey. 

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The Pickup Place / Re: It's time to revisit the pickups in my PRS

« Last post by darkbluemurder on September 08, 2026, 05:49:19 AM »

Big fan of the PAF Pro in the neck, paired with The Breed Neck in the bridge. Both perform fairly well in parallel mode.

I can confirm that for the Breed Neck in the bridge as I have it set up in my HSS strat with a push/pull pot for exactly that (in position #2 it is split).

Cheers Stephan

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The Pickup Place / Re: It's time to revisit the pickups in my PRS

« Last post by gregr on September 07, 2026, 04:22:26 PM »

Big fan of the PAF Pro in the neck, paired with The Breed Neck in the bridge. Both perform fairly well in parallel mode.

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The Pickup Place / Re: It's time to revisit the pickups in my PRS

« Last post by LPBII on September 07, 2026, 11:25:17 AM »

If I recall correctly, the Super 70s are alnico 8.  You might try swapping an alnico 8 into the existing bridge pickup, and a warmer alnico 2 into the existing neck pickup. ( I think both VPAFs are Alnico 5)

Dimarzio makes an alnico 8 bridge pickup if you are willing to experiment with a jump up in power with your current rig.  In that case the tried and tested PAF Pro may be a good match for the neck.

https://www.dimarzio.com/pickups/high-power/satchur8

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The Pickup Place / Re: It's time to revisit the pickups in my PRS

« Last post by gregr on September 06, 2026, 03:07:37 PM »

I am not at all familiar with the DP196 but just saw that it has 8k worth of what I assume to be 42AWG wire which would make sense as to why you don’t like it wired in series. All the pickups I mentioned in my previous post are not wound as hot. The EJ Custom Neck is the leanest and brightest humbucker that DiMarzio makes, as is the Full Shred Neck for Seymour Duncan. The A2P and 59N sit around 7.6k, though the 59N can sound quite bloated with the stock A5 in set neck guitars against a vintage output bridge pickup, hence the magnet swap.

The PGN is an outstanding pickup and sounds decent when spit, as far as that type of tone from a vintage output pickup is concerned. Running it in parallel will sound even thinner. Perhaps the A2 may still be able to smooth out the top end, at least a little bit.

The way I see it, you’ll either have a neck pickup that can offer a good sound in series that is anemic and brittle in parallel, or can offer a useable sound in parallel but is bloated in series. I don’t think there is much out there with a traditional vintage output design that will be able to do both well. This leads me to recommend less conventional designs. The Steve Morse Neck would be the first I would try, though I would first shoot an email to DiMarzio inquiring about it. The Bluesbucker would be a close second.