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The Pickup Place / Re: Looking for a Neck PU to pair with a Satchur8 - HFH with A8?

« Last post by Mr. Lime on April 08, 2026, 11:12:58 AM »

I had awesome results with an Air Norton with ceramic magnet in the neck but would love to have a matching neck pickup with hex screws to pair with the Sachur8.
On paper the Tone Zone is not worlds away from a JB. A JB in the neck was something I liked but to my ears the Tone Zone is way different and probably not to my liking even aired. Maybe it works with a ceramic magnet and aired as neck PU but still looks overwound to me compared to the rest of the bunch.
I didn't like the PAF Pro (too thin sounding) in any guitar in the neck but I also dislike all those Gibson pickups like Burstbucker, 57 Classic or 490R.
The FRED with more mids and harmonics compared to a PAF Pro might do the trick beeing more similiar to a Norton.
I ordered one so I will see in a view weeks.
The Liquid Fire was also on my shortlist but since I tend to aim for dual resonance as a Dimarzio exclusive feature, I rather picked something different. A last candidate might be an Evolution neck but I didn't liked the Evo Bridge and Evo 2 in the guitars I tried them in so I was hesitantly with the neck version.

12

Gear Closet / Re: Compression?

« Last post by darkbluemurder on April 08, 2026, 06:18:23 AM »

Unfortunately my Tone Press developed a noise problem which manifests itself in a weird noise artifact when the tone decays. It is definitely the compressor - switch it off and the noise disappears. Use another comp - the noise does not return.

I replaced it with a Wampler Ego Mini Compressor which I like even more than the Tone Press when it was still working.

Cheers Stephan

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The Pickup Place / Re: Looking for a Neck PU to pair with a Satchur8 - HFH with A8?

« Last post by darkbluemurder on April 08, 2026, 06:11:35 AM »

If you don't like the PAF Pro in the neck, the FRED may only offer a bit more midrange and a bit more harmonics (at least that was the impression of both pickups back to back in the same guitar but in the bridge position). I was thinking LiquiFire as this has more midrange, similar to an Air Norton but less low end. Saying that, I had both the LiquiFire and the Bluesbucker back to back in the same guitar and preferred the Bluesbucker, in particular for its splitting capability.

Cheers Stephan

14

The Pickup Place / Re: Telecaster Tone in a Humbucker

« Last post by darkbluemurder on April 08, 2026, 06:06:28 AM »

FWIW I do not hear anything P90 in the Bluesbucker, even though it is often mentioned.

With the coils wired in series, it resembles a PAF in tone, although it is slightly tighter in the low end. With the screw coil active it sounds like a single coil which is close in volume to the series wiring, thus eliminating the usually weaker split tone of regular PAF type humbuckers.

If you want true tele tone I do not know of any normal sized humbucker which does that. The best option would be an adapter ring but you may also have to enlarge the route in the body to make the tele bridge pickup fit.

Cheers Stephan

15

The Pickup Place / Re: Looking for a Neck PU to pair with a Satchur8 - HFH with A8?

« Last post by gregr on April 07, 2026, 05:11:30 PM »

An A4 in a PAF Pro seems like a step backwards to me. An A8 that is fully aired might get you closer to what you’re looking for but you may still lose clarity. Turning that Tone Zone into an Air Zone might yield good results, since DiMarzio mentions the neck position as a use-case for the Air Zone.

16

The Pickup Place / Re: Telecaster Tone in a Humbucker

« Last post by gregr on April 07, 2026, 04:58:25 PM »

Not really, no. Put simply it’s a split humbucker with an inductor in series. This assumes no signal is generated from the coil that has dummy slugs, though this is not strictly the case and the small signal generated by the coil only serves to make the pickup sound less like a single coil. More importantly, the geometry of the coils are that of a humbucker as opposed to a single coil or P90. The magnetic field is the same as a budget single coil that employs a pair of narrow opposing ceramic bar magnets centered under the screw coil. What the Bluesbucker does offer is versatility, assuming you like the sound of the pickup when split. It purportedly has DiMarzio’s virtual vintage tech which will lower the resonant frequency, helping it to sound better than a typical split humbucker with a similar coil (~6.7k of 43(?)AWG).

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The Pickup Place / Re: Telecaster Tone in a Humbucker

« Last post by Butch Snyder on April 07, 2026, 04:20:32 PM »

I’d say that, a humbucker-sized P90

Isn't that what the Bluesbucker is?

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The Pickup Place / Re: Looking for a Neck PU to pair with a Satchur8 - HFH with A8?

« Last post by Mr. Lime on April 07, 2026, 03:20:27 PM »

That's exactly what I did, I put an A4 magnet into the PAF Pro and a large ceramic magnet into a Tone Zone.
The bass response of the TZ is the only neat result. Compared to the Satchur8 the TZ feels less balanced and although I kind of like the tad more grind it has, it sounds rahter cheap.
Even worse so the PAF Pro. Overall rather boring response and a sound that gets buried in the band mix of a backing track.
I use an Engl 580 Rack preamp with always the same settings which works fine with most of my guitars.
Will try some other EQing but overall the pickup swap with different magnets is a downgrade.

19

The Pickup Place / Re: Telecaster Tone in a Humbucker

« Last post by gregr on April 07, 2026, 02:09:56 PM »

I’d say that, a humbucker-sized P90 or an adapter ring so you can install a single coil or an actual a tele bridge pickup.

20

The Pickup Place / Telecaster Tone in a Humbucker

« Last post by Butch Snyder on April 07, 2026, 12:00:23 PM »

Hi all, I have an HSS guitar.  I have a Fred in the bridge pickup.  I bought it because, at one time, I had an OLP (remember those) that I put a Fred in and it sounded like a Tele bridge pickup.  So, I bought it again and installed it in my Schecter HSS guitar.  It's basically a Strat (alder body, wenge neck, ebony fretboard, vintage type tremolo).  The Fred sounds good, but I'm wondering if there might be something else better.  I have 5 Telecasters, but I really like this Schecter.  My main gig is Country so a good Telecaster bridge pickup is a must.  I was thinking maybe Bluesbucker?