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

« Last post by gregr on August 17, 2025, 07:58:04 PM »

I had a similar experience with the AN in the bridge and Humbucker from Hell in the neck. I found the AN to be very lean in the bridge position. The HFH produces a fair amount of low end in the neck position against a vintage output pickup in the bridge, despite what the specifications imply, exacerbating the situation.

I don’t have any suggestions but have a feeling someone might mention a Fred since you like the harmonic content of the AN. Regardless, I would look at the medium output section to find an alternative to the 36th bridge assuming I wanted to keep the 36th neck in the neck position.

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

« Last post by Zoo Keeper on August 17, 2025, 04:06:43 PM »

Hi all, new here.
 First off I want to thank Budd Royce for helping me with getting registered. Thank. you !!

I have a early 90's Orville Les Paul Model - not the upgraded Orville by Gibson which has USA electronics and hardware. I was underwhelmed by whatever pickups came with it. Not horrible but not great.
I had an Air Norton and a 36th Anniversary Neck in my parts drawer so based on a couple of things I've read about the Air Norton in the bridge I had them put in. Air Norton in the bridge and the 36th in the neck. I like the AN in the bridge, but the 36th in the neck seems to overpower the bridge. I have the 36th as low in the pickup ring as I can, under it actually and likely close to falling off the screws.
I'm looking at some options that would have me swap out one of the pickups, either the 36th from the neck, or leaving the 36th in the neck and swapping the Air Norton out.  ( I do like it but open to trying something else)
This guitar plays classic rock, blues, and a few tunes like Larry Carlton's "A pair of Kings"  I want a neck pickup that is bluesy, a little swampy, but not boomy or too thick.
I have thought about a Bluesbucker  to follow the Nash guitar  LP rebuild formula of a AN and the Bluesbucker. Watched the video for whatever it's worth. My worry is that the Bluesbucker might be a little bright ?
Ive also looked at ( on the Dimarzio website- comparing specs) the Air Classic neck model, the PAF 59 neck, and even one of those two pickups bridge model for the neck.

If I was going to try leaving the 36th in the neck because I do like how it sounds on it's own, the 36th bridge would seem the most obvious choice. But I don't know how it compares to the AN  other than the specs. So what might pair well with the 36th neck that isn't a 36th bridge? I do like the harmonics of the AN but I don't want to make that the only criteria.

The reason I swapped out the original pickups was to get something a little more beefy, but not over the top beefy. The originals were fairly thin.  I get old PAFs were brighter than many people think, so vintage is not a requirement, but I don't want to go completely the other direction either.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated !

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The Pickup Place / Re: HSS with Dimarzio Bridge HB

« Last post by darkbluemurder on August 11, 2025, 09:30:19 AM »

My ears tell me that with the bridge side coil (or outer coil - viewed in relation to the other pickups) gives a bit more air compared to the neck side coil (or inner coil). However, the standard magnetic orientation is such that the neck side coil and the middle single coil are opposite magnetic polarity and can therefore be combined in a humcancelling fashion. If you want to use the bridge side coil and want it humcancelling there are the following options:

1) Reverse the bridge humbucker by 180 degrees so that the neckside coil is now on the bridge side. Then wire it up as usual. I did this with various DiMarzio models, even some with Dual Resonance (such as FRED and Mo' Joe just to name a few).
2) Flip the magnet in the humbucker. That also flips the phase so you need to reverse input and output of the pickup, and potentially also reverse the wires of the individual coils. To write this as text sounds more complicated than it actually is.
3) Use a single coil with a different magnetic polarity, reverse the input and output wires for the humbucker.

Good luck,
Stephan

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The Pickup Place / Re: 1990s B5 bridge humbucker

« Last post by darkbluemurder on August 11, 2025, 09:21:33 AM »

Best to E-Mail the DiMarzio Tech Support with pictures. They are usually quite quick to reply.

Good luck,
Stephan

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The Pickup Place / Re: HSS with Dimarzio Bridge HB

« Last post by gregr on July 28, 2025, 02:35:12 AM »

I prefer the outer coil but recommend trying both ways. Depending on the pickup, rotating it may also provide different results.

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The Pickup Place / Re: HSS with Dimarzio Bridge HB

« Last post by headcrash on July 28, 2025, 01:45:24 AM »

Thanks gregr, been looking at that one as well.
Would this combination be the most or more authentic quack position, or the one using the bridge side coil of the humbucker?

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The Pickup Place / Re: HSS with Dimarzio Bridge HB

« Last post by gregr on July 27, 2025, 10:52:56 PM »

Here’s an HSS wiring diagram from DiMarzio:
https://www.dimarzio.com/media/1435

Position 2 is combining the middle pickup with the North (inner) coil of the bridge pickup. The middle pickup is labeled as having South polarity.

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The Pickup Place / Re: HSS with Dimarzio Bridge HB

« Last post by gregr on July 27, 2025, 12:51:29 PM »

I use neodymium rod magnets to reverse the polarity of single coil slugs.

https://youtu.be/Ig-t5wx3iyw

A potential issue will arise with single coils if the inside windings make electrical contact with the slugs. In that case you would want that end of the coil to connect to ground if there is an issue with hum when touching the slugs. I have never encountered this, however.

I’ll give you an anecdote for Seymour Duncan pickups and magnetic polarity. I had to flip the bar magnet of a JB in order to get in-phase hum-cancelling operation when combining its slug coil with an SSL-2 single coil which I purchased as RW-RP. This tells me that the visible ends of the slugs in an installed RW-RP Seymour Duncan single coil are North and those in a standard one are South. It is my understanding that this is in keeping with the original Fender design, which Fender later changed.

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The Pickup Place / Re: 1990s B5 bridge humbucker

« Last post by headcrash on July 27, 2025, 06:25:32 AM »

I was thinking Neck/Bridge but Front/Back could also be used to specify the location of each pickup.

Good point  While I have never heard of these terms being used by Dimarzio, I also don't consider myself an expert here 

I was thinking to just buy the thing, because it’s cheap, but neither do I like the Tonezone, nor do I need one.
I was hoping for some OEM PU made for Music Man, since the lugs don’t have a thread, and some EBMM models like the AXIS series would need it like that…

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The Pickup Place / Re: HSS with Dimarzio Bridge HB

« Last post by headcrash on July 27, 2025, 06:12:10 AM »

Wind direction can and will vary depending on who made the pickup and when it was made.

Depending on the situation you can reverse the wires or reverse the magnetic polarity in order to get the desired result.

Yes of course, but changing magnetic direction in a standard single coil will not be possible with most.

But my basic assumption should be that be correct, shouldn‘t it?