[JackGriffiths]

Hi all,

I was surprised to see that there was no topic for the DP223 and I couldn't resist spouting a little bit about it 

Take your standard PAF and add some appropriated 'beef' for the bridge position and that's essentially what you end up with here. It retains the openness and clarity of a PAF (using the DP103 as a reference), yet adds some warmth and punch that isn't to be found in the typical boutique shed-built PAF replica. This pickup has met with mixed reviews, with tone aficionados claiming that it doesn't quite have the singing, rich vintage quality of the more expensive replications. That's true, and that's perhaps why the price is able to be so much lower than those examples.

However, the lack of complete authenticity opens up a different market for this pickup to adapt itself to. For example, I'd like to suggest that this pickup can nail that vintage PAF vibe and feel to 85% - plenty good enough for busting out the Koss, Page, Gibbons, Clapton, Joe Walsh licks, etc. However, that remaining 15% (particularly the added output and warmth) allow it to slip in to the harder rock territory and stay there with considerably more credibility than a typical PAF could manage. Though the bottom end is not as tight as a PAF Pro, its midrange grind gives you powerful, clear and dynamic crunch all over the gain spectrum, with zero feedback or squealing issues.

On top of this adaptability, there is no harshness or mud, and I've got this pickup in a VERY heavy Les Paul chunk-o'-Mahogany, which is of course what this pickup is tailored to. That being said, I also have it wired in Parallel in the neck of an Alder bodied Telecaster - versatility is a plenty in this little bundle of metal and wire.

Though I personally favour the PAF Pro for some things, particularly tighter hard rock rhythms and real screaming leads, the DP223 is my favourite all-round sounding pickup and it's one of the very many reasons that I love that particular Les Paul to death. With some high quality volume and tone pots, the range is unbeatable, and the colour options are just a bonus (nothing is better to me than a pair of cream HBs!)

From what I can tell, this and the Norton aren't worlds apart, but I've never played a pickup that sounds quite as interesting as this, considering that it's designed for a specific purpose and to replicate a particular vibe.

Jack

[Rabelais]

Hi all,

I was surprised to see that there was no topic for the DP223 and I couldn't resist spouting a little bit about it 

Take your standard PAF and add some appropriated 'beef' for the bridge position and that's essentially what you end up with here. It retains the openness and clarity of a PAF (using the DP103 as a reference), yet adds some warmth and punch that isn't to be found in the typical boutique shed-built PAF replica. This pickup has met with mixed reviews, with tone aficionados claiming that it doesn't quite have the singing, rich vintage quality of the more expensive replications. That's true, and that's perhaps why the price is able to be so much lower than those examples.

However, the lack of complete authenticity opens up a different market for this pickup to adapt itself to. For example, I'd like to suggest that this pickup can nail that vintage PAF vibe and feel to 85% - plenty good enough for busting out the Koss, Page, Gibbons, Clapton, Joe Walsh licks, etc. However, that remaining 15% (particularly the added output and warmth) allow it to slip in to the harder rock territory and stay there with considerably more credibility than a typical PAF could manage. Though the bottom end is not as tight as a PAF Pro, its midrange grind gives you powerful, clear and dynamic crunch all over the gain spectrum, with zero feedback or squealing issues.

On top of this adaptability, there is no harshness or mud, and I've got this pickup in a VERY heavy Les Paul chunk-o'-Mahogany, which is of course what this pickup is tailored to. That being said, I also have it wired in Parallel in the neck of an Alder bodied Telecaster - versatility is a plenty in this little bundle of metal and wire.

Though I personally favour the PAF Pro for some things, particularly tighter hard rock rhythms and real screaming leads, the DP223 is my favourite all-round sounding pickup and it's one of the very many reasons that I love that particular Les Paul to death. With some high quality volume and tone pots, the range is unbeatable, and the colour options are just a bonus (nothing is better to me than a pair of cream HBs!)

From what I can tell, this and the Norton aren't worlds apart, but I've never played a pickup that sounds quite as interesting as this, considering that it's designed for a specific purpose and to replicate a particular vibe.

Jack

If I get a second guitar, I would definetily try it. I have the DP103 in the bridge position of my PRS SE and I love it. And when I engage my Green Russian Muff clone (boosted with a TS9), it also rocks.

[RayBarbeeMusic]

"tone aficionados claiming that it doesn't quite have the singing, rich vintage quality of the more expensive replications. That's true, and that's perhaps why the price is able to be so much lower than those examples."

Hogwash and fart sniffing.

I've owned and played the silly expensive stuff, the 36th keeps up with any and in most guitars sounds better than most of the boutiques.

[Guitar74]

I don't have one in anything presently. But everything that I have heard one in sounds terrific. I think the tone snobs are just trying to justify spending way too much on a magnet, coils, wire, and pole pieces. The other point that I would like to make is that many guys who were around during the early P.A.F. era all say the same thing: The only thing consistent about those vintage PAF pickups was the inconsistency. I always have to laugh when they try to wax philosophical on why the $300 slightly underwound PAF they bout that was wound with pixie dust farted straight out of a fairy's behind, and unobtainium magnets that were blessed by Gandolph the Grey, wound on someone's sewing machine that was dipped in the same pool that Achilles mother dipped him in to make him indestructible are SOOOOOO much better than a Dimarzio, or a Duncan. Aren't the same techniques the boutique winders are using being employed on the cheap overseas pickups that sound like garbage?

Sorry. That's why I got booted off of TGP.

[darkbluemurder]

Just curious: have you got booted off by other TGP members or by TGP moderators? If moderators that would be a shame as nothing in your post even bordered a rule violation. If other members then they should be told that wording an opinion is not a rule violation in itself and does not warrant any personal attacks whatsoever. In addition, it is not for members to warn about rule violations - that's what moderators are for

As for the rest I fully agree that most of the vintage hype is what I would diplomatically call creative marketing. And it is effective since by now the real vintage stuff is rare so that the vast majority of the guitar playing crowd have never come close to it.

Cheers Stephan

[Guitar74]

I DID get pretty belligerent in defense of someone else who was sort of being picked on because he preferred a Duncan '59 over a Lollar and got brow beaten over it. So I sort of threw my dog in someone else's fight and was less than diplomatic in doing so. I was in a mood, and after seeing four or five snobby comments to the guy sort of peeved people off. Oh well, at that point it was mutual.