[darkbluemurder]

I had this pickup lying around for quite a while before I got around to put it into the guitar - it went into the bridge position of a three pickup Firebird monster and replaced a Lollar Firebird bridge model. I only spent a short time with it so far but here are my first impressions.

The pickup's DC measured 13.1k. Wire guage is probably 43 ga. Output is noticeably hotter than the pickup it replaced but not over the top hot. It still balances well with the Lollar FB neck and middle pickups.

I expected the Hot Minibucker to be a definitve step toward a full sized humbucker tone but that was not the case. It does not at all sound like a full sized humbucker, not at least any that I played before. Tonally the Hot Minibucker retains the Firebird bite but with a lot of low end and a healthy dose of midrange added. The good thing is that low end still retains clarity as well. Very cool tone indeed.

I think this is a great pickup for all LP Deluxe and Firebird owners who want to retain the treble bite but want to add girth and power to the tone without going to a full sized humbucker tone.  My vote is to bring it back into the regular DiMarzio line - there is always a place for a vintage minibucker and a hot minibucker.

Cheers Stephan

[darkbluemurder]

See here for the DP-168: http://www.dimarzioforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,7074.0.html

and here for the DP-240: http://www.dimarzioforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,4977.0.html

[darkbluemurder]

Here is an extra tip for those pickups: they work well with the coils in parallel as a neck humbucker - very firebirdish.

[darkbluemurder]

In that application it is worth to experiment with the load on the pickup. 500k (my actual volume control measures 470k) is a bit bright but still ok, 250k a lot warmer. I settled on about 280k for the moment as this gave me a suitable compromise for all pickup combinations in that particular guitar.