DiMarzio Forum
DimarzioForum.Com => The Pickup Place => Topic started by: RayBarbeeMusic on November 08, 2017, 04:15:56 PM
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Modding pickups with dif mags etc is all the rage over at the *other guy's forum*, you rarely see it discussed here. What are the chances of getting a sticky post where those of us who've done it can post the mod and the tonal results?
Some DiMarzios give great results with a magnet change, pole piece removal/change, etc.
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Excellent idea. I will start off.
I removed the screws under the 4th, 5th and 6th string of my Breed neck pickup (in the neck position). Tonal result: low end got tighter, while not as much as on two lower powered pickups from other makers but still enough to make it useable. BTW that was your tip, Ray.
Bridge pickup on that guitar (a dual humbucker Partscaster Tele with poplar body and a maple neck w/rosewood board) is a Steve Morse bridge model.
Cheers Stephan
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Well no response from mods on sticky so this may be forever lost, but:
Neck humbuckers, general mod to remove mud (note this is not nearly as noticeable with air buckers, so check for that before doing it) Remove 3 poles under the bass string on the neck side coil. If slug/screw config, I generally put the screws toward the bridge and knock out 3 slugs. Pushing them out is not difficult; they'll slide right out of the bobbin with some pressure, and go right back in later. Result: Major reduction in mud on the low strings. You end up with something approaching the tightness of a single on low string low notes, with the fatness of the humbucker on the high strings. NOTE: Adjust the poles on the other coil so that string balance is maintained. The D and high E poles need the most raising, the low E not much at all, A and B somewhere in between.
Humbucker from Hell, change magnet to ceramic: This requires removing one spacer as the stock magnet is a special size, thinner side to side. Not hard surgery. Result: Stronger output, more articulation in the neck. Also benefits at that point from removing 3 poles as noted above.
DP223 36th Anniv Bridge: Change magnet to A2. This is my current (by far) favorite pickup for the bridge of a strat with 250k volume pot. Articulate sound with nicely vocal mids, no mud, removes the harsh high end from the stock A5 version. I like this better than any bridge PAF, including the oft drooled over Tom Holmes. Splits nicely with the middle pickup (I always leave the bridge coil active, if you're using Area middle this requires flipping magnet polarity on the 223, but since the mag is changing anyway, no extra work).
Super 2 in the neck: Remove all poles from neck side coil. Result: Sounds like a big, loud single coil. Loud enough to easily keep up with a mid range bucker in the bridge (Air Zone, AT-1, etc.). Tight, bright, but with output no single can cop.
More to come......
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Thanks for sharing, and no worries - I will help keeping this post at the top :)
I wonder where all the tinkerers with the Air/Half Air mods are - this would be the place to post them - links to previous discussions equally appreciated.
Cheers Stephan
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I swapped the spacers between an Air Norton and Tone Zone to change them to a Norton and Air Zone. I tried both in the bridge position of a guitar, decided I preferred the Air Zone, and wanted to restore the Air Norton for use in the neck position. I ended up gluing the Tone Zone's magnet in place against the baseplate and carefully reassembling with no spacers.
Generally, when I audition new alnico V humbuckers, I try them as designed, then aired, then half-aired. In each case, simply putting some glue dots on the magnet is enough to hold the assembly together when trying without spacers.
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Here is one on the AT-1:
http://www.dimarzioforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,4965.msg37571.html#msg37571
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Ask and you shall receive!
This thread is now stickied :D
Funny enough, modding pickups was a huge topic here years ago but it kinda vanished. Glad to see it being done again.
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Many thanks, Budd.
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Swapped Evolution neck magnet with Alnico 4. It got sound close to the Chopper. Humbucker version of Chopper with the same output but a little deeper lows.
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Air Classic bridge w/ Alnico 8: All the delicate, complex nature of the AC but with decidedly more kick, essentially the same tone.
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I add this topic on the Mo Joe and Breed (not mine): http://www.dimarzioforum.com/forum/index.php/topic,6515.0.html
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Non-invasive mud mod put forward by Lone Phantom. Place a capacitor inline (i.e. series) with the hot out from a pickup to remove some of the bass frequencies (i.e. mud). Lower capacitor values are supposed to have greater effect. Staring point of 0.047μ, and experiment from there.
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DP223 36th Anniv Bridge: Change magnet to A2. This is my current (by far) favorite pickup for the bridge of a strat with 250k volume pot. Articulate sound with nicely vocal mids, no mud, removes the harsh high end from the stock A5 version. I like this better than any bridge PAF, including the oft drooled over Tom Holmes. Splits nicely with the middle pickup (I always leave the bridge coil active, if you're using Area middle this requires flipping magnet polarity on the 223, but since the mag is changing anyway, no extra work).
I wonder whether the Virtual Hot PAF would benefit from this in the same way - anybody tried it?
Cheers Stephan
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Super 2 in the neck: Remove all poles from neck side coil. Result: Sounds like a big, loud single coil. Loud enough to easily keep up with a mid range bucker in the bridge (Air Zone, AT-1, etc.). Tight, bright, but with output no single can cop.
I tryed your mod on my Les Paul : Super 2 neck pup, poles under the 3 bass strings removed. Works great as expected. Thanks for that awesome trick !
Actually this pickup has a PAF style cover installed, and I wonder what would be the result if I remove the poles which are hidden under the cover instead of the visible ones.
What do you think ?
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Super 2 in the neck: Remove all poles from neck side coil. Result: Sounds like a big, loud single coil. Loud enough to easily keep up with a mid range bucker in the bridge (Air Zone, AT-1, etc.). Tight, bright, but with output no single can cop.
I tryed your mod on my Les Paul : Super 2 neck pup, poles under the 3 bass strings removed. Works great as expected. Thanks for that awesome trick !
Actually this pickup has a PAF style cover installed, and I wonder what would be the result if I remove the poles which are hidden under the cover instead of the visible ones.
What do you think ?
I have to give this mod a try sometime. Sounds promising.
As for removing the poles under the cover, those are typically slugs and not screw poles so you're going to have a much harder time with those since they can't easily be screwed out. Worth a try though. Let us know if if you attempt it and it's results
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DLX Plus neck model: removed the bridge side screws, wired the pickup in parallel with a 250k load and a cap to ground. I am still experimenting with the value of the cap - 0.001uf leaves it too bright, 0.0032 (that is 0.001 plus the tone control with a 0.0022 cap rolled down) gets a very P90 like tone but without the hum. Not quite there yet but sounds very promising.
Cheers Stephan
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After testing this for a while I will put the screws back in. Taking them out causes a too large volume drop to my ears when used clean.
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OK I put the screws back in but screwed them as low as they would go, and that was the ticket. Beautiful cleans with the tone control up, a biting but not harsh overdriven tone with the tone control up and a smooth tone with the tone control down. Even though it is not exactly like a P90 it sounds great in its own right. Experiment finished with success.
Cheers Stephan
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I wonder whether the Virtual Hot PAF would benefit from this in the same way - anybody tried it?
Cheers Stephan
Yes.
I also have a VHPAF with A3 in the bridge of a strat. Marries well with the Area 67s in neck/middle for a balanced output, very nice vintage kind of sound.
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I tryed your mod on my Les Paul : Super 2 neck pup, poles under the 3 bass strings removed. Works great as expected. Thanks for that awesome trick !
Actually this pickup has a PAF style cover installed, and I wonder what would be the result if I remove the poles which are hidden under the cover instead of the visible ones.
What do you think ?
Works even better as the exposed pole coil gives more high end. Also "looks stock". Works even mo better if you put the exposed pole side toward the bridge.
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I have to give this mod a try sometime. Sounds promising.
As for removing the poles under the cover, those are typically slugs and not screw poles so you're going to have a much harder time with those since they can't easily be screwed out. Worth a try though. Let us know if if you attempt it and it's results
On a dual screw coil pickup easy either way, but almost as easy with slugs. The slugs tap out of the coil very easily with gentle push from a punch. With a cover on you can't tell it's not stock, except for the lack of mud. Actually works better knocking out the slugs as that coil is darker and the screw coil will have more sparkle anyway. Also, you can equal out your string volume by adjusting the screws; if you remove screws and leave slugs, well, not as easy to equal out your string volume.
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For those who have an issue doing the pole removal thing on pickups due to looks, I may have a source on 316 stainless screws and rods (to make slugs) that are non-magnetic but will keep the look correct. Will report back once I experiment.
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Very cool, thanks for the heads up.
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Confirmed that the 316 stainless from McMaster-Carr is non-magnetic. You can order rods in the correct diameter for slug poles (you have to cut your poles to length from the rod) and a number of socket screws from this material.
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A twice-aired Dominion. Obviously the standard Dimarzio fare of a gap between the pole pieces and the magnet, but also a gap (with some sort of pad, like the Imperium's magnet setup) between the magnet and the base plate. It really cleans up the attack, opens up the treble in a super-pleasant way and increases the dynamic sensitivity quite a bit. I should also mention that I'm using an Imperium's 3/8ths in mag for this mod (I know, sacrificing one pickup for another) which makes up for most of the power lost in the air'ing process.
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Thought I'd mentioned this but maybe not.
Bluesbucker with the slugs knocked out. Very easy to tap them out. Sounds like a fat, overwound strat pickup. Works best installed with screw poles toward the bridge (when in neck position).
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I might try the 1/4 air mod. Thought of this idea today.
Cut the metal spaced in half then only air the three coils for bass strings. In theory, this should take off some bass from the bass strings.
What do you guys think?
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36th bridge with A8. Very focused and ballsy tone, less high end air than stock. Still paf but imagine if you could put a lot more wire on it. Only drawback for me is it made the string feel a bit stiff for fast picked runs, but legato oriented people would probably like it a lot.
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I post it here so that the results to the mod A5 in transition bridge can be found here as well: https://www.dimarzioforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=15746.0
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Has anybody tried swapping hex/allen head pole pieces for screw pole pieces in any pups ? I'm going to put a PAF Pro in the neck of my Ibanez RGT42FM,I have a Norton in the bridge. I finally got the Norton dialed in to be bright enough by, lowering the pickup height and raising the pole pieces but, started wondering what would happen if I swapped the the neck side allen head pole pieces of the PAF Pro with the screw pole pieces of the Norton. I'm also thinking about swapping the a5 mag of the Norton for a ceramic magnet, has anybody tried this ?
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Has anybody tried swapping hex/allen head pole pieces for screw pole pieces in any pups ?
I believe someone has tried that in the past with mixed results. I'll have to see about digging it up. If I recall, swapping the screw piece with the hex would narrow the magnetic field generated by the pickup and change the inductance/resistance a bit. The results would most likely vary from pickup to pickup but would be a worthwhile mod to test out.
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I’ve swapped screw types and lengths. Swapping magnets makes far more of a difference.
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I agree - I temporarily exchanged the screws in a Bluesbucker with hex screws and did not notice much of a change.
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[...]
Super 2 in the neck: Remove all poles from neck side coil. Result: Sounds like a big, loud single coil. Loud enough to easily keep up with a mid range bucker in the bridge (Air Zone, AT-1, etc.). Tight, bright, but with output no single can cop.
I tryed your mod on my Les Paul : Super 2 neck pup, poles under the 3 bass strings removed. Works great as expected. Thanks for that awesome trick !
Actually this pickup has a PAF style cover installed, and I wonder what would be the result if I remove the poles which are hidden under the cover instead of the visible ones.
What do you think ?
I have to give this mod a try sometime. Sounds promising.
As for removing the poles under the cover, those are typically slugs and not screw poles so you're going to have a much harder time with those since they can't easily be screwed out. Worth a try though. Let us know if if you attempt it and it's results
Slugs are quite easy to remove. The only thing that might give you an issue is the wax potting may give some resistance. Chop sticks can poke em right out of the bobbin, I do it all the time.
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Has anybody done and Alnico 2 or 4 in a Norton? It’s cool as is but in my PRS CU24 it’s a slightly bright and a touch honky. I think an A4 might be perfect, just curious if anyone has tried it.