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The Pickup Place / Which DiMarzio Area is closest to Duncan APS single?

« on: April 09, 2021, 08:16:13 PM »

Hi guys! I've 60s spec strat that is quite bright sounding. I have tried some pickup sets in it; SSL-1 set, Virtual Vintage 54 Pro (bridge) and Area 58s (mid&neck), Duncan APS-1 set. Tonally speaking, my clear favourite is APS set. I moved to new apartment which has crappy electronics wiring and using APS set when recording is very frustrating.

Before mentioned DiMarzio set takes care of humming problems but won't satisfy my needs tonally. In this guitar 58s are quite bland sounding and won't give me the same aouthorative snarl as the APS set. These DiMarzios are too underpowered and I need something to replace them with similar tonal properties as the APS singles. I'm even considering 54 Pro / APS setup but the 54 might be too low output to match with A2Pros.

I know this is a long shot but does anyone know which DM Area/Virtual Vintage pickup is the closest in output and sound to APS-1? I'm short on cash atm so I just cannot go buy more pickups and test every possible hum cancelling DiMarzio pickup in their lineup.

Thanks a lot in advance!

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The Pickup Place / Re: Noisy Bluesbucker and PAF 36th Anniversary bridge

« on: August 06, 2018, 04:55:00 AM »

Here's a few things you may want to check out:

#1 Do you have pickup color codes wired up correctly. If using SD or other color codes pickups don't work as designed. DiMarzio's color codes are:
Red wire - hot output
Black/white - coil split, soldered together whether used split or not
Green/bare - ground
Check your pickups with multimeter to check if they give you correct reading. You can check normal DiMarzio kOhm readings from their website.

#2 Check all the wiring for cold solder joints. Cold solder joints can cause grounding/output issues. Good joints are shiny, bad aren't. Here's a small guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-O2TGoArrY

#3 Check your soldering for ground bleed to hot output. This means that if you have a slightest bit of ground touching any output connection you'll get some grounding buzz.

Hope this helps & good luck!

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The Pickup Place / Re: Looking for fat neck humbucker for 24 fret super strat

« on: August 05, 2018, 05:53:37 PM »

Thanks a lot Darth, you've very informative page.

I spent some time tweaking Air Norton. Tried swapping it other way around (screw coil towards bridge) which made it less stratty and felt like it had a bit more output. It had somewhat similar vibe to Liquifire with more natural compression and not-so-good split tone when used with middle single. I tried swapping the pot into 250k and while it made the pups feel more balanced the AN still had too much high end. So, I took it out and let the pickup swapping begin, yet again..

After educating myself for last couple months and after taking all things I've found out to consideration, I really like Alnico II neck pickups over anything else. I wired the A2P neck into neck slot of my PGM and was instantly blown away. It has darker natural tone and feels like LP neck pickup. It had a little more output than AN so it's great to shred on and is more fluid overall. I'm gonna try out A2P bridge model and P-Rail and make the decision afterwards.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Looking for fat neck humbucker for 24 fret super strat

« on: August 04, 2018, 08:33:11 AM »

Yesterday I tried out GSn vs AN. Gravity Storm has more top end, less low end and bit more output in comparison. GSn probably works well in my LP due to it's tone and output.

Got that A2P set last night from a buddy and will try them tomorrow if I've time. I will receive Prail during next week.

I really hope that A2P works. Sooner or later I'll run out of options, lol.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Looking for fat neck humbucker for 24 fret super strat

« on: August 03, 2018, 02:45:59 AM »

I've haven't tried Gravity Storm neck yet but I've been wondering about it for awhile. Local retailer has couple Ibbys in stock so I can A/B the AN and GSn today.

DarthPhineas: How does A2P and PGn compare? I've a friend with A2P set installed and he's gonna loan his guitar next week. I'll most likely get a hold on the P-Rails as well.

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The Pickup Place / Looking for fat neck humbucker for 24 fret super strat

« on: August 02, 2018, 05:05:57 PM »

Last time I asked about what bridge pickup to go for and finally found a perfect one. Thanks again for recommendations, ideas and comments!

I'm definitely set on Perpetual Burn(bridge) and SSL1 rwrp (middle) but I haven't yet found a perfect neck pickup. The guitar is very bright and punchy basswood bodied PGM301 with stop tail bridge, bolt-on maple neck with maple fretboard and 24 frets. The guitar is so bright acoustically that it made most neck pickups sound like a strat, even though wired as a standard humbucker. The pickup placement appears to be the reason but I'm pretty positive that there is a perfect pickup for this application.

List of neck pickups I've tried:
-Paf Pro
Too mushy and undefined when playing fast solos. Nice cleans and split tones

-Humbucker From Hell
Very focused sound, too bright for my taste

-Paf Joe
Bright and spanky but too bright, nice split tones

-59
Sounded very bland and low power with this guitar. Didn't like the split tones

-Liquifire
Too smooth and compressed for me. Cleans have natural compression which I don't like

-Air Norton
This is what's in currently. Still a bit stratty and twangy but I can just about live with it. Has nice sustain when soloing and notes get nice harmonic feedback. Full clean sound and super nice slit tone.

So, I'm looking for a darker pickup than AN, which is just a bit too bright. The ones I'm looking for are P-Rails, A2P, Breed neck and Air Zone.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Direct mounting...

« on: July 26, 2018, 07:08:21 AM »

I don't think that direct mounting affects the tone that much. I've guitars that have pickup rings, direct mounted and pickguard mounted pickups and personally like the direct mounting the best. They're easiest to do pickup mods (magnet swaps ect) and I like how they look.

I've gone 6 sets of pickups in last few months on my PGM301 which have them direct mounted. Screw holes tend to strip every now and then but it isn't really a problem, it can be fixed with toothpicks and superglue. I highly suggest filling the holes and using same screws that were installed in the guitar if it happens.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Ibanez PGM301 bridge pickup

« on: July 13, 2018, 01:26:48 PM »

So I finally got the pickups I ordered. I received DiMarzio Satchur8, D Activator, Duncan Perpetual Burn and also second hand Full Shred, which was suggested on another forum. I took couple of days with each pickup to really know them sonically and also took time to tweak the pickup/pole piece heights. The pickups are in order I tested them.

-D Activator
Easily the brightest and had most output of the pickups I tried. It had pretty good metal tone, but wasn't versatile enough. Too compressed for my taste and had sharp pick attack that was accentuated by PGM's overall bright tone. It also overpowered the middle SSL1 too much. Sounded a bit bland and dull on clean amp.

-Satchur8
I was quite surprised how much this had output. The tone and feel was nice, a bit like a Norton but way bigger sounding, more low end and less mids. It had strong emphasis on low mid frequencies that gave it nice thump when palm muting and natural harmonics when sustaining single notes with high gain. Cleans had cool broad tone and it had nice split tone. It was too big and broad sounding compared to SSL1.

-Full Shred
I was pretty sure I wouldn't like this one, but had to try it. It had similar amount of output compared to Satchur but was a lot more focused and compressed. It had kinda weird pick attack and hollow mid-mids which made it super smooth to shred on. It proceeded to have same hollow mids and pick attack for rhythm playing and I wasn't pleased on it's tracking while playing riffs. On clean it sounded very thin and unnatural, even more so when split and it didn't work well with the middle single coil.

-Perpetual Burn
I felt most confident about this one as it shares so many qualities I look for in a bridge humbucker. Nice attack, present high mids, tight low end and dynamic for medium output pickup. It has similarities to Pegasus (that I've in my 7-string Ibby RGD) and therefore felt like home for me. Low end is pretty tight but present and mids have nice grind to them when playing rhythms. Pinch harmonics are easy to get and single notes are followed with natural overtones. This one is really close with Norton, both in output and overall tone, but has a tad less mids and less picky high end. I think this one's gonna be my new favourite.

As I tried different bridge pickups I found out that I didn't like the Paf Joe anymore. It had too sharp high end that got ice picky when playing with distortion. However it had nice clean tone and exceptional split tones, I needed to find a new neck humbucker. After couple days of research I narrowed my choice between DiMarzio Air Norton and Liquifire. I ended up getting the Liquifire, since it is a bit brighter than the AN. It works really well with the PB and doesn't overpower it that much and they match extremely well tonally.

Hope you find this info useful in your own tone chasing!

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The Pickup Place / Re: Dimarzio Fusion Edge

« on: July 04, 2018, 08:03:37 AM »

Titans are worth to try. Have installed few sets in different guitars and found them balanced, dynamic and very versatile. They offer nice split and parallel tones as well. Fusion Edge pups have less output but similar tone.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Music Man Steve Morse Y2d Floyd: bridge pickup search

« on: July 04, 2018, 07:55:19 AM »

Welcome to the forum!

It would be useful to know what kind of tone you're after and what is your current amp. You're planning to use stock neck pickup wiyh 250 pots?

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The Pickup Place / Re: Ibanez PGM301 bridge pickup

« on: July 03, 2018, 08:41:37 AM »

DMZ exchange policy is for US residents only. I've asked the local retailer but they don't offer any exchanges either. I live in Finland and therefore need to buy pickups in order to try them. It's not big deal, I need to spent my money somewhere anyway.

I believe that Transition has ceramic magnet. I usually don't like the way how ceramic magnet pups feel and sound under gain but might need to think this one. I'm certainly trying Satchur8 and Prepetual Burn first when they arrive.

I've heard good things about Virtual Hot PAFs but they are hard to find used in here. Definitely looking to find one on eBay.

This would be a lot easier if we wouldn't have so many products to choose from. It's really hard not to get lost in options.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Ibanez PGM301 bridge pickup

« on: June 25, 2018, 02:18:13 PM »

Today I had an opportunity to visit local DiMarzio/Ibanez retailer in order to test out some pickups. Naturally the pups were in different guitar models so keep that in mind. They all had basswood body/maple neck and equipped with floating tremolo.

AT-1
Rich midrange and smooth highend made it sound rather thin for rhythm playing but it sounded pretty nice for leads. Had good amount of articulation so it was pleasure to shred on. Nice and juicy but overall just a little too smooth for my playing style.

Gravity Storm
Pretty similar to AT but with smoother highend, bit more bass and more output. Definitely a shredders pickup with a fluid sound and feel. Had very thick and focused midrange so it was nice for leadwork. Rhythm tone had more body but since it had more gain it sounded quite undefined to me.

Satchur8
Very different sound compared to mentioned above - very broad and big sounding pickup with pretty smooth highend, rich mids and good bass response. Pretty similar to AT in terms of output but with bigger and fuller sound and more articulation. Definitely most articulate of the bunch which made this my favourite. Broad rhythm tone with good articulation and fast tracking. This might be the one.

I'm still open for suggestions and opinions about which pickups I should test. I'll buy two pickups in next month (Sathur8 being one of them) and need an alternative if the satch is too big for me.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Ibanez PGM301 bridge pickup

« on: June 22, 2018, 07:16:06 AM »

Yeah, SSL1 is bright with 500k pot but it's not problem. It sounds perfect to my liking and Paf Joe with A2 magnet has kinda YJM vibe. Those two pair perfectly but Norton seem to have less output and narrower frequency range.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Ibanez PGM301 bridge pickup

« on: June 21, 2018, 07:46:17 AM »

It's actually a good thing that you shared your opinion, made me thinking the whole thing from middle single point of view. It being SSL1, I need to be careful that bridge HB won't overpower it in terms of volume and output.

I am currently looking for a bunch of bridge HBs used, especially AT and Breed bridge. Mainly looking for DMZ HB since PGM has triangle-shape routings and Duncans won't fit without modification.

There's many JBs in sale locally but it's not what I'm after. If I would change pot to 250k it would change the tone of other pickups. Therefore looking for used AT.

Thank you all for your help!

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The Pickup Place / Re: Ibanez PGM301 bridge pickup

« on: June 19, 2018, 04:05:27 AM »

I checked eBay and didn't find EVH/Axis on sale. I don't like buying pickups there since I need to pay sales taxes and customs fees if the seller is outside EU. That makes pickup purchases rather pricey from there.

I asked DiMarzio how Breed and Satchur8 compare: ''The Satchur8 is more open-sounding, with less emphasis on the mids and tighter lows.'' Very interesting, satchur sounds like a pickup I would really enjoy. Gonna buy one next month when I got some excess cash.