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The Pickup Place / Air Norton Bridge Position

« on: November 15, 2023, 01:10:25 PM »

Anyone else do this?  I'm just loving this pickup in the bridge position.  Output wise and tonally, it's in the PAF camp even though nothing like a PAF on paper.  Very open, articulate high end but enough grunt and growl in the lows to sound angry through a Marshall, but not muddy at all.  DiMarzio lists it as having slightly less output than a 36th bridge, but it comes off as hotter in practice due to the frequency response.  Pushes a marshall style front end harder.  More open highs, less squawk, more grunt/growl than the 36th bridge. Extremely responsive to pick attack, and very shred friendly in terms of tracking speed.

Really digging the hell out of it in 2HB guitars.

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The Pickup Place / Re: PG-13 Middle in Bridge

« on: November 15, 2023, 01:03:40 PM »

PSA Bump.  This is still by far the best mini for bridge position I've ever come across.  KILLS through marshall style amps.

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The Pickup Place / Re: PAF 36th (Bridge) + PAF Pro (Neck) on a LP

« on: January 30, 2023, 04:29:16 PM »

Mo Joe is essentially a 9k PAF with two rows of screws, should work well in that application, but you'll still need to lower the PAF pro probably, and raise the pole pieces.  PAF Pro is fairly hot for a neck position.

Mo Joe is a pickup that doesn't get much attention, but it's very much in the DiMarzio PAF family.  36th bridge, Mo Joe, DiMeola Bridge can all be considered variations on a flavor, kind of all chocolate but the difference is how much coacoa is in your chocolate.  PAF Master is a little farther outside that group, but not much farther.

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The Pickup Place / Re: HB2 vs. Injector Neck

« on: January 27, 2023, 05:58:50 PM »

Might try fast track 1.  Very bright with 500k, and more output than heavy blues 2 or injector neck.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Pickup similar to AT-1

« on: January 27, 2023, 05:55:38 PM »

If you've never tried air norton in the bridge, give it a go.  Really nice paf.

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The Pickup Place / PG-13 Middle in Bridge

« on: January 23, 2023, 04:49:23 PM »

DiMarzio intended this is a special use middle in the case that it's much lower than the neck and bridge. 

But if you look at the specs, it's a little monster for a mini.  Similar output to a '59 bridge or Air Classic Bridge.  Still has the standard mini bite and snarl due to the Neo mag, in spite of the high (for a mini) output and DCR.  Sounds like a great mini, plenty meaty in on low note chords and plenty bitey on the high notes, and with far more output than other minis. 

I've been going through options for mini and P90 routed guitars, been through 20 pickups or so for that position, this one is by far the best I've found for a bridge.  Still sounds like a mini (if you want a sound like a full sized bucker, use a full sized bucker...), but has plenty of output which most minis lack.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Any chance of a stickied DiMarzio Mods post?

« on: January 23, 2023, 04:40:59 PM »

[...]

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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The Pickup Place / Re: Which Pickup Features Which Technique

« on: January 23, 2023, 04:39:09 PM »

Great Post!

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The Pickup Place / Re: SSS Strat Pickup Combinations

« on: January 23, 2023, 04:32:29 PM »

I take credit for the cap size, I was doing it before anyone else afaik. 

.0015uf cap bridge singles or FT1.  .001uf bridge humbucker (chopper for instance).  .0022uf neck/middle single, .0033uf or .0047uf in parallel positions.  I always use a super switch.  Regular 5 ways are so 1950s and pedantic...

One tone dedicated to bridge only, and it only operates in switch position 1.  2nd tone controls the other 4 positions, but may use different cap sizes in different positions, see above. 

500k (ones that measure 500k plus ONLY) in all positions except when doing the super duper series option wiring (I showed this to Stephan, but I'd appreciate it not being shared). 

ALWAYS a 3 way switch in position 4 that offers: Neck + middle parallel like standard strat, all 3 parallel, neck + bridge parallel. 

Various Options:
Basic:
Bridge:  Chopper bridge, FT-1 (with resistor to create 250k load for bridge only), or Injector Bridge.  Chopper sounds like a PAF in spite of what Dimarzio claims.  Injector sounds like a hot bridge single but when the .0015uf tone is rolled back, does the Ritchie Blackmore thing very well and can approximate a P90 or PAF.   FT-1 does much the same as the Injector Bridge, but IMO has a little more output, low end, and smooths out more as the tone is rolled back, plus it's really GD bright with 500k load which means in position 2 it quacks nicely with the middle.  Also why position 1 gets a 250k load if I'm using FT1. 

Middle:   '61 sometimes with Chopper, otherwise '67 or '58.  '67 always with the super duper series option due to darkness issues in series.  Sometimes a 1M resistor to ground creating a 333k load on middle position ONLY, depending on the guitar. 

Neck:  '67.  Period.  Nothing beats it for articulation.  Sounds awesome with the 12-54 strings I generally use on strats, even with 11-52 still very SRV ish. 

Super Duper switching gets Injector Bridge or FT-1 and two 67s always.  Offers the 5 way strat stuff noted above, plus 3 series options in position 1 that have a high pass filter to get rid of the bloated lows that result from spaced singles in series, and when in series see a 1M load and no tone to deal with the darkness issues of spaced singles in series.

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The Pickup Place / Re: HB2 vs. Injector Neck

« on: January 23, 2023, 03:58:50 PM »

HS 2 is what you mean by HB2?  Much weaker and thinner than Injector Neck.  If you're finding injector neck to thin, next up in order of output/darkness are VV Heavy Blues 2, Virtual Solo, then Injector Bridge (which is meatier than the V Solo in spite of what the tone charts say).

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The Pickup Place / Re: Pickup similar to AT-1

« on: January 23, 2023, 03:56:11 PM »

36th Anniversary Bridge is what you want. 

Air Zone is actually darker and more compressed.  Screamin Demon is like a strat bridge pickup in the high end and about as far from an AT-1 as you can get and still be a humbucker.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Info about PRS SE 85/15s pickups

« on: July 30, 2022, 12:24:17 PM »

58/15 = 85/15 with a cover iirc.

Might also be a2 vs a5. Same wind as 85/15.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Info about PRS SE 85/15s pickups

« on: July 09, 2022, 07:26:05 PM »

85/15Ss are darker, less articulate, and with less harmonics than, for instance, a 36th anniversary, but they are PAF types.  Same goes for the US version.  I've never regretted replacing them with a DiMarzio paf type.

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The Pickup Place / Re: New Tone Charts!?!

« on: June 15, 2022, 09:53:50 PM »

I also noticed that the relative B/M/T vs. B/LM/HM/T charts changed significantly for some pickups, in particular the Bluesbucker. Under the old system it was like 4.5/5/6 and therefore one of the tightest and brightest humbuckers in the line up.

Under the new system, the Air Classics, the PAF Masters, the PAF Pro and the PAF Joe are all suddenly tighter and brighter than the Bluesbucker. What happened?

Yeah I can't say I agree with the new numbers in a relative way.  They did have trebles that went to 9 before though (Area 67, EJ).  The new numbers strike me as a bit off from pickup to pickup. 

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The Pickup Place / New Tone Charts!?!

« on: June 12, 2022, 03:18:17 AM »

Anyone noticed Dimazio now has new charts with mids broken into "low mid" and "High Mid"? Also, the other numbers are totally different than the new numbers.