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The Pickup Place / attaching ferrous plate under VV Blues bridge pickup

« on: December 13, 2017, 10:20:48 AM »

I've been thinking about soldering a ferrous plate underneath my bridge pickup for increased output and a little thicker sound. Has anyone tried this with the VV or Area series? If so, what were the results?

Thanks!

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The Pickup Place / Re: Area series VS both old and new Virtual Vintage single coils.

« on: January 10, 2017, 12:44:28 PM »

So guys, (and gals) Virtual Solo or Injector bridge?

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The Pickup Place / Re: Area series VS both old and new Virtual Vintage single coils.

« on: January 10, 2017, 09:36:26 AM »

Yeah, I've had the tone control for the middle pickup wired to the bridge in all of my strats for over 20 years. I love how the notch pos sounds when the middle pickup has no tone control, and the fact that you can actually control the brightness of the bridge pickup. I've also experimented with different values and grades of caps for the tone control on the bridge pickup... It sounds like the newer virtual solo is the one to get.. I would have to turn down the tone control so far with the old virtual solo that the mid and bass frequencies would no longer sound bright and snappy enough.. I've never had this problem with real single coils. It must be really hard to get all of the frequencies right with the stacked, noisless design.. They sure got it right with the Area series.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Area series VS both old and new Virtual Vintage single coils.

« on: January 09, 2017, 05:29:43 PM »

Thanks for the reply.. I'm wondering if the newer version of the VV Vintage solo sounds more smooth than the old one that I had... Or maybe its the alnico 5 magnet, as I tend to only like A5 single coils in the middle or neck position.. I've also tried the Chopper in the bridge, and while it does sound quite good, it too is a bit much in the treble area - which could have something to do with the ceramic magnet.. Maybe I would like the The Heavy Blues, as it is A2.

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The Pickup Place / Area series VS both old and new Virtual Vintage single coils.

« on: January 09, 2017, 12:32:59 PM »

I am a strat player who is in love with the truest single coil tones possible. I play full time in a variety of situations that don't allow for 60 cycle hum... I started using the Virtual Vintage series shortly after they came out in the mid '90's.. I really liked them, because at that time, they seemed to be the closest to the real deal... The only problem that I had with them is in the bridge position.. I like a fairly fat sound in the bridge, more like a tele bridge tone, but still very single coil sounding. Just fatter and warmer.. I have an old VV Solo Pro and  VV Blues (both from the '90's) that I tried in the bridge pos of my strats, but no matter what I did I couldn't dial out this super high-end, upper presence-y frequency that was like an icepick to my ears.. While both of these pickups sounded hotter and fatter, neither of them had any warmth... Fast forward to the present. I'm currently using the Area 58 and 67 in the middle and neck, which are superb.. I still haven't found a bridge pickup that can do what I described earlier.. I'm leaning toward the 54 Pro or the Injector series.. Any thoughts?

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The Pickup Place / Re: EMG's VS. trad single coils?

« on: March 05, 2016, 04:29:31 PM »

He does indeed.. I've known him for probably 25 years, as we live in the same city and I've seen him play many times - sat in with him once in the late '90's.. He's always been a monster. And he's even funnier in person when he's around people he knows and is not in a family atmosphere.. He'll make your face and your ribs hurt from laughing and having no time to recover in between comments..

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The Pickup Place / Re: EMG's VS. trad single coils?

« on: March 05, 2016, 01:18:23 PM »

thanks! Greg Koch has been talking about his signature Fishman model, and he seems to dig them.

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The Pickup Place / Re: EMG's VS. trad single coils?

« on: March 05, 2016, 12:47:35 PM »

Anyone else? I'd love to hear some specific experiences/opinions on the tone of these pickups!

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The Pickup Place / EMG's VS. trad single coils?

« on: March 05, 2016, 10:01:09 AM »

Hello - I am a strat guy and love the sound of traditional single coils, but after much experimenting I've settled on the Dimarzio Area series for live use, as I'm a full time musician and can't sound like I'm standing next to a garbage truck on stage every time I turn on the overdrive.. Of course the Area series aren't perfect, but compared to real single coils I do find them quite convincing... Has anyone had success with EMG's? I know they won't sound exactly like a true single coil, but I play live so much and I want something that will be quiet and not lose fidelity or signal through a bunch of pedals and cables.. And I've read that they respond very well to the volume knob on the guitar, which I use very much. Supposedly, as you turn down the knob you don't lose any part of the frequency. I've tried many different high pass filters (treble bleeds) through the years and hated all of them, as they rolled off all of the bass, mid, and character of the pickup while preserving only treble frequencies... A big thing for me too is to not lose those beautiful 2 and 4 notch sounds.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

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The Pickup Place / Re: Cruiser Bridge on Mahogany Strat x3?

« on: December 31, 2015, 03:34:02 PM »

I would say that it depends upon what type of sound you're looking for.. A Cruiser in the bridge of a strat will sound very much like a regular strat bridge pickup with a little more output and girth, and of course noise free as well. The twin blade design will give you great sustain, especially with overdrive, and no drop offs while bending notes.. Might be cool.. What I don't know is whether or not that pickup prefers certain woods over others. I would doubt it though.. And if you use a 250k no-load tone pot you can really experiment with what will work best with that pickup.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Why doesn't AT-1 split well?

« on: December 28, 2015, 11:14:40 AM »

How would the high pass filter (treble bleed) effect the output of the AT-1? It has not effected output in any other pickup I've had in the guitar.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Why doesn't AT-1 split well?

« on: December 27, 2015, 01:07:43 PM »

Darth - Do you find that you need to have your AT-1 really close to the strings?

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The Pickup Place / Re: Why doesn't AT-1 split well?

« on: December 26, 2015, 01:23:46 PM »

So, the AT-1 should not behave much differently (other than output) when split from the VB...

My pickup must be defective, then.. Because I had to have it really close to the strings even when it was in series - just to compete with the VB in output.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Why doesn't AT-1 split well?

« on: December 26, 2015, 12:46:21 PM »

Yeah, it seemed strange to me as well, but thats what the tech told me via email.. He said that some demagnetization happens very rarely.. The AT-1 is an interesting pickup for sure. In series I did like it quite a lot. It has a very smooth high end with a midrange rather similar to the Chopper, which is also a pickup I like very much (in a strat). The AT-1 also has a nice, big, low end that stays tight.. I don't know how they did that - maybe the air technology has some part in that.. That said, it really is a different kind of pickup, at least different from what I'm used to. I've used Dimarzio single coils for many years, mainly Virtual Vintage and Area series, but in years past I had usually used Duncans for humbuckers. The air tech definitely makes the pickup behave differently.. I'm wondering if the bad sounding split has do with the fact that the PRS is not a "true" split, but rather a tap. There is a cap in the wiring that brings in a little bit of the grounded coil when tapped. This is pretty cool in that it gives it slightly more output in single coil mode, while offering a bit less 60 cycle hum... Not that this notion is logical, but I wonder if my AT-1 is truly defective, or if it just didn't like being tapped for some reason.. The Vintage Bass taps beautifully, and is only 8.6k DC resistance - and I know that is not a reliable criteria for judging output, but it's the only info that PRS gives.. But, you'd think that the AT-1, being around 16K - and "aired", which might lower the "actual" output a little, to maybe feeling or responding to something that is around 14K (just a guess..), that still would not explain why the AT-1 sounded so weak compared to the VB unless the AT-1 is defective... Just thinking out loud here. I honestly don't know.. 

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The Pickup Place / Re: Why doesn't AT-1 split well?

« on: December 24, 2015, 01:17:31 PM »

Just the one coil that is usually used to split - the slug coil, but the pickup sounded unexpectedly weak in series as well.. I had to have the pickup almost right under the strings to match the neck pickup that is close to half the power and buried level with the pickup mounting ring.. I emailed back and forth with one of the Dimarzio techs and based on my description he thinks I should send it back because it sounds to him as though it might have gotten partially demagnetized during shipping.