1

The Pickup Place / Re: My EVO2 Review

« on: October 22, 2024, 07:32:38 PM »

Nice review.

Have you ever considered demoing the EVO Neck in the bridge position, possibly in an HSS configuration?

2

The Pickup Place / Re: Pickups for dark guitar

« on: July 14, 2024, 06:37:36 PM »

Full shred set, most definitely.

[…]

You'll not be happy with them until you boost the bass at your amp a bit.  Doing this makes them thump and be super tight as the same time.

Like the JB and other “bright” higher output pickups, the Full Shed doesn’t present as all that bright until the tone starts to saturate. It isn’t particularly bright at the cleaner end of the spectrum compared to a pickup with less wire which appears more in line with the original poster’s needs.

Good cleans and overdrives, some distortion tones.

The Full Shred is nothing more than a Seymour Duncan Custom with an A5 magnet and two screw coils populated with Allen bolts. Between the two, the Custom is the brighter pickup; much brighter than the Full Shred when played clean or crunchy.

Now if the aim is a hotter-than-vintage Seymour Duncan with an aggressive top end, the Perpetual Burn is a better choice for the amount of gain the OP is describing, though I will still point to the leaner, lower-output Screamin’ Demon. The Custom (and its variants), the Perpetual Burn, and the Screamin’ Demon are all 43AWG.

3

The Pickup Place / Re: Pickups for dark guitar

« on: July 06, 2024, 05:47:33 PM »

Good luck making an educated purchasing decision based on DiMarzio’s DCR specifications. Thankfully they provide really good and reliable product information. Seymour Duncan should take notice. 

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The Pickup Place / Re: Pickups for dark guitar

« on: July 05, 2024, 11:50:53 AM »

I remember that chart and all of the Nazgûls being 666 mV. I also remember questioning the Full Shred Neck at 709 mV. I don’t have much confidence in any of it, to be honest. I’m not confident about SD’s published resonant frequency specifications either.

With that in mind I’m willing to believe that the PATB-3 is warmer than the SH-1 (and the TB-59 as well). I can’t believe it is less suitable than a Full Shred, however, especially considering the OP is interested in the cleaner end of the spectrum.

The magnet, wire, and wind are far more critical than DCR. DCR needs to die a slow painful death.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Pickups for dark guitar

« on: July 04, 2024, 01:12:05 PM »

Just to be clear, the PATB-3 is the lowest output version of the three bridge models. The published specs show 9.8k DCR (42AWG) and 6kHz resonant frequency (same Fr as the SH-1 59B).

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The Pickup Place / Re: PAF pickups that are close in brightness to singles?

« on: July 01, 2024, 07:34:57 PM »

Bridge EJ seems to be nearly identical specs and EQ of neck AC according to Dimarzio website, aside from being brighter, so was wondering how both would work together, but neck EJ probably does sound like a natural fit.

The EJs were designed to sound like Filtertrons but in a humbucker route. The neck and bridge are the same basic recipe, just calibrated for each respective position. Personally, I would not look to the EJ Custom if I wanted the sound of a full-size humbucker, at least not in the bridge position. If you’re happy with the Air Classic Neck in the bridge I would stick with that.

It was mentioned that a 1M tone pot can be useful in getting more brightness out of a pickup. Choosing a smaller tone cap can also make a marked difference, even with a 500k pot turned all the way up, I would try 15nF or 10nF.

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The Pickup Place / Re: PAF pickups that are close in brightness to singles?

« on: July 01, 2024, 01:19:59 PM »

The voicing and output of the EJ Custom Neck allows it to work very well with single coils. I use one in my Tele with an Area Hot T in the bridge. I play another guitar with a Heavy Blues 2 in the neck which I keep next to the Tele. The EJ is a lot fatter of course but it’s also tight and delivers plenty of treble and presence. The HFH, by comparison is a much bigger sounding with a lot more bottom end and scooped midrange, whereas the EJ is more focused.

I haven’t used the EJ Custom Bridge but I imagine it would excel in the neck position with a somewhat hotter pickup in the bridge. Pairing one with a HFH in the bridge would be interesting, though I can’t see myself ever doing that. With the lower resonant frequency I bet the EJ Bridge would provide a lot of cut in the neck position. But with an Air Classic Neck in the bridge I would recomnend the EJ Classic Neck in the neck.

EDIT: In keeping with the topic title, I should mention that the EJ Customs don’t sound like PAFs; neither does the HFH, but the EJs even less so. That said, in terms of tone I find the usage of PAF (as in Patent Applied For) to be quite nebulous. My choice for a PAF-style pickup that plays nice with singles* is a Seymour Duncan 59 Neck with an Alnico 3.

EDIT:
(*) when swapping between guitars without changing settings.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Wiring Diagram required - HSS with 1 Vol with push/pull and 1 tone

« on: June 27, 2024, 09:26:00 PM »

It looks like a standard Asian 5-way, so you shouldn’t have any problems with it.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Wiring Diagram required - HSS with 1 Vol with push/pull and 1 tone

« on: June 22, 2024, 10:12:56 PM »

You’ll want to buy a new 5-way selector since the stock one is specialized.

I’d use the push-pull to split both Tone Zones and would auto-split the Transition and middle Tone Zone in position 2.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Pickups for dark guitar

« on: June 05, 2024, 01:47:53 AM »

The Humbucker from Hell is similar to a Jazz in that it is very clear sounding. It is quite bright but also has some prominent bass, so in that sense it sounds bigger than a Jazz. It is also very clean sounding. It requires a fair amount of gain if you want a saturated tone.

In the bridge, the PAF Pro sounds sterile to me. That said it is very versatile.

I haven’t played a PATB-3 but I have no doubt that I would really enjoy one. The Custom 5 is a great pickup but I don’t know if it will give you what you want for that guitar, though it would be a marked improvement over a JB.

The Screamin’ Demon is bright pickup and is my go-to bridge humbucker. I had paired one with a Humbucker from Hell for a while but the HFH was replaced with a 59 Neck loaded with an A3 magnet. I tend to swap out neck pickups regularly, but I think the 59N with an A3 is a keeper. The Screamin’ Demon also pairs extremely well with a Full Shred Neck but that pickup doesn’t provide enough low end to suit my taste for cleans.

The 59 Bridge is a very bright pickup as are any of the other vintage output Seymour Duncans, including the Screamin’ Demon (which is also a vintage output pickup). I think the Perpetual Burn may also be a good candidate if you want something a tad hotter than vintage, perhaps on par with the PAF Pro, but I haven’t done any proper comparison. Between the two I prefer the sound of the Perpetual Burn over the PAF Pro in the bridge position.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Pickups for dark guitar

« on: June 04, 2024, 10:37:44 AM »

Duncans tend to run brighter than DiMarzio. Which ones did you try?

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The Pickup Place / Re: PAF Pro Review

« on: May 23, 2024, 01:57:39 PM »

The PAF Pro is much fuller and more even sounding through the midrange. It is much much hotter than a Jazz. Other than both having qualities that produce a sense of clarity they really aren’t all that comparable.

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Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: Area 58, 61 and 67 Strat Pickups

« on: May 02, 2024, 04:04:59 PM »

I’d like not to have to make additional corrective adjustments while playing. In fact, I use series and parallel resistors to ensure I can make use of  the entire sweep of a control when necessary.

I find that shunting the dummy coil in order to coax additional brightness out of an Area pickup sounds better than unloading it. If I want extra brightness on tap I’ll dial it at the amp rather than have the pickup sound uneven.

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Everything you wanted to know about .... / Re: Area 58, 61 and 67 Strat Pickups

« on: May 01, 2024, 11:02:33 AM »

It largely depends on the guitar and application but raising the Q by reducing the load can sound sharp. You might want to try this instead…

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The Pickup Place / Re: Input

« on: March 18, 2024, 05:16:36 PM »

- Something bright that saturates a Bray-modded Marshall SLP

- Tone Zone and PAF Pro sound muddy and dull

There really isn’t much to go on here.

My initial thoughts based on the typical use case of that amp are a Duncan TB-4 JB in the bridge and a Duncan SH-12 Screamin’ Demon in the neck. You could go with the TB-12 but the SH-12 will be just a tad brighter. For additional saturation I would consider a good overdrive.

That out of the way I’ll take a stab at some DiMarzios. The Super Distortion in the bridge seems like an obvious choice, perhaps with a Super 2 in the neck. The Evolution set is another safe bet if you have the chops.

The HFH is bright but it is also very clean. If the PAF Pro doesn’t provide enough saturation then the HFH will not be a good choice.