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The Pickup Place / Re: Which Pickup Features Which Technique

« Last post by nienturi on March 12, 2025, 06:53:04 AM »

Transition bridge - Dual Resonance
Transition neck - Dual Resonance

For completeness sake, here are the patent numbers:

Dual Resonance: 4,501,185
-Airbucker: 5,399,802
-Virtual Vintage: 5,908,998

I think there is a slight incorrect info here. Transition set has Virtual Vintage patent, not dual resonance

;From old website;

Wiring: 4 Conductor
Magnet: Ceramic
Output mV: 390
DC Resistance: 11.05 Kohm
Year of Introduction: 2012
Patent: 5908998
Pickup Dimensions

22

The Pickup Place / Re: SSS Strat Pickup Combinations

« Last post by gregr on March 07, 2025, 01:41:23 AM »

I’m diggin’ the Fast Track 1 so much that I just swapped out a VVHB2 for one in the neck of my HSS.

I’m in the midst of wiring, so nothing is final, but I’m treating it differently from the way I’m using it in the bridge in terms of loading and voicing.

Because it has so much output and treble it can be sculpted to work with weaker single coils in various ways. And because it has so much output it keeps up with the humbucker in the bridge much better than the VVHB2, saturating much more easily; and like the VVHB2 it isn’t getting muddy.

I also liberated the VV54P from the middle position so that I can use it and the VVHB2 with a Virtual Solo on a future project. The VV54P was replaced with an Area 58, wired so that only the top coil is active for the two quack positions. It is a better match for the screw coil of an A2-loaded JB, also allowing me to split the Fast Track 1 fairly aggressively, though still not completely.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Dimarzio/IBZ Bridge Review

« Last post by nienturi on March 03, 2025, 04:32:33 AM »

...and this is link for the neck version;

https://www.tonejourney.com/post/dimarzio-ibz-neck-review

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The Pickup Place / Re: Accuracy of DCR values

« Last post by nienturi on February 24, 2025, 03:02:58 AM »

Still, there’s one thing that really puzzles me. Years ago, Rich from Ibanezrules shared a post on Jemsite, showing the DCR values of some PAF Pros installed in older Ibanez models.

Jem Pickups
I haven't moved things back from storage yet, but this should make an interesting comparrison.
87' LNG
Bridge 11.5
Neck 12.5

92 GMC
Bridge 12.5
Neck 13

00' FP
Bridge 12.5
Neck 12.5

93' Donnie
Neck 12.5

 I found this very strange because the values were extremely high. I have DiMarzios from different decades, and even the oldest one has a very consistent DCR value. Has anyone here ever seen a 12K PAF Pro?

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The Pickup Place / Re: Accuracy of DCR values

« Last post by darkbluemurder on February 21, 2025, 08:19:14 AM »

Ambient temperature has a huge effect on the DCR measurements, particularly on higher wind pickups.

This is also what I experienced.

Anything +/- 10% is inconsequential to me.

Cheers Stephan

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The Pickup Place / Re: Accuracy of DCR values

« Last post by nienturi on February 21, 2025, 06:10:07 AM »

Ambient temperature has a huge effect on the DCR measurements, particularly on higher wind pickups.

https://www.lollarguitars.com/blog/2010/04/temperature-and-guitar-pickup-dc-resistance/

I don't get it too serious. No matter if it is 9 KOhms or 9,5 Kohms (i mean same pickup model).

Generally Dimarzios are pretty consistant. I have some pickups that from late 70s, 80s and 90s and newer ones and most of them are pretty close to the catalog values. Contrastly the DCR values od Duncan is more inconsistant, compared to Dimarzios. Even their catalog values change in time.

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The Pickup Place / Accuracy of DCR values

« Last post by headcrash on February 20, 2025, 03:34:22 PM »

Does anyone have a feeling of how accurate large scale (and supposedly highly automated) pickup makers can wind their pickups to a certain spec or advertised value?

I have some examples:
I have two EvH Custom bridge pickups, one measures 16.74k, the other one 17.46k. A third one I had that I sold was more like 18k IIRC. In the "Remembering EvH" story it is "advertised" as 17k.
Then I have an f-spaced VHPAF measuring 9.90k, while Tonejourney's f-spaced specimen measures 9.59k, and it was advertised as 9.13k (dunno if as f-spaced).
Finally I have a 36th PAF neck that measures 7.67k, advertised as 7.31k.

I consider this to be quite a large range of values.
I'm just curious, there is nothing wrong with the pickups I own(ed).

But considering the hype around the gazillion PAF type pickups ...
(I mean, ok, there's probably still capacitance and inductance values that result from wire pull strength, or various layering techniques and whatnot. But does this translate into audible differences?)

Curious what's your point of view on that 

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The Pickup Place / Re: SSS Strat Pickup Combinations

« Last post by gregr on February 18, 2025, 11:50:36 AM »

The 67 is still a bit brighter than the Injector neck with these loads.

Reducing the load on the Injector neck with 500k pots won’t change its resonant frequency. I would instead consider an Area 61 and continue using 250k pots for a more traditional (less pointy) sounding response with the additional desired brightness, adjusting the heights of the pickups to help address the reduction in output if necessary. I intentionally chose the Injector for its warmer top end and output to keep up with the Fast Track 1 for distorted tones.

The exercise of swapping the pickguard for a vintage output set would be to determine whether the guitar was excessively bright, though I don’t believe it is. If it was excessively bright and I wanted the generous amount of chime provided by the vintage output set then I would use a brass block, perhaps changing out the saddles as well depending on the severity.

While the clean tones on this guitar are really nice, I’ll reach for a different guitar if I want the skinny Strat sound. As it is this guitar works well along side other guitars equipped with humbuckers. In a pinch I can plug straight in and get very useable Strat sounds without any adjustments. That’s the beauty of the Fast Track 1. It does an excellent job bridging the chasm between single coils and humbuckers. With the voicing I’ve applied and the values I’ve chosen for the tone control in position 1, it can get downright chunky with it rolled back yet still have enough output to be even with the rest of the positions, from the mid-bass through the low-treble without sounding honky.

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The Pickup Place / Re: SSS Strat Pickup Combinations

« Last post by darkbluemurder on February 18, 2025, 03:18:32 AM »

With the same load, the Area 67 is a lot brighter than an Injector neck in the same pickup position. As a rule of thumb, when I like an Area 67 with 250k, I mostly like an Injector neck with 500k. The 67 is still a bit brighter than the Injector neck with these loads.

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The Pickup Place / Re: SSS Strat Pickup Combinations

« Last post by gregr on February 17, 2025, 01:47:07 PM »

Thanks!

Imagine an Area 61 in the middle position of an average Fender American Standard with 250k pots. I don’t think the guitar is particularly bright for what it is. The Injector Neck without the noise cancelling coil is akin to a more powerful version of the Area 61 with the noise cancelling coil. The load of three 250k pots is 83k, so in the case of position 4 consider it like having a 250k volume with a 250k tone in parallel with a 500k tone instead. This makes the position slightly brighter than with vintage Strat wiring.

I’m doing additional things to optimize each position considering the mismatches between the pickups, as well as voicing the FT1 warmer to work better with distortion, but I think just summarizing the loading is able to paint the general picture.

After this project I’ve come to the realization that the Fast Track 1 is the only single-sized humbucker that I like in the bridge position out of everything I’ve tried, including The Chopper. For anything hotter I prefer a full-sized humbucker.

Just for the sake of comparison I’m toying with the idea of dropping in a pickguard with an Area 67 in the neck, Area 58 in the middle and a Virtual Vintage Blues in the bridge. I’ll be sure to post about it in the event that I do. If the guitar turns out overly bright then an Area 58 in the neck with an Area 61 in the middle and the Injector Neck in the bridge might work better, though I don’t have a spare Area 61 or Injector Neck on hand. (Please disregard; as much as I would like to build another set based on an Injector Neck in the bridge, doing it for the sake of being darker than the other set listed is wrong-headed on my part).