Yes, I did it again, I'm an addict and I can't leave well enough alone. I've been playing the Imperium in my guitar ... for a while, it's pretty well tied with my favorite Duncan (a hack job) for time spent between pickup changes. But I began to desire a slightly more even EQ with a bit more power. So I bought an Illuminator and tried that. A nice round-snap quality to the notes, but a bit boxy and too screamy (yes, I know, Mr. Petrucci likes those blistering leads) but the EQ was close to what I was hearing and the extra power was nice. So into the O.R. I went... The first incarnation I tried was the screw coil (or southern coil) of the Illuminator and the northern coil of the Imperium. NEGATIVE. That sounded ridiculously boxy and kind of choked off if that makes sense. So I tried the opposite (the slug or northern coil from the Illuminator and the southern coil of the Imperium). Now we're cookin'! This was ... mostly, what I was trying to achieve. The low end is still very tight (as both donor pickups were already) and is, to my ears, just a hair more than the Imperium has on its own. The mids shifted frequencies a bit (lots of that nice Dimarzio vocal quality to lead work, but it isn't really boxy like the Illuminator can be) and are backed off compared to the Imperium. The high end is what I wanted, more than the Imperium, less than the Illuminator. Resistance is in the 12k range, overall output sounds ... probably 350+mV? So far, I'm enjoying the fruits of my labors, but more to follow. Happy mod'ing to all!
