Hello people. I haven't been on the DMZ or Duncan forums for a long while - I had and still have some health issues, but I still haven't stopped playing and tinkering with my sound - that I'll continue as long as my heart beats.
This is gonna be fairly long -- if you disagree with something said, by all means jump in and correct me -- this is all my opinion and just that, I'm simply writing this to put it here since I don't know when will I be able to do it the next time. Likewise, if you have reviews of your favorite ten, it would be cool to add it under a single thread. I'm gonna add only the pickups I used for longer periods of time and could compare them to other pickups, not the pickups I tried at friend's guitars, or at the shop, or 2-day wonders in my guitars. That imho wouldn't be fair. Also, I kept this to 10, because this could quickly turn into dozens of posts from me alone if I tried putting them all here.
It's gonna be simple, a pickup, a guitar I tested it in, followed by a short review of the sound, and a few other pickups which are, imho, similar in some way. All this said, is about crunch overdrive and higher gain territory. I play little of clean, and when I do I use Roland Jazz Chorus amp, which sounds clean and shimmering with pretty much any pickup or guitar, so I don't think it would be fair to compare them in that regard. All are humbuckers as well, of singlecoils, I find myself always going for True Velvet for lower gain stuff, and Super D-S or Hot Rails for higher gain stuff. All these pickups are bridge pickups, since that's the position I use some good 95% of the time.
So let's get going!
DiMarzio Super Distortion - too many a guitar to remember - it's fitting I start here, this pickup was my favorite for a very very long time, and I tested it in anytihng from agathis, basswood, bubinga all maple mahogany korina, et cetera. In all of these woods it performed admirably and very similar, hence I always said SuperD is very unpicky pickup as far as guitar goes. DiMarzio would have you believe it's a very dark pickup with very little treble, but it's not, in fact it's a very balanced pickup with lots of low mids, lots of strong stiff bass (that's still reasonably tight thanks to hex poles), just enough of high mids to sound musical (and throaty but never nasal or too middy) and a warm fat treble that always have a certain rude grindy quality to it (that screams 70s rock). Backing it away from the strings into the wood produces a sound much similar to modern PAF takes, something I believe not a lot of people tried out and know, and bumping it all the way to the strings makes it oneof the loudest pickups I ever tried. It's pretty dynamic in a sense if you pick lightly, it will sing politely, if you dig in, it will scream, it's very dynamic on the string attack as well since it's punchy and sensitive in that regard. It's a pretty compressed pickup, it's compression is most appearant in the low mids, the bass is always punchy fat and clear, and it's treble always sustaining without overcompressing (something that's quite different in a, say, JB). It by far sounds the best in all mahogany guitars, where it compliments the wood's tone perfectly itself, but can appear a little undefined under 300 or lower kohm pots. It sits right between the sound of Duncan Custom and Duncan Distortion, Tremonti Treble and 500T are another two pickups which are close but otherwise have too much high mids and are too bright.
Duncan JB - Gibson SG Std, Gibson Les Paul Studio, Fender Hwy1, Fender Fat Tele MIM Special, few basswood Ibanez guitars, LTD EC400, Tokai Love Rock -- this is me in my teen years, it contrast SuperD in pretty much every way. First of all, this is a very picky pickup, it literally sounds like thin nasal rubbish in one and fat awesome soulful tone machine in the other, it's a very hit or miss. In that lieu, I'll have to comment on certain woods and the tone qualities it has in those - JB have a very loose bass in pretty much anything except a certain slab of alder (where I still believe it's loose just largely inaudible), people online say it's a tight pickup - this only rings true on a very mild crunch, as soon as more gain is added, or the amp is turned close to or over it's distortion point, the JBs bass turn slobby, sloppy madness that floats from one note/chord to another and completely shadows any sort of resemblence to precision in bass and low mids. JB doesn't have too much of low mids, in fact, in this area I'd call it "scooped", this is the reason why on some setups, with certain amps and settings it will sound anorexic, specially after it's ran through a tubescreamer or another OD that cuts the bottom end, or bass is turned down on amp to minimise it's loose bottom end. This pickup is all about high mids - it has a spike in high mids, it's very audible on mostof setups, this gives it a nasty quality when played alone, though helps it cut nicely in a band mix. However, the spike to me is very unmusical and I don't really like it. Boosting the mids on most tone circuits leads the nasal spike being more appereant and in-your-face. JB has alot of highs, they aren't brittle but they aren't warm at all. Because of it's loose bottom end character, it needs the spike and lots of highs to cut through and be 'above' other instruments in the mix. This makes it sound tiring, and a little thin in the rhythm situation, and I'd never take it as a rhythm pickup. It, however, gives it added presence, sparkle, and the high mids spike give it a sort of a boost-without-OD for soloing, and the flabby bottom end actually helps at soloing to liquify the tone under gain and to make it adhesive better with the rest of the band. The dynamics on this pickup are good for it's output, and you can literally play anything from blues to metal with it, though you will probably find that pickups designed for a certain sound and music beats it in their relative area. Of many other pickups I tried, only Fender Atomic sounds similar to a JB. The AT-1 has some similarities but is otherwise darker, thicker and much more tonally balanced. The Evo 2 has some qualities but is otherwise a different pickup.
Gibson 498T - many Gibby guitars - there was a time when Gibson put these into pretty much any guitar they could shove them in. From cheapo Specials and Special Fadeds and Goths, all the way to creme-de-la-creme Customs. What's even more weird is they were doing it when people openly discussed them on forums and largerly hated them and were pullingthem out of their guitars like mad. In truth, I could never understand the hate - I'm sure it's somewhat related to the neck pickup this would usually ship with - the 490N. Total tonal inbalance in a set, bright cutting bridge, with a fat dark neck, sounds logical in someway, but when you count in mahogany's natural tendency to accentuate certain mids and bottom end, it turns the bridge sounded bright and cutting and neck completely muddy. If you'd EQ the amp for bridge to sound fat, the neck was muddy as hell, if you'd EQ it for the neck, the bridge was tinny and grating, unmusical. That's what would usually prompt me to change the neck pickup instead of the bridge (which I did, would usually opt for PAF Pro, or 36th anny, or a '59, depending on what guitar needed). Most of peeps would pull out the bridge the first, however. Thanks to this, though, you can usually find these for very cheap prices on craiglist, ebay, amazon etc. Now lemme start saying this is a picky pickup, not as much as JB, but it certainly sounds completely different in different woods. I tested it in all mahogany, mahogany+maple cap, basswood and alder. In all of these, imho, it sounds the best in all mahogany, and only where it sounds full and fat. Now people would tell you this pickup is all treble and doesn't have any bass. This is wrong, it has a medium amount of it, nothing special here, but just enough, it's reasonably tight and I've tested it all way down to DropA, and the bridge stays somewhat tight, this is definitely not your JB-esque bass, not a Duncan Custom tight either, right in between. This pickup has loads of low mids, the kicker here is the reason why most of its players will tell you otherwise is because its low mids are really compressed and in background. It's difficult to quite put into words, and I realise being in background sounds relaxed/scooped, but it isn't, it has loads of fat low mids, they're just so smeared and compressed that they stand behind it's treble and it's typical Gibson grain (this is even more obvious in basswood, where you can hear it's highs and grainy character but the mids are just compressed and somewhat lifeless). It's high mids are there, and are balanced, in many ways similar to SuperDs, they're not overpowering in any way, but they're musical and reasonably complex/harmonical. On some guitars, they can sound scooped, and they sound fatter with a 300kohm pot then with a 500kohm one. It has a typical PAF on steroids sound, it's mids are bumped a notch more then a true PAF and it's much louder, but the bluprint of the sound is similar. It's treble is bright and cutting, but in all mahogany guitars it's also warm, warmer then JB highs, in alder on the other hand, highs are very bright almost to the point of being harsh. This pickup, like 500T, BB Pro and few others, have unmistakable Gibson grainy character that's obvious at the frequencies between high mids and treble, and accentuated even more with the presence knob. It by far sounds the best on all mahogany guitars with a 300kohm pot, the loss of treble from a 300kohm load is corrected by it's grainy character, and the wood makes it sounds fat, almost gnarly but still smooth in the mids and treble and musical, never loose or harsh, this way it's one of my most favorite pickups. It isn't the most dynamic pickup on the earth, but you will find it works the best for what it was designed for, rock, hard rock and metal. People say it sounds like Duncan Custom5, but C5 is scooped and clear, not at all compressed. In fact, 498T sounds closer to Custom, since it has more mids and is more compressed, but none of these pickups sound too similar to the 498T, it's a beast on it's own.
Gibson 500T - Gibson Flying V Modern (New Century) - last year, I've got the Flying V New Century used for little money since it was so beat up. Before that, I only tried 500T couple of times in friend's guitars. I can't believe I didn't have a guitar with one of these before. I only tested them in mahogany Gibsons (I have it in one as well), but the sound is like a cross between a 498T, a Duncan Distortion and a SuperD. The bass is fat and super punchy, without ever going loose, the low mids are compressed in much the same way the 498T low mids are, you can hear it 'behind' the rest. The high mids is where this pickup excells, it has alot of these, it's a very middy pickup, though it doesn't sound nasal like a JB, it isn't spiky, it just sounds very middy and very natural at the same time. It has lots of treble, it's neither harsh or warm, it's very aggressive treble that sounds phenomenal on heavy riffage. It has that unmistakable Gibson grain in it as well which you can't dial out (pretty much like 498T), which I love because it adds character, though other people might hate because with certain setups can sound harsh. On the flipside, the pickup is really compressed, it's not X2N, but its more then SuperD. This can limit some of it's dynamism - it's not a very dynamic pickup, it's less dynamic then SuperD. However, I never thought of this pickup as a lead pickup, it's more for heavy riffage. Hard rock, all sorts of metal, industrial, this is where this bad boy finds it's homebase. This is my current favorite rhythm pickup of all I have. It sounds pretty similar to the PRS Tremonti, the Tremonti is tad darker with tiny bit more high mids (no doubt slightly overwound compared to Gibson), but both are pretty bright pickups so this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Of the others, Duncan Distortion is the most similar, but otherwise isn't on the same page.
Duncan Custom - Gibson SG Std, Gibson Les Paul Std, Washburn Idol - this is truely your typical PAF on steroids sounds, unlike the company's much more famous JB, this one isn't really picky about the guitar you put it in. I tested it on three guitars, one which is all mahogany, one with maple cap, and one which is a thin slab of agathis, which sounds nothing like the mahogany at all. It sounds really really good and almost the same on all three guitars, thus making it a very safe choice as a replacement, regardless of a guitar. I also heard it sounds great on floyd guitars as well since it has fat mids so doesn't loose alot of it's body on a floating trem. It has a fat strong, reasonably tight bass, this isn't a thin bass pickup, it's bass is situated lower then other pickups, it has a good ammount of low mids, they're not overbearing, they're just fat slightly open sounding,neutral high mids which are punchy with a sort of a waaah quality on the sustain (PAF Pro has similar high mids, but more of the waaaah) and a strong bold present treble to give it that specific character. 9/10 times I prefer a specific sound of a DiMarzio compared to a Duncan, but I really love this Duncan pickup, it's a very versatile, bold and rude sounding big fat PAF, it's hard to not like it. 498T somewhat sounds like it, but it's more compressed and grainy with less of a bottom end. PRS HFS sounds similar but it's darker, middier. Norton is the closest DiMarzio, but much bassier, clearer and nicer.
DiMarzio Evo 2 - several Ibanez RG guitars, Gibson Les Paul Special Faded - I always disliked the Evolution. To my ears it was always overbearingly middy, excellent for that 80s inspired lead sound absolutely, but really lacking in other departments. It was couple of years ago, I've got gifted a brand new Evo 2 pickup, and I put it on the shelf for two more months, rather trying the GFS pickups at the time then it, expecting to be just less powerful Evolution so thinking I'd dislike it much the same. I was definitely wrong about this one. This has to be one of the most underrated DiMarzio pickups on their whole line, with many players that originally played or play the Evolutions or the Breeds, don't even know Evo 2 exist. DiMarzio says it's a more refined, warmer Evolution, and this is very much true, but it's also much more musical sounding, less compressed, less in your face and fatter sounding as well, with the same amount of complex overtones. If you crossed the Evolution's great lead capacity with AT-1s rhythm, you'd get an Evo 2. The bottom end isn't either plinky or punchy, right in between, the low mids are fatter and more similar to a good overwound PAF then Evolution, the high mids have a slight bump, but it's not a big spike like Evolution, rather it's a slight boost you can hear the best on D and G strings, but otherwise aren't present on the high B (which was on Evolution, making it way too bright sounding). The highs are a little subdued compared to Evolution, but are brighter then an AT-1. It'd say they're just right. This all turns Evo 2 equally as good at lead as rhythm. It's a very dynamic pickup, in fact one of the most dynamic pickups I ever tried, low output or high, it will react much different to different attack speed, angle and techniques, and is rather easy making it sound smooth, nice, punchy, aggressive, bold all with your pick and fingers not even touching the pots. This is by far and wide my favorite lead pickup, once you pick it up, it's hard putting it down. I don't think there's many other pickups like it, the JB have some aspects of it there, but otherwise a complete different design, and I would't say original Evolution has that much in common in fact, I'd say Breed is more similar then Evo, you really have to play it to appreciate it, it's more of a feeling then of a sound (and the sound is excellent as well).
