[FeinMusic]

I like to think Edward Norton.  He's a balanced actor

[slugworth]

I like to think Edward Norton.  He's a balanced actor

Edward Norton wasn't around as an actor when the Norton pickup came out, so that couldn't be it.  I did some searching around and found this thread, though:

http://www.jemsite.com/forums/f35/dimarzio-pickup-names-35556.html

It claims that the Fred is named after Fred Flintstone, and the Norton after Ed Norton, which is the name the character on The Honeymooners played by Art Carney that was the inspiration for Barney Rubble in the Flintstones.  The Honeymooners is a bit before my time, but I have seen a few episodes.  And I have probably seen every episode of The Flintstones.

Also the same Norton referred to by Eddie Murphy in his famous, "Norton!  Why don't you come over here and ... ... ..." bit.  You know, back in the early-mid 80's when Eddie Murphy was one of the greatest stand-up comedians around, and not doing dumb movies dressing up like big fat people.

I believe it.

[Sensates]

Do you guys know of any 7string pickups that sounds similar to a Norton? I'm looking for one to put into my Schecter 7 string bridge.

[CityofBlindingLights]

Do you guys know of any 7string pickups that sounds similar to a Norton? I'm looking for one to put into my Schecter 7 string bridge.

Take an Air Norton 7, and remove the airbucker spacers...

[Sensates]

Do you guys know of any 7string pickups that sounds similar to a Norton? I'm looking for one to put into my Schecter 7 string bridge.

Take an Air Norton 7, and remove the airbucker spacers...

Any guides on how to do that? I've seen a few on how to "air" the pups, but no pics 

[oilpit]

I was looking through sound clips in this thread, and I noticed that there were no clips of what IMO the Norton does best, a medium gain, lead sound....so I set about fixing that.


The clip is a Norton, in the bridge of a 2004 Gibson Les Paul standard, into Guitar Rig 3.  I used the Brian May Lead patch, with the delay turned down just a bit, to try and preserve the sound of the pickup. 

I have to say, just for my ego, that I had a bit of trouble with latency, so there are a few more mistakes than I would like, but regardless of how good or bad my playing is, I do think the clip does a pretty good job of showing what this pickup sounds like, under this kind of application.

I should not that in the middle I briefly switched to the PAF Pro in the neck, just to give an idea of the balance between the pickups.
Hope you enjoy!

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8812815

[Jerryman]

I was looking through sound clips in this thread, and I noticed that there were no clips of what IMO the Norton does best, a medium gain, lead sound....so I set about fixing that.


The clip is a Norton, in the bridge of a 2004 Gibson Les Paul standard, into Guitar Rig 3.  I used the Brian May Lead patch, with the delay turned down just a bit, to try and preserve the sound of the pickup. 

I have to say, just for my ego, that I had a bit of trouble with latency, so there are a few more mistakes than I would like, but regardless of how good or bad my playing is, I do think the clip does a pretty good job of showing what this pickup sounds like, under this kind of application.

I should not that in the middle I briefly switched to the PAF Pro in the neck, just to give an idea of the balance between the pickups.
Hope you enjoy!

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8812815

Thanks for that Clip. I really like that tone a lot. Now I want a Norton.Thanks a lot.

[ACH91332]

I've heard people say the Norton can be too loose or muddy in the bottom end for hard rock styles. Like palm muting and stuff with decent amounts of gain. How tight is the Norton compared to the Steve's Special? I have a SS right now and its alright but totally lacks mids I was just wondering if the bottom end is anything like the SS. I don't really have a problem with the SS being loose but I've heard people saying its not very tight so hows the Norton in comparison?

[oilpit]

I have always found the Norton to be plenty tight, that being said, it will feel looser/more vintagey than the SS


As a general rule to tighten/brighten lower the pup and raise the poles

and to muddy/warm up raise the pup and drop the poles

That being said, the Norton isn't flubby, by ANY stretch of the imagination

[ACH91332]

Yeah I'm looking for tight and punchy, maybe the Norton isn't my thing.. The Evo 2 seems interesting though.

[oilpit]

Just posted this in another thread, but I'm putting it here as wee, this was recorded to prove that the Norton is tight...

All of this is a Norton in the bridge of a Les Paul, into guitar rig 3
The first riff is called The Body and the Blood by a GREAT band called Vendetta Red, the rest is just random stupid nonsense

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=1043265&songID=9131629

[slugworth]

I've heard people say the Norton can be too loose or muddy in the bottom end for hard rock styles. Like palm muting and stuff with decent amounts of gain. How tight is the Norton compared to the Steve's Special? I have a SS right now and its alright but totally lacks mids I was just wondering if the bottom end is anything like the SS. I don't really have a problem with the SS being loose but I've heard people saying its not very tight so hows the Norton in comparison?

Wrong.  All wrong.  Norton is about as tight as it gets down low.

[Whitmore]

Not true.

Q Tuners are as tight as it gets on the low end.

The Norton is still bloody tight though.

[nitraus]

does anyone use it on an alder guitar? how does it sound on clean tones?

[slugworth]

My take on Norton in the Neck...

I read a glowing review from another forum member who paired the Norton in the neck with the Tone Zone in the bridge, so I decided to give it a shot.  22 fret guitar.  Mahogany, but thin sounding for mahogany.

I have the Tone Zone adjusted exactly to my liking, medium height, and it sounds fantastic in the bridge.  But with the way I have it adjusted, the Norton was way too loud in the neck, even with its height far away from the strings.  I already had this guitar wired up for switching the neck pickup from series to parallel and splitting either coil so I was able to test all of those sounds.  My favorite sound by far from the Norton in the neck was with the slug coil active.  Kinda creamy and vintagey.  Good sound, but not good enough for me to keep the Norton there.  Running it normally (series), I couldn't help but thinking I'd much rather be playing through an Air Norton instead.

For grins I decided to flip the pickup around.  Since I was really digging the slug coil split, I thought maybe I'd like it more with that coil towards the neck.  But as soon as I flipped it... yuck!  All switching options were fail.  I'm sure someone like COBL could give us the technical/scientific explanation (which I'd actually be interested in) but the harmonic tones were just all wrong with the pickup installed this way.