[corypheus]

Hey all,

I've pretty much played just about every Dimarzio that came out before 2015 and had it in one guitar or another except a few. One of them is the Morse bridge.

I've always hesitated to pull the trigger on this one. Reasons are numerous. Obviously besides Steve himself no one else plays it. Why is that so, what's wrong with it? There's not a lot of YouTube vids of it. No one ever talks about it. You can't ever find one used. Heck finding new one seems to be hard. But why?

What little vids I found and descriptions, seems to point out on a medium output dark sounding humbucker, without a particularly memorable character. Is that true?

Then there's the whole specifications thing. Morse bridge is, according to Dimarzio, 9.7 kohm, 5.5h but somehow is louder than a super 3 with huge mV rating. Eq that seem to make it almost piercingly bright on paper. Yet those little vids I could find on YouTube sound nothing alike what they look on paper.


So I'm asking anyone, with a first hand experience with this pickup, to tell me something about it. I wanna know how it really sounds like, how does it compare to few of the more popular Dimarzio, such as SuperD, Norton, Evo. Tell me your experience with this pickup.

Thanks and cheers.
Corey

[darkbluemurder]

You can find my review of the set here: https://www.dimarzioforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=6048.0

[corypheus]

Thank you for that!

By your experience, how does it compare to say a classic, super distortion?

Corey

[darkbluemurder]

I have not compared them in the same guitar. My guess is that the Morse bridge is brighter. Output is about the same.

[corypheus]

Thanks,

I guess I'll try and see, sounds like an interesting pickup. If all that's correct I don't really understand the dislikes this pickup gets.

Anyway, thanks.

Corypheus

[RayBarbeeMusic]

I used to have one.  Not as fizzy as a Super D, more midrange growl and less glass. 

The way you get Low DCR with high output is:  You don't use the wire everyone thinks you're using.  See also super 2.  I'd be willing to bet super 2, morse, HFH are all wound with 41ga wire or some metric equivalent so the DCR is low for the # of turns there.  I suspect the same for the PAF Master as there is no way you get the output rating they show with A4 and under 8k of DCR unless you're using larger than 42ga wire.  Super 2 and Morse have big ceramic mags, which boosts output.

Larger wire = lower DC resistance for the same length.  What matters for output on a pickup is:  # turns of wire and magnet strength.  DC resistance is a by product of the wire length and diameter.  Most people assume everything is wound with 42 and a pickup reading 16k has twice as much wire as one reading 8k, but it's not true as over about 9.5k you're using thinner wire with higher resistance.  I have a spreadsheet that calculates the equivalent DCR in 42 ga wire for a given DCR of 40, 41, 43, and 44 ga wire, so I can make meaningful comparisons.