[FeinMusic]

If the PAF Pro needed more harmonics and the Fred just didn't sound big enough for you then the Mo'Joe may be right up your alley!  Named after the man who commissioned its design, Joe Satriani wanted a pickup in the voice of the Fred but run hotter and let's just say that for a middle class pickup the Mo'Joe runs HOT!  It can easily drive pretty much any tube amplifier I played it through excluding my 70s Super Reverb and based on fundamental knowledge of Joe Satriani it was designed with rhythm playing in mind.   Generally Satch while performing live will play the rhythm parts and the melody/refrain on the bridge pickup while switching to his neck pickup for fancier things so this pickup was just born to be muscled around.  The notes you play are exposed entirely as what they are with little smoothness about the distortion in  a lot of cases which to me has phenomenal places..  Think a modern version of Dean DeLeo's later distorted guitar tones.  I've seen this pickup described as "growly" compared to the "searing" tone of the Freed.  This pup doesnt growl, it snarls.  Liken it to the vocal stylings of Megedeth's Dave Mustaine: loud, rude and probably never learned the meaning of the word Subtle.  If you handle this quality wrong it becomes nasal and sometimes damn near unusable and this can be softened by using it in Basswood like Joe does.  Personally I found it to be utterly pummeling in the bridge of a Mahogany Les Paul with harmonics for days and mids to cut through mixes easily.  To repeat:  I would not recommend this pickup for shred style leads or in situations where finesse and sustain are needed.  It's much more of a muscle the hell out of it for tight, ballsy playing pickup.

http://www.dimarziomforum.com/user_uploads/luredmaul/IthinkImInLove01.mp3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3xYGXilYSQ
Would be examples of it in a Les Paul.  In the first clip I am playing all the guitars on there with the Mo'Joe in the bridge and in the video any given dirty riff is being played with the Mo'Joe... I'm in front of the camera so it makes things a bit easier to tell.

For examples of this in Basswood I would cite Super Colossal, Professor Satchafunkilus and the Chickenfoot CD as it is still Joe's current Bridge Pup

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOtUVCuDhyY
At least to me it seems pretty obvious when he switches between the pickups

[buddroyce]

I figure I might as well add my 2 cents to the Mo ' Joe.

In my experience, it's definitely more of a pickup for heavier rock  and heavy blues tones. While you can use it for metal there are better voiced pickups for that from DiMarzio. If you're looking for a pickup that'll do instrumental shred stuff like the Joe Satriani stuff, it's great, but if you're looking to do more of the metal shred stuff, you will very likely want a bridge pickup that's heavier sounding.

For all you pedal and effects guys, the Mo Joe does handle processing quite well and also cleans up pretty good.

Overall, I'd say that this is definitely a very versatile pickup that would handle a vast majority of styles. Great 'rock' tone with harmonics galore. If you liked the Fred, you will love this. I haven't tried it in the neck position, but I'm pretty sure it would work in the neck if paired up with a higher output pickup in the bridge like a Breed or something.

As for pairing it up with a neck pickup, any of the neck pickups from the PAF family would work well like the Paf Joe, Paf pro, air classic, paf 36th, virtual PAF as well as the bluesbucker and the humbucker from hell. Basically, any of the pickups with more of a vintage vibe would work well. It also works well with the majority of dimarzio strat pickups.

[mrrstrat]

I figure I might as well add my 2 cents to the Mo ' Joe.

In my experience, it's definitely more of a pickup for heavier rock  and heavy blues tones. While you can use it for metal there are better voiced pickups for that from DiMarzio. If you're looking for a pickup that'll do instrumental shred stuff like the Joe Satriani stuff, it's great, but if you're looking to do more of the metal shred stuff, you will very likely want a bridge pickup that's heavier sounding.

For all you pedal and effects guys, the Mo Joe does handle processing quite well and also cleans up pretty good.

Overall, I'd say that this is definitely a very versatile pickup that would handle a vast majority of styles. Great 'rock' tone with harmonics galore. If you liked the Fred, you will love this. I haven't tried it in the neck position, but I'm pretty sure it would work in the neck if paired up with a higher output pickup in the bridge like a Breed or something.

As for pairing it up with a neck pickup, any of the neck pickups from the PAF family would work well like the Paf Joe, Paf pro, air classic, paf 36th, virtual PAF as well as the bluesbucker and the humbucker from hell. Basically, any of the pickups with more of a vintage vibe would work well. It also works well with the majority of dimarzio strat pickups.

I agree with this: you can downright shred with this pickup (I do), but it is more of a classic humbucker than a hot rod pickup. Its quite toney and had a millions tones in it. Somehow people think you need an ultra distorted sound to shred, but the problem is that load of gain does not cut thru a full band mix well. What you need is clear projection with enough edge to fly fast, loud and clear. This pickup does that well, but I like it more for vintage tones.

Like most guitar players who play lots of different material, I have more than one guitar - this pickup is on my guitar that imitates a strat, telecaster, and vintage les Paul. I have other guitars that play heavier. The heavy guitars are useless for playing classic rock and roll (convincingly) and thats what I use the Mo Joe for. Imagine trying to play Simple Man with a X2N (or Slayers Deaths Head with a vintage single coil) - gotta use the right tool for the job...

[buddroyce]

I figure I might as well add my 2 cents to the Mo ' Joe.

In my experience, it's definitely more of a pickup for heavier rock  and heavy blues tones. While you can use it for metal there are better voiced pickups for that from DiMarzio. If you're looking for a pickup that'll do instrumental shred stuff like the Joe Satriani stuff, it's great, but if you're looking to do more of the metal shred stuff, you will very likely want a bridge pickup that's heavier sounding.

For all you pedal and effects guys, the Mo Joe does handle processing quite well and also cleans up pretty good.

Overall, I'd say that this is definitely a very versatile pickup that would handle a vast majority of styles. Great 'rock' tone with harmonics galore. If you liked the Fred, you will love this. I haven't tried it in the neck position, but I'm pretty sure it would work in the neck if paired up with a higher output pickup in the bridge like a Breed or something.

As for pairing it up with a neck pickup, any of the neck pickups from the PAF family would work well like the Paf Joe, Paf pro, air classic, paf 36th, virtual PAF as well as the bluesbucker and the humbucker from hell. Basically, any of the pickups with more of a vintage vibe would work well. It also works well with the majority of dimarzio strat pickups.

I agree with this: you can downright shred with this pickup (I do), but it is more of a classic humbucker than a hot rod pickup. Its quite toney and had a millions tones in it. Somehow people think you need an ultra distorted sound to shred, but the problem is that load of gain does not cut thru a full band mix well. What you need is clear projection with enough edge to fly fast, loud and clear. This pickup does that well, but I like it more for vintage tones.

Like most guitar players who play lots of different material, I have more than one guitar - this pickup is on my guitar that imitates a strat, telecaster, and vintage les Paul. I have other guitars that play heavier. The heavy guitars are useless for playing classic rock and roll (convincingly) and thats what I use the Mo Joe for. Imagine trying to play Simple Man with a X2N (or Slayers Deaths Head with a vintage single coil) - gotta use the right tool for the job...

Would you happen to have any sound clips of the Mo Joe in action?

[EternalReturn]

I had a Mo' Joe in my #1 for a while.  I really liked it.  Very midrangey and thick, but clear and articulate at the same time.  Hard rock, NWOBHM, heavy blues, classic rock tones could all be had with ease.  It cleaned up well and even sounded surprisingly good clean in the bridge.  Versatile.  Definitely not a Satriani-only tone, IMO. 

[KH Guitar Freak]

Just got a Mo' Joe installed to replace the FRED on one of my guitars. The FRED has this searing upper midrange that was hard to contain at times. Decided to try the Mo' Joe out as I was told it might have a slightly smoother upper midrange overtone. Once installed, I'm very satisfied with how it sounds. Definitely less of a bright high end, especially the searing part, whilst there is slightly more lower midrange, which works better for rhythm parts IMO

[darkbluemurder]

I noticed that I suggested this pickup in this forum quite a few times without having played one before. Well - that has changed now

The guitar is an alder strat with a maple neck w/ maple cap board. It is set up for HSH. Other pickups on the guitar are a Bluesbucker in the neck and an Injector neck in the middle. First bridge model was the Norton, which I liked but less than the other pickup combinations. It was followed by a SD Custom 5 which I liked better but it was too dark overall - going from any other position to bridge felt like changing guitars. I wanted something brighter and got it with the Mo' Joe. It is only in the second day but so far I love it. A bit less power than either of the predecessors in this guitar but still very healthy. Harmonics are all there as expected. It really opened up the bridge position of this guitar. Yes it is bright but I found I could easily tame it with the tone control. And it splits well in #2 with the middle and in #3 with the neck. 

I also really like the clean tone of this pickup - clear but still warm. With a guitar that does not have the option to EDIT individually run the bridge bucker split or put the coils in parallel the balance has to be right, and for this guitar it is. On the crunch tones it is clear but not thin or wimpy, and it seems to take any gain well I am throwing at it.

Tech info: the volume pot is a 500k. I did not use a resistor to bring down the load as I like it in this guitar the way it is.

Cheers Stephan

[RayBarbeeMusic]

If you look at the specs, it's a hot-ish PAF with double hex screws instead of slugs/filisters.  Which is what it sounds like to me.  Right in the PAF family, on the hotter side of that, but definitely not a 'distortion' pickup.

[JR]

According to DiMarzio Tech the Mo Joe is the closest full-size equivalent to the Chopper. I have a chopper in one guitar and wanted to have something similar in standard size in another guitar, that’s why I asked them by email.

[HeyNorton!]

Again, late to the party by what,  17 years? Lol.

Again, all the others before me nailed it.

What can I say that hasn't already been?

It's high end and harmonics are very controllable by pickup height.  I was very lukewarm about it until I lowered it down a bit and set to adjusting the tilt and pole heights.  Set properly, this is one HELL of a versatile hot rodded paf type.  I can play anything with this setup.

It not dactivator tight, but it's not loose either.  It's right at the point where I can control that texture with my hands. 

I wonder how a 250k vol pot would do?  Or a 500k with a 250k tone? 

I really like this and it's combo mate, the paf joe.

They work really well together.  It appears that Satch likes the same things in a pickup as I do.  Cool!