[Vinnie1971]

Hi all,
I have a 1970s El Maya which came fitted with most excellent hardware including dimarzio superdistortions from the factory. I have had this guitar for about 30 years.

I just don't like the superdistortions- when I was a youth and my ear less discerning because I played with a lot of effects and quiet a lot of gain I never noticed they sound god awful clean.

Clean and low gain is what I do these days, so I swapped out the neck monster ceramic for A5 and instant sweetness right there! still bright but not shrill, harsh and sterile sounding anymore. Softly scooped, less volume (not checked DCR but it's got to be lower, that ceramic is twice the thickness) nice soft but pronounced bass and lovely clarity. In fact very PAF like....

I may experiment a bit and try A2 or combo of A2 and A5. Is this sacrilege, as these are the early 1970s ones with the single hookup wire and the outer braided shielding is the ground?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Vinnie1971]

Update A2 in the neck and A5 in the bridge sounds fantastic- I have another A5 on the way, quite keen to try A2 and A5 both ways then A2 and A5 as a "matched set".

But so far I am very impressed, so much so I might not bother saving by for those pearly gates after all.
Is there a dimarzio set that uses the early 70s superdistortion wind with Alnico mags? If not there should be!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Vinnie1971]

A2 in neck and bridge is favourite. I was expecting dark and muddy based on other people's opinions and quiet surprised. It's bright, airy soft bass, rounded trebles and pronounced upper mids. Probably no good for metal but I don't play metal, more blues classic rock 70s style, so it sounds right for my playing.
A5 neck and A2 bridge sounded almost identical to my Flying V with the Gibson Kramer - 98T and 90R ( just the 4 is missing) so I went for A2 in neck and bridge.
Clean it's sounds great- very articulate with character, and under moderate gain, quite honky with nice harmonics. Much better to my ear.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[buddroyce]

Great posts!

You're not the first person I've known to swap the magnets out on the Super Distortions but I'm glad to hear your results were really positive!

[darkbluemurder]

It's always good to hear success stories. Congratulations!

[Vinnie1971]

Great posts!

You're not the first person I've known to swap the magnets out on the Super Distortions but I'm glad to hear your results were really positive!

I thought they were super Distortions, turns out they are very early Super 2s, look exactly like Superdistortions but designed for the neck. Super bright sound,not a lot of bass. Explains the shrill, they measure 8k as per Super 2 specs - they are single core, outer braid is ground. I still managed to coil split them to.

But it's a stop gap until funds or Santa allows Pearly gates


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk