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I have spent the last 40 years or so thinking that among other things, my
guitars were the problem (why I couldn't play and/or, why I just sounded bad).
As a result of this (and if I had spent 1/2 as much time in serious practice as
I did tweaking on my guitars and really learned how play) I would not have
noodled around with so many sets of pickups......When we first put a surf band
together in 1997 we played in lots of crappy bars and I had to deal with my
super noisy Jazzmasters. Those cheap dimmers and awful neon lights drove me
MAD, MAD, MAD!!!!! Several years into this, I saw my first ad for Dimarzio's
"virtual vintage" strat style pickups.....New Technology based transformer
design!!!!....I bought a set and have played with them in several of my
guitars.....I thought they sounded good in my strat (using the hotter than stock
lead pickup). I then "hid them under the pickup covers of the MIJ Jazzmaster
that Richard just made away with. I liked them in that Jazzmaster too,
way better than the stock MIJ pickups and I always carried that JM along when
heading to a bar in fear of the "Buzzies" That guitar sounded great with those
pickups and saved my ass many times. I like 'em, and as a matter of fact, I
think I'll fit them into the new (way used) MIJ sunburst JM I just forked over
good money for....Richard wanted the AVRI's that I was hiding in my box of
pickups, and the customer is always right (especially when he plays in your
band), so I swaped them back out where they are now eyeing me everytime I walk
by my workbench. Anyway to sum up my ramblings, I liked the Dimarzio pickups
and when I got ready to order a set, those guys would even talk to me on the
phone prior to my purchase.......Try a call to Seymour Duncan.....I would buy
another set of Dimarzio's in a heart beat.......Eddie K
mono_tones_1 <> wrote:I dunno, $73 for a strat pup seems
very reasonable to me. Anything
cheaper (new) I don't think I'd buy anyway, or except maybe for
decorative purposes.
A dutch guitar mag had a stratpup shootout last month, rather nifty,
they cut out the lower part off the body on the front/underside of
the pup-cavity, thus being able to slide in completly soldered
pickguards with th epups installed, being able to compare the pups in
EXACTLY the same circumstances. (whether they wore blindfolds is
unknown though)
they did Van Zandt vintage plus, SD Cal '50's, fralin vintage hot,
DiMarzio virtual vintage series, Northstrand NVS standard, Rio grande
Bottom, Kinman traditional MKII and Suhr V60 low peak.
oh, and they included the stock Fender Highway strat pups.
i'll summarize the bottom line: all sets are around E250 (close to
$300 - of course these are EU prices) except two noice canceling pup-
sets (nonHB: Dimarzio and Kinman), which were around E350.
These pups were chosen because they were all in the range of
replacemnts for the average buyers, and they chose from each brand
the set that was the same 'type', i.e. the "late '50's set". these
are all considered normal replacement pups, nothing very exclusive.
they are all widly available in the netherlands.
The SD came out rather good, but that's mainly 'cause the reviewers'
expectations were low, was my impression. from the descriptions they
gave, I figured the best surf pups were the SD and the Fralins, being
described as medium output, glassy bell-like tone and tight lows. in
the same league soundwise the dimarzio's, but these are expensive due
to unneeded in surf humcanceling, and i dislike them, because they
are dimarzio's.
the stock fender pups (not available seperatly and hence not priced)
came out as very, very, very bad.
I don't know any of thes epups personally, if anyone is intersted in
one of those, drop me line and i'll translate what they had to say
about that pup completly
I have SD SSL-1 staggerd vintage, new about 70 through the net, 100
in a store. a piece that is. I'm perfectly satisfied with these pups.
both ar ein teh mid piosition of one of my two strats, which is what
i use almost exclusivly anyway. My take is if you use one or maybe
two pups mostly anyway, you're better off spending more money on
upgrading those pickups, then getting a complete set of lesser
quality. and most pups can be bought indivdually, so you can always
complete the upgrade later. (as far as so-called 'calibrated sets'
are concerned, fwiw, I mailed SD to ask what the differnece was and
how important it was to get a calib set, and the reply was don't
worry, it doesnt mean jack shit, or something along those lines.)
WR
--- In , Richard <errant_jedi@y...>
wrote:
>
>
> I was doing my semi weekly perusal of eBay for things
> that I don't really need but think I do when I came
> across these whilst looking for Strats.
>
>
>
> I'm not going to post the auction because eBay URL's
> are miles and miles long but it had them pegged at
> $236. They're $73.50 a piece on Music123 (who
> misspelled "The Belaires" in their description).
>
> So, just curious, has anybody tried these magical
> pickups that cost more than some Strats do?
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________
> Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005
>
>
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IF the Dutch guitar mag's test was not done blindfolded, or in some equivelant
fashion where the testers didn't know what pick-up was being heard, then it's a
very flawed test As we know, there is a propensity to say, "those stock
pick-ups suck, let's put in some new ones". Another problem with knowing the
pick-up being heard is advertising dollars (or Euros in this case). Most
magazines survive on advertising moneys and if the big money is coming from
DiMarzio, for instance, guess who better win the pick-up shoot out.
Having said that, I can imagine that the Highway One Strat pick-ups probably
aren't very good, being a budget line. It's not particularly fair that they
didn't compare the pick-ups with American Standard Strat's pick-ups.
-Marty
----- Original Message -----
From: John McCorvey
To:
...A dutch guitar mag had a stratpup shootout last month, rather nifty,
they cut out the lower part off the body on the front/underside of
the pup-cavity, thus being able to slide in completly soldered
pickguards with th epups installed, being able to compare the pups in
EXACTLY the same circumstances. (whether they wore blindfolds is
unknown though)
they did Van Zandt vintage plus, SD Cal '50's, fralin vintage hot,
DiMarzio virtual vintage series, Northstrand NVS standard, Rio grande
Bottom, Kinman traditional MKII and Suhr V60 low peak.
oh, and they included the stock Fender Highway strat pups...
...the stock fender pups (not available seperatly and hence not priced)
came out as very, very, very bad...
WR
--- In , Richard <errant_jedi@y...>
wrote:
>
>
> I was doing my semi weekly perusal of eBay for things
> that I don't really need but think I do when I came
> across these whilst looking for Strats.
>
>
>
> I'm not going to post the auction because eBay URL's
> are miles and miles long but it had them pegged at
> $236. They're $73.50 a piece on Music123 (who
> misspelled "The Belaires" in their description).
>
> So, just curious, has anybody tried these magical
> pickups that cost more than some Strats do?
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________
> Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005
>
>
.
Visit for archived messages,
bookmarks, files, polls, etc.
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---------------------------------
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
--- In , John McCorvey
<eddiekatcher@y...> wrote:
Anyway to sum up my ramblings, I liked the Dimarzio pickups and
when I got ready to order a set, those guys would even talk to me on
the phone prior to my purchase.......Try a call to Seymour
Duncan.....I would buy another set of Dimarzio's in a heart
beat.......Eddie K
Hey Eddie - that's cool. to me, the name DiMarzio has very shredder-
connotation, and i only once heard a set of their humbuckers in a
friend's SG, and it totally screwed it up IMO. so I just never
considered them. it maybe local influence though, now that i think
about it. my town used to be death metal capitol of the netherlands,
and all the skull-tee wearing wannabe shredmeisters were all about
dimarzio. says more about me then about dimarzio, most likely.
as for seymour duncan, I e-mailed them twice, once about an e-bay
puchase I made, one about whether i needed a calibrated/ measured to
specs extra pup (which i never bought btw) - or if it was okay to
just get a random one on e-bay. both times i got a friendly and
helpful email back within two days, the second time they adviced me
to just search e-bay becaue calibration didn't matter that much,
rather then order one from them. cool, i thought.
WR
I agree with most marty - but it wasn't a competition shootout, non
was labeled good bad best or worst (except for the stock pups) ..
just descriptions of the sounds and a spec-table. still, they should
hve done it blindfolded.
they included the pups that were on the guiatr they did the test
with, one of the mostly sold strats here, and that makes sense,
because it shows how big the difference is with an upgrade, whilst
the highway obe is otherwise considered a very good guitar i thought.
but i was indeed surpised that they didn't include a Fender brand pup
upgrade. that's plain lame.
as far as advertisment money goes.... really, netherlands is a small
and unintersting market, this particular issue has a total of 13
brand-adds. (none of which are even close to the pup. only guitar
brands are takamine and Cort) ... 6 large shop-adds, and 20 small
(businesscard size) shop adds. .... compare that to GP or likewise
international mag....
on the other hand, they did a positive review of elixer strings in
the same issue, with an elixer-add on on the next page.
great line by kurt cobain "just because you're paranoid don't mean
they're not after you."
WR
--- In , "Marty Tippens"
<mctippens@e...> wrote:
>
> IF the Dutch guitar mag's test was not done blindfolded, or in some
equivelant fashion where the testers didn't know what pick-up was
being heard, then it's a very flawed test As we know, there is a
propensity to say, "those stock pick-ups suck, let's put in some new
ones". Another problem with knowing the pick-up being heard is
advertising dollars (or Euros in this case). Most magazines survive
on advertising moneys and if the big money is coming from DiMarzio,
for instance, guess who better win the pick-up shoot out.
>
> Having said that, I can imagine that the Highway One Strat pick-ups
probably aren't very good, being a budget line. It's not particularly
fair that they didn't compare the pick-ups with American Standard
Strat's pick-ups.
>
> -Marty
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: John McCorvey
> To:
>
> ...A dutch guitar mag had a stratpup shootout last month, rather
nifty,
> they cut out the lower part off the body on the front/underside
of
> the pup-cavity, thus being able to slide in completly soldered
> pickguards with th epups installed, being able to compare the
pups in
> EXACTLY the same circumstances. (whether they wore blindfolds is
> unknown though)
>
> they did Van Zandt vintage plus, SD Cal '50's, fralin vintage
hot,
> DiMarzio virtual vintage series, Northstrand NVS standard, Rio
grande
> Bottom, Kinman traditional MKII and Suhr V60 low peak.
> oh, and they included the stock Fender Highway strat pups...
>
> ...the stock fender pups (not available seperatly and hence not
priced)
> came out as very, very, very bad...
>
> WR
>
>
>
> --- In , Richard <errant_jedi@y...>
> wrote:
> >
> >
> > I was doing my semi weekly perusal of eBay for things
> > that I don't really need but think I do when I came
> > across these whilst looking for Strats.
> >
> >
> >
> > I'm not going to post the auction because eBay URL's
> > are miles and miles long but it had them pegged at
> > $236. They're $73.50 a piece on Music123 (who
> > misspelled "The Belaires" in their description).
> >
> > So, just curious, has anybody tried these magical
> > pickups that cost more than some Strats do?
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > __________________________________
> > Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>
> .
> Visit for archived
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>
>
>
>
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>
old eddie here has been around a long time and in the early days of seymour
duncan,pickups, one could actually phone them and order direct. about 10 years
back, i decided that what my '65 jazzmaster REALLY needed was a bridge pickup
with staggered pole pieces as the wound flat 3rd can be pretty weak in
output....so old eddie here phoned 'em up and struck up a conversation with the
gal that answered the phone. after i explained what i wanted...she went off
somehwhere and dragged ole seymour himself to the phone. he, in no uncertain
terms, let me know that fender had never produced staggered pole pickups on
either the jazzmaster or the jaguar........now i knew better than that as i was
standing there holding my vintage jaguar looking at a set of staggered pole
pickups......any way, old SD finally said he would make me a set but they would
run $250.00 each.....well, i just took my standard SD pickup and tapped the 3rd
magnet up about 1/32 of and inch and ...........worked perfect
and didn't set me back 250.00 i have tried this 3 times and had no problems
but it is a risky move to try and move those magnets.........NEVER try to move
either of the outside magnets.......destructo!!!! eddie k
mono_tones_1 <> wrote: --- In ,
John McCorvey
<eddiekatcher@y...> wrote:
Anyway to sum up my ramblings, I liked the Dimarzio pickups and
when I got ready to order a set, those guys would even talk to me on
the phone prior to my purchase.......Try a call to Seymour
Duncan.....I would buy another set of Dimarzio's in a heart
beat.......Eddie K
Hey Eddie - that's cool. to me, the name DiMarzio has very shredder-
connotation, and i only once heard a set of their humbuckers in a
friend's SG, and it totally screwed it up IMO. so I just never
considered them. it maybe local influence though, now that i think
about it. my town used to be death metal capitol of the netherlands,
and all the skull-tee wearing wannabe shredmeisters were all about
dimarzio. says more about me then about dimarzio, most likely.
as for seymour duncan, I e-mailed them twice, once about an e-bay
puchase I made, one about whether i needed a calibrated/ measured to
specs extra pup (which i never bought btw) - or if it was okay to
just get a random one on e-bay. both times i got a friendly and
helpful email back within two days, the second time they adviced me
to just search e-bay becaue calibration didn't matter that much,
rather then order one from them. cool, i thought.
WR
.
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Eddie comments:
well, i just took my standard SD pickup and tapped the 3rd magnet up about
1/32 of and inch and ...........worked perfect
and didn't set me back 250.00 i have tried this 3 times and had no problems
but it is a risky move to try and move those magnets.........NEVER try to
move either of the outside magnets.......destructo!!!! eddie k
I have had a similar problem with poles on Strat pickups being too low, but
was always fearful of this fix. I think I'm going to give it a whack (pun
intended.) DiMarzio has a shred cred because (I think) that was the
predominant musical style when hoi polloi guitarists first started fooling
with pickups and he, shrewd bizman, followed the demographic. I have used
his vintage stuff and SDS-1's (I love them for their clean tone!) and have
never had any issues. [I think it depends on the amp as well -- believe it
or not, I had a Peavey that sounded fine with stock strat pickups and
sounded like crap with a nice set of Fender Texas Specials. Tossed the amp
in favor of a DeVille and the T Specials sounded great.]
The DiMarzio SDS-1's, while never a surf pickup because they are very not
twangy, have adjustable polepieces which I take advantage of. I love to
tinker....
H the P
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Your are right harry, it's never one thing....most people never reallty tweak
on their guitars and don't fully understand the potential that a lot of them
have..... string types and gagues, .pickup's height, neck and nut adjustments,
pot values. so many things and so little time.....ed
"Harry G. Pellegrin" <> wrote:Eddie comments:
well, i just took my standard SD pickup and tapped the 3rd magnet up about
1/32 of and inch and ...........worked perfect
and didn't set me back 250.00 i have tried this 3 times and had no problems
but it is a risky move to try and move those magnets.........NEVER try to
move either of the outside magnets.......destructo!!!! eddie k
I have had a similar problem with poles on Strat pickups being too low, but
was always fearful of this fix. I think I'm going to give it a whack (pun
intended.) DiMarzio has a shred cred because (I think) that was the
predominant musical style when hoi polloi guitarists first started fooling
with pickups and he, shrewd bizman, followed the demographic. I have used
his vintage stuff and SDS-1's (I love them for their clean tone!) and have
never had any issues. [I think it depends on the amp as well -- believe it
or not, I had a Peavey that sounded fine with stock strat pickups and
sounded like crap with a nice set of Fender Texas Specials. Tossed the amp
in favor of a DeVille and the T Specials sounded great.]
The DiMarzio SDS-1's, while never a surf pickup because they are very not
twangy, have adjustable polepieces which I take advantage of. I love to
tinker....
H the P
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