Anyone experience any of these pups

[brinton]

Dimarzio's, just be quiet and answer me nicely. Everyone either hates them or loves them! I like what I've had

I'm really looking at for Neck: HB from Hell, PAF pro, PAF joe, PAF, Air Classic Neck.

Bridge: PAF Pro, Fred, Norton, Steve's Special.
I'd love to try a HB from hell neck Paf pro bridge combo.

Anyway, anyone have any experience w/ these. I heard the Paf pro is an outstanding pup in the neck. But I want to know how that Hb from Hell deals with distortion!

[shreder75]

Re: Anyone experience any of these pups

I have a 'custom wound' dimarzio in my EBmm axis..it sounds really good..pretty versatile...compressed, but not too compressed..they don't sell it after market..just in this guitar..I've heard people over on the music man forum say it's supposed to be like a tone zone..but they could be wrong..

I hear good things about the Fred..and I saw satch on the latest G3 tour and he had KILLER tone through his new signature peavy amp...

[BluesJunkie]

Re: Anyone experience any of these pups

I tried a Norton bridge and Fred neck combo first in a Les Paul and then in an alder tele copy, and I didn't really like them and sent them back. I'm usually a plug straight into the amp kind of guy, and they just seemed generic and lifeless in that situation. When I played through my POD with a lot of effects on, they sounded a little better but not great. However, I've been listening a lot to Joe Satriani's self titled a lot lately, and he gets such a great straight to the amp kind of tone with the Fred that I'm temped to try it again in the bridge.

I have a PAF Pro in a Strat, and it's one of my favorite pickups. It's very clear and open and has a nice vowel-like quality to it. Sounds great with or without effects. I'm really wanting to try a PAF Joe, because according to the description, it accentuates the qualities I love in the PAF Pro.

BTW - How do like the Blue Velvets mentioned in your sig? I've been considering a pair to go in the Strat with the PAF Pro. Right now it has two stock singles that just aren't cutting it.

[xerxes]

Re: Anyone experience any of these pups

i dont have any experience, but i know biu looooves them

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Anyone experience any of these pups

Dimarzio's, just be quiet and answer me nicely. Everyone either hates them or loves them! I like what I've had

I'm really looking at for Neck: HB from Hell, PAF pro, PAF joe, PAF, Air Classic Neck.

Bridge: PAF Pro, Fred, Norton, Steve's Special.
I'd love to try a HB from hell neck Paf pro bridge combo.

Anyway, anyone have any experience w/ these. I heard the Paf pro is an outstanding pup in the neck. But I want to know how that Hb from Hell deals with distortion!

I Like the Fred pickup alot and I've used it in the bridge of one of my strats for years(Actually since the pickup came out in 93) I now have another Fred in the bridge position of my Gibson SG and I put a nickel cover on it and replaced one row of allen screws with a row of slotted screws..

This is a very articulate pickup,has mismatched coils,rated at around 10k...Nice harmonics.Reminds me of a Scremon Demon but not as aggressive in the mids..Not a real strong lowend pickup but it's mids are just right...A bit bright in a bright axe to start out with but great in a darker basswood or mahogany body...Cleans up really nice also...I like this pickup alot and it's the only Dimarzio I've ever used and still use now...

John

[59paul]

Re: Anyone experience any of these pups

Only DiMarzio I've used is the HS-3, in a Strat. It's ok, but I think I like a Duncan SSL-3 better.

[Kent S.]

Re: Anyone experience any of these pups

Dimarzio's, just be quiet and answer me nicely. Everyone either hates them or loves them! I like what I've had

I'm really looking at for Neck: HB from Hell, PAF pro, PAF joe, PAF, Air Classic Neck.

Bridge: PAF Pro, Fred, Norton, Steve's Special.
I'd love to try a HB from hell neck Paf pro bridge combo.

Anyway, anyone have any experience w/ these. I heard the Paf pro is an outstanding pup in the neck. But I want to know how that Hb from Hell deals with distortion!

The Paf Pro is a versatile pup, nice top end presence to it, it cuts well without being harsh, it's got good definition on the lows also without being thin ... and it does have some nice subtle growl to it to under drive, good as a bridge pup also if you guiatr isn't to bright (not for my tastes there, but that's me), it works well as a neck pup...
Fred, ... well John pretty mush hit it right, it does have more harmonics, good snarl and bite to it, you can indeed do a lot with it with your volume knob and tone controls ... good in the neck, especially if you want a less smooth distortion from that pup, not brittle or harsh really, but just something that tends to stand out a bit more, it's got some teeth to it. Most people seem to prefer it as a bridge pup (essentially what you've heard is true ... that it was originally designed to be a paf pro with the mids beefed a bit, and the peak shifted), it works well in the bridge, but if you guitar is a bit thin on the low end then you may run into a similar situation as with a paf pro in the bridge (although the fred mid help, but they aren't *thick mids*)...
Norton, so say it's a super paf ... I don't get that analogy myself, it's got more gain, but is still really manageable (clean work), is thicker sounding than all the above, has a strong bass response, thicker mids with a bit of both bark and bite (read some low mids and some higher mids), has more harmonics again (especially under drive, although they don't seem to pop up as much as with the FRED, at least not to me), you tend to hear them a bit more clean also. The top end has a fair amount of brightness, but it can get lost depending on the guitar or processing. It's series/split/parallel modes are nice, and have distintive personalities. The norton is a bit more of an all around pup than the others I feel, if you've got a real meaty sounding guitar, and warm sounding amp ... you could find yourself getting a little to muddy though. This is all subjective any way, so for what it's worth the Paf pros I heard in Ibanez's with floyds (neck and bridge), the fred in the same, plus an LP (bridge both of those), and the norton in the bridge of a PRS 22 CE, and a strat style alder body/rosewood FB, hard tail. Hope it helps you out a bit anyway.

[brinton]

Re: Anyone experience any of these pups

I tried a Norton bridge and Fred neck combo first in a Les Paul and then in an alder tele copy, and I didn't really like them and sent them back. I'm usually a plug straight into the amp kind of guy, and they just seemed generic and lifeless in that situation. When I played through my POD with a lot of effects on, they sounded a little better but not great. However, I've been listening a lot to Joe Satriani's self titled a lot lately, and he gets such a great straight to the amp kind of tone with the Fred that I'm temped to try it again in the bridge.

I have a PAF Pro in a Strat, and it's one of my favorite pickups. It's very clear and open and has a nice vowel-like quality to it. Sounds great with or without effects. I'm really wanting to try a PAF Joe, because according to the description, it accentuates the qualities I love in the PAF Pro.

BTW - How do like the Blue Velvets mentioned in your sig? I've been considering a pair to go in the Strat with the PAF Pro. Right now it has two stock singles that just aren't cutting it.

Man I love it in the neck, it great for blues and it's the perfect strat pup for me in the neck but when it's combined with neck/mid it kinda looses it's single coil snap and gets a bit darker sounding, (like a real humbucker?), but I think if I had a class of '55 in the middle I'd have one of the sweetest sounding strats (considering I played a set of those on ash strat which I really didn't like except in the notch positions I really felt like I needed to play it super loud to get it to beef up). But the blue velvet in the neck is awesome! Very close to SRV I think.

[brinton]

Re: Anyone experience any of these pups

How 'bout that humbucker from hell, anyone do that yet?

Based on everyone's replies sounds like I'm gonna have to decide between a PAF Pro or Fred in the Bridge, and a PAF Pro or Joe in the neck.
Anybody reccomend having a set of PAF Pro's

[ranalli]

Re: Anyone experience any of these pups

I currently have a PAF Pro in the bridge and HFH in the neck of one of my guitars. They sound great together. The PAF Pro is really open and clear sounding and is an excellent THICK rock/classic rock pickup that is extremely well balanced. It's just a great overall pickup....very under-rated IMO. A Screamin Demon is going in there next so I will compare the two.

The Humbucker from Hell is more or less like a specialty pickup...it's got this really bright single coil type sound that is just fantastic. Nice and chimey for cleans and really clear for neck/shred type stuff....this is a Paul Gilbert favorite.

[brinton]

Re: Anyone experience any of these pups

I currently have a PAF Pro in the bridge and HFH in the neck of one of my guitars. They sound great together. The PAF Pro is really open and clear sounding and is an excellent THICK rock/classic rock pickup that is extremely well balanced. It's just a great overall pickup....very under-rated IMO. A Screamin Demon is going in there next so I will compare the two.

The Humbucker from Hell is more or less like a specialty pickup...it's got this really bright single coil type sound that is just fantastic. Nice and chimey for cleans and really clear for neck/shred type stuff....this is a Paul Gilbert favorite.

Yeah but how does the HFH stand with classic rock distotrtion compared with paf pro in terms of cut, openess, gain and warmth.
BTW what kina guitar is it that have em in?