review of evolution.

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alright, i went out today to get pickups for my charvel. i wne to the store and after 30 min i decided to buy the evo. it was either a toss up of the evo ro the steve's special. i juts wanted to try dimarzio out this time.

after i got everything set up i plugged in and played
so here's my review:


very chunky. has alot of mids as the site says, but a bit too much. very hot also, almost too hot for my liking. most say the rhythm isn't that good, but i liike it, i think it's better on rythm playing than lead playing. it really does show every mistake you make when playing, and shove's it right in your face. it doesn't sound very good when playing past the 12th fret. it doesn't get muddy though.
the basic fact is.......... i dont like it. im gonna get somehting else and put it in there. maybe a steve special or a FRED.

i dont want to say it was a waste of money, but it really was(for me at least).

since im taking it out, is there anything you uys would recommend?

[HolyDirt]

jb or a c5; great rhythm, nice chunk, and tehy sound good above the 12th fret ah dimarzios....

[papersoul]

Rio BBQ or C-5....C-5 is more open and clear...
BBQ is thicker and fatter...more mids...

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i mean dimarzio, since they have that exchange policy. any rcommendations from them?
i was thinking of the Norton or steve special.

[D_Connoisseur]

I have a FREDb in a LP. this pup is designed by Joe Satriani, and is extremely articulate, if you like sweep arpegios, crazy fingertapping...dont know about exchange policies...this pup is better with high gain amps

I wrote a review of it available @ http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data2/DiMarzio/Fred-01.html

here it is:


Product Info
Pickup features: passive
Impedence or other specs: I am not an engineer, I just know it is a humbuckler, low output...
Price Paid: US $$80
Purchased from: --

Instrument
Model of guitar or bass: Epiphone les paul standard, pickup has nickel cover
Position: bridge
Pickup being replaced: stock epiphone "squeelbuckler"
Other pickups on guitar: stock neck pickup
Artists using this pickup: Joe Satriani
You musical style(s): my style is hard rock to metal...this is not the pickup for this style though...
Reason for pickup change: I was trying to get rid of the squeel that the stock pup gave me when I used heavy distortion. It helped, some... this fred is not the pickup for metal musicians...

Sound
Perceived output level: cool satriani sounds everyone loves
Tone: pretty much sounds like satriani and not too many others (he designed the pickup, dammit!!!!!!)
Sonic evaluation: I used a few guitar amps and cabs...nothing abnormally great.
This pup is cool for people that like low output pups. Getting Satriani sounds is easy with the right amp...

I used a jcm 800 marshall half stack. A crate 1600 xl - a 160 watt amp. A peavey chorus 212. a variety of practice amps.

If you listen to Satch's sound closely, you will find you get exactly that! great cleans, distorted cords, incredible toneful solos, the fingertapping and sweep arpegios are great, and the harmonics oooooze out of the guitar. Satch's tone does all of this, and sounds incredible. I watch the live and loud video tape (with satch, vai, and eric johnson) like, every other week, wishing I knew tons more theory to do that "ish". It does not do palm muted chug so well. Sounds like a mosquito trying to chop down a 100ft oak tree. well, maybe not that bad, but it is not a dark sounding chug orientated pile driver pickup. If you think about it, if you only know like five different scales (and all 5 patterns connected together) this is not the pup to get, since it is for progressive rock - petrucci and satch know music theory back and forth, and just soloing fast sounds lame after like 3 songs... on the other hand, if you like outer space tones, this may be the route you want to go - it has personalized my style. Ive had this pup for 6 years, and I will probably get the duncan sh-5 or sh-6 as they are much darker sounding and suite my styles. This is a great pup, if you just got out of GIT guitar school or are learning to be a shredder. Not muddy, sounds good in les paul, although yields tones unthought of for such a matchup. By the way, I found it is harder to get gigs in the LA area, if all your songs have long guitar solos in them ........................

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play hard rock/metal-emphasis on metal. this pickup sucks for this type of music.


Overall Rating
Comments: I am currently praying to god someone steals it out of my guitar, and then that the magic death metal toothfairy will swap it for an sh-6 so I can retire my reality within the range of fear-factory and killswitch engage. (heheheheh)
On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this pickup a: 6

[ranalli]

Depends on what kind of tone you're looking for but the Super3 might be worth looking into if you want somethign relatively high output but still organic and warm sounding.

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Originally posted by ranalli
Depends on what kind of tone you're looking for but the Super3 might be worth looking into if you want somethign relatively high output but still organic and warm sounding.

the sound i'm looking for is something thats not too hot, has good cleans, and can scream when needed to. i dont want ti too tight of a sound, but it too just flow all together.


here are my ideas:

super distortion
steve special
norton


how are these?

[TwilightOdyssey]

I would say try the Breed p/up. It has more of a PAF thing going on, not as hot sounding, but still plenty loud, great harmonics. It also holds your playing under a microscope, so a lot of control is required on your part.