Need a double-cream Bridge Pickup. Recommendations?

[beaubrummels]

Double-cream Duncans can be had. I've got an old JB, Seths, Brobucker and Skinnerburst that are all double cream. Search used. They are out there.

[superpete]

i think the aldrich will do what you what, but is Suhr's "parchment" a good match for the other 2 cream pickups? i get hung up on little things like that.

[formula73]

Another vote for Wilde L500L or XL.

[Ace Flibble]

The Satchur8 and Evo 2 are both in the Super Distortion ballpark in terms of power but have their tones focused around those upper-mids, without a harsh treble spike nor the booming bass of the SD, so everything jumps out a little more without becoming 'too much'. There's also the Super 3, which is basically a Super Distortion with some of the power taken off the bass and added to the upper-mids instead. Any of those three will get you increased harmonic sensitivity with still a general high-output tone, without bass getting muddy which can be a problem with basswood.

I'd stick to DiMarzio if you really want the colours to match, because no two companies make the same shade of 'cream' bobbin. I've had bad luck mix-n-matching different cream pickups in guitars before and found it pretty much impossible to get any pickups or pickup rings to match unless they're all made by a single company. Given how many pickups DiMarzio make and how easy it is to get them in double cream that will match perfectly for you, I don't see any reason to go for any other brand.

[Bogner]

Reach out to Tim Mills at Bare Knuckle and he will sort you out.

[NoelH]

Bare Knuckles has that Steve Stevens Rebel Yell that I bet would do it. Didn't know they can do double cream. That would be really cool! If Duncan could do a 59/Custom Hybrid in double cream, that would be my first choice. Hey Ace, are you saying Duncan WILL build one?

[NoelH]

Well, just confirmed with Dennis at SD. No can do. Bare Knuckle gets away with double cream because they're in England, and the trade mark doesn't apply. And he also said 'Parchment" is a color they also have but it's much closer to white. Argh, freakin' Larry Dimarzio. Makes me NOT want to buy his products. Now I'm seriously looking at the Steve Stevens.

[jeremy]

no, duncan will not build a double cream pup. you could build one yourself (or any double cream) by getting a zebra and reverse zebra or you can sometimes find one on ebay or reverb

[PFDarkside]

Well, just confirmed with Dennis at SD. No can do. Bare Knuckle gets away with double cream because they're in England, and the trade mark doesn't apply. And he also said 'Parchment" is a color they also have but it's much closer to white. Argh, freakin' Larry Dimarzio. Makes me NOT want to buy his products. Now I'm seriously looking at the Steve Stevens.

Can anyone explain this? I can’t bottle “coke” in Laos then sell it in the US. I’d understand if Bare Knuckle (or anyone else) could sell double cream in a country where the trademark isn’t registered, but why or how can they sell in the US?

[NoelH]

I don't want to go through building one. I'm ok with a soldering iron when comes to say, mounting speakers. But not a pickup.
Just checked. I can get the Rebel Yell in double cream. $172. Geez, better be worth it.
So now I'm down to: Bare Knuckles Rebel Yell (have to wait till after the Holidays), or Wilde L500XL. I would have considered the Super II or the Morse, but now I'll so pi$$ed I don't think I'll ever buy another Dimarzio. Never had much use for them anyway.

[superpete]

you could always buy a used dimarzio if you're worried about your conscience

[DavidRavenMoon]

Can anyone explain this? I can’t bottle “coke” in Laos then sell it in the US. I’d understand if Bare Knuckle (or anyone else) could sell double cream in a country where the trademark isn’t registered, but why or how can they sell in the US?

Coke is an international trademark.

If you look at Japanese guitars in the 80s, lots of them had double cream pickups to cash in on the popularity of the Super Distortion. Schaller also made DiMarzio copies.

DiMarzio was doing it first. (And before people point out the double cream PAFs from the past; 1) Gibson didn’t make them without covers, 2) they weren’t double cream intentionally, and 3) they didn’t get a trademark on double cream pickups.)


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[Demanic]

What if Larry had used double taupe instead?

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[ItsaBass]

DiMarzio was doing it first. (And before people point out the double cream PAFs from the past; 1) Gibson didn’t make them without covers, 2) they weren’t double cream intentionally, and 3) they didn’t get a trademark on double cream pickups.)

Yup. The Gibson did it first argument is total nonsense. It was not a deliberate design element, and it in no way indicated a mark of the brand – i.e. the very definition of a trademark.

DiMarzio made double creams on purpose, as a design element. When one saw a double cream pickup in the '70s and '80s, the only thing anybody thought was "DiMarzio" – whether it actually was or not. A certain aesthetic marker, placed there by design, solely for aesthetic purposes, that becomes synonymous with your brand out in the market, whether you intended for it to do so or not, is legally enough to establish an acquired trademark. It doesn't matter whether other companies were doing the same. It only matters what the market sees when they see that certain aesthetic design. And its perception was: cream = DiMarzio, almost universally.

FWIW, Duncan can make double parchment, and it not only looks better than double cream IMO, but it looks more accurate to what the double "cream" Gibson bobbins on PAFs originally looked like anyhow...and it will natural age to double cream, which looks 100X better than a from-the-factory double cream pickup. So there's really nothing to complain about; DiMarzio was within their rights, and you have a better option anyhow with double parchment.

[donaldr]

DiMarzio made double creams on purpose, as a design element. When one saw a double cream pickup in the '70s and '80s, the only thing anybody thought was "DiMarzio" – whether it actually was or not. A certain aesthetic marker, placed there by design, solely for aesthetic purposes, that becomes synonymous with your brand out in the market, whether you intended for it to do so or not, is legally enough to establish an acquired trademark. It doesn't matter whether other companies were doing the same. It only matters what the market sees when they see that certain aesthetic design. And its perception was: cream = DiMarzio, almost universally.

It always made sense to me. Don't understand why Gibson and Fender never have done the same with their body/headstock shapes.