Dimarzio Air Norton in the Bridge. I'm very impressed

[nienturi]

Hi,

https://www.tonejourney.com/post/dimarzio-air-norton-dp193-review

For my blog i reviewed Air Norton as moderate output bridge humbucker for brown sound. Well, i must say i was very impressed. Long story short, turned the bridge tone of superstrat into a Les Paul kindo tone.

I was not expecting that.

[orpheo]

but put it in a Les Paul and you get a brighter tone with more cut.

The air norton is one of the best pickups I have ever heard in a LP. Hands down. it's got a bit of bite and crunch for rhythm but not so much that leads become dry. Enough output to drive an amp nicely but not so much that it overpowers everything. Cleans up with rolled volume. In the neck its clear, clean, fluid, but also warm without getting syrupy thick.

The AN is amazing.

[nienturi]

but put it in a Les Paul and you get a brighter tone with more cut.

The air norton is one of the best pickups I have ever heard in a LP. Hands down. it's got a bit of bite and crunch for rhythm but not so much that leads become dry. Enough output to drive an amp nicely but not so much that it overpowers everything. Cleans up with rolled volume. In the neck its clear, clean, fluid, but also warm without getting syrupy thick.

The AN is amazing.

Bill Nash puts Air Norton in the bridge to all of his Nash-ed Les Pauls.Hes got the point, i see that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuVNSMASdiw

The pickups are replaced with what many of you may balk at as there are so many opinions about Les Paul pickups and tone out there. As always, Bill Nash simply builds a guitar that he would use and leave it at that. So, in his arsenal of personal guitars, his favorite and most versatile LP setup is using a DiMarzio Bluesbucker in the Neck and a DiMarzio Air Norton in the Bridge.

They then re-wire the guitar so the pickups breathe better as well as use the neck pickups tone control as a coil tap for the Bluesbucker, which gives you an amazing strat-like sound from that pickup. Between 1 and 8 on the tone knob it works as a regular tone control, between 9 and 10 it shuts off the second/dummy coil. This gives you a tap without adding switches of push pull pots.

The Air Norton give you bigger output and rich harmonics without going over the top into the tone spectrum of faceless, modern, high output sound that so many specialized humbuckers are susceptible to. These pickups have a lower string pull and a much higher sensitivity to your dynamics and playing style.

Also, as many of you may have figured out, the method Gibson uses for wiring the pots is not optimum. The tendency towards the guitar getting muddy or sounding choked when anywhere but "10". This gets re-worked when we re-wire.

https://reverb.com/uk/item/78169969-nash-guitars-gibson-les-paul-conversion-nglp-002

[RanchManSandy]

the AN is a great pickup, but wtf does "They then re-wire the guitar so the pickups breathe better" mean?

[eclecticsynergy]

the AN is a great pickup, but wtf does "They then re-wire the guitar so the pickups breathe better" mean?

I wondered about that too. Maybe he's talking about vintage vs modern wiring?
Or highet value pots or lower value tone caps.
Might also be about adding a treble bleed - more 'air' in the highs?

I'm interested in the trick that allows having a tone knob that behaves normally yet gives you a split option at its highest setting.
That sounds pretty intriguing.

[nienturi]

the AN is a great pickup, but wtf does "They then re-wire the guitar so the pickups breathe better" mean?

That was belong to the salesman, not directly Nash Guitars, i believe. But what i assume is ot the years i remember Gibsons pots sucked. Their tolerance limits were very variable while they were 330K. You might have from 280 to 430, as far as i remember my measurements in 2009-2012. So if you have a A2 PAF clones on your LP with metal covers and you have ~330K pots (in the worst scenario you have pots lower than 300K), then your may need some breathe, imo

[RanchManSandy]

So "breathe better" = higher value pots? interesting way to put it. very "sell the sizzle" if you know what I mean

[orpheo]

So. I saw something interesting about the Air Norton, something that is very confustng to me.

Some have a brass baseplate, some have a nickel silver baseplate. I wonder why.

[ToneFiddler]

So. I saw something interesting about the Air Norton, something that is very confustng to me.

Some have a brass baseplate, some have a nickel silver baseplate. I wonder why.

1) Are the early ones Nickel silver
or
2) the later ones?

if it's 1) i think you have your answer (cost cutting). But i suspect this is not an honest question

[nienturi]

So. I saw something interesting about the Air Norton, something that is very confustng to me.

Some have a brass baseplate, some have a nickel silver baseplate. I wonder why.

I have never seen an Air Norton (and also Norton) with nickel silver base plate. All had brass. Can you please send me alink or photo, if you have?