Re: Anyone experience any of these pups
brinton said:
Dimarzio's, just be quiet and answer me nicely. Everyone either hates them or loves them! I like what I've had :dunno:
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.
